If we get rogers i think that would go as close as u can to guaranteeing a championship we must do everthing possible to sign him.

would put money on the power playing off in the grand final before getting excited about Rogers playing for the sixers....wont happen

Didn't the same thing happen when Sapwell wanted to return from Cairns? Didn't NBL say 'no' due to pay not matching calibre of player, or was it the 'points system'?

Anonymous #42148, you make some good points but I see even less reason why the NBL should decline a contract for him. Point No. 2 about a sticking point in his contract cannot apply as surely the contract would have been cancelled when he excercised his "out clause" option. I can see no reason for the previous contract to come into play here. The NBL needs to clearly spell out what it is that would disqualify him to eliminate all speculation.

The issue with the NBL is solely that they do not think that a 10-point player would/should be playing for $21k. i.e., even if Adelaide aren't cheating the cap, the NBL still don't like the idea of it happening.

Welcome back Boti!

Rogers has said that he's happy to take a pay cut but that doesn't necessarily mean he will sign for as little as $21k, does it? For all we know he still might be expecting upwards of $50k.

If the NBL is stopping the signing of Rogers based on his accepted income then that is illegal. (Stephon?)

What would happen if Jordan said "you know always wanted to visit Australia...how about i get a gig in the NBL F.O.C. and see the country while playing some hoops at the same time.....NBL saying no to that??!!!?? think not.

Still we have been caught cheating twice so no wonder the NBL is sceptical of under the table deals.

Suggest they head to Cairns if they want to busy themselves investigating under the counter deals!!!

Same can be said about brisbane.

Salary cap&&what cap.

They can't say no on suspicion of under the table deals. They have to have evidence. If they want evidence, I suggest they get off their lazy bums and look for it, not just opt for the easy way out. You cannot dictate to anyone how much you are allowed to accept even if it is much lower than you're worth. Who is to say that since Rogers has admitted he wants to play at home, he is not using this year as a foot in the door. He will play for minimum and then prove himself so he can get a better contract next year. Thousands of people everywhere are over qualified for the work they do, but will do it until something better comes along. Its better than being unemployed. I don't see any difference here.

could the sixers offer a contract like this...

year 1: Salary $21,000 + int. free loan of $29,000
year 2: Salary $50,000
year 3: Salary $79,000 - repayment of $29,000 loan.

it cost sixers $150,000 over 3 years, and still keeps us under for the first year, and then in the second year (when rees retires again) it frees up some salary space.

is this 1. allowed? 2. feasable? 3. within what the sixers payment timeframe?

How do they fit him in under the poiny system? As a last year Olympian it would not be possible. Sounds like nagy needs a story or sixers need to sell some tickets!

I think that we are miles under the points due to 'homebased' talent on the team. Cap points ain't the issue here, it's whether the (*$*ing NBL accepts the contract of Rogers playing for $21k a year regardless of us still being under both caps.

Hey Kent,

In response to your question, I agree that I just can't see how the NBL could stop us from signing Rogers (assuming Rogers accepts the minimum).

I have posted quite a bit on this on Oz Hoops under Isaac's thread titled 'Restraint of Trade'.

I don't believe the Points cap is a problem even if Rogers is rated a 10 because as TR points out, most of the 36ers roster commenced their careers as 36ers and as such can't be rated any higher than 5 points.

The salary cap is where the difficulty will lie as the 36ers don't have much to play with.

However, if Rogers is legit about playing for the minimum then I don't believe there is anything the NBL can do about it other than investigate to ensure no under the table type payments are being made.

The NBL may be suspicious that a Boomer type player would play for $21k but there is no rule against it.

Problem is we are all assuming that Rogers is willing to play for the minimum. I hope he is but does anyone know for certain?

All it says in article is he is willing to play under market value.

If he wants an amount higher than the minimum then that is when it will get tricky.

Surely the way around all this is to ask the already contracted 9 players to take a small cut each so they can pay rogers more and re-pay what gets cut next year to them, except for maybe reesy who probably wont be there next year

Regardless of the issues preventing us signing him, I am not so sure he is such a good fit.

Last time he was with Adelaide he didn't play well at all (I am aware of the injuries). He doesn't seem to fit with our uptempo style.

If they do sign him, I hope he proves me wrong and has a big year.

Uptempo style.... Paul Rees.. hmm..

Its OK to suggest pay cuts but as i recall some players took pay cuts last year to help the team. Who wants a drop in salary 2 years in a row. Not me!! Any less pay this year and more next year could be viewed as dodgy unless it is a plyer on the up and that may not be rogers-at his age and stage of career...although i wish him well. I dont think phil will want to sign him long term as injuries and potentially losing flexibility of our cap has hurt in the past and there is that Q? will Rogers fit? .

That is a valid concern.

Although I think Rogers would be an excellent pick up, the bigger question marks would be in relation to minutes and team chemistry.

You would have 10 decent players and while over talent is a problem most coaches love to have, a division of minutes will be tricky.

The beauty with signing Rogers for cheap is taht we don't need Rogers to average 20 and 15. We just need him to contain the opposition centres such as Bradtke and Burgess and rebound.

While we were successful last year, our post defence was often awful, especially on road games. There were heaps of games where we would just give up lay-ups. Having Cooper and Rogers inside will help address that.

Also, I'd love to see Rees in a 5 to 10 minutes per game role backing up Rogers/Cooper where he has 6 fouls to give to soften up the opposition big man. He could take his cult status to a whole other level!

The other big reason why it is important to sign Rogers is that if we don't get him, someone else will!

Knowing our luck, if we don't pick him up, he will go on to have an All NBL type year for another team.

If Rogers can except a rebounding and defensive role with the team, he could be a good pickup. Basically an upgrade over Reesy who does a good job in that area for us at the moment.
The last time Rogers signed it was off the back of his MVP season where he was a consistent scorer for the Wildcats. Last time he played he look frustrated because he wasn't getting the points and he probably felt pressure to do so after his previous season.

So if we do sign him, hopefully this time around he makes some adjustments to fit in better. As for the problems with signing him, if we can't sign him due to the points system - there must be some serious problems in Brisbane - they have an allstar team.

And FMJ, are you saying Reesy can't run the floor ??? :)

The only reason Rogers wouldnt fit is because we have no playmaker. No-one in that team would give up a shot for someone else. With some structure there is no reason Rogers can't fit in.

I agree, thats the problem, we don't play like that, thats why his stats where so much better in Perth. Perth had quite a solid playmaker in Grace.

But we are not going to change our game style soon, so Rogers will have to adjust his role to fit in.

Maher's a great play-maker and was second in NBL in assists. I'm sure his assist numbers would increase further having Rogers inside.

Rogers would put up decent offensive numbers just from offensive put backs and dunks as a result of being open because of the amount of attention the opposition have to give Maher, Farley and Dusty.

Like I said, we don't really need to improve our offensive numbers. We were one of the leading scoring teams in the league last season.

With or without Rogers we will be able to score this season.

Our biggest problem last season was defensively. Some games we just couldn't get stops. Coops was the only guy who changed shots inside and we gave up too many offensive boards.

Having Rogers goes a long way to improving our post defence which probably is the number 1 improvement necessary from last season.

One reason why Rogers could fit in much better now than he did 3 years ago is that Maher is back running the offense like he should be. Before we had Thomas at the point, and just compare the ball movement last year to the 2 before it. A world of difference.

I wonder if the club made a mistake by signing Rees even though Rogers was still available. Having Rees, Cooper and Rogers seems to make the team a bit top heavy and trying to balance minutes among all three (and let's face it, they are all 1 position players) seems like a tough task. And then there's the money that we committed to Rees, that could have gone to Rogers.

Just heard on the radio that Paul Bell says it will happen. Who are we to argue with Belly? Signed, sealed, delivered .....

It's a problem I would really like to have... Geez, how do I juggle the front court with the addition of Rogers. Any coach in the NBL would like this problem. I willing to take this 'problem' into the season. Seriously, does anyone think it would affect team harmony......The minutes will not affect Dusty, Willie, Brett etc etc, and all three players have been around long enough and professional enough to work it out.

Offer Rogers the contract, sh*t we all know it's for $21k, let the NBL be highly suspicious (I'm highly suspicious of everyone I talk to) and let them (actually beg them, I also like to see someone eat crow) selected an independant auditor (I don't trust the NBL as far as I could chuck them) to go over all the figures and number.

Then if the NBL still don't like the decisions after the audit, and we have been given a clean slate and they still play chicken then hello Court..... The NBL has been screwing people for ages, and this would be a great case to take before "your worship", and have a ruling on the matter.

Oh, whilst the independant auditor is there, they should also glance over Brisbane's and Sydney's books. All fair in love and war.....

I think an issue regarding how much PR is willing to accept is just how minted he is after a few seasons in Europe. DOes anyone have any idea what sort of coin he was on over there?

If, for instance, he's returning home, and after splashing out on a house and car still has $2-3mill left tied up in investments then I'd wager he wouldn't be too concerned about the difference between $21k and $50k (or more), but if he's been a bit frivilous and after the house and car are taken care of he's only sitting on a nest egg of $500k then he'd want to be thinking a bit harder about accepting $21k pa as he'd be eating into his savings pretty heavily and not really be setting himself up for life after ball.

Is it common knowledge what he was on in Europe?

"It remains to be seen whether the 36ers are able to fit Rogers under the salary and points caps."

This is a quote from how the NBL reported the story on its website. They make no other mention of other restraints other than salary and points cap. It seems that the ball is in the Sixers' & Roger's court. If they can sort something out between them, then Rogers will play for Adelaide.

a 7-footer would eat more than $21K worth of food a year! If I were Rogers, I'd be stocking up at those after game functions, fill the doggy bag!

Heard Phil Smyth on 5AA last night and he didn't mention any possible problems with the NBL. He made it sound like the only issue was whether Rogers would accept the small offer. He spoke about how other teams could potentially offer more, he mentioned Townsville, who have just sent a new import home. He did say Rogers was keen though. When asked what are the odds that Paul will play for Adelaide Smyth said he thought 50% chance that it will happen. And as I said, there was no mention of any problems at NBL level.