^^^ Culture, stability & development. Not just in basketball.

The two prime examples in the NBL are Perth and NZ. You retain key people that can work together in front office, coaching and playing personnel as long as you can. Establish a strong culture based on hard work, self-improvement & accountability.

Focus on developing your strategies both organisational & on the floor. With your core local personnel, you develop more intricate tactics and abilities to adapt to multitudes of situation.

As each season rolls around, you have more time during the off-season to develop more advanced concepts and practice them as opposed to re-learning basic strategies. Once you have all that in place, you search far and wide for import talents that can fit quickly to your system, organisation and culture.

Very simple to understand and requires hard work to implement. None of that rubbish about #revolution, chop changing everything. Don't try reinventing the wheel.

No Soul...

What was with the Gaze locker room heart to heart?
And why bring up your Dad?
I just thought that was a private moment between him and his team... no one else.
Sure he has to be true to himself... but he is the coach and he is responsible for bringing the team together and giving them a focus, goal, strategy... and he seems to not be doing that for the sake of being emotional, wearing his heart on his sleeve etc.
As a result between them they find ways to lose games they should win.
Ellis is a good example. He looks like he does it all on his own, without help from his teammates who actually tried to stop him by forgetting he was the one on fire.

Melbourne just need to make a few tweaks here and there, get CG involved, etc. I think they have the players that they need, they just need to find their roles under Vickerman, who is a good coach. Not sure they are title contenders, but they could be if they can keep this core and coaching staff together for multiple seasons - although they need to replace Andersen/Barlow. I think they are on the right track.

Kings... well. Changes need to happen at the highest levels and filter down. The team has been badly managed since they re-entered the league.

Anything from Sydney or Gold Coast = No Soul...

Culture and core.

United's recruiting strategy seems to be well X did well, therefore spend $$ to get X = instant success. This is similar to Tigers days after '08 success and it got them nowhere.

Prime example is Wesley - played a great series and dropped united out of finals 2 seasons ago, next season he's at united. Overrated.

Might pay off in the long run, but right now it isn't coming together for whatever reason - would really like to see them build a player/s they can genuinely claim as their own and build from there. Goulding probably was that guy, but seems to be going backwards now!

Plenty of spot on comments here...

From the outside looking in at Melbourne, the scoring comments are right, but they DO have players capable of playing roles, if they accept it for the greater good... Wesley is a talent, but thinks a lot of himself, Bubbles is capable of contributing across the floor being a decent rebounder when focused and he's got a good eye for teammates when he wants to... The big three with them is tough, as they all like to score... DV needs to just make the decision about the primary two, and the third is going to have to learnt o pick their times and contribute elsewhere...

As for the Kings... well, where to start... especially that hasn't been done to death already... Angus had the main point that they've been nuttier than a bag of rabid squirrels since their return... Even before JvG management has been a complete shambles and had an interfering ownership group... Does anyone remember the drunk owner who sat behind Hammer when he was coaching and openly heckling him?

I had hoped that with JvG, even with his reputation, would at least be more professional, and while no drunken rants is a bonus, I didn't expect him to have these fucked up ideas he's tried to run with this season especially... But that's been done to death... Same as the coach... These two this season have severely screwed the pooch and at 2-9 already, it's just about saving face with a run of home games and actually getting people in the door... I've been unable to make our first two home games, but the numbers aren't encouraging so far, and coming in at 2-9 with not ideal chances to pick up wins at home, isn't going to help... They can't rely on what they think is a great game night experience if the team isn't winning and ESPECIALLY if they're getting blown out...

As mentioned above, the rot starts at the top and needs to be fixed there before it can be fixed anywhere else...

The Kings' last ownership group was absolute amateur hour in every way, shape, and form. The only thing they did right was bringing the Kings back into the league. The current ownership group have done everything right EXCEPT the actual basketball side of things.

If we had made a "boring" choice of coaches and grabbed a Shawn Dennis (if not just Vickerman as head coach from day 1), signed 2 guys for each court position including 2 journeymen 'no-name' imports who had spent 4-6 years in various Euro leagues and 0 years in the NBA, the irony is that our winning % would be higher, we'd have spent probably half of what we have roster-wise, and there would be some buzz around the team.

Instead the same mistakes are carrying over from the former regime, which is what makes it particularly frustrating as a fan. It boggles the mind that someone can get paid presumably very good money to build a basketball team and yet not be able to identify the issues with roster balance that even casual fans could have pointed out when the roster was announced.

The Kings confirmed they weren't serious about their licence the day they allowed Moose Robilliard to have a second season as coach, then removed him as head coach to make him their CEO.

Then removing Damian Cotter for Joe Connelly.

Preach!

In discussions with the previous drunken owner in question this season, I had to concede that one of the best things they did was find Ben Madgen... Not sure who actually made that call, but I doubt even they knew how much of a gem in the rough he was... Not even in the 11 to start with but worked his ARSE off and not only made the 11, but made the starting 5 and then the bench of the all-time Kings team...

It's not just the Goorjian days that fans remember and long for, it's players like this that work their freaking arses off because they know that it's a privilege to play basketball for a living and the fans paying their hard earned cash to come watch them leave everything out on the court...

THAT is why fans don't put up with whingy, sooky imports, or people not hustling both ends of the court when they're more than capable, they just have to find the will to do it... and THAT is what is missing in significant amounts from these two teams in particular...

(that preach was for Angus, sorry LoveBroker :) )

The Kings this season are full of introverts that have seemed too afraid to take a game by the scruff of the neck.

united seem to be full of extraverts that think they are a star and hence they must score. I like Wesley but he plays like he thinks he should be scoring 10 points every quarter (something that Brisbane could do with) but the team don't need that, they are great enough offensively but they are playing like they want to have 5 basketballs on court at all times. Majok is a great role player but isn't doing enough. Bubbles had had game where he has had 7+ assists, that unselfishness actually gives him a spring in his step and yet he is trying to be all out attack, miss + get called for a foul = sit on bench angry and sulk.

Let's be honest, I think the 36ers should be in this thread as should Brisbane and I don't see any of these 4 teams making playoffs this year.

How upset would the league be to have Perth (still), 2 regional teams and a foreign powerhouse in the playoffs ? (Adelaide replaced by New Zealand from last season)