If he can somehow play an entire season without injury, it's a decent signing

already a thread

Over/under he plays more than Sotto?

What's the theoretical roster position wise?

Cam plays C?
Dech backup SF even though he’s listed as a Guard? Will probably play a bit at both spots.
Malou backup PF?

C Humphries/Bairstow/Sotto
F Johnson/Malou
F Withers/Dech/Harris
G Hannahs/King
G McCarron/Dufelmeir

Bairstow can't play centre he's almost as bad defensively as DJ. He'll likely be the back up PF and Malou who is the same height as Cam but with shot blocking ability the likely back up centre.

I agree Sotto probably won't play much maybe a few mins here and there as the third string centre.

I was not in favour of this signing because his recent track record shows he will likely miss games.

I don't care if he came cheap, this is not about money the club has money, this is about the use of a roster spot that we need production from. You are wanting to bring him in as the 1st or 2nd big off the bench.

Pardon the pun, but this all centres around Humphries' health, if he is MIA again for stretches then Bairstow will need to cover the 5 or DJ slots to the 5 and Bairstow starts at the 4.

Let's hope the management know what they are doing.

Pardon the pun, but this all centres around Humphries' health, if he is MIA again for stretches then Bairstow will need to cover the 5 or DJ slots to the 5 and Bairstow starts at the 4.

If Humphries were to go down again this team as constructed would be screwed. Malou would start not Bairstow IMO. Playing DJ & Cam together would be comical.

Let's hope the management know what they are doing.

It's been obvious over the past few years they don't have a clue so not sure why you would suddenly expect them to know what they're doing? Do you remember how JVG ran the Kings? Completely blowing the one good year Bogut had left in him, not to mention the few years before that?

A little kid would have had more success with a pinata.

If Humphries were to go down again this team as constructed would be screwed. Malou would start not Bairstow IMO. Playing DJ & Cam together would be comical.

This is where the trump card that JVG has up his sleeve comes in handy, having Bairstow buys 'some' time for the to find the talent necessary to cover for Humphries.

I know the spare import slot is unpopular with some but I think this is a good strategy when you have question marks over players.

It's been obvious over the past few years they don't have a clue so not sure why you would suddenly expect them to know what they're doing? Do you remember how JVG ran the Kings? Completely blowing the one good year Bogut had left in him, not to mention the few years before that?

OK...hanging criticism on JVG seems to be a pass time here at Hoops, something which I am also guilty of.

But shouldn't we give due credit where its warranted?

In Sydney JVG brought in :

- Lisch.
- Kickert
- Newley
- Randle
- Bogut
- Tate
- Ware
- Lazada
- Cooks
- Bruce

I would hope one would see the above as decent signings over several years.

Of course there are also the downsides of bringing in David Wear and Andrew Gaze, but what GM has made no mistakes? Whoever ran United saw fit to throw money at the roster to have it coached by Demopolous.

In Adelaide, shouldn't we also give due credit for :

- Humphries
- Dech
- McCarron
- Giddey
- Duffelmeier
- King

On the flip side there are :

- Connor Henry
- Pinder
- Ramon Moore
- Eric Griffin
- Randle v2.0

I believe JVG has incrementally made strides towards success with hiccups (that people accentuate), sort of 2 steps forward 1 step back.

I know the spare import slot is unpopular with some but I think this is a good strategy when you have question marks over players.

Ask Kings fans what they thought of that strategy.

But shouldn't we give due credit where its warranted?

In Sydney JVG brought in :

He brought in Bogut but I'm sure the Kings owner regrets that deal now. Lisch and Newley were both brought in on 3 year deals for reasonably big money too. Both of those deals turned out bad. Randle turned out a bad signing for 2 years. Ware turned out a bad 2 year signing. Louzada gave them very little and he came from the NBL anyway. Cooks signing was a disaster. Tate and Bruce were good signings.

So to all those mistakes above we can add:

Signing A. Gaze as coach and not just that but a fully-guaranteed 3 year deal rumoured to be for $400 p.a. A disastrous signing on it's own that should require the person who orchestrated it to never work in the league again.

Then we get to the other dud signings like: Steve Blake, Josh Powell, Garrett Jackson, Aleks Maric, Jeremy Tyler, Travis Leslie, Jeremy Kendle, Amritpal Singh, David Wear and Ray Turner.

I can't believe you're actually trying to defend JVG's time running the Kings, it was an unmitigated disaster.

" This is where the trump card that JVG has up his sleeve comes in handy, having Bairstow buys 'some' time for the to find the talent necessary to cover for Humphries.

I know the spare import slot is unpopular with some but I think this is a good strategy when you have question marks over players."

It's not so much a question mark as it’s an exclamation mark.

It’s not a trump card leaving an import slot open for when it comes in handy to identify where it needs to go, because we know where it needs to go already and it would come in handy from the very beginning to avoid what your earlier post identifies is a real issue.

Offence at the bigs end isn’t an issue; our PG spot won’t be at issue. If Hannahs or Withers don’t cut it, you’re not gonna slot an import in front of either of them - if it’s Hannahs you have to cut him and replace, if it’s Withers you either cut and replace or focus on Dech there and hope he brings the “3” in 3&D.

So the only spot that import slot is ever going to be useful, save for McCarron going down with a bad injury, is the defensive “big” PF/C slot.

That tells us we don’t need to wait to figure out where it’s needed.

The only reason they should be waiting is if they plan on waiting for better available talent - or if they’ve already spent too much (but then we’d rightly criticise how some of that has been spent!).

If they’re waiting for better talent at a reasonable price, that’s incredibly risky to 1) force chemistry on the fly - we know that’s not easy, 2) get things done in perfect timing with covid laws/quarantine etc for internationals; and 3) potentially dig Adelaide a hole that’s too deep to get out of in a stacked league.

I really feel Adelaide gets so close yet so far when they make decisions!

On the Sixers I'm having trouble trying to find when JVG started making decisions at the club, officially his arrival was announced in Dec '19 but I'm sure he played a part in signing guys like Griffin and Randle 2.0.

Regardless officially he's got the messy sacking of Joey, the signing of Conner Henry as coach to a 3 year deal, the four dud imports from last season (Sloan, Crocker, Kendle, again and Brandon Paul), the big splash Keanu Pinder signing, the disgraceful sacking of Henry after only one season and so late in the off-season and signing yet another JVG mate in rookie head coach CJ Bruton to a 3 year deal.

Josh Giddey came from the NBL, I suppose you could argue JVG sweet talked LK enough to allow us to be Giddey's showcase team last season, the Humphries signing was good injury couldn't be helped, not sure about giving Dech a 3 year deal no one else was offering but yes 3 year deal for McCarron very good and the one year deal for Dufelmeier.

Again Mojave King comes from the NBL and he comes with the promise he will get more opportunity and game time then he got in Cairns last season, the worse team in the league. He will probably be starting over Withers we'll see how that ends up.

Anon - "already a thread"

What's wrong with starting a new thread confirming his signing? The last one was about him training with 36ers, had not confirmed his signing and is now pretty much 2 weeks old. Are people going to scroll down to the old one and discuss? The answer is no so there’s no need to be a knob

Dech with championship under his belt at Rockets highlights his importance and success factor. Defensive juggernaut..

Dech is a pretty good defender at NBL level too. People looked at his offensive production last season and cringed a bit but the guy was stuffed from having to guard the opposition's best scorer every game.

I know there were times Dech was blowing lay ups and shooting so many shots short but he was legitimately stuffed. You can't be an elite defender in this league without your offence suffering look at Casper Ware the past couple of seasons at the Kings.

There is certainly merit in seeing Bairstow training with the 36ers before signing him. Good rehearsal.
Mitch McCarron announced Captain, last nite
(Humphries speaks well and sings great)

Yeah, but it DOES come down to money, and what you end up getting in return.
It was rumoured that at one point Humphries was the highest paid player (or local?) in the league. Presumably that was before Landale et al, but still the question is whether he was worth the price.

Same with Dech. Must have offered him a pretty penny to keep him away from Goorj and Trev.

But obviously hard to say for sure without knowing actual figures.

Humphries looked like an MVP candidate before he was injured. If he was the highest paid Aussie before Landale came along, then it wouldn't have been unreasonable or silly.

I feel like your mid level type guys with potential are either overpaid if chased by a club or underpaid if clubs already have their pieces. Dech could fall into that overpaid scenario maybe, but last year he looked like a success.

Top defender and the hope this year is he won’t have to be so fatigued defending if he gets team assistance this time around and can focus on nailing some more shots which he’s very capable of. He ticks the boxes of having an elite skill and potential, so the risk reward scenario of the overpay is worth the risk.

The monetary stuff ups are probably more the import failures and revolving door of coaches.

The coaching part was exacerbated by such a long contract extension for Joey which meant when it all came to a head, he still had more than a single year to go (we think). Even if a coach is brilliant, you should still only extend 2-3 years.

Henry they ditched after one year - a coach deserves more than one year to make their mark. If it was through a disagreement of approach - they should have agreed to the approach last year before signing the contracts and stick to the approach for a second year. The breakdown of approach alignment is a little bizarre and looks trigger happy by club with attention deficit disorder.

I understand the idea of cutting your losses instead of riding it out for the sake of it, but there gets a point where you start to look like Carlton!

I don’t know enough about JVG/GK to be sticking the blame to them specifically, I think Adelaides dubious decision making has gone through various owners and GMs.

36ers of late have been making good decisions such as Ent Centre move, McCarron this year, Humphries and Dech last year, Randle first time around, keeping DJ etc.

Adelaide to me represents a bit of "so close yet so far".