At least we know out 9th or 10th player will be able to contribute to the on court stuff; he has shown he is capable to play at this level. What I remember about him at Perth is he has a bit of excitement about him; he likes to dunk and doesn't have much trouble getting up stairs. Reliable jump shot but considering it nearly mid April and free agencies has been available for 6 week now, why hasn't he been picked already? That why we know he isn't a gun but a role player

good move IMO if it all works out.

Good off the bench7/8 man, good rebounder..Bit soft maybe?

I wonder what this means for the import they had in their sights? Hopefully they got him cheap because we still need a real standout, and so far the signings are all guys who can contribute at their best, but are a notch below the Maher/Farley/Rychart's of the team.

Isaac...Exactly. Losing Dusty, Holmes, Forman & Rees and gaining Copeland & Wheeler isn't exactly a fair swap. It's not even close. If the Sixers sign Adrian Majstrovich it does very little to improve the ratio of players lost to players gained.

Nice pick up if you can get him at the right price...which they should. Makes for a pretty solid bench.
I wonder if they delay in annoucing the 2nd import is because they have targeted a quality player and are just trying to iron out the terms?

Rumors have been flowing that they are close to an announcement, names have been thrown about...when will it be confirmed?

what did people say when we recruited Cattalini, Nash, Sapwell, Rees, Maley and Garrison?

Lots of negative comments about those signings at the time.

I like AM's game it is a more athletic version of Jake. If you gave AM the same minutes as Jake i dont think the stat line would be all that different except that AM's FG% will be greater.

is there any stats on per minute production we could compare the 2 against each other with?

Compare Cats numbers in Perth before he became a sixer with what AM was producing there as well.

Also, now having read The Advertiser article, I can see their interest in him. Because he's still under contract to New Zealand, the Sixers can likely get him for minimum. In that case, he's worth a shot.

Majstrovic would be a great bargain pick-up.

NZ cut him with a year to go on his contract meaning that they would be paying a decent proportion of his salary.

I agree with Kent's assessment and the fact he can play SF or PF provides extra insurance in the event of a Nash injury.

Would be a great pick-up as he can contribute immediately unlike the other names being mentioned to round out our squad.

If we manage to pick-up this 200-205cm scoring forward together with Majstrovic then we have a decent looking squad for next season as long as we stay healthy.

Sixers still need a SF

hes not an import... (despite his name) he was born here and even played for one of our junior national teams.

I only mentioned the import because I had assumed that Majstrovich might come at a price that could impact what they had to spend on an import - then I read the article and realised it wasn't going to be the case.

My thoughts on the article are that Adrian probably should contact Foreman, Holmes, Newley, Ingles etc etc etc to ascertain why they didn't think Adelaide was the place to further develop their talent.

Must be a common denominator somewhere!!

Fiji, I would suspect that Majstrovic is at a stage of his career to Oscar and Jacob where he wants to play for a coach who provides him with confidence and freedom offensively together with more importantly, some court time.

Smyth has a proven record in this respect and the 36ers could well be a great situation for Majstrovic.

I don't think that Oscar and Jacob would complain about opportunities from an on-court stand-point.

Both have had decent court time (Oscar's was a bit sporadic at times but he was on the court in the final seconds of a knock-out final showing complete faith from the coaches) and both appeared to be given a relatively green light on offence.

However, I suspect that Oscar and Jacob are at different stages of their respective careers to Majstrovic.

Who could blame them for wanting a few years in a Dunlap like situation where they are pushed all week in training to improve individually to the best of their potential.

Adrian probably only wants the opportunity that Oscar and Jacob have already been provided. IE relatively consistent court time and freedom in games.

Re Anon: the other names that have been mentioned to complete the squad as reported by Nagy are guys like Dodman, Sutton, Harris, Hambour, Gower, Zorich, etc.

I wouldn't trade Holmes + Forman for Majstrovic and Nash in a million years but they do provide a decent small forward combination for what would no doubt be a budget amount.

My thoughts on the article are that Adrian probably should contact Foreman, Holmes, Newley, Ingles etc etc etc to ascertain why they didn't think Adelaide was the place to further develop their talent.

Must be a common denominator somewhere!!

I think it would be a good move as he is young and proven to be a decent player in not huge opportunities, i hope he turns out to be a bit like mark nash. Last week on talking hoops i think it was mentioned brendan mann may be a possibility of playing for the 36ers. what to people think of a line up like
C Wheeler/Cooper
PF Import/Majstrovich
SF Nash/Copeland
SG Farley/Hill
PG Maher/Mann
I reckon that would be a reasonably solid team, possibly better than last years

Could they get mann?
Is it possible?

a personally think it would be good to hav him on our team at a very small price tho. if we pick up him and an outstandin import we end up more succesfull than we are all thinking now. who knows wheeler and copeland might shine this year

The Ten
c wheeler/ cooper
pf import/gower
sf Nash/AM
sg farley/copeland
pg maher/ brad

reserves
1 gerlach
2 dodman
3 hambour
4 sutton

i hope that adelaide surprise us all and bring us a championship. it happened in 2002 y cant it happen this year. CARN THE SIXERS

At first I was thinking that this would be a bad move, I have never been all that impressed by AM, he seems to be a perennial underacheiver.

However, after having thought about it at bit, I think he is the kind of guy who *could* thrive under Smyth and play an important role off the bench. Only time can tell whether he can be another player whose career Smyth can miraculously revive after being discarded by a number of clubs.

please give up on the Vandenbergh comments you've got to be kidding me

How many bargain basement players can the Sixers afford? They might not cost much individually but add up when you have too many and they take away from what you have left for a decent import. There is still a 20 + 10 scorer hole to fill in the team. The more cheap players you get, the less you have left over to fill that spot. I don't know why they are looking at this player when its not what the team needs right now regardless of cost.

Have to agree with lockstock. Lets stick to reality.

If he's as cheap as reported then money for value wise then he's prbly not a bad option off the bench. As long as the money spent on him doesnt cut into what we can offer an import then i'm all for it.

Daws said they would be spending the whole of the salary cap, therefore, any money paid to new recruits has to cut into what's left for an import. I thought the Sixers only needed 1 more position to fill other than Development players and that position would go to an exciting import. Where will Majstrovich fit in? Surely he is not the candidate for that last position. Season ticket sales start at the end of this month. We are yet to see anything that is going to draw crowds. Other than Maher & Farley, the team needs another real "star".

they will have an import as well EC

EC, you stated, "I don't know why they are looking at this player when its not what the team needs right now regardless of cost."

We have lost two SFs in Holmes and Oscar and replaced them with ... no one.

Not only that but we don't have a PF on the roster whatsoever.

It is blatantly obvious that a player that can play SF/PF off the bench would be ideal.

We have to suit 10 players on our roster so whether we are paying say $30k to Majstrovic or $30k to a current ABA player won't really eat into what we have to spend on our import by any large degree.

The bigger question in my opinion is how signing Majstrovic will eat into Hill's time.

The 36ers coaching staff have been saying that Hill will get more minutes this season at the 2/3 spots as well as back-up PG.

With Farley + Copeland at the 2 and Nash + Majstrovic (if signed) at the 3, there don't appear to be a lot of minutes at those positions.

I'd like to see Smyth go small and field the following team:

PG Maher/back-up such as Mann
SG Farley/Copeland
SF Hill/Nash
PF Import/Majstrovic
C Wheeler/Cooper

11 + 12 Dodman + Hambour

Good pick up for the 36ers, He suits their game.

Although its obvious that the team is in big trouble, Smyth and co have not just paniced, they are still going for players who suit the system...not changing their system.

Commend them for that atleast...

D

Jye Watson

im pretty sure AM contract a large part of it (70-90%) of it will be paid by NZ as they released him from a year to go on the contract so its definetly feasable to contract AM for min or just above so by calculating that sixers still can comfortably spend the max on import

if we get AM and someone from the aba both on minimum we should get to spend the max on an import

my understanding is that we have room for 2 mimimum payed players and one really good import who we could spend the max on.

'Everyone from last year'

Maher
Farley
Hill
Nash
Cooper

That is not a lot of returning players. So to consider some of the common assumptions and rumours from this site in considering the possible increase in wage for the above guys:

The assumption at the time Farley's contract was concluded was that it provided for a large increase in the second year. Let's say $25K.

Everyone already assumes that Maher is pretty much on max salary. Say ($10K)

Hill will get rookie wage increase at best ($5K?), Nash deserves and will get some increase for showing that he is capable of seeing a year out (10K?), Coops no increase.

On the above assumptions, those amounts are covered by the increase in the cap.

So it is not like you would be saying: 'take last years salaries for the above guys and multiply by 1.5'. They will be increased, but not enough to effect the Sixers ability to hire a full squad.

Then you have still got to take out Dusty, Holmes, Oscar and Rees' salaries for last season and the rumour that the Sixers did not spend all of the cap last season.

Add AM and Copes (both cheap), Wheeler (not cheap but far from max) and there should be plenty left for an import.

If you are aware of some gross error in the assumptions that people are making, I suggest you enlighten everyone...

I would estimate the current signings (7) as costing $525 - 650k and I'd guess the real figure might be closer to the middle or higher end, rather than the lower end (especially since the lower end is assuming all seven are on bargain deals).

Now, that leaves $125-250k for three players. Take out say $45k for your minimums and you've got $80k-$200k for your import, and like I said, I'd be very surprised if it's closer to 200 than it is to 80.

I'm guessing Dusty, Reesy, Oscar, Jacob and Hambour got maybe $340k. Remember that Hambour was on minimum, Reesy not on heaps, and Oscar was getting paid well under his market value. Take out $100 at least for Wheeler and you've got $240k. Take out Majstrovich, Copeland and another minimum and tell me how much you think is left for the import? And that assumes that the retained players aren't chewing up the cap increase (optimistic, IMO).

Maybe they've got $150k (the max, assuming Maher is the designated "franchise player" getting $175k), but they need a very very good player to cover for the departure of Rychart.

It's easy to assume that we could get Majstrovich for minimum, but as soon as another club shows interest, you'd think that the winner at auction will be paying a bit more. That drives down what's available for the import.

Isaac, I couldn't have put it better myself. My immediate thought was the fact that the Sixers are only 1 of twelve teams. If Majstrovich is to be so cheap because he is already being paid out by NZ, then every team will be out to land this bargain. All the other teams are yet to complete their rosters, therefore they will all have a place for a good cheap player. Then it becomes a pricing war to get him. Lets face it, money is the strongest driver of where a player accepts a contract. Anything else comes second.

You always run the gauntlet with these things EC. But the Sixers would be as good a fit for AM as anywhere I would think.

That said, he may want to go back to Perth where he would know what to expect - not sure if they would have him though.

If we had to bid against other teams I doubt he would be worth pursuing. But given the number of clubs he has previously played for and let go by, he is unlikely to be too high on anyone's priority list IMO.

I wouldn't be surprised if AM does look at going back to Perth. He's from there and Perth have just lost Burston to South Melbourne so they will want to fill that hole.

Just on TV. Maestro's a SIXER. :)

heard the same, allthough they did say he was due to sign tommorow,

either way a positive signing