beat me to it!.

realisticly can they really grab his signiture though?.

The team Scotty is building looks good...add hodge to the list and it becomes very very good...and maybe..just maybe i will be able to walk from the the cats game smiling.

man this forum so much up Hodge's arse.

he should make this his official site, because this is where all his fans are.

of corse they are, its ADELAIDE. dahhh.

Holmes said ' bring in Hodge and we are nearly there'

Aiston said ' sixers think they are one signature away from a championship winning team.'

And , yes I'm a big Hodge fan, why shouln't I be.

I'm an Adelaide fan and would love to see them win it all this year, but for godd sakes, give Hodge a rest. I'm sick of people going on about "if we sign Julius this ..." and "if we sign Julius that...". It's really giving me the shits.

Omg stop posting threads about same thing over and over use the one thread and keep posting updates in there

Bring something more intelligent then re-posting

We want to **** Hodge caus we harbour inbreds

Leave it to one and one only

Im not saying he isnt a good player just that you guys are obsessed

it was on the newws. deserves a new thread matee.

It's been all over our media today, with the signing of Luke being confirmed, and an update on that import that your sick of hearing about.

I want to see Hodge back. I'll definitely re-new my ticket if Hodge returns, otherwise I want an exciting import to join this team to make my mouth water more.

Sorry haters but i dont see this as being an old thing.

Lots of threads have been in the past about how much people would like to see him back , chances of resigning etc.

The flavour of todays report is new and as such i felt worthy of an update to those that missed it.

Also channel ten are usually spot on with the suggestions they mention on tv. Luke and Holmes, for example, signings where earmarked before being official on their network so they could be thought of as having reliable information.

I dont see a problem with getting excited about possibly the best import ever to grace the NBL possibly re-signing with Adelaide.

Hodge is a fantastic player no doubt, and it was great to have him here for the short time he was. Realistically however, it's no use getting your panties wet just yet considering the NBA out clauses he'll most likely get, and the fact that Melbourne is apparently on to him aswell.

He will have an NBA out if he does sign, but realistically, he has been tearing the DNBA apart yet no NBA team has signed him. He may play summer league and if he doesnt make a roster, I think he is a good chance to play a full season outside the NBA (hopefully with the sixers).

This really does round out a potential starting 5 well if it happens;

1: Davidson (with maher off the bench)
2: Hodge
3: Holmes
4: Balls
5: Luke (with coop off the bench in the 4/5 slot)

Boy i wish we held onto Ng. Having Ng and Brett rotating with Davidson, Hodge and Holmes would have been awwwwwesome.

I think it is good (for the team) that Ng went to Singapore. He is a liability in D and with the ball carrying duties.
36ers still have some good shooters and people that can fill the hole he left in Maher, Davidson, Burdon, and Sutton.

Dont need Ng if the other guards stay fit. I would actually start Maher and have Hodge run the point when Davidson is off. Minutes could be:

PG: Hodge 16, Davidson 32
SG: Maher 28, Hodge 20
SF: Holmes 32, Hill 16
PF: Ballinger 36, Cooper 12
C: Luke 30, Cooper 18

plus 2 devo players.

It's the NBL off-season and there's not always a whole lot else to talk about regarding the league. Sure, there are a lot of threads about him, but they're easy to avoid for those not interested in the 36ers/NBL and you can't blame people for liking him - as someone said further up, he made a big impact on fans who'd been waiting for something new and exciting for years.

Realistically, I don't think this team (with Hodge) would have beaten the Tigers last season, but luckily for us, they don't have that team anymore! This year will be one of the most even years in history I feel and we definitely have a chance of winning it, if we get hodge or a decent two guard. Melbourne won't be anywhere near as deep as last year. Brisbane won't be as good and Sydney have lost Wortho and Smith. I think you will see the Dragons the BIG improvers in 08 and Gorj will have them in the top 5 teams. Along with Adelaide, Perth, NZ and Melbourne. Will be a very interesting year...

If we don't sign Hodge I don't think it will be as big of a setback as some think.

With big Schensch and Ballinger playing the blocks and regularly commanding double teams, I really think we need to start surrounding them with spot up pure shooters. Right now, of the guys who will be playing consistent minutes, we have really only Maher who is a natural shooter. Sure, Davison can shoot, and so can Jacob, but I think we need some real pure shooters signed. Guys of the Ryan, Crawford, Smith, Gibson etc mould.

This has been the philosophy of San Antonio and it has won them championships. They surrounded the Big Fundamental with Barry, Finley, Ginobili etc who could destroy teams when Timmy was doubled. And if you don't leave them, then Timmy kills you. If the Sixers can do similar I think they would be very hard to stop, inside and out.

Nice call Lockstock , one would think with Luke inside then the team could allow Ballinger the freedom to utilise his inside out game a little more as he is a deadly 3pt shooter .
Also , if we do get Hodge he could be setting down screens for Balls or Holmes who pop out and oh oh Hodge has a mismatch in the post . On the weakside big Lukey could time a nice back pick to drag out the opposing C with some nice backdoor slashes by Maher . Salivating ....

In summary on 3pt shooters both Maher and Ballinger are in the upper echelon , Davidson hovers around 40% and i would expect Holmes to shoot between 35-40% from deep . Burdon could be our spot up sparkplug .

Also think Ninnis will be more about getting quality looks from outside instead of the free reiagn loosey goosey chuck em up fellas it saves me searching for that god damn clipboard style of previous seasons.

Jason Reardon would make a good pinch hitting three point shooter as well as doing all the junk yard dog duties

I'm going to hold back my thoughts on Luke as yet and what he can bring. He didn't do that much in the NBA and from what I saw of him at college he was serviceable. I think he's going to be more of a Cooper to be honest, so i'm not going to get too excited yet about his offensive game.

Agree in most part PANTHER , but he should be good for some offensive put backs and will allow others to get some offensive boards if Defensive Centers have to worry bout boxing him out .
I could see 11-12 pts and 8-9 reb with 2 blocks per game .

quick question.

is luke really THAT good?.

i mean with all this hype we would think his some monster from the nba, despite we all no he only avereaged 1 point in like 2 minutes.

Are the sixers wasting this space?.

im not convinced on luke yet, Anyone else think the same way?.

I've made my thoughts known on other forums about Schenscher, and they are similar to that of Panther above. I would have thought giving the "NBL max" to him, would be akin to giving it to someone like Aron Baynes. I don't think his game is that of a dominant NBL player.

However, what Schenscher can be in this style of play, is a very, very good role player - as rotateonthis has said above, about 11 points, 9 boards and a couple of blocks a game, plus a massive body taking up some space and some decent knowledge about how to play the game.

I don't think we're in any position to complain with Ninnis brining all these SA boys back. However, if I can have my cake and eat it too, I really want Julius Hodge to come back and lead them to the promised land.

I don't think people should expect him to dominate the competition, but he should be useful. The reasons that I don't think it's a waste:

- from a publicity standpoint, they had to go for him anyway
- he's an Australian and starting calibre (we started Coops and Mottram last year and they were OK) - who else is picking up decent locals in the off-season without paying absolutely top dollar for them?
- it's hard to fill the C spot with an import
- with the rest of the roster being put together, he just needs to finish inside, get boards and block shots, frustrate guys like Anstey/Loughton/Rogers/Burston

We don't need him to hit from any sort of range or create his own shots.

Agree with all of the above Isaac. There's a lot more that (well, in addition to) on-court reasons to bring Schenscher here. The more family/friends/clubmates we can get back to games as well is always a plus.

I just hope the media don't expect him to be the white knight of the franchise, a la Romario type. You just know the mainstream media is chomping at the bit to bury a big-time recruit of a minority sport. Everyone here clearly has a better handle on things.

I played with big Luke in under 18s and 20s and he was as useless as a Kebab house at a rave.. apart from his rebounding ability due to his height. After his second year of under 20s he was shipped off to the AIS.

Around a year (or maybe less) later he came back and trained with the (then) Noarlunga ABL side for a week or two. He dominated those trainings (we had Willie Joseph, big Paul Robinson and some serious talent on that team).. he was pulling out baby hooks, jump hooks, turnaround J's, the full reportoir (sic?!) from the low post.

Now that was some 6-7 years ago (maybe more), and since then he has played college, NBA and wherever else. I wouldn't be surprised if he did do the 10-12 point 8-10 rebound thing either, but I would be equally unsurprised if he was a legit 20-10 man either. The guy has an unbelievable ability to improve and learn and is legit 7 foot - how many other legit 7 footers are there in the NBL? 2 or 3?

legit

sounds to me that lukee can offer alot of the one percenters along with the ability to go for 10 and 10 night out.

still wont be confident with him till he proves it to us in the first couple of games.

im not convinced on luke yet, Anyone else think the same way?.

As a long term signing this could be potentially a good thing to sign him this year...What if, he doesn't get picked up by an NBA team over the next 18 months and after having an ok season, 10 and 10 per game, surely he will be reasessed and his points rating dropped. We then, due to doing the right thing this year, can resign him for 3 years at a lower points rating! Yeah yeah..i'm clutching at straws here...

I'd say that's the club's thinking. However, Rogey still gets quite a high rating, as does Coops by virtue (I assume) of efficiency, and I can't imagine Luke's situation being much different. Still, 1-2 points off would help.

I can see Luke being a 7-1 version of Paul Rees. Nothing flashy but great at being in the right place at the right time, and being the tallest player in the league surely can't hurt right? As everyone's said, if he can drop 14 points at a good clip and pick up 8-9 boards a game while getting a few blocks and altering loads of shots then surely that can only be a good thing.

As Chuck Harmison so eloquently put it there's thousands and big guys round the world trying to crack the NBA without success, and while he never had a long term stint there the fact is he showed enough to scouts to pick up a few 10 day contracts, something plenty of big guys never get. I think he'll be good.

I think in the NBL he should be able to dominate to a degree.
He should be a bit like Anstey without the outside shot.
There will be very few players able to guard him one on one, forcing the other team to double team or allow him to score reasonably easily.
If he does have a good hook shot then he should be able to score over 20pts.
If he is a good passer then Maher should have a field day bombing down 3s.
With a line-up of
Maher
Hodge (good import)
Holmes
Ballinger
Luke
The other team is not going to be able to double team.
The opp will probably play a lot of zone to help defend Ballinger and Luke in the post so outside shooting is going to be very important
But so will driving into the lane and player movement.
So Hodge would be useful.

I was wavering about season tickets at the end of last season, but with the signings of Luke, Holmes and Ballinger I am really looking forward to next season.
If they get Hodge or an equivalent import they should be competing for a top 4 spot.

so many people on hoops have said " if they get hodge or a good import".

what would be a good import? i no what everyone is thinking someone of hodge's calibure or even better but dont forget how many countless times the sixers have failed on imports.

all i can say is... *fingers crosed sixers fans*

Hodge would be awesome i dont think it would be possible to get a import better than Hodge so if we dont get him i think a good import would be someone of the Ebi Ere, Cortez Groves callibre would be great.
Would people be happy for the 36ers to sign say Cortez Groves or Ebi Ere should we miss out on Hodge???
Hodge would be better but i wouldnt be too upset with either of those guys as replacements should we not get Hodge.
I think we need a 20ppg+ scorer in that import spot as guys like Holmes, Davidson and Schenscher probably wont give us more than say 15ppg i think Ballinger will give us around 20 so yea i think our import guard also needs to have some scoring ability.
All of Hodge, Ere and Groves can score 20 ppg and play a couple of positions so would not be un happy with any of them, but yea id still be holding out on Hodge for the next couple of months personally, i dont think Groves is going to be hugely chased by most NBL teams so hopefully he will still be available should we miss out on Hodge, id even be ok with bringing Farley back if we miss out on Hodge as he brings the same sort of skill set as Ere or Groves and i think would fit the team reasonably well.

LS "I played with big Luke in under 18s and 20s and he was as useless as a Kebab house at a rave.."

I was at a rave once and i thought i saw a a house of made of kebabs , so i sheepishly ventured in only to discover a saucy lebanese chick giving out relaxing massages for ten bob . I think It is fair to say My kebab has never been the same .