Isaac
Years ago
NBL 08/09 - Who is beating expectations?
I had been thinking that a topic about expectations for the NBL season would be interesting, but was beaten to it by the recent topic about underperforming teams.
There's still room to discuss which players, clubs and other elements around the league are doing better than you expected.
I'll start it up with Luke Schenscher. I expected Luke to play a role that would be handy more than dominant and might even disappoint a few "He played in the NBA so will get 25 and 15 in the NBL" people. My expectation was for about 14 points and 8 rebounds a game and though he's narrowly topping that with 15.7 PPG and 7.8 RPG, he's doing so in under 27 MPG. Adjust to 32 MPG and that's 18.6 PPG and 9.2 RPG.
Phill Jones' 17 PPG in 26 MPG off the bench (thanks to 64% from outside) is a step up from his 14 PPG from last year.
Shane Heal's 40+ MPG and Daniel Joyce's 25+ MPG. Giving less than 15 MPG to Pero Cameron is not going to make him any fitter or happier.
Russell Hinder's 12.2 PPG and 8.4 RPG helping Townsville to a reasonable start. (John Rillie: 6.6 PPG!? Could be averaging more posts per week than points per game...)
Derrick Low's 20.3 PPG. Based on his pre-season shooting, I wasn't sure if he could give them enough, but he's doing just fine. Liam Rush's 16 and 7 plus Julian Khazzouh's 15 and 10 are decent also.
Actually, for some gutsy wins, you have to give the entire Spirit team a nod.
Anthony Petrie at the Hawks putting up 13.9 and 6.7 and, in the process, outscoring Cam Tragardh, Mat Campbell and Kavossy Franklin. Actually, adjust for minutes played and he'd lead the team in scoring, two clear of Rychart even. He and Jones might be early candidates for sixth man of the year?
Who have I missed?