Good perspective Journo. You can't expect to win all the close ones, but its fair to call a split and say we should have won the Tigers and Breakers games. Those were games that were in the bag.
So its not a stretch to say we should have been 9-6 and looking very good. A couple of losses makes all the difference in this tight comp!
Sixers fans need to keep the faith. Sure this team is flawed, but the league and our team is going through a very disruptive period and the thing we need most is some stability to give coach and players some time to grow together.
I think a couple of tweaks is what is needed. I'd like to see Groves come off the bench and Ng start. The team needs to learn to run some screens and get twiggy some shots though!
Groves needs to be told his primary job is to spell Gilly at the point, distribute the ball and keep TO's down. From now on, only drives wthin the flow of the offence and shots from range if wide open!
I think its also important to give Hill more of an opportunity to take over games. Don't laugh, I know he has been poor of late, but he could be this teams most dangerous offensive weapon if he is put in a position to succeed. I'd use him as the #1 offensive option when Balls and Gilly are out of the game and tell Groves to take a backseat as a scorer.
Hill's hops are outstanding and he has shown at times the ability to create his own shot off the dribble better than anyone bar Gilchrist on this team. I know that right now he is very erratic, but he has the ability to post up smaller guards (which would be most of the time) and shoot mid-range shots over them - often the only shots you can get when opponents ramp the pressure up, shut down the keyway and the open threes.
This advantage could be exploited when Balls has been shut down (he struggles when opponents crowd him and stop him from putting the ball on the floor) and Gilchrist is struggling to penetrate in the half court.
If the right space is created, I think Hill will score and draw fouls pretty regularly. Even better, once he shows he's a threat, that should open things up for other guys to get an open shot again.
Hopefully those sorts of things can help us avoid the epic scoring droughts we have at times and we can stop allowing teams we have on the ropes back into games!
