I'm not sure the issue is playing Balls out of position. From my memory he tends to play in the same spots on offense regardless of who else is on the floor woth him?

For me it is more about playing to his talents and finding him open looks. IMO he is the best catch and shoot big guy the NBL has ever seen. But he isn't really a creator in the post. We need more penetration from our guards to help get him the ball (DeVries has done a good job in this area and surprised me - he is much more than a straight up shooter)

Balls has been playing the post more this season and we've barely seen him in shooting positions or catch and shoot positions. He's barely had these plays set up for him.

He doesn't play the post well and doesn't always play the best defence.

Yeah he'll do better at his natural PF position, but it's time more plays are drawn up for him + give him more scoring opportunties. Instead of 6-10, give him 15-20+.

Having Johnson start as C may provide a greater opportunity to get that vital first play from the tip off.

I have been impressed with DJ so far. He plays a good solid game, so I assume he hasn't started because Marty doesn't want to throw him to the wolves.

Sydney is going to be a big test for our talls. Sydney has got Kazzouh who is listed at 209 cm and 100 kg. I would have thought JK at about another 10 kgs. DJ is listed at 212 and 108. Balls at 205 and 113. DJ has the height and strength over Kazzouh, but I know Balls is like a brick sh#thouse at the moment and would push Kazzough around the key like a snag on a barbie.

Kazzough is averaging 29 mins and yielding 18 ppg and 11 rpg. Certainly someone we want to neutralise. Taj is the other problem child at Sydney. 16 ppg is a good stat by anyone.

We need to ice the next game against Sydney. Reckon a strong starting 5 of:

Winder; De Vries; Holmes; Ballinger; Johnson

This puts Balls on Taj, although a matchup with Holmes might take the Taj Mahal out of the equation and free up Balls to be fed the ball. I would give DJ the first 5 minutes on Kazzough, and if he gets beaten, then swap it all around.

I agree with Boti

If we wanted to bring him off the bench we should have kept Burston.

DJ is a big boy and is a professional athlete so I am sure he will handle a starting role. It is not the AIS so 'throwing him to the wolves' should not be applicable. Sure he we have good and bad games but lets see if he can get the job done.

I haven't looked but I would be pretty confident to say DJ's minutes have actually dcreased from last year since moving from the Tigers.

I am happy with Johnson off the bench coming in and providing a spark, but he definitely needs to play more minutes. When Ballinger is at centre he needs to be used in plenty of pick and rolls, popping if the defence helps and recovers or rolling to a post up if they switch.

When he is at the four I would like to see him stationed one pass from the Carter/Devries/Winder and Johnson pick and roll to clear out space under the hoop. If the defence helps on the guard coming off the screen hit Ballinger for the J, he can get that thing off in a millisecond. The one problem with the Ballinger-Johnson combo is that they get exposed badly by mobile 4-5 combos, and neither can really guard the genuine centres either.

Against Sydney I would like to see Khazzouh have to chase Ballinger around early to get him out of rhythm.

To me the article could have said more about the genius that is Gordy McLeod.

Balls was often double teamed inside, often leaving Jacob free for a short jumper. The exception to this was the second quarter when the tempo was too quick to allow this.

Troy was often doubled when he caught the ball, stopping him dribling but giving him easy assists as he is a smart heads up player.

Winder was sagged on, they took away his drive to give him mid range jumpers, his defender often also covering the passing lanes.

I would love to see Balls shoot more, but against coaches like Gordie, it involves more than just running more plays for Adam. Other players have to make the double teamers accountable. Listening to the TV replay, Gordies time out and Brett Mahers comments, Gordie had a lot to do with Adam only getting 9 shots.

The challenge is now on Marty to make adjustments.

Does Grizzard play PF for the Kings rather than McCullough?

Whenever Johnson is on, I'd almost want him to be the key focus on offence. Melbourne did that last year in that game Worthington won in Adelaide and DJ was devastating, from memory.

My impression is that DJ has had a positive influence every time he has hit the court - even when some of his offence decisions were terrible. He creates problems for defences and is a solid defender (better than he appears IMO).

Problem is that he has been picking up fouls too quickly - hence why his court time is so low.

If he can take the Bill Russell mentality of not trying to block every shot - but making the offence think his is trying to block every shot, he should do better with the fouls.

After the game, Marty rated his 3 best players as Jeff, Troy and Johnson.

Whilst Johnson had one of his worst shooting games, he had his best rebounding game in my opinion as he was very active on the glass which has been his weakness. Unusual that two out of the 3 are bench players, so yes stay tuned on that one.

Marty has always said the starting 5 is not fixed this season, it may well vary from week to week, so given those comments and his best 3 which he named after the game upstairs, a change to the starters would not surprise anyone.

Balls would have a huge inside mismatch on Grizzard if we started DJ, but at the other end, I'd almost rather Holmes/Balls defending Khazzouh than DJ despite giving up a lot of height.

D and rebounding still big problems for me so I agree with Isaac's comment. When he's on the court, take advantage of it at the offensive end.

It is obvious that Johnson should start and have never understood why Marty has used him so lttle after 1 of first he signed.
DJ might give away some fouls at C but least has some defensive presence more than Balls in that spot
Played some top games for Tigers as starter as well.
Marty got caught out bad last game and has to get his team re organized and have his import PG setting up the players and creating opportunities or give the role to Carter and DeVries if have to

*sigh*

There's height on the team, but most of it is benched atm.

If DJ isn't going to start at the 5, I'd look at rotating Dowdell into the lineup to play it with Balls at the 4.

I know he's not really built for the position and is more of an impact player, however he can certainly a hustle player and seems to work well with Balls down in the post. Decent touch with low post scoring too.

My first suggestion over this though would be to bring Carter in as the Starting PG and bring Winder off the bench and see what that does for a game.

Balls isnt a centre, and it REALLY restricts his game having to play centre. We saw this all last year and finished bottom of the ladder. I have NO idea why DJ isnt playing ALOT more minutes with Dowdell(whos doing bloody well of the bench btw) subbing in for him for 10mins max.
Put Ballinger in his preferred position and watch him return to his 20points per game average.

I'd like to see the count of time Ballinger has spent at centre. We know he's not starting there, but has he been playing much PF when Johnson or Dowdell are on? Or are those two usually there when Balls is on the bench? Hard to remember from watching the games.

Ballinger fan,
correct. There was a lot in there about the cunningness and cleverness of Gordy and how he basically has turned Oscar into a machine who has realised his potential, plus the two "old coges" of the NBL in the starting 5, where they wouldn't get a run as waterboys in other teams.

Please, they would all get a run elsewhere, Sav would be a starter on most if not all teams in the league. But yes, Gordie is great and knows how to get the best out of his players.

Isaac, I have noticed Marty likes to pair the backup unit of Dowdell and Johnson on court at the same time a lot while Balls and Jake rest.

You would think that a Johnson and Balls would go together though wouldn't you? ; )

Nice to see that Boti also picked up on that first play run for Winder. I posted in the get rid of Winder thread. I thought during the game that the 6ers would have exploited the hell out of it because they could have surrounded Winder with players who could all knock down the open jumper and also put the heat right on the duminutive and defensively challenged Ervin. One of two things must have happened. 1. The genius Gordie took the play away by some brilliant and previously unknown secret defensive stategy. 2. Marty f....d up big time by forgeting the sucess of the one and only time he used it. Poor recognition by all concerned.
As far as Ballinger goes I have not seen a coach yet (Joyce was very poor) who can best use his skill set. He has to be the focal point and you need to direct a large part of your attack through him and for him. I don't think it matters if he is the 4 or 5, its where he gets his shots.

(Mod: Sniping. Seriously, we're talking about a starting line-up, the majority are in agreeance, and some of you haters are still trying to make this about Boti's coaching record?!)

fstos, S m y t h e used Balls very effectively (as well as any coach) and always got the most out of him, but at a time when the Sixers were also blessed with a three pronged offensive structure (as were pretty much all of the S m y t h e teams). Of course, those were the one-and-done days.

I always love these boti rants. The set play was run multiple times if he new what the set play was. Or is he thinking a set play must only have one option. Granted the option of throwing it to Winder in low post should have been used more but the set itself was used multiple times. The players went with other options on it.

As for DJ at centre. As much as it hurts after my first comment, I have to agree with boti. He has impressed me thus far. Plays a bit of D and decent offensive game. However Jacob is a much better rebounder and defender. Got to keep him there. So who would I drop out of starting lineup, well that is easy.............. Hill.

Start Winder, DeVries, Holmes, Ballinger, DJ

Only problem, is holmes quick enough to get up and down the lanes like Hill. I guess this is where Herbert would have been a godsend.

Yea Ballinger was very good under Phil. As was Darren Ng.

I definatly want to see a starting 5 with Johnson in it and playing 25+ minutes and Dowdell used as his back up, My preference is Winder, DeVries, Holmes, Ballinger, Johnson, some argue that Holmes is too slow for the SF spot, but he has played many seasons there and done quite well IMO, he also makes up for Johnson and Ballinger not being great inside defenders and big rebounders.

Ballinger playing at PF, with the offense running through Johnson and Ballinger first, then back out to the perimiter if they cant score inside, as Johnson has shown he can be a quick scorer and pile on the points, (i believe he could average 15-20 points) and we all know Ballinger is a great offensive player, especially if we can get him out of the paint, facing the basket taking mid range jump shots.

This would also open DeVries up for more open looks, help Ng, and take the pressure off Winder, tell him to use his speed and athleticism to penetrate and dish, but if he is wide open going through the lane or the others are covered, again use his athleticism to make the dunk or layup. This would also take the pressure off and give him more open jump shots. This should collapse the defense and help guys like Ng and Devries. Hill should have a similar role of penetrating almost all the time.

this gives us a more balanced offence, Johnson is a Big who can score inside, Ballinger mid range shots, Winder and Hill penetrating, Devries shooting from outside.

Off topic, but
I personally think we were blessed with Phil as coach and he was way better as a coach than people gave him credit for the last few seasons of his career. He did win 3 championships in around 10 seasons, not many can say that and for those who say he inherented the 98/99 teams, he built the 2002 team from scratch basically and won a very unexpected title, which is the sign of a good coach to me.

i wonder if peoples perception of Phil have changed over the last few years since he has not been the coach? A lot of people were negative towards him in the end.

Anyways good luck to coach Clarke and the 36ers, i hope they can win against the kings!

"some argue that Holmes is too slow for the SF spot, but he has played many seasons there and done quite well IMO, he also makes up for Johnson and Ballinger not being great inside defenders and big rebounders."

But does he? I think his inside D is just being wasted if he's playing SF while Balls and DJ struggle inside. He wouldn't be as prolific a rebounder either and would struggle to play perimeter D against the likes of McCullough, Freeman, Penney, Dorsey, Harvey/Goulding etc without really being able to hurt them at the other end.

Regardless of whether he starts or not DJ has to play more minutes given fouls.

Agreed Bill. But the issue is that none of Johnson, Ballinger and Holmes are good defenders at the 5, 4 and 3 respectively.

I thought the team needed a pure point and a 3-4 as imports to give them a better balance. However, there is enough talent there and it is just a matter of ironing out some crinks.

Boti is certainly correct in that the ball should go to Winder (and Carter) more often in the low block.

I'm on record on what I thought of PS last few years as coach, but I will say that the 2002 championship was an absolute masterstroke of coaching/recruitment. Given the calibre of players who departed the previous season I would have to say it is just about the most unexpected title in league history.

Holmes is too slow, has too poor a jumpshot, and does not pass well enough to play the 3. Oscar ran rings around him the other night at the 4, and guys will only get quicker at the 3.

I'd be tempted to try (1 through 5) Carter, Winder, DeVries, Ballinger, Johnson.

For Sydney, could swap Winder and DeVries around (let Winder tackle McCullough who will have a height advantage either way) and try Dowdell on Khazzouh to soak up early fouls and try to ruffle him a bit? Can't have Ballinger or Johnson picking up two fouls in the first minute if they go straight to Khazzouh in the post.

Just got a media release from the 36ers saying that they've activated Sam Harris for the Kings game (Daly will revert to a development spot).