He's a jumper shooting bigman that doesn't do much else

go leak some more n00dz

Good player still, but lacks co ordination around the ring at times. Can't collect a loose ball, missed a couple of easy passes. Just a bad game though.

Totally agree, ive been saying this for 2 seasons now. He is no franchise player, solid, but no way should he be your first option. The man has the voice of a mouse out there....guess he isnt arrogant enough!

You're overrated.

How is he overrated? It seems every week we look to dump on someone over something. Bet if we had won the game, his game wouldnt have been part of this forum.

dave-blocknorth which game were you at he can't play defence and tonight the whole team was terrible in the defensive half. Croc player running through our defense like a hot knife through butter.

How is he overrated? It seems every week we look to dump on someone over something. Bet if we had won the game, his game wouldnt have been part of this forum.

I'd say Balls is being hugely affect by having to constantly play Centre. Its not his natural position and he should never have to play it for extended periods of time. The last 2 coaches we have had are destroying his game by putting him out of place.

If he got the ball on the odd occasion... instead of our guards dribbling around for 20 seconds of the shot clock??? Is about time we had an offense run for him. is our best scorer by far. Clarke's offense is too much about the dribble.

yeah same here, shannon waits till 12 on the shot clock then runs this half assed pick and roll. ballinger doesnt want it enough, 6 or 7 shots is not enough he needs offence run for him. We saw him on the low block heaps with blalock on him and he wasnt even commanding the ball. dissapointing tonight where was howard in the over time? On a good note though carters 3 was awesome i nearly ran onto the court, havent cheered like that since the farley days.......

oh and holmes is not overrated.... yeah my cat can shoot better then him but didnt he have nearly 20 rebounds tonight

You and the coach should play balls where his strength s are. you would win more games than this run and gun guard game you don't play well.

give him 20 shot a game instead of the others

Shannon after 3 games with the team is starting to turn into Craig Winder. Tonight he was far too possessive with the ball trying to do it all himself. Lost count at the number of layups he missed when he should have passed the ball on. Why persist when you are continuously missing them. He needs a few lessons on how to be a part of a team and that behaviour needs to be nipped in the bud early. Only lost by 2 points but a few changes to Shannon's and Ballinger's game would have resulted in a win with flying colours. These are the 2 players who lost it for us tonight.

Coach also played a part in the loss. Did not always have the right players on. Shannon should not have been rhere in the dying minutes and Ng should have seen more court time in the 5 minutes OT.

to me I think he's more of a Paul Gasol type, great second option to complement a batman. but at the same time I've only watched a handful of Adelaid games.

he is not overrated he is a great player who is playung out of position and struggling with playing against the bigger bodies if the coach starts playing Daniel Johnson more in tandom we balls his game will improve especially since now the sixers have got a pass first point guard

I think the comments about too much dribbling is more attributable to having an import PG, Winder or Shannon. If you watch enough college ball I'm sure you'll see the trend that has been sneaking in there. I put it down to the longer shot clocks and the 'over' coaching done at that level with multiple cuts, leads and screens off the ball.

Shorter shot clock games (NBA / NBL / Euro) have slightly less dribble and then you have the cultural styles where Aussie ball doesn't see the PG dribble as much.

Lastly, what a stupid thread, Balls has been a valued servant to Adelaide and the NBL, and is now an Aussie. Long term involvement and improver, and should, like Mark Davis in previous years, evolve to become the second, third and fourth choice option.

Yea Balls is a gun player, but as said above he is not the go to guy he is a great 2nd or 3rd option, I like the Gasol comparison, we just need our Kobe (hopefully Howard can be this guy for the rest of this season) and him also playing out of position doesnt help.

I think they would be hoping that say Howard can be there best player and over the next few years Johnson and Creek can develop strongly and be 2 of the best players, meaning ballinger can be the 2nd and 3rd best like he was in that Hawks GF team and just play his natural game.

I'm overated!

You're overated!!

Hell, the whole freaking SYSTEM is overated!!!

Yes Adam has been a great player for our club, but his form this year is well down on what it has been in the past.
His problem too at present is that if he is not scoring, he is a liability elsewhere on the court. A guy his size should be rebounding far better for a start.
By the look on his face last night, he knows that he is struggling, so let's just hope that he can turn things around very quickly. If he can't though, then the coach must play guys who are going to get the job done.

lets have a witch hunt now lets start at the beginning. imports not worth 2bits of naany goat shit sacked them get new imports after 8 games .team has to cope with wait for it a new team game has to try and gell with new imports lose last night by 2 points .now people say lets sack balls over rated because the people who make these comments are ex nba champions who have won 4 mvps and have been runner up in the league mvp so lets take notice of what these experts say.go and play with your barbie dolls

Balls was blowing hard half way through the second and nearly keeled over during a time out. This resulted in him not moving his feet and not working hard on offence, hence why he picked up 4 fouls early and had little/didnt demand shots.

What Balls needs to work on is his fitness and passing out of a double team. He always panics when he is in trouble and just throws the ball away!

Having said that, I'd say it was just an off game for Balls and it must be blo0dy hard work trying to defend a guy that is alot taller than you.

What surprised me was (love hime or hate him) Brad Hill was our whole offence for most of the 1st quarter and then he doesnt get on the court in the 2nd until there is about 2 mins left - why?

Another surprise, in OT we are down by 2 with the last shot and Carter throws up a long 3 - why? The law of averages suggests you arent going to drop 2 massive bombs like that! Why not play the percentages, get the 2, go to double OT, regroup and try and get the win in the next 5 mins?

And how many lay ups did we miss? Dont blame Shannon alone, the whole team was missing easy lay ups, add that to some pretty poor defence and thats where we lost the game!

Bring back Jason Williams!

This time a question.

If you, me, everyone else that has some knowledge of basketball can see Balls struggles when playing centre, why does he still get played there?

Wouldn't it be an idea to get an import who can play centre, leaving Balls to play power forward?

Here's another question: who would swap Ballinger for Schenscher? I would.

Ballinger does struggle when played out of position at the five, no question. He is still a great scorer, but unlike a lot of other guys who will find a way to contribute when his shot isn't falling, he really doesn't. He struggles to create his own shot too. He also seems to be having a difficult time adjusting to the longer 3pt line.

He's been our marquee player during his time here, but I don't know what that means on a team which has only made the playoffs once in that three seasons.

If Ballinger wants the ball he needs to demand it. A few times he was mismatched against a guy like Blalock but didn't work anywhere near hard enough for te entry pass to be successful.

He is doing himself no favors by not making good position.

Ballinger is having a strong year - 15 points (10th) at 55% (7th), 6 rebounds (20th) and 2 blocks (2nd), plus improved defence. If you expected more from him perhaps you had your expectations wrong.

I think he is also doing a decent job of creating his own shot, and if they get him more of the ball he will score more points.

He needs to be consistent. We can't go losing games by 2 points when he has only contributed 6. Its games like this he really needs to step up. If he is struggling in the centre position, he has had much better games at that position. I can't see any reason why 6 points a game is all he can do in any game. Last season he also had some pretty average games and much was said about his back injury being responsible. I don't know if that stil applies now but I have heard no mention of a back injury impairing him. He is big and he is strong, he should be able to cope with big opposition.

thats right 6 points but how many attempts did 3 others have and could not hit the side of a bloody barn.lets get things right play the guy in the right spot and let him score .and for christ sake choose your imports better .these problems have been hounding this club for years.enough said now to enjoy the sight of the aussie cricket team getting a bloody big arse whooping stuck up losers

What a joke of a thread! Ballinger is the best player we have. He has one off game and someone starts a joke of a thread like this? FFS. For starters he doesnt get the ball, and is constantly being played out of position. How bout get the guy the ball and get yourselves a decent centre? Let the guy get back to his natural position where he is consistent and getting quality baskets. Then try to get some consistency within the team itself instead of shuffling the players around so rapidly that they dont know what the hell is going on or how to gell on court? Point ya fingers up ya bums not at the player that have been the best signings we have had.