They're most likely right. We're 99% sure he's signing with Townsville, and the 'deadline' is sometime today, so he probably has signed with them.

*Confidence of the 36ers improving this season drops significantly*

Obviously disappointing.

Now the examination of Mottram's fitness begins. If he is 100% fit, he would be a good addition. If he is not %100 fit he is awful, as his game is based around his athleticism. He requires peak fitness otherwise his timing and execution is completely off and he just looks horribly foul prone and clumsy.

The due diligence of the medical team is going to be tested.

On the plus side, the cap space this will obviously free up should allow us to chase a Gary Ervin type player.

Actually he is not talking crap, members got a text confirming Luke staying in Townsville. Love the way the club are keeping us informed and letting us hear it first.

Confidence in the 36ers improving has just gone up dramatically. We can do much better.

Seriously you really are spot on ,I am very happy on the way the club is informing us . I look forward to the next major announcement, next week.

How has the 36ers confidence gone up?

1. We lack height.
2. We missed out on Gibson and Schenscher.
3. Import guard duo does not work.
4. Carter is gone.

What do we have left?
Put all the money we possibly can into Ervin.

If we have any chance of improving next season, we're going to have to go risk something different.

C Johnson/Mottram
F Ballinger/Import (cheapy)
F Weigh/Creek
G Barlow/Ng
G Ervin/Daly

67 Points


Here's what we do:

#1 Give Johnson more time, really let him develop into our offensive force at centre. #2 Pour all our money into Ervin, max him up price wise (NO EXCUSES for not maxing him out), try to get Barlow as well if possible (note the if) money wise.

Sign Daly as a young backup PG, he'd come cheap.
Sign a cheapish import at PF who can come off the bench but play a good defensive game. If we don't have the money, just resign dowdell.

I feel like we used the bench far too much last year. It's a 40 minute game, they shouldn't need to be 9 or 10 deep. What happens when you change the rotation too much, is far too much inconsistency, and getting momentum becomes too hard.

KET, you're right, we did use the bench too much last year. Its hard not to when your starting five is mostly bench quality material!

I'm not that worried about losing out on Schensch. As I have said before, I'd much rather throw big bucks at Ervin anyway. Hopefully no Luke will help make that happen. I think Ervin would be a big difference-maker for the Sixers.

I'm not really interested in Mottram. He had his chance a few years ago and did nothing to inspire confidence. I do agree with going for a cheapish import big to come off the bench. Would love a Gruber or Rickert type of player: experienced, good rebounder, energetic and aggressive. The kind of spark we need when DJ or Balls start a game badly.

If we had inside presence off the bench like one of the above, then I'd be happy to go with Dowdell as the fourth big. His outside shooting would be a nice complementary skill off the bench.

You could then go with someone like Herbert to start at SG. Whoever starts at that position HAS to be able to shoot the three reliably though, as the rest of that starting lineup is not great from long range.

You might have missed it, but Crosswell has already been signed as the backup point, so Daly will only be in the squad as a dev player now.

Ah yes, forget about the Crosswell signing, that changes things a bit points cap wise

I do agree that 2 import guards doesnt seem to work, im generally not a huge fan of import C's but if Rickert came at the right price he would be ok, but if not a proven import C id be going for a versatile import Fwd with some toughness like a Young or Maxey who both would likely come cheap as playing NZBL.

I think a line up of

Johnson/Mottram or Vanderjagt or Dowdell
Ballinger/IMPORT (Maxey or Young)
Weigh/Creek
Herbert/Ng
Ervin/Crosswell

Starting Herbert after his injury may be a risk but id be confident that if he stays healthy he would give us atleast 8pts 5 rebounds, some good outside shooting and defense, which is basically the same as Dillon did in Cairns last year, which i think should be ok.

Obviously id make contact with the top Aussies ala Barlow, Newley, etc and offer them what we had on the the table for Schenscher and see if they are interested in returning, but if not go with the team above and up Ervins offer a bit to get him signed up.

Was talking with a friend and we came up with this:

1. Ervin
2. Herbert
3. Weigh or Balls
4. Ira Clarke
5. Johnson
-----------
Bench

6. Balls or Weigh
7. Ng
8. Crosswell
9. Creek
10. Holmes
11. Daly

What do people think about Clarke being a much better pick up than Luke, and better to have an import big along with import point guard.

Ballinger to come off the bench at the 3 or 4?

I think that line up could work well id use this as the depth chart

C Johnson(25 mins)/Clark (15mins)
PF Clark (10 mins)/Ballinger(25 mins)/Holmes(5mins)
SF Weigh (15 mins)/Creek (15 mins)/Holmes (10 mins)
SG Herbert (20mins)/Ng(10 mins)/Weigh(5mins)/Crosswell (5mins)
PG Ervin(30 mins)/Crosswell(10mins)/Daly (DP)

Giving Minute totals of

Ervin 30
Clark 25
Ballinger 25
Johnson 25
Weigh 20
Herbert 20
Creek 15
Crosswell 15
Holmes 15
Ng 10

If they want to make it a main 8 rotation use Holmes and Ng more sparingly and up the other guys minutes by 2-3 each.

I enjoy the SMS alerts too. Was out at 3am in Santorini when I got it - wouldn't have found out for a while longer otherwise.

Bean, funny you should mention Gruber as Oscar was saying the other day that he thought Mottram would be that Gruber-type. Not convinced but I guess we'll see. It's a backup spot filled around the league last season with people like Janev, Helliwell, Pledger, Behrendorff, Allen, Garlepp, etc. This of course assumes that DJ starts and gives us as much as other starting centres - a good chance after his finish to the season.

Would've been good to get Luke as he is local and interesting to watch play, but the reasons I am not distraught are: other teams do well enough without him, last two coaches have (for whatever reason) not played him all that much and not too much in the fourth/finals/etc, and I think it'd overload us in the paint given the other players who were already signed. If it means we can recruit more strongly elsewhere, I think that's OK. If not, then it might be a problem.

Overload us in the paint? Johnson, Schenscher and Ballinger? Considering Ballinger's game is not in the post and Johnson seems to be afraid of the paint aswell, I'd hardly say we'd have been overloaded. It would've been nice to at least always have a tall on the floor considering last year we had so many instances where the Sixers would not box out and we gave up offensive boards - or we didn't even try to rebound our own missed shots.

As it is, we've got few people on the team (if any) at the moment who are known as post players or good rebounders. I'll be buggered if I'm buying yet another season membership to watch Jacob Holmes be the only player on the Sixers who can rebound.

Overload spending on the frontcourt I mean.

As a back up 5 n 4 ...... most times... I think of ..
Adrien Sturt..... blocks dunks a great 3point shooter
Came over here for a trial before, but someone said;
'Your in the wrong place my friend, you'd better leave'
Anyways , David Cooper's retired now, so worth another try.. A little better proposition than Mottram.

Anons - How do they work? And how can I ignore most of them?

Has any of this actually been confirmed? I've done a fair bit of searching and there is not one bit of evidence I can find that says that Luke Schenscher HAS signed with Townsville, other than Boti's article which is only saying that he believes its a given, not that it has actually happened.

I've checked news sources, twitter, facebook and found nothing confirming this. If he has signed with the Crocs things are being kept very quiet.

And what happened to the May 27th deadline the Crocs gave him?

Good work townsville. After a strong season last year and great work ethic by luke, you would have been mad not to resign him. Even better for this thread now that he is off the list cos how many threads can you have on one player? Seriously!

Helliwell is a little too slow for my liking. Would prefer a mobile energizer bunny as a backup big. Someone who can snap our boys out of a funk when they come out flat.

Isaac, out of those guys you listed I'd only see Garlepp and maybe Behrendorff as Gruber or Rickert types. The other guys are not mobile or aggressive enough. Even then, I would MUCH rather Gruber or Rickert than Garlepp or Behrendorff. If its one of the latter, we might as well just resign Holmes.

I am just saying that backup bigs in the league are not typically that big-name and Mottram probably wouldn't be out of place, if DJ can provide the sort of output other starting Cs are. I think he can. Next test is how much he can do it along side Ballinger. He's not Khazzouh obviously, but those last three games showed a lot of promise.

Johnson so young , you'd expect improvement.
Did well when our starting Centre was injured.
Did well , the season before when MEL starting centre was injured.
Whether there's been improvement and whether he can play alonside Ballinger, we don't know, from games and the performances of Sam Harris at training were absorbing.

Well, IF Big Red has decided to stay in Townsville then good luck to him. For DJ at least that is good news as it means that he will most likely (and about time too) be the 36ers starting centre in 2011-12. He should have been last season IMO.....

But, here is something that I know I've thought about and I think a few others have noticed this as well. When it came down to it, the 36ers didn't do any better with DJ as the focus of the offense than they did up until the point when Balls got injured against Cairns.

What I mean is sure, DJ put up big numbers, but that happens when you're the focal point of the offense. The team structure during those last 3 games never changed. It was still the same "get the ball to the centre" mentality that we had before, the difference being that DJ is a much bigger target than Balls and while he (DJ) likes to be a bit of a mid-range shooter despite his 6'11" height, I believe he is be better under the basket than Balls is and he can create more (he just needs to learn to shoot left handed or other teams will just blanket his right side and limit his options). His extra height also showed in his rebounding #'s in those last 3 games, that constant on-court height was something the 36ers lacked big time in 2010-11 and hopefully Clarke has learned from that.

Hopefully Balls and DJ can combine well on the court as the starting 4 and 5 but the teams offensive structure needs to change. We need more than just 1 or 2 players scoring the points and grabbing the rebounds or the team and us 36ers fans are in for another disappointing season.

Now that we're not getting Big Red, should he 36ers be looking at using the extra money and points to get a PG like Gary Ervin? That to me is a no brainer, we should now be going hard after a high quality (for the NBL) PG and the best available is the reigning MVP (or the previous one in Homicide Williams). Having a PG who can not only dish out assists but one who can defend well and score 20+ ppg really is a must IMO.

That's my rant for the night, now I'm going to watch the just started Monaco GP on ONE. Lap 2 and Webber is 4th behind Vettel, Button and Alonso.....

I like your point about the 'get it to the centre mentality', even though that is an over-simplification. Both Johnson and Ballinger are best when they get the ball delivered to them in scoring spots, not as the guy who creates the shot for themselves or draws defence.

It is very important the Sixers sign a couple of players who can shift the defence to make the two bigs more effective. Weigh is a good start as he can get to the basket, but a couple of really good players are needed, as many have already said.

Will clarke play DJ at starting C and Ballinger at starting PF? We say it as an inevitability, however i'm questioning whether Clarke will actually do that.

If we sign a good import PG, like Ervin, it comes down to how Clarke coaches.



Big Man Combination
Ballinger tradionionally scores from jumpers and threes, that's where he should be. (Side to the basket midrange jumper on both sides, freethrow line corner, and three point arc) When DJ is off, he can go down low for a few small periods.

DJ should be focusing on driving (highest he should be is foul line, moving to the basket) and getting scores low.

DJ: Next to the basket
Balls: Midrange-3

Sign Mottram, to give DJ a rest (that's when we focus guard/forward oriented offense), Dowdell to replace Balls (few mins, almost plays a guard type role with threes/jumpers)


Slashers/Cutters & Movers

Then we'd need our slashers/cutters such as Weigh, Creek who should be constantly active.

In my experience of playing basketball (not that it's elite by any stretch), the most annoying people to defend and mentally (and physically) tough to defend, are those who constantly move, they never stop moving.

Creek and Weigh are those guys who need to constantly cut, move around and open up spaces.

Between those two and having an inside & out big man combo, it can be a bit of a mind f...lets just say it can make the defenders miss opportunities that presents itself for us.

Shooters

Sign Herbert who can knock down the three and shoot the jumpers, he's the kind of guy that moves off the ball well and presents himself a shot.

Darren Ng is our master three point shooter. However, he has a few issues:

#1 He can't dribble the ball up.
#2 He should never more than a few dribbles, otherwise he gets quickly doubled and gets in trouble (unless driving to the basket with a clear path).

Darren is not the strongest, and he's about the easiest to crumble against a double team. The 36ers need to make plays for him to be free. Use a few screens or double screens, create plays that allow him to get free on the arc. Look at the Spurs type plays/tactics, they move the ball to free shooters brilliantly.


Play Makers
Sign an import guard, someone like Ervin.

36ers play a free flowing style, and with this type of team, it absolutely needs to be free flowing. 36ers are at their best when they move the ball quickly and people have the green light to shoot.

Ervin (or an import) and Crosswell should push the ball, drive a lot more to create open space and force the D to go to them. Lets see less stagnant play and much better movement. Crosswell is a very good mover of the ball, he's great at driving and we should look at an import who can do the same (like Ervin).

#1. Don't wait and dribble around a bit waiting for around 14 seconds left on the shotclock to start a play. This:

a) limits the time we can move the ball to get a good shot
b) makes it easy for defense who does not need to pay as much attention
c) defense does not need to move much, nothing is gained


Push the ball, make the D move, make them move constantly. Tire them out both mentally and physically.

#2. No stupid shots or settling for an outlandish shot.

A side effect of winding the clock down to 14 seconds, at some points silly shots are put up by the PG (looking at you Shannon! Although not just him).

Drive to the basket! More driving! Make the defense move, force them to go to you, and pass it around to get guys free. Last season, i got to the point where i didn't care if they drove and lost the ball or went into a wall of three plays and go 'oh crap!' and lose the ball. That was still a far better option most of the occasions then chucking up a shot with defense in their face from beyond the arc, or a silly fade away jumper that barely touches the rim.


If i'm Clarke, i...

#1 Teach the team how to get the ball up the court when the defense puts up a trap.

#2 Teach the team how to crash the boards, box out and put in a tireless effort in rebounding. We got murdered in rebounding last season, there is no two ways about it. Crash those damn boards. When a team wins the rebounding, it often shows the dominance of the team in the final result.

#3 Defense last year sucked. It sucked hard. There were mental slip-ups letting a player free accidentally, oops! This needs to change, players need to be accountable. If their player scores through a mental slip-up, this should not be treated lightly.

The most unacceptable part of the 36ers defense last year was the ability for any team to just drive to the basket and the 36ers players on many occasions did not even bother to move to defend. They cut through us with no effort on defense at all. It is embarrassing and you cannot win like that. Look at the very first 36ers game (v Perth) last season, look at how defense is done. The other team should feel as if they have been violated and harassed. They should feel that anywhere they go is met with strong pressure.

#4 Rotations & Momentum

Using rotations more effectively. Don't use 9-10 players consistently. It's a 40 minute game, not necessary!

Lets not kill momentum. Let the players get into the groove and play. Rotations should be fairly consistent to a period of time or a specific event (such as if a three is necessary, or a big man). Have the main 5 rotation, play them 25-34mins each. Have a big 6th man and a strong 7th guard with an 8th backup forward. 9&10 are used sparingly for periods of time. Dowdell is the perfect #9/10, he doesn't need the ball, he can knock the ball down if he gets it, but most importantly, he makes those defensive plays (great at taking charges).

traditionally*

And now some proof http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2011/05/30/235031_sport.html

Best thing is Townsville won out of a bidding war. Which means they probably paid more than they wanted to and although we didn't secure Luke, we helped drive his price up.

Now Townsville has less to spend in other areas and they are not going to get 40 minutes out of Luke.

Well Done KET spot on