He would be huge to add to our team and if cost was a factor would drop a import for

nevil + ervin/ import pg would be good, but unlikely. i think nevil will benefit from being in a system where he is the main centre, not sharing major minutes with the dj at the 36ers

I think it would be worth offering the role/dollars (id probably offer slightly less $$$) that we offered Schenscher and see what happens, would be a good pick up if we can get him, but wouldnt offer too much $$.

Tigers started winning games when they made him the main interior option. At NBL he is legit.

Whether you like the guy or not, he is a legit 7'2" big man who can score despite being a 'stiff'. He is tough to guard on the offensive end when he has shooters around him. By all accounts he is trying to work hard on his defence which is clearly his weakness, particulary in guarding smaller and more mobile C's in the NBL.

SixerFan, correct me if my memory is correct, but didn't Melbourne start playing better last year after Nevill left?

I would argue they started playing better when D-Mac took over as coach myself...

I reckon he ranks as one of the better centres in our league at the moment. But I thought we were trying to develop DJ?

He is effective when he has the ball in the post or when he is allowed to stand under his defensive basket and rebound. He is very ineffective at pretty much all other times. Worst of all, for a guy his size he isnt particularly good at fighting for position.

Same thing in the NBL and Russia, he could put up numbers when he was on the floor but his coaches didnt play him. There is more to the game than numbers and I think Luke has a long way to go to become a good professional.

He undoubtedly has talent though and you would imagine he will fix his attitude etc at some point a become a pretty good player.

Terrible idea Neville. Shocking defender who clogs up the middle on "O" and soft on the boards. Next...

Oldcat is spot on.

I definitely wouldn't have a problem with going with a 3 tall attack of Nevill, Ballinger and Johnson.
Thought he was clearly the best of the 4 centres at Melbourne last season.
Get a cheap sf/pf playing in the local leagues as the other import if we feel it necessary.
He was 5th in the league in rebounding. (4th if you don't count Petrie's 3 games). 3rd in blocks too.
He shot at 60% but only averaged 12 points, so obviously the overload of big men affected his amount of touches.
Nevill took some strong offensive rebounds on Friday and had 4 blocks. Missed a few layups, but had some nice post moves and was our best offensive threat. Clearly top scored and could easily have scored more.
Wouldn't say Johnson has earnt his starting spot yet. He was good when Ballinger was out at the end of the season, but for the majority, he wasn't a go to guy. Probably hasn't earnt much more than 20 mpg yet, so 30 for Ballinger and Nevill would be possible.
Don't really see the need for a 4th big this year. Clarke seems to like to give all 10 players 20 minutes each, so having 3 legitimate bigs would probably be a better setup than having Mottram/Sturt etc taking good minutes.