Pretty sure a player of his caliber is on everyone's radar

Forget the insurance costs. Move heaven and earth to get him. Sponsorship, increased revenue at the gate, merchandise, reputation, establishing a relationship with an NBA All-Star. Strewth, we should all dig into our own pockets if we can make it happen.

Wes Matthews just tweeted patty mills wNts to come down under to play get it done sixes

Ummm...Patty Mills signed with Melbourne already...

Or do you mean Wes Matthews want to play downunder?

Well I may as well have not posted it at all then mystro. And I doubt he is on everyone's radar. Many teams couldn't afford it. Would be nice to see him play down under regardless of the team.

Wes Matthews wants to come play here

IF Bogut does sign with Adelaide, I hope Adelaide and the NBL are upfront about the circumstances of him signing.

That was my main issue with the Mills signing! Tigers did a few dodgy dealings and the NBL have turned a blind eye... if it is all upfront and out there, most fans would be pretty happy!

I personally don't think with all the uncertainty around how long the lockout may last that signing one of these "NBA" players is necessarily good value for money for any NBL club.
SRT070: I meant that he would be on every NBL coaches "wish list", the club may not be able to afford him but they def want him.

Mystro, I agree with you but that is why Bogut is waiting until October to make a more informed decision, but it probably won't start until January if nothing has happened by October.

Even if we could just bring him in for the first few games to cover Balls if he is still out injured. It would be massive!

I agree with DJ Rod, if clubs are transparent with their dealings there is no problem.

If there are 4,000 at a game in Adelaide, there are 3-4,000 seats spare. At a rough $15/seat (depends on number of kids tickets?), you could look at $50k/game. For a major drawcard like Bogut, I think you could expect to sell out most games?

Over a season, that's decent money. But without knowing how long someone like Bogut might play, it's a pretty massive risk to take on that insurance cost. With more certainty sponsors might look to get involved, but still not enough to come up with that level of money. e.g., get a guarantee of five games (before he could exercise an outclause) and it's still only half the insurance cost alone if you sell the place out.

And assuming Ballinger is the one that sits out for a bit, we'd also be paying top-dollar for him to be inactive.

Maybe it was clever planning by the Sixers to delay Balls' surgery. Get the Bogey man in on an injury waiver.

If he fills in for Balls, can he fill in for other injured players under NBL rules? or does Balls need surgery every so many weeks?

Anon, depends what went down. If the insurance cost didn't count against the cap (wonder if there's precedent there?) and Bogut was willing to play for Ballinger's salary, and Ballinger did make a recovery during that period, I think it's a slightly different case than Corletto (who's not injured and obviously not an expensive player).

Different case if Ballinger made a recovery and was itching to get back in there.

Remember that people have had different issues with the Mills-Tigers scenario. Some are upset about Corletto being deactivated, some about this great advantage going to a team that doesn't have the stadium to capitalise on the opportunity, etc.

Be good if ya could get AAMI for a bitta sponsorship.
Most likely , Ballinger will be sitting for a bit, anyway.

Would it have to be Ballinger didn't we have 10 points left before signing Halliwell?

The Breakers are backing away now!
They realized that by paying Bogut's insurance premium, he will be free to play for Australia in the FIBA qualifers.

And considering a large proportion of Breakers guys are involved with the TB's, they wouldn't have wanted that (Penney, Abercrombie, Webster, Pledger, Boucher-assit coach, Vukona, BJ Anthony)

As funny as it sounds, I think Basketball Australia would supply the Breakers with money to pay for a proportion of Bogut's insurance, even if it meant he would play for the NZ Breakers!
They would realise the importance of getting him for the Oceania series, and perhaps they would recognise Bogut playing for Australia outweighs the fact that NZ could have an unbelievable team.

MACDUB, any team that got Bogut would have an awesome team not just NZ.

I think we did have 10points left before signing Helliwell. But, Ballinger is injured.

Big Sexy, if Bogut wanted to play for Helliwell's salary, maybe.

Bogut playing would get me back to see some 6ers games!

Bogut pretty much said he just wants the insurance. Sixers should really pull every string possible to get him. And if bogut signs, that could mean more people like wes matthews might think about playing here.

What is ballinger getting paid? 150-200k?

Yeah would be good, but would have to be pushing both caps wouldn't we? Seems dodgy to bag the Tigers when they do it, but cheer for the Sixers when we do it.

If all is above board, would love to see the Bogey man down here..

I reckon BA will pay the insurance, so he can play for Australia. Since Spain fielded an all NBA team, i think they are now seriously considering it.

I dont think Bogut requires much salary. When West Sydney went broke, didnt Andrew pay the salaries of the Australian players for that last half of the season? I dont think Andrew will pay Adam's salary, but i dont think he wants much salary. Whatever we could offer would be token money for him anyways.

what he wants is good facilities and good doctors and trainers and phyios.... the NBA have locked their doors to all their training facilities, their doctors their trainers....
Andrew wants to get his shoulder and arm 100%, and he needs facilities and competition, any competition.. to do that.
And part of that is getting that insurance paid by someone.

Insurance to cover his salary is one thing but how would he feel if he got injured again and that was the end of his NBA career?

If he did get injured I don't think the Bucks would wait it out, they would just let the insurance pay out the cash and move on.

I still think if he wants to help basketball in Australia he should get involved with ONE and other ways to promote the game.

How about Bogut's half time show? Tour around the league? Show some highlights, have a 3on3 friendly against some local kids, run a dunk comp with local players? Better than the crap we get at half time at challenge..
I remember several years ago Perth played one of their home games at the larger Burswood Dome and had and1 players before and alot of people turned out for that. Surely Bogut has more pulling power than the and1 mixtape gang.. So a similar thing?

Or get him into a team and give them an unfair advantage, until the lockouts over and then leave them with a giant gaping hole......

Agree Big Sexy that any team with him would be strong.

What about Dr Ng? Surely he could help Bogut out if he joined the 36ers

Another thought, there is not a doubt in my mind that Bogut would have a bigger impact on ticket sales, promotion, etc for the league than Mills if any team did pick him up.

Maybe Melbourne can deactivate another player and renegotiate some more salaries to make this happen..........

I dont like this from the sixers i mean the mans a beast but marty clarke has been all about getting the processe's right and building an identity for his team.

the nbl is such a different league and game style to the nba . we saw that in the cairns vs american all stars game the other night, nbl is so much more uptempo.

Bringing in someone like Bogut would change the whole game style. You wouldnt be able to play the quick press up and back game. because you a have a lumbering 7 footer who usually is just strolling his way through an 82 game season.

I dont see bogut adapting very quickly and i dont see any huge benefits for the sixers game plan and future.

the only immediate benfit being bums on seats and maybe a few extra sponsors.

patty mills is diffferent because he can adapt to the uptempo.

He should and i think will go to europe, where big guys are necessary .

SO: If a team pays for Bogut's insurance at $500000 and he plays 1 game before the NBA announces it's lockout is over, is there any kind of refund etc or is that money lost?

Money lost I believe. That is why I don't really see the point. I'd piss myself laughing if Mills only got 3-4 games in for Melbourne lol.

IMO the league will benefit greatly from him just being involved. I believe that Bogut will be acting at an assistant in the upcoming Boomers Tour and I see a club in gainging huge benefits both on and off court from having him involved in a similar capacity.

Imagine having Bogut working with Dan Johnson day in day out, learning from him, possibly even training against him.? Plus having Bogut in and around the team would have the media buzzing with excitement and all the 'A Listers' (cough cough) wanting to be involved with the team, coming to games etc. The profile lift would be huge.

Jacob at the end of the day there's 5 on the court for each side & the ball has to be put in the hole. If you get to philosophical with it you'll end up like our national coach! The big contracted players move at a tempo to allow them to play 100 games a year - a lot of which are back to back. Bogut im sure could play up tempo knowing he has all week off to recover.

Surely teams could make this work financially.

If you split 500k up among several sponsors..say 10, thats only 50k each. And there is a possibility that the profits from his appearance could be multitudinous. So sponsors could stand to make a bit of money from it.

The only problem would be,at this stage of the pre-season, trying to fit Bogut in on teams points cap/salary cap.

Yeah,I was meaning generally speaking, not just the 36ers.

Most teams have their full teams set or only require 1 or so more player, hence those teams don't have the points/salary to sign Bogut.

The 36ers certainly have a way around that, and although im not a 36er fan, I would absolutely love it if they signed him.
All of sudden, theyd be my 2nd favourite team and I would follow them with extreme interest!

Surely the insurance premimum would be pro rated like all other forms of insurance.

Maybe the club can ask a big insuer AMMI, CGU, SGIC to come to the table for a promotion?

Jake, I asked in a different thread if you had to pay the whole $500,000 up front, or if there was a monthly fee. If it was a monthly fee of $85,000 teams might not be so scared to look at it.

That's a tricky position for clubs - do we help make an opposition team very strong by ponying up some dough to help the league? Dammed if you do & dammed if u don't!!

Get real, its in the best interest of the NBL for media coverage reasons he plays for the Kings.

Only city with the money to get the sponsorship money.

Can anyone tell me how rehabilition for Shawn Redhage is progressing? What's the likelihood he could be placed on injury waivers?

Are people serious about the $500K insurance counting under the salary cap? I have no idea about that but cannot see how that is possible. Its not money paid to a player to play, its money insuring his health. Also what period of time does $500K cover him for? All my insurance policies are paid in monthly installments. Wouldn't you insure him for a small period of time at a time and cancel it as soon as you don't need it.

We could ask Adelaide Uni to pay the insurance considering Flinders has helped us out in the past.

Agree with FM given!!!!

Maybe Eddy can re mortgage the Arena / Dome

All i want to say is bring on the 2011-2012 season, Just having Patty Mills in the league & hopefully being able to see him play in Adelaide against the sixers would be freaken awesome.
Yeah Bogut would be awesome to the league but lets stop dreaming, if it happens it happenes.

Lets go SIXERS

All it would really take is a few extra hundred dollars out of 36ers and Australia's pockets, then get Nike or whoever to cover rest on sponsorship (he's sponsored by them already) as a NBL sponsor and whatever else they would want to make it happen. Would be a boost to everyone as far as business goes in the near future and possibly for some time down the track

Who ever mentioned about our team doctor, he is no longer with us (i think he's the boomers doc now) we have a new Doctor as far as Ive heard...

Sydney the only city with enough money to pay for the sponsorship : Ace

you are dreaming, it's only half a mill for the insurance. Owners of the Breakers could pay that out of their petty cash yet they wouldn't have to with sponsors such as Sky City, Burger King and Bartercard and plenty more contributors behind the scenes. Hell basketball NZ pissed way more cash away holding the Under 21 world champs here for no reward.

Plenty of people could come up with that cash, it just depends if they see it as value for money or flushing it.

Twitter is telling us that Bogut is meeting with the Wildcats, whose owner would definitely have the money to make this happen. Bogut, Knight, Martin and Robbins would reunite from their U19 world championship in 2003.

Bogut at the Wildcats, damn! Not like they weren't a tough team already but if they can get him they will be very well balanced and I would put them well above Melbourne in terms of championship favorites.

The Sixers are getting a reputation for saying that they will go after someone, and then will get criticised when they fail to seal the deal.

It is a bit of a no win situation, and I think it is probably driven a lot by Boti. I can imagine the interview now.

Boti: 'So Bogut has said he might play in the NBL, are you going to target him?'

Marty: 'We'll make contact with him of course'

Then you get an article in the Advertiser the next day. Same conversation about Mills, Newley, Ingles, Ervin etc and eventually the Sixers start looking like they cannot close the deal.

That said, don't know what else Marty/the Sixers can do. Responding by saying, 'Nah, Bogut is out of our league' would attract even more criticism. It is a no win situation.

XY makes a very good point of the facts there.

Seems insurance for $36M @ $500,000 for 3 months
is the requirement.
He's meeting with Perth owners about that , today
I believe,

Nike won't pay. Basketball isn't a focus for them in Australia. Doesn't generate enough money to be worthwhile to help cover the insurance.

Ingles did tweet that if he were to return to the NBL he would want to play for Marty, said he is a great coach.

Not really on topic but thought I would just throw that in there! :-)

Bogut Contacted Bevo, will play for Bevo/Wildcats for Free if his insurance is covered.

Pocket change for Bendat. Bendat wants another Championship, No one could guard Bogut in the NBL, he would be 30 & 30 every game if he didnt get in foul trouble.

If he is going to play in NBL, it will be in Perth & we should have a answer soon.

It would take some very good team defence to keep him below 30, that's for sure. Let's hope it happens. Full credit to Bogut if all this is true, as well as Mills, could easily have chased coin but will be providing a massive boost to Australian basketball if they hit the court.

If Bogut gets his insurance covered and goes to Perth, does that make him eligible to play for Boomers vs NZ?

yup kr.

Re: Bogut scoring 30 and 30

just like against NZ Tallblacks lol (who most of their players play for the Breakers). You guys sure do put your players on a silver platter don't you.

Not that it would happen.. but who would become "injured" to let Bogut in for Wildcats?

Doubt they will want to hinder Redhage's recovery process.. maybe Matty?

Even if he does play for free, the points cap will have to still be adhered to?

They have a few points to spare don't they? They have a lot of guys on old ratings at the moment. I think 'de-activating’ Trueman would be enough to create space, does anyone have the numbers handy?

According to the NBL guide they have used 70, but that doesnt take into account existing contracts under a lower points amount.

KNIGHT, Matthew 9
TRUEMAN, Jeremiah 5
TOVEY, Cameron 7
REDHAGE, Shawn 10
WAGSTAFF, Jesse 7
HIRE, Greg 3
WILLIAMSON, Drew 5
MARTIN, Damian 9
LISCH, Kevin * 9
ROBBINS, Brad 6

I think of them Trueman, Martin, Robbins, Wagstaff and maybe Tovey are lower, but that is off the top of my head. I think Wagstaff is still a 3 though as per his rookie contract, so that has them at 66 plus the other reductions.

So that would indicate Trueman would be enough, and maybe even Hire.

If they can simply drop Trueman or Hire and add Bogut that team is looking scary. I assume he is chosing Perth due to his relationship with Bevo, he coached the 2003 Emus didnt he.

Imagine coming up against

Bogut/Trueman or Hire
Knight/Wagstaff
Redhage/Tovey
Lisch/Williamson
Martin/Robbins

Championship favs for sure, size, outside shooting, depth, inside and outside defense.

How likely is Bogut to play NBL if Bendat puts up the insurance $$, would he then also be able to play for the Boomers?

Relating to Red's post about "bogut would play for free'. I have no doubt he would consider this as the money would be pointless to him.

But I don't see how he would be allowed to play for free by the NBL/NBL Players Assoc. He would have to at least a "minimum salary' attributed to him wouldn't he?

Taking that a step further, is there any kind of level of salary that can be associated with a player (along the line of the points system??).

In it's simplest form, I'm asking would Michael Jordan be permitted to play for the NBL minimum salary if he wanted to? Or is there some criteria....

ask Patty Mills

,a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/-/sport/10171034/wildcats-launch-bold-bid-for-bogut/">Another Article re Wildcats and Bogut deal

Another Article re Wildcats and Bogut deal

OAMPS is a major sponsor of the NBL... #justsayin

Wildcats have activated Luke Neville for a pre season game tonight.
This plus Bogut talk suggests Matt Knight may be worse than what they are letting on.

BJF, Knight played in the pre season game last weekend

AndrewMBogut Andrew Bogut
I can confirm I am in talks with SEVERAL @NBL clubs. A long way to go yet though....Stay tuned kiddies!

You heard it here first

Bogut will monster this league to a new level. KYjelly FTW

A bit off-topic but I can't help but be excited by Kyrie Irving playing for Aus.

I'm not sure if this was posted, but he tweeted this

"Cleveland/Australia/Jersey/Durham..... yup yup"

(August 26)

I just find that his game is very elegant, it might sound weird but he just plays so elegantly it seems!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPP7pf2Ng3s