I agree re the lack of ball movement and defense, and alot of this would have to be Joeys responsibility to fix.
Unfortunately these things are not the biggest strengths of Randle and DJ who are our big money players, so to cover this they have to score heavily, like 50 points between them for us to have much chance to win games, Randle also has to get around the 5 assist mark, so there is at least some ball movement, imo in his better games last season he moved the ball more
I think we need to use Randle as the Maher type SG and get a Darnell Mee type pg who defends and moves the ball, would give us more offensive flow imo.
I think Drmic can play, but how is he going to get any rhythm or score much when he gets zero offense run for him and only gets like 2 shots, he isnt selfish so doesnt force it, which is good, he competes hard imo, so im ok with him, i always wonder how good he would look in a offense similar to how Smyth used to use Darren Bg, i think we would think a lot more of him in that case.
Ferguson too, he would look even better with more ball movement, i personally think we should play him 30+ minutes a game, treat him like he is our chris goulding ie get him the ball and plenty of shots and see what he can do, he can flat out shoot, and seems to have a decent basketball iq and not a ball hog, so i think this would help us win more, not the other way round and be fun to watch the kid play.
Majok Deng needs to play too, see if we can develop him to the NBL's Garnett or something.
If we are not going to make the playoffs these things would make the season worth while and fun to watch imo.
Im not down on these guys as a result of the losses, its the lack of structure and utilizing some guys strengths that concerns me more.
If we had all the processes going well and could see the structure they were trying to achieve at both ends then id be fine with it win/lose, cos we have one of the youngest and cheapest rosters in the NBL, given the value and depth of Melbournes roster they should beat us, so not concerned by that, the lack of ball movement and obvious structures is a bit concerning imo, that is what i want joey to fix, and if these guys cant get it done, then he needs to recruit some different mold of players, ie a bigger bodied, pass first pg, a centre who is a big body, controls the paint at both ends, even if its a Jervis/Brandt type if the Ogilvy/Jawai types are not gettable. Given the money we are said to be paying Randle and DJ, i dont think it would have been completely impossible to sign someone like Ced Jackson and have a crack at someone like Ogilvy or Brandt or Jervis. As score first pg/c who are not strong and not good defenders dont typically win championships no matter how good at offense they are.
Only 3 games in, so things will likely get better, in 6 weeks they will look twice as good, but many of these issues are not new to the 36ers.