Not hear to beat up on Adelaide, they are one franchise I have a huge amount of respect for.
But I think the first issue you need to look at is Joey.
He inherited a team and took it to a GF. So he's clearly a decent coach, and a big improvement on his predecessor.
However, over the next few years, as players came out of contract, he got the opportunity to shape the team he wanted.
And it has gone backwards. WTF?
IMHO that's the first question you need to answer.
Teams can have good and bad patches, and a game here or there can change your fortunes. But IMHO this has been a steady progression backwards.
The NBL is pretty much open slather, and you can change-out your entire squad in 2~3 years max. So there's really no point in going nuts trying to develop youth.
Joey telegraphed his bargain-basement strategy for the remaining imports, after re-signing Randle, but it still leaves me scratching my head.
Ferguson I know has been debated to death, but I still don't get it.
I don't know what anyone is getting paid, but posters seem to speculate that some of these youngsters are getting paid well, which just leaves me puzzled.
Obviously there's a place for young, emerging talent. They're cheap and can play some useful minutes off the bench. But Joey seems to have stacked his team.
This may be grossly over-simplifying things, but it seems to me that Joey would make a great College coach? Like it or not, the NBL is a relatively tough defensive league. The Cats have made their way to 4 of the last 5 GFs, mostly by grinding their opponents down. Too many of his players just aren't up to the bump & grind.