F - His refusal to stop running the shuffle for even a little amount of game time really hurts the Kings, and wastes their individual talent.

- His subs are awful, he plays his starters for way too long and has no trust in the bench.

- He calls timeouts way too late. Teams will go on serious runs that can be hard to come back from before doing anything or making any changes.

Overall, he's a shit coach.

As Newley, Lisch and Cadee went, so too did Gaze
Lisch and Cadee are inconsistent and erratic esp. after honeymoon run at start of season. I remember Lisch won them some games early in the season with "Goulding like" plays.
He can't and you could not expect him "like Goulding" to repeat all the time.

Newley has been their only consistent player and when he went down so too did Sydney's fortunes.
Withington, Powell, Maric have underperformed. They have been OK role players without being able to carry the team.

They have gone the 2nd half of the season without a transition game and rarely go early in the shot clock.
Teams pressured their back court (only Cadee and Lisch), they hardly ever attacked the press for easy buckets so left in the half court the 24 sec clock put them under even more pressure. Usually a bad shot results adding to a poor shooting %.
Fouls have also hurt them with key players sitting for lengthy spells.

Gaze has a good feel for the game. I suppose he was responsible for assembling his roster and if so, then he did a poor job. But as with all coaches you make do with what you have got. Same applied to Lemanis and Brisbane.

We would not have been having this post if Gaze had brought in a Casper or a Dillard or a Cotton instead of or post Blake.
They were leaders early in the season, but bar went up mid season and half the pack went straight past Sydney. Hard to win games when you aren't as good as the opposition. Just look at the Breakers and Perth, pre Cotton.

I'd give him a C. Season 1 was always going to be a learning one for him considering his previous (lack of) experience.
Next season is the true test for him IMO. His planning and recruiting will be much more defined now.

Definitely an F. Sure, he personally is lacking experience but his coaching panel isn't and for that reason he gets the lowest grade because he either isn't utilizing them properly or is just ignoring them.

I'll rate him an E at this point. Season is almost over but he has 5 games to make minimal improvement. To his credit, I did notice some small improvements in the last 2 games. That and coupled with the fact that he came in as coach in April with some inherited wooden spooners players saved him from getting an F.

On the court, choice of a complex motion offense for a new roster and coaching staff with a somewhat shortened off-season is questionable. Suitability of said offense to available personnel is also questionable. Made some minor adjustment in past few games but the offense still lacking major capabilities: dribble penetration, low post and transition. Substitution and foul management strategy is poor, did show small improvement past couple of games but too little too late.

Off the court, player development looks to be poor. Hill, Prewster and Harding showed little improvement over the season reflected by the lack of on-court minutes. Moller showed minimal improvement but more focus on developing younger players is required, particularly if McDowell-White commits to staying.

Gaze's ability to inspire and instill discipline looks to be questionable as well. Whittington, Powell and Garlepp didn't show much desire to put their bodies on the line for defense save for one particular game when they had 10 blocks. Powell's brain implosions showed major lack of discipline that have cost the team a couple of games and Gaze seems unwilling to dole out punishments to stamp out the crap.

The only area where Gaze shined in his first year is media. As a nice player coach with much heralded history, he may have higher than average ability to attract/steal good players from other team next season.

D- His subbing patterns are terrible and his offensive scheme is terrible.

My biggest problem is his demeanour. Yeah we all know he's goofy Drewy with the big smile and all that shit, but he's just atrocious on the sidelines. When things are going well he's all fist pumps and high fives, but the second something goes wrong he's arms crossed, bottom lip pouting, siting on his arse doing nothing while the walls crumble around him. Players feed on that shit. "Coach has given up so I guess we're screwed". He doesn't ever seem to have a Plan B.

Hopefully some experience may change those things, but the very best coaches are generally stable whatever the game situation.

D, but I'm confident that he'll get better.

I think he was a GREAT choice in order to get the Sydney public's attention, given the impossibility of getting a big-name experienced coach that Joe Public would have heard of.

I'm not an expert on the X's and O's but I can certainly feel when the game isn't working, which has been too often. Too much reliance on too few to do too much. Others have said enough in this area.

He had a good squad and coaching staff available ON PAPER, but they seem to have reached their limit under the current structure. Either the structure and game plan need to change, or the players' attitudes SOMEHOW, or a number of the players. Again, 'nuff said.

C- Dean Vickerman has to share equal blame with Gaze. Vickerman is a head coach, and the whole set-up I think anyway was for Vickerman to run the technical side/plan the plays and Gaze to be the figurehead-face of the club and probably match day coach(under the guidance of Vickerman's game plans).
Well this hasn't worked it seems as Vickerman is probably confused in his role as he's used to talking at time outs to.
Magic Johnson at the Lakers had a short stint as coach, it wasn't so bad but he needed more time. Gaze is doing an apperentship at SEABL level(head coaching Melbourne Tigers), maybe if he truly wants to be a head coach badly at NBL level he should do an assistant role at this level first(do the hard yards like Copland is doing etc).
Blake to me was fine and bringing a lot to the team, he was a good defender and had heaps of basketball IQ that he gave to the team(Gaze said at training Blake was a massive help for the guys).
But losing Julian Kazzah all season/Blake/and now Newley clearly has hurt the team's balance.
Either way next year there will be roster changes. I imagine the side will suit up with 4 guards per match, and 2 Centre specialists(they would have this year with the Zoo and Maric but the Zoo was injured). I'd keep Gaze for 1 more year, but changes have to be made. He has a 3 year contract but if he stuffs up next season, he should be booted.

I don't want to focus just on Gaze here, as it is the management AND the coaching panel working together & who knows, the Kings may still make the playoffs? Though I'm not betting on that : )

Coaches by rank.

A Bevo - gets the best out of what he's got. Players buy in to his system and love playing for him. AND he adapts & changes game plans, starters, etc. When required.

A Joey Wright - Almost on par with Bevo, only reason I rate Bevo ahead of him is because Bevo gets the best out of all 11 players & gives everyone a role.

B Aaron Ferne - Similar to Bevo, does the best with what he's got & somehow Cairns compete in every game. I would like to see more green light for transition & fast break okay though.

B Gleeson - not always well liked. But gets results.

C Henare - I think Henare has been blessed with some good fortune of late to make up for the horrendous injury toll, so tough to judge this one.

D DD, Lemanis & Gaze all in the same boat. Every club has had injury or import dramas, yet these 3 should have done better with the squads & resources available to them.

I can't rate any of these guys lower than a D because hey, they're NBL coaches which is on a better pay scale than me : )

I'd give gaze a C- and the actual management team led JVG a F.

Gazes refusal to bench Maric and Cadee has effectively cost us the season, as both can be considered lucky to be paid to play basketball.

How JVG and management came to the conclusion that signing Jackson over guys like Ware/Dillard/cotton is beyond me.

Our defensive disciplines are SEABL level.

I'll give Gaze a D at this point due to his inability to switch up his strategy. The Kings came out and ran a few non-shuffle things early in the game last night, but then went away from it after we missed on a couple of easy ones around the hoop. His substitutions since the slide began basically feel like injecting one of Moller/Hill/Prewster for a few minutes and just hoping for the best.

Garrett Jackson is definatley an NBL standard player. Just it's more a case of whether he is good enough to be an NBL standard import "out of a team choice of 3". More NBL imports now are being solid role players.
Garrett Jackson is a victim of coming in mid-season into a squad that is unbalanced, and to many forwards. I think he is a decent NBL player who will get a start somewhere next season. He's signed up for another season of SEABL in 2017.

I think the ultimate test still awaits in the finals, but so far COTY would have to go to Joey.

Gaze, yeah, it looks like an F.
He failed to maximise the potential of his squad, he rode Lisch and Newly into the ground, and has not developed any stability for the PG role.
Look at any other team, you know who the General is.
Does anybody know who Sydney's PG is? Do they actually have one? Is it Lisch, is it Cadee, is it an import.

That last point is a big one... It seems like 80% of NBL fans rate Cadee as a back guard at best, yet he's been glorified for Sydney, plays big minutes, is a liability on D & of he isn't hitting 3s or milking fouls to get to the ft line, his output is counterproductive.

I think that more than any other factor has hindered Gaze's chance to lead the team to glory.

Gleeson gets F for flog.

Interesting point by Dazz re: riding his big 3 into the ground.

Lindsay, although a legend, relied heavily on Gaze and Copeland to play 40+ minutes every game.

The pace of the game has changed and you just cant do that week in, week out anymore.

The old Tigers teams also did a poor job of developing younger players by never giving them enough minutes.

That's the reason Daniel Johnson left for Adelaide...

Gazey is my basketball hero but he does need to improve his demeanor as mentioned above. It has turned into a bit of a side show when s%$t hits the fan.

Come to think of it, Gaze might argue that he IS developing Cadee by giving him all that minutes...

Personally I don't have as much going against Cadee other than his inconsistency and lack of aggressiveness. He is a tough one to judge because his level of play is somewhere between a starter and a 6th man.

Partnering him with Lisch makes Sydney's backcourt looks very lightweight and undersized as well, so even if he merits a starter position, its not desirable to have him and Lisch on the floor together. If you can only pick one, you and I know who should get it. I doubt he'd be happy to go back to the bench next season though if they do decide to get an import guard.

A Bevo - gets the best out of what he's got. Players buy in to his system and love playing for him. AND he adapts & changes game plans, starters, etc. When required.

BEVO! With all the great players he has, he should of won more championships. How many has he won??????

He's won championships in 100% of seasons where Damian Martin and Shawn Redhage were both healthy in the grand final series.

How many years has BEVO coached in the NBL? Had a great team last year what happen??

How many championship has Bevo won?

The Hawks roster last year as overrated. Outside of their big 3, they had nothing. They had both Demos and White as their guards coming off the bench, the team had no depth.

Back to Gaze, he really needs to quit with the shuffle, it's not working and it looks easy to guard because it's usually just a bunch of perimeter passes leading too a poor shot.

So many good PG's in the league yet the Kings don't even have 1 legit PG on their roster, and that is one of the biggest reasons why they're doing so poorly.

JVG should certainly look inside the league in terms of getting new imports next year as he's clearly got no idea how to scout imports who haven't already played down under.

Whittington has been the only decent import, and even he has had some personal problems...

Where were you anti Cadee muppets in the first part of the season?
Love the hindsight cheap shots this forum loves to deliver.Not!

@ ThunderJam; for what it's worth, I've been against Cadee as a starter stretching back to last season. When he's hot it's great, but when he's off... it's not pretty to watch. He has the annoying habit of throwing up contested "heat checks" early in the shot clock from a foot or two behind the arc that more than a handful of times this season have come at real inopportune moments and led to fast breaks & opposition runs.