... and avoid the possibility of this happening again

Brilliant clip.

I actually hope the 'Cats continue to win so there aren't any roster changes made, because I don't think they're good enough to win the championship

I feel like Tokoto will cool down throughout the season and teams will learn how to lock him up

Anyone else notice that waxy walker is having a few brain fades lately?

Lucas Waxy?

Lucas "waxy" walker

Slugfest. Edge to Perth at the moment, they are getting way too many drives to the hoop. Cotton still up Perth's sleeve and will have his say in P4.
Breaker need Abercrombie to step up. Pledge carrying the team so far.
Evens on boards.
FT woes continue for Breakers.

Reffing is a disgrace four fouls on Brandt maybe one was there

Man... just because you're too thick to look outside your own little box, you assume others are nonsensical. Textbook sheep. How do you go picking up things like allusion, allegory, metaphor etc?

Reason I said that is because I hear Homicide refer to him as only 'Lucas Waxy. Earlier this quarter was the first time I heard otherwise.

I feel like Hire has gotten to the point where he is a wasted roster spot, doesn't appear to offer as much as he used to, which to be honest, wasn't a lot apart from rebounding and hustle.

I don't think relying on hustle and tough-shot-making is enough to get Perth a championship this year. It kinda was last season but they don't have as much creativity off the dribble this time

Hustle? I'm not seeing much Hustle, if Perth defend the pick and roll that poorly they won't win much. If NZ get away with this much they will sweep the season from here

Same dude going after me on multiple threads without a moniker... pathetic. But if you have an insightful response, hit me back. Go!

Hustle is the only thing keeping them in the game rn, J

You dismiss the validity of all my points because I don't like the 'Cats. Good you're a sheep. Done with you man.

Oh Ili. Baby!

I keep waiting for Shea Ili to crash back down to earth, but doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.

God*

I fear the 'Cats will replace Cooke very soon.

Ili just dominated the last 40 seconds of this game.

Agree re: Cooke, will be replaced. It's quite evident he picked up basketball later in life.

Shea Ili should have been receiving all the attention Kyle Adnam's been thrown.

If you move off the ball that makes passes easier and spreads the floor. It's what you've got to do against Perth or they'll smother you. Blueprint game

Looking forward to the Perth roster changes tomorrow morning @ 9am.

Cairns the other big Losers today I expected that but Perth loss was a shock.
Win or lose Cooke needs to go and Brandt needs to go back to bench with new big starting.

How good this Breakers team could be if we could actually make free throws.

And Shea Ili. No words.

This NZ team has all bases covered. Tough defensively they can score in a variety of ways and have a strong bench. So impressive!

that's six games NZ has won by 6 points or less. They're good at closing out close ones.

That result also means every team has now lost at home and NZ are still yet to lose on the road.

Nz played great. Nz has had the calls go their way in two close games in a row now. Some disgraceful officiating, I thought it really hurt the cats again. Maybe not as much as their pick and roll d, but the foul trouble and some phantom calls that send Nz to the line was painful to watch. Especially when Nz didn't seem to be getting called for the same stuff and appeared to be playing a more physical style of ball. Exhibit A for Perth not getting home cooking!

Agree. Jr does need to go. He looked lost the whole game.

McKay announcement in 12 hours?

I do feel the reffing was too harsh for both sides. Let the game flow.

Just my $0.05

Agree that they need a big rebounding center. J i dont think the reffing would have made much of a difference to the result. NZ had perths measure in all areas for most of the night. Cats had too many passengers and their defense looks a shadow of what it used to be.

Wow, I stand corrected on NZ

Didn't think Newbill would be this good. Ili obviously taking big steps forward

Kirk Penney is like 41 years old and is shooting like 75% from 3 this season (or whatever), whatta legend

Kudos NZ. I promise to now pay you the attention you thoroughly deserve

"Also thinking Martins contribution not as evident as before, maybe age starting to catch-up. With his poor scoring input he has to really excel on the defense or its just 4 v 5 on the scoring side."

Martin had 7 assists, no turnovers and 3 offensive rebounds tonight. That's a very strong offensive contribution. It's strange how many can't see how important he is to the Cats offence after all these years.

Add that to the fact he subdued Sosa two games in a row and he's going as strong as ever, albeit in a slightly different style than when he was young.

Must have been Chris Reid's fault. Just ask Koberulz

Cats lose. J complains about the reffing.

Cats win........

Set you clock by it.

Reffing was harsh, a lot of soft calls, but it wasn't biased. If anything Cats possibly faired slightly better. Problem was that losing Brandt (to high fouls then injury) hurt us a lot more than losing Loe hurt NZ.

Apart form the injury to Brandt, I actually enjoyed the game. The rivalry between these two teams is intense and they never fail to disappoint.
I prefer to see us win at home, but you can't always get what you want.
Enjoyed watching that far more than what Gaze served up.

Steindl joined the team yesterday, he'll see more minutes in future games.

Gleeson said he was unhappy with the way he used Stiendl

Reffing wasn't great, fact. I also stated our pick and roll defence was what really cost us. But that's ok ftsos.

God damn ... how good were the Breakers tonight! :O
That was just clinical. Only reason it was close was their atrocious free throw shooting.
Credit to the cats for hanging around despite not much dropping for us, but at the same time it never really felt like an even contest.

Henare putting the faith in Ili down the stretch and getting rewarded big time.

TG may not have been happy with the way he used Steindl, but I always figured anything we got out of him today would be a bonus anyway.
Bugger of a game to not be able to call on Matty Knight.
I don't think McKay is the answer though. I really don't see him as much different to Cooke.

As for the reffing, it felt to me like we got as many as we copped. These 2 NZ-PER games struck me as tough ones to officiate.

For multiple reasons, I am glad Knight retired

Rotations were baffling, breakers = clutch! Feels like last season, just got one piece missing.

Tokoto, is better than I thought and still feel like everyone expects cotton to hit every shot.

Perimeter shooting has been our down fall for a while and having two players that a capable are warming the bench, I don't understand.

Still in good shape, all depends how you finish the season not how you start it.

Congrats on mika vukona, probably spelt it wrong been a player you love to hate but admire he goes hard every night.

Great win in a tough enviroment.
loving Pledgers form at the moment

The reffing was bad today but moreso it felt like any chance of gaining momentum was nixed by strange calls but New Zealand were absolutely clutch.

I said to the person next to me that I don't rate Newbill, he looks too fat, short, slow whatever but he is always contributing and I looked at his stats at half time and he was killing us. Ili is a better player than Sosa and we will continue seeing that throughout the season.

I don't normally hang shit on Trevor Gleeson but he got out coached tonight and can anybody on this site explain to me why when the Wildcats are in the bonus why we have (I can't recall the bigs) Kenny, Martin and Hire on the court at the same time... Cotton and Tokoto should be on and trying to get to the free throw line, that Adelaide vs Illawarra game showed how critical getting to the charity stripe is and we simply won't without natural penetrators. Also late in game with game on the line, if there is a Wildcats fan in the stadium happy to see Hire on and leaving both DKD and Steindl on the bench then I can't understand why as that was beyond rediculous and we just can't trust Hire. Also to add to that, can Kenny get the flu or something and we can play Mason Bragg, that kid can get to the hoop and is ideal in the bonus.

As for potential imports, I'd love a Markell Gladness to join us but we don't have the talent to compete even with him and need someone with more low post moves and we NEED someone to replace Matty Knight's talk on defence as that felt sadly missed.

Lastly so Knight is part of the red army for years and turns up to the game and gets cheered wearing an olive green shirt, I wonder if that pissed off some Wildcats staff

Kudos to Pauli Henare for his recruiting, use of veterans and game calls.
Penney and Vukona have been sensational this past month after starting the season almost washed up.
Shea Ili has been a revelation and now entrusted with closing games out because he is fearless taking the ball to the hoop. His 15 foot J has become very reliable and a good go to option for him.
Newbill fantastic. My only knock on him he is careless at the point and exposes the ball too much. That aside what a well rounded player who does not mind "D"ing it up, something a lot of imports aren't prepared to do.
Pledge is in tremendous form, one of the few bigs who can take and hit the 15' J without hesitation.
Sosa I am not taken with except for his passing.He has got the ugliest jump shot i have seen but he hits enough to defy form and looks.
Abercrombie not as prominent as at start of season but hits enough wide open 3's to contribute.
Rob Loe is an enigma and thank god we don't have to rely on him except for his 5 fouls.
All in all though hats off to the best team in the competition at the moment.

Breakers were not highly fancied by many of us after the pre-season and recruiting either. Doing with with an import spot unused, unless I've forgotten someone.

I also don't think Perth are in trouble but I do think an import change is needed.

I would swap Cooke for an import power forward/ centre. Send Walker to the bench and if Brandt gets in foul trouble the import could play centre with Walker or Wagstaff at 4 spot.

Steindl should see more minutes this time with settling in and I lol forward to the scoring punch he gives the second unit.

Need someone of Josh Boone level.

* look forward.

Jameel McKay on Twitter after last nights game "Bring me home"

Still lists himself as a Wildcat too.....personally wouldn't hate the move if the Cats brought in McKay as a more polished 5 to back up Brandt.

Cooke Jnr seems like a great guy and all but this is pro hoops so if Perth can improve they should.

I would've taken McKay before Knight went down, but I'm not sure he's the type we need now.

It's not a rumour that Cotton is on $600K is was written by a journo in a Daily Telegraph article the other day about the Kings signing of Randle.

It specifically mentioned in the article that the Kings are paying Randle $400K for the rest of the season but that doesn't compared to the highest paid being Cotton on $600K at Perth.

I love how anons say oh $600K is a rumour then when you ask them what he is paid they reply with "Who knows?" Why even contribute to this forum with that sort of garbage?

If you take what a journo writes as gospel then contact me, I have stuff for sale at cheap prices.

Here we are.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/basketball/sydney-kings-sign-jerome-randle-jeremy-tyler-in-bid-to-save-season/news-story/13a688ca2ab9671fd18bf90e64b24097

The only issue I would take with that is it was rumoured that to lure David Andersen back from Europe Melb Utd gave him a 2 year deal worth $500-$600K a year. So if true not sure how this would make Randle the second highest paid behind only Cotton.

Andersen obviously being worth no where near that may have renegotiated with Melb in the offseason to take a pay cut I doubt it or perhaps those initial rumours at the time of his signing were wrong.

FWIW, Boti also reported that Goulding is on $400K a year at Melb United.

"Rakeem Christmas just became available after parting ways with his Turkish team." doubt he will be cheap

I think people would be surprised about how often anon posts about salaries (statements rather than guesses) are likely to be fairly accurate. Word gets out very quickly, especially when the number is notable (either high or low). Examples of high: Cotton, Randle, Lisch, Goulding, etc. Of low: what the Blaze got Deleon and Hudson for, etc.

FWIW, from separate solid sources re Randle, I heard $400k and $20k/game. Kings have 20 games still to come, though I don't know which ones Randle is expected to play.

Obviously, anyone is allowed to play the "I won't believe it until the ATO verify" game - go your hardest.

I think people would be surprised about how often anon posts about salaries (statements rather than guesses) are likely to be fairly accurate.

He's not saying 'that figure is wrong', he's saying 'there is no reliable basis for that figure'.

Also $30k/game is well over $800k.

Anons, by nature of being anons, have no inherent credibility. It's also something about which it's pretty easy to simply make something up. There are quite often wildly different numbers floating around for the same player.

Just a theory....but I actually think that Perth have someone lined up to replace Cooke already. Cooke is just a fill in and was always signed as insurance for Knight until later in the season when they could get a better import.

They will most likely release him during the break for the Boomers qualifier giving some time for the new import to get cleared and gel with the team.

They will get considerably more bang for their buck by signing a gun import on a 3-4 month contract as opposed to 6-7 months. Probably cottoned on (pun intended) to doing this when they signed Bryce Cotton.

I hear Jarred Weeks is on $300,000 per year

You might be right Train but Gleeson sounded pretty adamant about keeping Cooke after the game last night.

There is no basis for him to say there is no bassi for the figure when he has absolutely no idea (even ballpark) himself. Ridiculous.

Maybe it's because I can see IPs and differentiate anons, but I find that it seems a bit obvious when someone is posting wrong info intentionally

Just a theory....but I actually think that Perth have someone lined up to replace Cooke already.

You might be right Train but Gleeson sounded pretty adamant about keeping Cooke after the game last night.

People will notice no matter when it's done.
Knights retirement has Perth on the Backfoot and something needs to be done asap .

The cats have so many non-scorers

The difference was pretty obvious. We simply got out-muscled inside. Brandt toiled, then got into foul-trouble, then got injured. Cooke was woeful.
As somebody said, what a game to lose Matty Knight.

McKay was similar to Cooke, but better. I agree that at the moment what we need is more a Gladness or even Charles Jackson type. But guys that size, who can actually play, are in much higher demand.
There may also be concerns that Waxy and Waggy are two of the oldest guys???

I'm fairly certain Greg Hire scored 20 points in a home game in 2017 but last season.

I'd still take having 20 points from Steindl or DKD over Hire as they may keep shooting but Hire did have a pretty impressive game not that long back