Very very wise signing. Kings locked and loaded title faves now. Best roster in nbl history??

I have long admired David Wear from afar

Old news by now ;). I suppose the delay is out of respect for the conclusion of the B league.

He's ok I reckon. Not a superstar marquee but will raise your eyebrows every now and then. Unlike Perry Ellis, he has poor lower body strength but makes up for it with his length, vertical and high work rate. Has nice shooting range and decent rate but was pretty inconsistent in Japan, perhaps due to lack of minutes and coming off the bench.

What he gives the Kings is versatility as he can play SF, PF and to some extent C. I'd say he'll start ahead of Kicks since he'll likely play more minutes. Sydney needs experience and a proven scorer off the bench with Kicks already indicating he's quite happy to come off the bench.

I'm not sure about the Delvon Johnson rumour with Wear's confirmation. They already have the 4/5 spot well covered with Deng Acuoth rumoured to come back as DP. They'll target a defensive stopper or failing that, resort to their usual "best available talent" tactic. Probably considering Owen Odigie.

This guy is a SEABL level import. 16 mpg in Japan?

Not the super-star I might have thought they'd go for, but seems a very good player. And presumably happy to share the spotlight without getting bitchy about minutes.

I'd assume Bogut will be bale to play good minutes, as he should be the most dominant C in the comp. Interesting to see who they prefer as backup 5, whether its DW or DK.

Big Challenge facing Sydney now, how can Gaze screw this up?
I think this squad may be beyond even his ability.

David Wear to will be an MVP cndidate in this league. Very underrated

Good point Anon! I would like all posters to be banned from posting opinions here unless they know the player IRL. This website should not be mistaken for a "forum" for "discussion".

Yeah the inciteful postings saying "Unlike Perry Ellis, he has poor lower body strength but makes up for it with his length, vertical and high work rate. Has nice shooting range and decent rate but was pretty inconsistent in Japan.." are clearly speculative and a discussion point as they are random thoughts. Good point said no one ever.
Try starting a topic next time and see how you go.

So Anon? You agree with me, but hate yourself for it?
Please seek help.

Blanket statements are cool, so someone gets signed and we jump in here and we get some expert opinion from people who probably aren't experts but who cares, for this moment right now it's entertaining to hear what people think of a player... but seriously who goes back and reads anything from a week ago on this site (why so many Greg Hire topics get started).

At the end of the day, the opinion stated above is cool and I'm glad they have their opinions but when the season starts and we see these players in the flesh for the first time we won't remember what anyone said about them back in May

16 mpg in Japan?

How can Sydney have the "best roster in NBL history"?

They've had the “best roster in NBL history” for the last 2 seasons. This has been clearly proven by their response and buy-in to NBL-leading coaching strategies and systems, superior win-loss ratios and rafters full of championship banners.

Sydney then daylight: I’ll believe it when I see it.

Sydney's track record for recent imports isn't convincing think Tyler, Bryson, Blake, Leslie.
Time will tell if Wear is going to be any good in NBL.

Giving it some more thought, I feel better about the Wear signing. I think they've put too much emphasis on name imports in the past, especially ex-NBA guys. Wear looks like a role player, which is actually what we need more so than a scorer. Just needs to stretch the floor and put effort in on D. If Bogut goes down though, a Wear-Kickert frontcourt is going to get smashed on the boards.

I'm not sure Kickert would've signed with the Kings with the belief he would be coming off the bench and to be honest Wear's resume suggests he might be Kickert's back up not the reverse.

The Sydney Tigers will always be a problem because Gaze has no other connections than the Kings and JVG thinks he can recruit.
Yet they will travel again to Las Vegas and recruit no one.
Harry L are you awake?

With no other starting quality level SF option, anon, what makes you think Newls will play guard? Might be a few sporadic minutes there if there's foul trouble with Randle/Lisch and the Blonde Wondertwins aren't working out, but with only really Deng to back him up at the 3, I'm not sure how you figured that out?

I might have skipped where Kickert said he'd be cool coming off the bench, but with Wear's supposed skillset, that might be best and it certainly does add some depth to the Kings bench, but since I'm biased against him, I'm going to interpret that as him wanting a bit of a cash in and relax...

As for Wear, I'm all for getting a role playing big to fill in the gaps and make up for Kicks crap rebounding, so will have to reserve judgement on whether he's the right type or not... If he can rebound hard and keep defender honest from outside while keeping up the D because Kicks can't, and also take some pressure off Bogues while on the court together, all the better...

Can't disagree with any comments re: JvG though... Still thinking that he's God's gift to recruitment...

Yea, JVG the worse GM in the NBL

Meddles too much with recruitment.

The only 2 new recruits that actually worked last season were Pinau and Perry Ellis, who were both Gazes guys/picks.

Randle was an obvious one and they got him too late

And dont get me started on the Tyler/starting the season without an experieenced starting C nonsense.

I reckon Gaze would have done a much better job at building a team without JVG, even if he didnt get it perfect.

Its a pity Gazes coaching career has been tied to JVG, but having said that a smart GM may have just hired Dean Vickerman in the first place and not bothered with Gaze.

JVG's only real success is hiring Joey Wright and bringing him to the NBL.

And Joey also wouldnt have put up with the crap Gaze has and would have forced JVG not to stuff it up and built the team how he wanted it. Joey has proven at multiple clubs and various range of budgets is he knows how to build a playoff team.

The 2007 title would have had far more to do with Joey and Eddys cheque book than anything JVG did. Thankfully for that team Joey was a strong enough personality to not let JVG stuff it up in 2007 with any stupid ideas.

Imagine walking in to Joeys office and telling him you are going to do what the kings did last season.....

Sydney signed our Deng? or is there another one?

Best part about JVG getting Joey was luck. Lucky Joey got a gig and proved that with a cheating salary cap back in the day he's still got a job now.

Some people (and maybe players?) get too caught up in who's "starting".
I remember when Joey would "start" Schenscher just for the tip-off, then sub him at the first opportunity.

Sure, general rule has been that you aim for 5 starters who play big minutes, but it doesn't always work out that way.
I prefer to think in terms of minutes, matchups, and combinations. Especially when you have older players, and good depth.

Clearly you've got two players, Wear and DK, whom you'd expect to play big minutes at PF. So maybe they'll split it 50:50, and also spend some time at C, or maybe one will spend more time than the other. Who knows, time will tell.
We've got to see how well wear adapts to our league, exactly how Bogut fits in, and of course how well they all fit together.

As an opposition fan, what gives me hope is Gaze. I think if these guys had been playing together for a couple of years under a good coach, they would now be unstoppable. Just too much talent.
If you gave this lineup to Joey or Gleeson, you could start measuring for the trophy cabinet.

Hendo8888
Yesterday

Sydney signed our Deng? or is there another one?


Yeah its not deng acouth, its deng deng.

It's weird how people operate, but fact is if this team is successful it will be "the team that Jeff built." He'll be able to take full credit, and entrench his position. (Until the money runs out.)
Me, I would have started with the best coach I could get, but some people just don't like to share power. They would rather supreme command of a failure.