"Think Sixers are full strength apart from Humphries(?).", same as saying "Think Sixers are full strength." as of now.

No Dusty or King

Bairstow continuing to show what he could have been with some more luck with injury.

Krebs. Not an NBL player.

Difficult game to watch so far. Many listless turnovers and poor choices on offence.

Is it just me or is this game as bad as most games in the NBL? Seriously poor for so called professionals

Sotto sucks!

Is a close game a good game?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Christ I'm having a hard time getting excited about these two teams..

You really can't believe some of these guys are professional basketball players & do this for a living.
The standard is very average.

Bullets 9 3's is good but 12 2 pointers in 3.5 quarters is disgraceful.

Fade Mitch. Great pg that just throws the ball away.

Mitch hahahahaha. The worst Point Guard!

This is very dissappointing.

We were up 9 in the last quarter.

JVG. Say no more

The Kelly 'error' must be coming to an end soon.

Just can't believe this team. Can’t make an entry pass to save their lives, fall apart with a press, and my god Mitch just makes things so hard sometimes.

6ers second bottom! Better that I predicted.

36ers to win spoon

JVG poisons every club he touches.

Fatigue may be a factor - McCarron needs a reliable ball handler sub.

No McCarron needs to not play PG unless it's spot minutes. He’s terrible lead PG.

When Adelaide plays it just looks like they don't have any space.

They don’t get into the right spots easily, they turn it over around the half way trying to push through a press or by trying to force it into the key.

I don’t think that’s an indictment on MM - they probably need better wing spacing.

Hard to do if you don’t have perimeter threats?

"Is it just me or is this game as bad as most games in the NBL? Seriously poor for so called professionals"

I have to agree. I think most games this season have been pretty underwhelming and of shit standard. I love the league but at the same time, we're not where we should be in my opinion.

I get that feeling with nba too.

Id put that down to covid ruining any semblance of consistency.

Almost like Adelaide gas a curse on it. No Hannah. Down by 4.. shut cadee down ...no sobey.. and somehow can't get the w...team structures are in position ...can't put finger on the pulse ....how do you let Patti patty cake get off the lease... just sheer stiff luck sixers...waiting for DJ to destroy a team soon....

JVGs ability to recruit a dud import is second to none. Withers a massive 5 points! Who's his agent?

Some might say Johnson has been destroying a team all season...

100 % Spot on Isaac.

Not a 36ers fan but IMO, folks are just too damn hard on Johnson's D. Not saying he plays good defence but it's adequate.

His body language isn't all that good, I admit, but have a quick look at these stats, he is still giving you; 14pts, 6 rbs, 2 asts, (only) 2 pfs, 1 bpg (doesn't defend?) in 31 mins for 2 tos and goes to the line lots (draws fouls on op). Not rave-worthy but not winge-worthy, either.

For how many years has he been the team's main offensive weapon and under 3, or 4, different coaches? If he plays the sort of D everyone wants (even, expects) he would foul out of games. Do you really want Hodgson back or keep what DJ brings, year in, year out?

And loyal as the day is long (think of the travails of the 36ers over the years - Joey, Connor, Sobey, Creek).

DJ is not the problem! In reality, he is not even "a" problem. Take what he gives and, if need-be, give him better support, IH for example. DJ did not seem to be a problem when IH was on court too. Bairstow is in that role now. A healthy Humphries might fix DJ's perceived shortfall.

IH is out for the season though

No, Daniel Johnsons defence is far from adequate. He is nearly 7 foot moves away from players.
He never rotates or helps out ever. He actively avoids playing defence you can see him move away from where he needs to be for no reason at all.
He is the only player I've ever seen get out bodied by Kyle Adnam multiple times.

Agreed RobT.

DJ gave 15 points and 12 rebounds of which 6 were offensive.

We know his limitations on defence, what is the point of harping on it?

He is by far the leading total scorer and rebounder amongst active players, so he has shown a body of work at least on one end of the court consistently.

Johnson's D has always been garbage and that's why he never has played anything meaningful for the Boomers and was all but blacklisted from Boomers camps.

Yep it's not so much being a bad defender but DJ is even worse than that he treats playing defence with contempt and like Doug just said if you watch him closely enough he actively avoids players, plugging holes etc. The amount of times I've seen DJ just let a guy even a guard walk around him and lay it up, hands down by his side no challenge or anything it's disgusting.

Then because of DJ's long time refusal to play any sort of defence every year that effects our roster construction. The entire team has to be built around him literally due to how poor his defence is and offensively too otherwise he gets the sulks and starts moping like he's been doing recently when Bairstow was moved into the starting lineup alongside him. Then there was the whole threat to walk out on his contract to go play in Japan and CH mysteriously being sacked a few days later.

The cancer has to finally be cut out at the end of this season.

Doug, easy to agree with, "He is nearly 7 foot moves away from players. He never rotates or helps out ever. He actively avoids playing defence you can see him move away from where he needs to be for no reason at all."

That's what my point is. DJ avoids fouling out almost as a priority. Hodgson tries his hardest to play D and lasts for 15 real minutes a game, either fouled out or so near to it that he can't play decent D anymore anyway. Hodgson doesn't give you 15 ppg and 6 to 10 boards every game either. (I don't want to show up Hoggey, I actually like what he brings to a team and it's not what DJ brings).

Just what I think. Yeah, his D could be better but who's couldn't?

Kai with a positive and third-highest +/- on the team in Brisbane game.

I don't think he avoids fouling, I think he's just soft, or "risk adverse", if you will.

If you play defence and throw your body around you're at more risk of injury. Some people just naturally avoid those situations. I know when I am on a basketball court, you wont see me taking a charge or "putting my body on the line" because why would I do that? Of course I am not a center in a professional league being paid hundreds-of-thousands of dollars per season but I think I know the thought process behind his avoidance.

DJ is offensively gifted but he cant be relied on defensively to the level a contending team needs. Simple as that. He's had a long and storied career with the 36ers but next time he threatens to go to Japan, they should let him. The only player on the team that deserves to be re-signed at this point is Cam Bairstow.

Some might say Johnson has been destroying a team all season...

I would tend to say Hodgson accrues fouls so often due to poor-decision making on defence, rather than expressing an overt desire to play good defence.

What's up with DJ this year? He looks particularly disinterested even for him, and his free throws bit average lately.

I’m not keen on Adelaide’s short-termist thinking that has led to a revolving door year in year out. The lack of continuity has been pretty unhelpful.

I know players move more than ever these days, but surely you have to form a team where you have a core in place that you build and tweak marginally each year.

They don’t have to be a development team to have a couple of players that they develop with a view to being fundamental to the club down the track.

Instead of trying to have 11-12 average players sharing minutes without much focus on particular roles and then get annoyed at lack of success and clear the deck, maybe try having a main rotation of 8 players, where your 7/8 fulfill particular roles - a shooter type like White or a defensive Boucher type etc.

Then two spots of guys that you fully expect will develop and be able to replace those leaving through natural turnover.

DJ is like 33, Cam is about 31. Adelaide should still focus on doing everything to have Isaac Humphries stay long term. I don’t think that will be easy and I fully understand it would require throwing cash and taking on risk.

Money making Mitch to me is a bit like Gibson. A good captain material anchor. We’ve been missing that key piece since Gibson imo. Before that Maher was our anchor.

Gibson had Gary Ervin when 36ers made finals; Maher had Farley. There was always a strong "one-two" punch in our guards. We haven’t had that in a while. Hannahs, despite having full confidence he can shoot the lights out if he chose to shoot it more, isn’t giving the 36ers that second punch.

If they got that right, the fortunes change dramatically IMO.

Then you want to make sure you have a lengthy athletic defensive presence down low, otherwise players have to rotate and cover defensively which means gaps for wide open shots, players in mismatches, always playing defence reactionary and behind. That makes it hard to keep your feet, to stop the ball movement and so on.

Adelaide haven’t really had that since Childress I guess.

So then you have your C(IH)/PF(import)/SG(import)/PG(McCarron) filled.

You have Dech, an elite defender that can shoot. If you can’t financially afford a third import because you’ve spent it all on IH, MM and two imports then it’s perfectly fine to start Dech at SF and have him play some SG minutes.

So then you look at the bench. Let’s say as part of spending lots on IH/2 imports and MM, you can’t afford DJ.

Have a backup PF/C that can fulfill say 20mins. Could have been someone like Jack Purchase.

Then you look for that guy that can come off the bench and shoot the rock and take advantage of space from other players drawing the attention. That’s your Isaac White type perhaps.

Then you go where could we benefit most for that 8th man? Maybe it was a McVeigh. Maybe that’s Malou now. Maybe you go small and have Dech be PF if the bigs get into foul trouble and you focus on protecting PG and you have Duffelmeier.

Then you consider what 9/10 are, what kind of money you have available and what kind of minutes they’re willing to do.

Maybe they end up being Harris/Malou if they’re happy to play inconsistent minutes. Maybe you go with younger players.

Then you look at your team and go: ok we make sure we direct opportunities through PG/SG one-two punch and Humphries. The rest like Dech get opportunities out of the space created.

Not this have a Hannahs there to be a perimeter threat and then doesn’t shoot from the perimeter or spending lots on DJ only to not feed him the ball for periods through the game.

Rotation stays around 8, with no expectation of spreading minutes to make average players content.

That way, if an injury happens you’ve got the third slot available. You’ve got balance, you’ve got continuity. Hopefully you’ve got some spare cash to get impactful imports if you’re not getting a third import and DJ.

I got the impression of the 36ers being in the lead all game, except at the end.
and of Mccarron throwing the ball away looking more disinterested than dj.

The disrespect ti DJ is immensely over the top...he a big man who offensive hercukes and not a swift in your gorilla defender. Not sure if you want him banging and bashing on the post.. only result in more injuries
..zDJ is class skill silky smooth glider roll puryeuor of points buckets mega numbers...don't hear people complaining about his fire power. Respect the man...true loyal sixer.club captain. Mvp.. shit he has given his all.. fade away magic. What you want froling or hodgson or ??? Sotto not ready and keep floggi n g barstool and createvIH situation. Respect DJ.. credit all he has done.

Once again Hermann you are so insightful !!!!

CJ 65 .. think you also very insightful... glad someone else regards DJ as I do. Club legend.. and still doing it...