Teams are at full strength

Looking forward to JLA vs Qi.

Agada is bloody atrocious

The missed layups are killer.

Agada sure loves to shoot it for someone's that’s not good at it

Dear Rowdy,


Please come down to Tassie to play with the JJs. We will appreciate your skills and abilities and will run plays to get you shots.

Don't hesitate.

Signed Scott Roth

Good to see Melbourne fans turn out for the derby. /s

1st quarter I thought jack white killed any boomer chance creek has.
2nd quarter I wondered why Agada is still here.
2nd half I thought was playoff like, tough play after tough play.

Creek was super locked in on White, like he had something to prove

Perthworld can't expect a full house on a school night

Think JLA should be the MVP for this season

Simon Mitchell poor coaching. He isn't very good, with a stacked team it shows how out coached he is

What a game

The top 10 highlights from this game would rival any NBL game I reckon. Not game winners or important plays with clock winding down, just big plays that looked like they belonged in the NBA. So many big blocks and dunks.

For me this showcased how far the NBL has come. The depth of talent from both teams. Big Jo Chi, a 7 footer with a couple years NBA experience and United's pair of 7 footers who might both get there. Boomers or ex Boomers Delly, CG, Creek, Broekhoff. Look at the guys who barely got on court, Gliddon, Pineau, Barlow. That's depth.

What a story JLA is. He would be All NBL 1st team right now.

Thought United's weakness exposed in Q2. Only JLA and CG are big time scorers. Agada yet to fully prove himself in my view. When JLA/CG quite and the D isn't creating transition, can get stagnant in half court. Found a way to get back on top after that 21-0 run.

Rivalry really worth something now. 2 quality outfits.

Simon Mitchell is not a good coach it's been evident for years now. Greer is destroying his hard work by employing a coach like Mitchell. You look at Broekoff getting barely any shots but you've got spuds with less pedigree putting up multiple shots. The terrible system, SEM need a new coach asap

Simon Mitchell's out of contract at the end of the season and so is Brian Goorjian...

Yes agreed, thought it was a great game, lots of momentum swings. Quality bigs going hard inside. The JLA/Hukporti v Jo Chi/Ashley battle was excellent. Blocks and dunks throughout. Creek v White very entertaining. White tough defensively but Creek is such a tough matchup when he's hitting from range.

I feel SEM play Le’Afa and Adnam too much together, slightly undersized backcourt and are missing a genuine shooting guard, maybe Munford will play this role but he also seems more of a point. Play Broekhoff at the two, surely would open up more scoring opportunities give him the task on Goulding and see how he goes.

As for Agada I'm still undecided. Seems to play hard but consistently makes basic errors. He plays bigger than his size, is solid on defence and crashes the boards but is just not a reliable scoring option. Someone like a DJ Newbill I think would be a much better fit for this team.

Simon Mitchell's out of contract at the end of the season and so is Brian Goorjian...

Cracking game! I thought SEM were great considering it was their 5th game in 12 days, players/coaches in and out with Covid. Munford/Gliddon only returning on Tuesday. They were right there, showed they are a true contender.
As for Rowdy, he finally has a coach who has him doing more than just catch and shoot, he's becoming a complete player and looks to be enjoying that. United put the clamps on him last night because he’s been SEM’s best player in recent weeks. SEM will make an adjustment there.
Hopefully that was a GF preview.

With Agada, there's plenty to like- good defender, strong rebounder and pushes the ball in transition.

A bit like McCarron in some ways- smaller but super strong and crashes the boards against bigger opponents.

But he's primarily a transition scorer. He hasn't proven he can score under pressure in half court situations. In fact his shooting percentages in the half court are woeful.

That's the one thing which worries me about this United group- they need a better 3rd option in half court offense. I'm not yet convinced we'll beat Perth in a playoff grind. Assuming Perth has Hodgson to defend JLA, unlike last week.

LV Agada is 4cm taller than McCarron

Crunched some numbers on Agada

We would all remember that stretch of 3 games where he played some awesome basketball, and in the eyes of many, had cast aside any doubts

He scored 21, 20 and 24, shooting 52% from the field and 53% from 3

If you take out that 3 game stretch, and only include the first 2 games of the season plus the 8 subsequent games....

31% from the field
18% from 3

With quite a few fast break layups in that mix.

It's an interesting one. He's obviously contributing strongly to United's dominance defensively and with rebounding. And there's also a school of thought which says "You're on top, why mess with a good thing?", but I dunno, there's something about walking into the playoffs with only 2 consistent scoring options in the half court, which worries me.

Incidentally I also crunched some numbers on Scotty Hopson last season out of interest

First 8 games as a starter - 32% FG , 21% 3P

Last 26 games (mostly coming off the bench) 46% FG, 39% 3P

Optimistically, one could hope Agada is taking time to find his spots in United's offense, and will eventually become effective like Hopson did

But I saw a bit more class in Hopson's offensive game. Plus we knew what he'd done the season before.

I guess if you're 10-4 and debating making one single change to shore up one weakness, it's a good problem to have. That's the optimistic take on all this!

Sorry that was 47% FG in the last 26 games not 46

Agada is mostly good. That minute or two before the end of the 1st half last night though looked like he'd forgotten to play basketball temporarily.

If JLA did that to Phoenix he may well have 50 lined up next time they take on the sixers.

He has to legitimately be in the mix for a world cup spot.

JLA is the 3rd best Aussie big right now, behind Landale n Kay