They'll go better without him

Bold prediction: 36ers lose both games this round, players play for themselves and don't trust each other or work for each other, they miss the top 6 and the owner sells the team.

Adelaide becomes the NBLs next budget side.

Anyone keen to make a bolder prediction?

It absolutely baffles me how anyone thinks Adelaide will go better without someone who has been their best player this season!

They'll go differently. If the ball movement improves, then they could indeed go better as such. Not like they don’t have other guys who can score. But I doubt they’ll be any better without him. CJ is a really bad coach, it sucks, because I had faith in him.

They should be better defensively. Randall is a hell of an offensive talent and he does save some energy for that end.

Sixers got make a statement, this game should be a comfortable win to them. Hawks really don't have lot. Sydney started poorly last season and finished champions, this is where Adelaide got start and show what they are capable of.

Hawks are a different team now they're almost at full strength. Siva makes a big difference for Froling and Harvey. This should be a tight game, 36ers have to adapt on the fly to fill Randall's offensive output, but they have the capabilities.

I think this will be an interesting take on how CJ will be able to distribute the offense vacated by Randall's injury. We will get our answers later.

Randall out leaves more opportunity for Sotto to dominate. Sixers by 15+.

I see more options for DJ... he will become the main threat but has ability to drawn double teams and distribute. DJ is the path to the W in Wwwgong.

Randall out with a chest injury. Is that the club subtly saying he has no heart?

Or maybe his breathing difficulties were legitimate and has taken medical advice to rest

TROUBLE in the city of churches

Franks should kill it tonight with no Randall there. If the Sixers don't go through him religiously they really have no idea.

Foul, foul, foul, foul.

NBL ARTIFICIALLY increasing scoring so they can boast they have a high scoring league that is like the NBA lol

Lowery sucks.

Crowd looks terrible.

Hawks playing like ass.

Hawks license to Canberra or Newcastle if things don't turnaround.

Never rated the Siva signing - anyone who watched NZ last season would feel the same. The king of point guard that will only pass when he can get an assist.

kiwi Gardner was a good local cheap import option and they went with siva who's probably getting alot, stupid.

Hawks should probably have their licence taken away. The fans simply don't show up. Didn't when they were good, didn't when they had Lamelo Ball, aren't now.

Not a good look for anyone

Screningnick, exactly, said when he was signed, he wants his stats looking good so can get another contract elsewhere next season, few other hawks the same. Both sides really unimpressive. Sixers just got more talent.
Two commentators who just like the sound of their own voice, it's horrible.

LK choice of ownership in the end was as bad as the bloke who owned it before. Two years later, goorg and him gone leaving nothing.

Nbl refs calling fouls you would not call in the under 12.

Mathiang 1 from 10 free throws this season, lol Shaq was better.

36ers were averaging something like 14 assists per game before tonight, worst in the league. Currently have 19 to 3QT. I can't be the only to find that a little bit interesting?

They're playing more as a team, and seem like they’re having fun as well as being on top. Love it!!

I feel bad for the 200 Hawks fans in attendance at the game. That was a limp performance.

How ya goin Master Chief. How dare anyone even contemplate that the Sixers would move the ball and be a little more willing to defend without Randall.

Good interview with Rosen and CJ at end game. He's a relaxed guy old CJ.

Maybe the nbl could just have a caller and one commentator in the box and use the sideline commentator a bit more.

Pretty happy with DJ.. absolutely star. Sixers baronetet

Settle down everybody it was against the Hawks who have not much talent at all and were deflated after the loss against United. They also almost came back and took it from us before some hot shooting got the game back in control.

Still a win is a win and we will take some confidence from it. Hopefully the coaches finally grew a brain and realise our strength is playing inside out. Such a simple strategy that for whatever reason they didn't want to attempt.

I was glad to see them attempt to get buckets in the paint for once. But the defense is still shit and its against the Hawks, who are below NBL level this year.

Ball movement much better

Positive is that it's good to know DJ still has it offensively, just give him the damn ball more.

Enters in averaging 9ppg and goes and gets 28.

Good opportunity for Franks to get a feel for the ball that doesn’t involve him grabbing and chucking it up through frustration of no opportunities.

This quarter is still awful and 36ers look like the 9th best team in the comp.

Having no proper C aside from Sotto and no interior D at all, plus no actual PG is getting blatantly obvious on the court. If I’m being honest, I didn’t think it’d get so exposed actually.

With this current team, what do we do about interior D? It’s not like we lack good defence team-wide. Randall can D ok, MM and Drmic are good, Dech and Cleveland are elite.

#1 split up Franks, DJ and even try to avoid Randall/DJ together where possible

That way we can avoid a clash of two guys in the same position, three guys competing for shots at once. Hopefully DJ can have more opportunities and like lastnight they actually focus on delivering the ball.

#2 Make your PG be entirely Macca or Dech. Even Marshall if need be. It’s not Randall, move him off the ball - don’t have him dribbling the ball up against pressure and turning it over, don’t have him stagnating it.

Randall can shoot, Randall can drive, Randall can dish. He’s not a player we want to cut, we just want him more efficiently used so he’s not stifling the offence or turning it over.

#3 When DJ is on maybe pair him with Sotto. I didn’t particularly like what I saw from Sotto lastnight and he’s not a defensive player but hey if he can just be a big body, get a few blocks and make the opposition rethink driving into the paint, that in itself might be enough that our guards and small forwards can play proper defence on the perimeter and take a risk or two to beat the screens and harass key players.


C Franks
F Cleveland
F Drmic
G Randall
G McCarron or Dech

C Sotto
F DJ
F Cleveland
G Drmic
G McCarron or Dec


Ie. DJ always PF, Franks becomes C with athletic small ball, Cleveland plays SF or undersized PF with athletic small ball.

Use Drmic more for grit and size so that Cleveland isn’t on his own defending properly at the medium size positions

3rd quarter is still awful***

Yes, the Hawks were terrible and lacked effort again. Getting out worked by Daniel Johnson is a low point for this era. Only way is up now.

Yes, the crowd was small, and quiet. It's a sad state of affairs.

Coach can only do so much with the horses he's got. He's not missing open shots, passing to the crowd, missing defensive matchups. You can see him on the sideline animated towards his players, showing much more energy than his team.

For those suggesting Kiwi Gardner. No. Just No!
He's 5'5 and couldn't defend a broken chair. Offensively a great NBL1 player though.

I mean Goorj had a fourth import in Jessup, plus Reath and they lost the defensive player of the year.

So it's a rough situation to come into to be honest

Manu Fieldel, who said anything that entitled you to say that? And you say it like I was hoping Adelaide would play badly and lose, which is obviously not the case.

I've stood up for Randall because I don't think he deserves all the criticism, and in some cases, personal abuse, and I also don't agree with the logic behind it.

And I'm doing fine thanks for asking.

I don't think he has received personal abuse on here - Twitter maybe, I don’t know because I don’t use it, but I haven’t seen anything here.

It’s not unfair to critique aspects of his game that people feel are an issue for the 36ers when it comes to winning.

At the same time, you’re going to get overzealous people that don’t appreciate it may be possible to not throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak. Not all issues are because of Randall and Randall can become extremely effective with less liability if they tweak things here and there and change the mind set.

First thing would be make him a true SG not a PG, second thing would be to emphasise focus on kicking the ball and trust you’ll probably get it back or have more than enough ball volume which obviously he is used to

Master Chief, you said it baffles you how people think Adelaide will go better without Randall. Proof's in the pudding. That's all. Don't worry about it

In that a conclusion though in a sample size of 1 game against...the hawks?

Don't know what you want me to say KET, they were better. A good number is the 25 assists; 5 better than their next best game this season.

We'll reconvene next game if Randall sits out, see how they go.

God I hope he's not out against a wounded wildcats!

KET,

I just don't understand the logic behind why Randall has become a kind of bad guy. There seems to be lots of default and hyper focused criticism and blame for a player who has no doubt been our best player so far? At the same time as saying how dysfunctional Adelaide have been, I don't see the reason as to why a player who has bailed out that dysfunction with offensive brilliance, lead Adelaide to a historic win over an NBA team, has personally lead Adelaide to the previous two wins before his absence, leads the team in scoring AND assists, gave Adelaide a chance to beat SEM in a game they were poor in and gives fans an import to embrace, could possibly be the main problem. I understand why people think Randall might be the cause of dysfunction so far, but I certainly don't think it is that simple. Again, where is the logic behind this thought process that many seem to have? Who would you say has been our best performing player so far and is ultimately contributing to our wins?

Manu,

It does baffle me still. I can see the argument for sure, but I think the Randall target is selective. And again, why did you think it was necessary to say that the club is questioning his heart? Why this cheap shop at someone who has been our best player this season? Again, it just feels odd.

In terms of the Hawks game, Adelaide should get that win either way. I didn't watch the game unfortunately, and I'm glad to hear most seem to think Adelaide made some improvements and adjustments. Adelaide also played unrecognisably well (In comparison) against Sydney, and Randall played that game.

Master Chief,

Just because you can't see it doesn't mean others don't. Randall is a black hole offensively, the ball movement, players moving everything just stops whilst he goes off playing his one on one iso game. Clearly Franks, DJ and the others have been acting negatively to this and just going through the motions. It is in effect a protest.

Randall as the main offensive option is not working well this team is loaded with talent and yet were 2-3 with him including two massive 25+ point losses at home. No team with mediocre talent should be losing by 25 points in a 40 minute game especially at home, let alone the 30 point loss. It's disgraceful and clearly something is seriously wrong in the group.

It was clear in the pre-season games that Randall was going to be a problem he shot us right out of a couple games and this team is too talented to be okay being a .500 team living and dying on Randall having a good shooting game or not. That's why I proposed bringing him off the bench he takes too much away from the starters so let him play his natural game off the bench. Either that or cut him but I said I would try him off the bench first and if he doesn't like it or acts up then see ya later.

This 36ers team is too talented to let it's season be derailed by a guy like him.

Zodiac,

I am seeing the argument, but I am not always convinced its governed with logic or without bias.

But how much of a sample size without Randall do we have to truly know that's because of him alone? I think that kind of dysfunction you describe seems to be a pattern under CJ. The start to this season reminds lots of last season with these weird performances. Again, that blame can't be on the negative aspects of Randall alone.

If you have noticed that about team mate frustration, than that is a fair point. But again, that could also be a confirmation bias caused by this hyper focus on Randall.

You say Adelaide are 2-3 with Randall from a sample size that can only contain five games. This illustrates my point completely. Why not just say Adelaide are 2-3? Why is it important to mention such a ratio that can't really have any meaning yet on the basis that Adelaide have 100% of games without Randall, but from a sample size of 1.

But it could also be true that the reason Adelaide live or die on Randall shooting well is because of a lack of offensive system? So I also think that Adelaide could have lost more games without him on this basis.

Again, by saying that Randall is the one derailing the season, is exactly what I mean.

I am not saying Randall is perfect at all, but I think CJ's coaching is the main reason there is frustration in the group. I feel like he he is the kind of player we might need to take the good with the bad. But if you're right, and he is a cancer on the culture, then I would certainly be in favor of the ideas you suggest. So far for me, I don't think that's exactly true just yet and just feel like I need to point a few things out.

Adelaide beat Illawarra 90-80 with Randall, 96-80 without Randall. It's hardly a significant enough difference to draw conclusions from.

The performance did highlight what everyone knew, that they hadn't found a way to get the best out of Franks and Johnson with Randall playing.

Adelaide have had two bad performances, both against the most physical teams. In their other four they're 3-1 with that loss in OT. The challenge is being able to execute in grind-style games.