*next star

could he be seen as a Asian player? and be count as a local

wasn't last season won't be this season

and even if he was roster will be still completeted

McCarron/Cadee
Kell/Dech
Franklin/Marshall
Wiley/Galloway/Starling
Humphries/Smith-Milner

Need one of Kell or Franklin to fire.

36ers recruiting has been bizarre outside the hand grenade that Cleveland threw at them.

Coaches go to Summer League to get a point guard and sign a guy that they are already aware of. Trey Kell was already known to NBL

DJ, Franks, Sotto and Harris replaced with Humphries , Wiley and Starling ( downgrade in talent and reliability )

Cleveland, Drmic replaced by Marshall and Franklin ( known vs unknown so reserve judgement)

Clark replaced by Kell and Cadee ( huge downgrade on talent)

The balance of the roster is simply odd. Cadee is the only pure PG, Humphries the only Centre ( who is likely to only play 50-75% of games) Galloway and Wiley have the 4 spot , the rest are combo guards.

Starling is unproven and unknown at the NBL level. I Cant see him being good enough to guard 4/5's on other squads or be quick enough to handle the 3 ( Creek , McVeigh and co will light up if he is guarding them) He only made sense as a cheap local if the money saved here was spent loading up on a big time import.

36ers predicted to finish bottom 2. Id say Ninnis will be HC by round 5.

Dech , Franklin , Kell , Marshall and Starling all listed within 5cm of one another. Half the roster is the same player. How are all these guys going to get along fighting for the same minutes at the same spots.

I remember when SEM signed him last season, they were singing his praises as a great defender and very much a dependable scorer, that didn't seem to work very well but when they had him as the primary ball handler for parts of games, good things happened so I’m not sh!++ing on this signing yet as I think he can play... sadly they have enough in his position though

no doubt he can play but i'm not sure if he works franklin

Trey Kell is the make or break piece
He will lead them to the make top 6 (If Healthy!)

I think the concern for this group is where are your points going to come from consistently?

Would have been interested in hearing the Roundtable about Adelaide with these two signings having more occurred....

Especially with Simon Mitchell there to give his view

but Q Anon you said Brantley...

and Starling not quick enough to guard the 3 lol you have no idea. He sometimes guards point guards in NBL1. He is a lot quicker than McVeigh and probably quicker than Creek.

Point guards in central NBL1 are far different to the athletes in the NBL proper.. You only have to look at the numbers across all NBL1 conferences for players who have very limited roles or impact in the NBL. NBL1 is improving, but it's a country mile off NBL.

@Sebastian "Point guards in central NBL1 are far different to the athletes in the NBL proper."

So when he guards an NBL starting point guard in NBL1 that doesn't count? Okay cool no worries thank you for your input that makes sense.

So they were looking for an import PG who can shift McCarron to the 2. Sounds like they found the exact opposite of that player.

Combine that with the replacement of last season's DPOY with an offensive shot creator in Franklin, and the downgrade from Franks to Wiley.. Adelaide, this isn't the 2000s NBL.

Trey Kell doesn't count as (SRP) since West Asian countries like Syria don’t count in that category.

Only eastern Asian countries. The rule has changed since Wesley with Guam. Though I feel Guam players should be considered since they are in the Pacific like Japan, Philippines etc.

Have Adelaide put money into Franklin maybe? They've lost Cleveland & Franks, plus the buyout money. Or have they just gone cheap? It's hard to know what to make of Franklin signing, but I don't think Kell would demand huge dollars.

Wow so you bag McCarron all year long now he is your poster boy for athleticism....Oh ok my bad. Forgot McCarron was an elite PG in the NBL.

White flag raised on the season, we should be favourites for the wooden spoon.

With this signing of a mediocre import in Kell the desperation of the Franklin signing starts to make more sense. CJ is coaching for his life.

I look forward to Starling being NBL defensive player of the year as he can guard 1 through 5 and watching him play all 28 games as his body is so durable.

Trey Kell's stats in his 24 games with SEM last season:

12.5p @ 38% FG (35.5% 3pt), 78.5% FT, 3.8r, 2.8a

I am sorry Sebastian that Starling has free real estate in your head but yes he can guard 1-4 in the NBL. Guarding a 5 will be a stretch. Defensive player of the year probably not but he will be top 5-10 if he is given enough court time. Now go back to spending the day thinking about Starling

Not at all brother. I'd like to have seen the Southern version when he played with Creek. Your love affair with him is a bit icky, but each to their own.

Sorry Sixer fans, looks like your team is going to suck this season.

At least you'll have Brisbane to make you look good :)

Count me as curious to see how Starling would go guarding Creek. Starling is quite fast and agile, though not as fast as he was. He's one of the few who could match Creek for reaction times at his size too.

If it was three years ago, I definitely think he could guard Creek. Now, I'm not so sure, but I do think he is best suited to guard threes at NBL level. I think most fours will be a little too big for him to guard in the post.

If they've put money into anyone, Master Chief, I think it has to be Franklin. Neither Wiley nor Kell strike me as premium imports. So I think CJ is counting primarily on Franklin to make our offence hum.

I just hope Franklin realises that the NBL is a much tougher league than he has been used to and can step his game up again. Seeing some of the older footage of his college days and his brief NBA stint, I think he definitely had the talent, but can he still bring his A game at age 32 after all those years playing in China?

Is Smith-Milner definitely locked in as the last rostered player? I think I'd rather they signed Cameron Thew than him. He's had a pretty good season at Gold Coast and has a good connection with Cadee. Probably a better emergency centre than Smith-Milner, who doesn't seem to rebound or defend the rim at all.

Who is the main scorer on this team? Franklin?

Or is CJ designing a team to score by committee?

Other than Dech and a half of Humphries there are no defensive standouts.

Right now there are no proven NBL level consistent scorers.

This certainly feels like a budget team and not in a smart savvy way like Tassie or Cairns.

It looks lathargic (except Wiley I guess) where every other team is going athletic.

There doesn't seem to be balance, there doesn’t seem to be perimeter shooting.

Doesn’t feel like there’s an identity to the team either.

Overall, looks like a clunky looking roster.

If we go back to last year, they really just needed Humphries instead of Johnson and a Point Guard without attitude issues and they would have been fine.

One of our top 5 worst rosters in history.

So Sixers end up with Wiley who could barely get on the court last time around (All-Time Flex Team tho), Kell who was just sorta "there" for SEM, and Franklin who's coming off a stint in the PBA which makes NBL1 look like Liga ACB.

Looking at the Sixers organisational structure it seems like all of the recruitment has been left to CJ?

Agreed about just needing a different centre and point guard last season KET! That's whats so frustrating about losing Franks and Cleveland. They weren't the problem, we just had spuds at point guard and centre! Fix those positions and we would have been top 4 without a doubt. Instead, after finally heading in the right direction last season, the team just seems to be cutting costs!

If I try hard to be positive, I guess I would say that CJ is trying to build a roster that is long and switchable and will rebound well. *IF* that translates into a good defensive team as well, then maybe they can build out from that.

Franklin looks to be a guy who is at his best using his size to bully his way to the rim. He was scoring about 10 ppg at the free throw line on over 80% shooting for multiple seasons in China.

So maybe if they can get defensive stops, this team can attack in transition, with the ball in Franklin, Kell or Cadee's hands and Wiley and Marshall filling the lanes. Then if the defence is set, run pick and roll with Humphries as option A.

The other thing I see is that CJ has been signing a lot of guys with something to prove. Cadee has had a couple of pretty good seasons in Brisbane, but the team has been awful, so I think he came to Adelaide hoping to be a leader on a successful team before he is too old.

Humphries has said he has unfinished business in Adelaide and seems to want to make up for basically not playing his last season here. Starling has been a legend in the state league here for sometime and will be desperate to prove himself in the NBL at this late stage of his career.

Franklin has clearly lost his way the last couple of years (Covid? Injuries?) after being a massive star in China several years in a row.

Now I'm not saying any of this is going to work out, but maybe that is what CJ is going for? He's banking on guys with chips on their shoulders to motivate themselves and save his job that way?

It would make sense after last season, where he just couldn't get a talented team to play with enough passion for him? (Cleveland excepted)

Gees people just like to complain on here. Last season KET you said we needed a rim protector and guards. We added a rim protector and guards. Now you say it isn't very balanced.. and now you also say it isn't very athletic when we are now more athletic than last season. I agree with the perimeter shooting especially with the bigs.

Shano76 how do you rate last seasons team stronger than this one?

One of our top 5 worst rosters in history.

It's interesting that our tallest player on the roster this season Humphries at 6'11" if he had played on last season's team would've only been the fourth tallest player on the team behind Sotto, Acuoth & DJ.

"Gees people just like to complain on here."

22/23 finished 8th, didn't make the expanded playoffs.
21/22 finished 6th.
21 finished 7th.
19/20 finished 7th.
18/19 finished 5th.

Do you expect people not to complain? If so, you’re on the wrong site tbh.

“Last season KET you said we needed a rim protector and guards.”
Yes, I said that today as well.

“We added a rim protector and guards.”

We also lost talent that we didn’t replace with similar level talent. We downgraded as people have already outlined.

We had Humphries and Wiley and average guard imports before. What exactly do we expect to change this year?

“Now you say it isn't very balanced.. and now you also say it isn't very athletic when we are now more athletic than last season”

It’s not balanced, they’ve got zero scoring and it’s not more athletic.

We have a 32yo bulky guard and Humphries instead of Clark and Franks. Wiley is not Cleveland level athletic.

Kell's first half of the season in Italy before he got injured was outstanding. If he can produce that form, Adelaide will be very happy, especially as he buys in strongly at the defensive end.

Since then though, he has produced that form at times but not consistently. Can make big shots down the stretch, if Adelaide can get him close to his best he could be a very good signing. A question mark at this point though.

No I was talking about trivial things like you complaining about no balance and then they get balance and you still complain.

Zero scoring? Do you want to be anymore dramatical?
Franklin has been a scorer all his career
Cadee is a scorer
Starling will average more than Harris
Humphries will be similar to DJ
Kell and Wiley can both score
Dech and Marshall can score
How did the team go with Franks/Cleveland being scorers?
This team has more scoring depth

Wiley is Cleveland athletic
Our new bigs are a lot more athletic
Humphries, Wiley, Starling vs DJ, Franks, Harris, Sotto
The bulky Franklin that weighs less than Cleveland, is more athletic than Clark
Sure Cleveland is more athletic than Kell but Kell is still athletic.

As Beantown said players that have something to prove instead of the lazy Franks, DJ. This new team is better

I don't think "can score a physical point in a basketball game" is the same as “being a scorer”.

Don’t agree with pretty much all of what you said above.

Most of us would like to see our team not go 6 seasons in a row without a finals game.

Most of us don’t see this team making finals on paper.

Some serious glass half full stuff there. The team is worse than last year. Success will be avoiding the wooden spoon.

I see this team as slightly better than last season, but still thinking we finish around 7th

I think Humphries, Wiley, Franklin, Smith-Milner will be better than Johnson, Franks, Clark, Accouth

However, I think Kell and Cadee is worse than Cleveland and Drmic.

All of our imports have NBA or Euroleague type experience which is good, but I dont expect any of them to be MVPs at the same time, I think Franklin will be similar level to a guy like Xavier Munford who played for SEM a season ago, which is still the best import guard we have had in years.

If Humphries can stay healthy and play atleast 20 mins a game for atleast 20 games we have also largely fixed our biggest weakness from last season too and if he can get somewhere near his peak regularly enough he could be one of the best bigs in the NBL, I think how healthy and how well he plays will play a big impact on how far the 36ers go.

This roster reminds me of my Illawarra Hawks roster of last year and Lamelo's year. I feel sorry for CJ. Surely the owner has kept his hands in his pockets this year. I have no idea why CJ went to Summer League.

Sixers Fan, I think o know you from a fb group where we had the same convo.
Isaac will be injured, Franklin is 32 and plying in a tough league, Wiley is ordinary, Kell average.
Cadee aging and not great defensively. Starling is what, 35? Not proven at NBL level. Smith Milner LOL.
As if it's a better roster than last years on paper. I’ll have what you’re having if you think that.
It’s a budget roster. And a budget coach.
No playoffs this year.

The fact this year's team won't have Johnson and Sotto (and Franks when he wasn't interested) defending ball-screens gives it a chance to be better.

Not sure it will be better by any means, but last year's team never had a chance of being good defensively and hence relied on Cleveland and Drmic's energy plays to create easy scores.

I do agree in the sense that this years' team has an opportunity to finish better than last years.

But it doesn’t look anywhere near a top 4 side on paper.

This team is hugely reliant on Humphries to be healthy, and I don’t really get the balance with Wiley. Santamaria suggested Wiley might end up being that starting 5 which is interesting.

Does that equate to expecting Marshall to take a major step up?

Is this our expected side? I think I’d have preferred an athletic wing in SF to replace Cleveland and MM at SG

C Humphries
F Wiley
F McCarron
G Kell
G Franklin

This is the closest CJ is going to get in terms of 'his' team. I hope it works out well for him; otherwise, there’ll be a new coach this time next year.

I agree there KET. I think Humphries is a 20-25 minute player, so Wiley will probably be playing 15-20 mins at centre. I do like having two 6'5 wings in Kell and Franklin who can run the ball screen and feed the two roll-out bigs.

McCarron and Cadee give two different looks at PG, and both know how to play off the ball and let the imports go to work making plays off ball screens.

From an offensive point of view, the ability to stick triples will again be a decisive factor. From that point of view, they don't look to have improved on a roster that was bottom half in that stat last year.

We shouldn't forget how disruptive the Randall situation was last year, how long it took to replace him and how Clark, after hitting triples his first few games, went ice cold and it cost Ws.

So there is definitely scope to be better if they can click and have consistency of roster across the season.

Early days, that starting five looking very competitive, it doesn't take much to make a good season, win a couple close ones and you can get a roll on.

How resilient is that Starling? Injured and out of today's Central final against Sturt

Sixers last season
McCarron/Dech
Randall or Clark/Drmic
Cleveland/Harris
Franks/Galloway
Sotto/Johnson/Acouth

Sixers this season
McCarron/Cadee
Kell/Dech
Franklin/Marshall
Wiley/Galloway/Starling
Humphries/Smith-Milner

Talent wise last season. Balance wise this season.

Out: Cleveland, Franklin, Clark/Randall, Drmic, Sotto, Harris, Acouth

In: Franklin, Wiley, Kell, Cadee, Starling, Marshall, Smith-Milner

Next star likely to come also.

I am not sure about that Nexstar. I have read somewhere that it is unlikely.

Now official.

Do they have any roster spots left?
Surely they need some players who are not guards ?

1 more spot...backup big for 11th spot you'd assume

If they get a next star then 12th man which I guess they’d be looking for that 3&D wing

Sixers shouldn't waste their time on a Next Star. We’re not serious about winning this season, so we should put big minutes into Marshall and Galloway and see if Humphries can be a long-term building block. A Next Star will just take minutes away from these guys and then leave a year later to
get drafted.

They might as well bring back Cameron Thew as an end of bench big if he's interested. He’s done well with Cadee on the Gold Coast this season.

Front office is only worried about getting people to the AEC to spend money and have a night out.

The club lost its proud soul/identity the day it moved. We would have a losing record at home since the switch.

Hard to get excited about this season again...

Has Smith-Milner been confirmed?
Can't say I'm excited about Kell. Or the rest of the roster tbh

You can't say they didn’t try last year...

They massively spent and they made some brilliant moves.

They just took a risk on balance and it backfired

"The fact this year's team won't have Johnson and Sotto (and Franks when he wasn't interested) defending ball-screens gives it a chance to be better.

Not sure it will be better by any means, but last year's team never had a chance of being good defensively and hence relied on Cleveland and Drmic's energy plays to create easy scores. "

Although I don't necessarily disagree with this in theory it feels like at 13-15 last year's team significantly under-performed, where as this team is going to have to SIGNIFICANTLY over-perform to even hit 13 wins with how some of the other teams look (albeit on paper... lots can go wrong from here).

The club lost its proud soul/identity the day it moved. We would have a losing record at home since the switch.

Think my post yesterday was deleted? That took me like 10 mins to type out lol.

In reference to the poster talking about how the club is soulless - mate, you can't keep playing in that high school gym for much longer. The club to it's credit had an amazing turnout last year due to the signing of Clark mostly but it was impressive. AEC when the team plays well does go off.

Nothing to get excited about with this team.
Need big leaps from Galloway and Marshall and good team chemistry.
If they can defend and rebound you never know

Adelaide were good in 2014, 2017, 2018 but haven't done much since then. I remember Adelaide in 2006 when they lost to the Slingers. They haven’t recovered much since then.

" In reference to the poster talking about how the club is soulless - mate, you can't keep playing in that high school gym for much longer. "

I love and adored the old Clipsal powerhouse, but the 36ers simply can't rely on the same dwindling cult following to succeed.

So I’m happy with them making the savvier move to choose the arena that is closer to the city, connected by public transport properly and opens up the market to families and people wanting a night out after.

If they’re close to 5k members, that’s a mighty effort.

@perthworld.

We haven't made the finals since moving to the AEC so we most definitely don't have a winning record there.

@Perthworld 363er are 30-30 at home since moving to AEC 48-72 overall. No finals game at AEC as yet.

At the Powerhouse / Dome / Arena 36ers went 252-124 in home games excluding finals

Adelaide's home record since the move to AEC:

NBL20 8-6
NBL21 8-6 (only including AEC games, not NBL Cup in Melbourne)
NBL22 6-8
NBL23 8-6

Overall 30-26.

Thank you for the correction. I got the 2019 season round the wrong way

@perthworld

sorry I misinterpreted your comment, thought you were talking about a winning season record since the move to AEC! lol

No proglem.

I had the AEC record as 30-26 like above.

At the Powerhouse / Dome / Arena 36ers went 252-124 in home games excluding finals

"That's a nice stat. 67% vs. 53%."

Not really because it seems home winning records have decreased for all teams. Even the Perth Arena's record would be average in comparison to how it was.

The schedule is a lot more sympathetic for traveling teams in the modern era.

Road trips could be 3 games in 3 day eg Hobart , Tigers , North Melbourne in one weekend.

Often teams coming into Adelaide from Perth would have to travel in their uniform to go straight from the airport to Apollo.

The Doomsday Double was a guaranteed win for either Perth or Adelaide at least

How many times have the Sixers played 'away' games at AEC? I remember Melbourne United playing a 'home' game there against the Sixers a few years ago.

"Nice stat" comment referred to the 252-124 produced by Q Anon, not the comparison.

I recall the Wildcats playing a Sunshine Swing of Brisbane-Townsville-Cairns in 2006 within 72 hours from first to last tipoff, winning two games and losing the third in double overtime. Ridiculous.

Those's were the day’s when the NBL made teams play 3 games in one round. Now it’s 1-2 games per round or even zero.

It does my head in that you’ll get to see your team once a week. Basketball you can do doubleheaders like they use to. 14 home game season isn’t enough.

100%, it should be double headers home and away. Minimum 27 rounds though 36 would be better.

I'd suggest it’s more about scheduling now so that every game is on TV standalone.

In 1980 teams played 22 games in 18 rounds.
In 1990 they played 26 games in 23 rounds.
In 2000 it was 28 games in 24 rounds.
In 2010 it was 28 games in 20 rounds
Last year they played 28 games in 18 rounds.

The schedule is packed at the moment compared to the historical norm for the NBL.

Hahaha what a change of direction for discussion

Kell is evidently an interesting signing

The current schedule has games on any night of the week

The older schedule was Friday Saturday Sunday only as players still had day jobs

Fox brought in the Big Wednesday night games

"Hahaha what a change of direction for discussion

Kell is evidently an interesting signing"

Haha yeah, the hype train ran out of steam pretty fast!

Sadly, Kell may actually end up being the Sixers best import this season though :(