Hoops

How about getting off Phil Smyth's Back

Was it Dench last week who said in the paper he is struggling to find form this season as Phil has no offensive structure, rather you do want you want, and he isn't used to playing selfish?

I think that statement sums up Phil perfectly - he is not a devolopment coach, he is not a tactical coach, he is a freestyle do what every you want coach.

I still cannot believe that the Sixers does not have a press breaker offensive set play - it has exposed us several times this season - c'mon Phil, this is taught at U16's Div 3 level!

Dana - why would you risk a player that had already been taken off the court not once, but twice for injury\cramp?

Firstly - he could do some serious damage

Secondly - He could cramp up again a critical time and lose the ball and potentially the game.

Very poor decision by Phil that could have lost us the game and or a player through injury

I think a bit of credit has to go to Phil in terms of our defense in the last few games. We did an excellent job shutting down the Breakers and after playing us, they have gone on a winning streak and are now in the top 4 showing our win against them was nothing at all to be ashamed of. I also thought the D was good on Saturday. In the last quarter, it was more individual brilliance from Ingles and Heal rather than a lack of D which allowed the dragons to get back into the game. It was obvious when the team was 2-6 that this was our biggest problem and its good to see this has been addressed.

What I find hard to deal with is that Chappell is still around. He has had 2/11 good games and still is struggling on D, regularly getting into foul trouble. I said it in another thread but he just doesn't have any explosiveness anymore meaning he can't beat anyone off the dribble and can't stay in front of anyone on D. If the sixers had a gun import at this position with a healthy Maher back in the side, I could see this team knocking on the top 4. Chappell may still be injured but its not a valid excuse 11 games in (1/3 of the way into the season). Its frustrating to watch a team that you know could be improved bigtime if a change was made.

The criticisms come from a passion to see their team do well. Anything that is an obstacle to that will attract criticism. Smyth has to take some of the blame for the lack of achievement in the last few years. He also needs to be given credit where credit is due. He is supposedly such a bad developer of players and yet when I think back to the players we have lost in the last 2 years, I look at how they are doing now. Have they really improved elsewhere or were they just as good 2 years ago here in Adelaide? Could the only improvement be from the money they now receive. I certainly have not seen any stark improvements in their games.

Some Evidence From Saturday Night Why We Should Be On Phil's Back

We were over 20 points up at three quarter time, Dragons switch to a full cort press and get within 10 points in the space of three minutes - is this the second or third time this season we have shown we have no press breaker plays?

Davidson stopped Cortez for the First Three Quarters, then Cortez went off, exposed Davidson as too short to guard him, and hence scored a lot of points, as well as Ingles who did nothing all game until the end - yet Phil made NO defensive matchups to contain these guys.

Ng got injured twice, but Phil puts him on a third time at a crucial time - why risk an injured player who could breakdown at any time, who incidently made the wrong decision last time we had a close game and he had the ball?

Need I go on?

As much as I hate Heal - he out coached Phil on Saturday night, and we were lucky to get a win.

And what was going on with all the assistant coaches\mamagers\doctors etc. on the bench sat night - there were alomost more of them rather than players.

My apologies, I did overlook the Sydney road game, but even more reason to be critical. I am just saying that the wins they have had, do not instill too much confidence that they will be able to cope with the better teams. Unless they win convincingly, its hard to find that glimmer of hope that they can beat the better teams. Hopefully Chappell will still improve (he is still missing far too many shots) and no more injuries occur giving them a decent chance to jell together and play as team. As this season progresses, it doesn't get any easier, its for that reason that wins against lower teams need to be more convincing.

I think its a really healthy criticism to ask why you can be up by 22 points and then only win by 3 (luck had something to do with this also because a loss in this game was a reality in the last few minutes). You also have to criticize why Chappell scored 24 points in the first half of the Singapore game and only 6 in the 2nd half. You also have to criticize why the team was up by 16 points in the Blaze game at home, only to go and lose it. I came away disappointed with last night's game because inconsistency is still a major issue. I go to each home game thinking "will they fluke another win, or will they play with confidence and win convincingly?". If you are fluking wins, your luck will run out. You certainly cannot be a championship contender playing such a "touch and go" game. There was far too much clumsiness with the ball handling last night. Anyone could have been excused if they thought they were all handling a hot potato. On top of this, the only highly rated team we have played are the Tigers. No comments on that game, the result speaks for itself. If they continue to play like this, they can forget about any wins against the higher rated teams. When Sydney come to town in a few weeks time, the 36ers better be prepared for that or they are in for a real spanking. The team has some great players but there are still too many under performers. For this team to do well, everyone needs to contribute every game.

I'm with pure silk. There is little thought or real basketball knowledge behind the majority of the comment behind the get Phil brigade that seems to prevail on this site. And before the infantile comment is made, I am not Phil although I am bald.

How much did they pay Humphries to play 11 minutes and go 1/6 from the line?