Hoops

Must be mentioned again - Hodge

Kent, you said it and you are spot on. The NBL employing the players will do nothing but make the disparity even greater. At the moment, surely all clubs to some extent have some cap restraints or atleast conscious of it. Don't forget they have to try and cover it up to some extent. The NBL employing the players will appear to clubs that the cap has been fully taken care of by the NBL and therefore any other payments they wish to make themselves will be viewed as completely separate to the salary controlled by the NBL. The only way it can be completely controlled is by the NBL having complete access to players personal income, ie, bank accounts, group certificates. Even non monetary payments like housing would have to show up as a fringe benefit on their tax return. For privacy reasons, this is never going to happen.

The last sentence should read - If and when there is a personal need for him to be here, his price will drop.

Isaac, you are referring to $ figures where as I am not. Adelaide has to be competitive but if it means spending $400-$500K on him, I agree, you can't do that. But then a figure like that should be out of reach for any NBL club. I would hate to think that the salary cap is that poorly policed that anyone could get away with paying that much for one single player. And once again, Hodge will only be here if there is a personal need for him to be here. I and when there is a personal need for him to be here, his price will drop.

exactly EC, well said.

Hodge knows the salary cap in Australia and would only come here if his NBA prospects were exhausted. For that reason, I think its reasonable to say he could be obtained at an expensive but not outrageous price. If the price he is asking for is that outrageous then he should have to forget about Australia altogether. My argument is always that Adelaide has to be just as competitive as any other NBL club. I think its not going to sit very well with the fans here to see Hodge picked up somewhere else in Australia because they could afford him and we cant. Like #182071 said, why buy a professional team when you can't afford to run it successfully. You will have done the pride of South Australia a disservice and also the fans.

Perhaps the figures were a bit exaggerated but putting that aside, the 36ers went from a losing team to a winning team once Hodge arrived and settled in. Many agreed that had he been with the team from the start, the end result would have been much different. That in itself is worth throwing money at to get him here if the competition is between Adelaide and other NBL clubs. Hodge knows the difference he made in his short time here. He is not going to donate his services for nothing. If Hodge decides to pursue the NBA and is successful, then you can't do much about that.

vanexel31, I agree. One expects more for their money when going to see an NBL game. The tickets are priced to provide entertainment. Hodge provided entertainment. Before him, it was like going to see a boring movie. That's also the reason I give little value to arguments about development players. I regularly go to ABA games and pay $6 a ticket, not $25 like the NBL. The entertainment and value for money comes from the key players. No expense should be spared there particularly if other clubs are able to outbid us. If Hodge ends up back in Australia, there is no way Adelaide should just stand there and watch him being snapped up by another club. The only way I would accept not getting Hodge is by taking the view that he is not a certainty to return and therefore immediate action is taken to find a good alternative. I am not of the opinion that Adelaide should wait around for an uncertain player at the risk of being caught out at the last minute if he doesn't return. We have recent experience on this with Newley. I always wonder where we would have been last season if Newley was part of the team. I do believe one player alone can make the difference.

hodge will make the sixers more money than he will cost. if we have hodge ill pretty much go to every game, without him i may go to 2 or 3 but thats it. dont mean to sound like a bandwagon supporter, but there is no other player on the sixers roster i wanna pay to see play. luke is a great player, ballinger also but if i want to watch lay-ups and non exciting basketball ill go to lightning games, there cheaper.