Hoops

Blaze going for Heal and import

The Blaze would have performed ten times better if Crowe hadn't died in the arse during the second half of the seaosn; the man was doing ridiculously well during the first half. I still remember his near Triple-double vs. Sixers @ the dome early last season.

Shane Heal; while a bloody good shooter, is basically at the point in his career where he should be benched and brought off as a sharpshooter. If you noticed his performance with the Dragons; you'd have noticed most games he has quite a few dull spots until he gets in a pressure situation and can go and rain 3-4 long bombs to tie a game back up.

You'd be better him for his marketing and have him off the bench more than anything.

While Clacker may have been pushing against signing Heal, I think he's been outvoted now, going by what Blaze co-owner Owen Tomlinson, said in today's GC Bulletin article.

By the way , if anyone hasn't read the article, here's the link
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/05/01/10615_gold-coast-blaze.html.

Also DrB makes a good point. If they can get Heal and an import, they should go for the extra forward. Melmeth missed a fair slice of last season through injury which possibly cost the Blaze two games. Also with Pero, and Mags, approaching their mid 30's, a bit of extra power forward spark maybe the go.

And while we all hope Hawk can return to his best, we're not going to know this for sure until after the preseason at the earliest.

Still I'm hanging for a decision 'cause I'm so over reading about CJ.

Great to see we're back on topic. I thought I must have gone to Ozhoops by mistake with all the crap flying in this post.

I restate what I said in post #183495 "How can the Blaze sign Heal AND get an import"

They're on 58. Their current points are 9 - Harvey, Hawkins, 8 - Cameron, Frank, Melmeth, 7 - McGregor, 5 - Joyce, 4 - Demos

While I still have no idea of what discounts they can get, with Heal on 8, they'll need to shave an extra 8 points from the list above to get a new import, or shave 7 to get a 9 pointer import (or shave 6 points to re-sign Jason Crowe at 8 points!!!!!)

As today's GC Bulletin story makes it clear that Heal is the Club's #1 priority, the points issue has to be the main reason for this frustrating delay. (which is driving me crazy).

While I'm slowly warming to the idea of actually cheering Heal, I don't think I'd want this at the expense of a second import.

I'll stick with what I said in post #183594 "A new import guard (+10 points), some deductions (-3) and bringing Aucoin into the main squad (+3)"

Is Hinson available?

Hinson would be a good pick as an existing NBL import for the Blaze. Groves wouldn't suit considering the last time he suited up with Heal.