Hoops

Nathan Herbert A 36er?

XztatiK, that was before Burston was signed and talk about difficulty if finding legitimate centres. It was also quite irrelevant to the discussion as the discussion was about my lack of making alternative suggestions. So get a grip of yourself and don't keep popping up everytime I have something to say. Its getting very predictable and whilst most times I ignore you, there are times you need to be put back in your place.

My alternative suggestion has always been to bring in an import PG & import Centre. I can't give specific names of imports because I am not familiar with them, all I expect is that the coaches will scout them out and make a suitable choice. What other alternatives would you like me to suggest?

My response to you about Bruce was exclusively to this particular comment "Bruce came into it when EC said "I shudder every time he brings up the ball ","

thedoctor you are wrong. I didn't bring Bruce into it, it was a response to Moses Guthrie's post, 3rd post on this topic. If you go up there, this is what you will see;

C Burston, Sturt (rumours are strong)
PF Ballinger, Holmes
SF Import, Hill
SG Import, Herbert
PG Bruce (will sign soon), Ng

So please get your facts right and don't say Bruce came into it when I brought him into it. I may not have been very tactful in the way I phrased it but its been confirmed by the fact that most people would not put Bruce in the starting PG position and the club itself has indicated looking for an import PG.

+1 thedoctor.

I'm glad we even have a league.

Don't forget that we have an under-23 player in our 10
as per NBL new rule.

Bruce's turnover numbers on paper may look bad to some but the games I saw had him bringing the ball up 1 out against a 2 man press, no help and turnovers ensured.

I really like Bruce's game and the potential he shows it would be a shame to let him slip through. His upside far out weigh a few turnovers a game and as mentioned he will only get better.

Thank you. Answer accepted.

I wanted to talk about nothing. I wanted an informed answer to a simple question that related only to the 36ers performance last season.

FACT - the 36ers signed well last season. We had Ballinger, Maher, Schenscher, Holmes, Hill, Bruce, Davidson. Apart from Davidson's injury time, they were all very capable players.

FACT - we came 6th in a competition of 10 teams.

Please explain? Let me also point out the above are facts not opinion. With all the basketball knowledge going around on this forum, someone must have worked it out.

Yea i was thinking that to and id imagine the 36ers were probably hoping to build around Hodge when he came back last year, as he would be a good fit for this team, could spend time anywhere from PG-PF in the NBL
imagine if we had him and say Rod Grizzard (slingers version), i belive thats what the tigers were trying to get last season before they signed Ebi, with Hodge driving and dishing/scoring and Griz shooting from the perimeter with Ng and Herbert and Ballinger and Holmes and Burston providing some toughness inside, ah well one can only dream,
speaking of Griz if we got ourselves a top shelf PG and could only get a cheap 2nd import and Griz was within budget would we like to bring him back, i wouldnt mind it, we could do alot worse especially having him for a full pre-season and season he probably would do alot better.

The 36ers starting 5 looks solid to me, Ballinger, Holmes and Burston, all experienced starters plus 2 imports is good, not much better available really, we would be worse if Ballinger was still a import. If we get 2 quality imports that starting 5 is on par with new zealand, holmes is as good as say Forman who started last year and remember when looking at the tigers that mackinnon isnt the same player he used to be and Kendall isnt really any better than a holmes either, so its not that bad.
Import names are a bit of a gamble anyway, but most clubs dont have too much trouble finding atleast a half decent SF/Sg import, pgs are more difficult but if they have found a decent one, which there are most likely, many in leagues like the d-league they are not really going to announce it til the deal is done anyway as they dont want another club snapping them up, so its best to keep it sorta hushed IMO. With imports they are also generally not names well known by people here, like who had heard of Willie Farley here before he was a sixer, even Hodge with his big time college career and nba stint wasnt exactly a household name to sixers fans before playing here.
Lets have faith in the coaches, i reckon our team is shaping together nicely, and they are recruiting a good young core of players to build on which is what most criticised smyth for not doing aswell when he was coaching, he seemed to favour more experience players so ninnis does it and gets dissed, gee these coaches cant win.

Isaac, I don't have names of realistic targets because I can't think of any here in Australia that are available and would fill the positions we need filled. I am not familiar with overseas players and this is where I expect Ninnis to scout them out. I'm not here to do his job for him but I would expect that in his position, he will do the right thing. Any suggestion of not being able to afford 2 decent imports does not sit well with me because we do not have a strong enough team to be able to do away with 1 or both of them. Isaac, do you have any suggestions on import players that the 36ers might be seeking? Perhaps there might be some positives there to discuss.

As for this very present time, I stand by 1 only starter in Ballinger.

So its not reasonable to suggest that an import PG should be sought as we don't have the calibre of player in Australia that can be signed as a starting PG. Last season was very mediocre. If people are happy with that, then perhaps the problem is that I set the bar a little higher. Nobody can judge the strength of the team at present until the imports are not only signed but proven themselves. From what we do have right now, I feel its safe to say that its critical that we get 2 really decent imports. We only have 1 true starter and that's Ballinger. I can't for the life of me see why Ninnis is filling his roster with cheap bench quality players.

If Sturt was under 23 , may have made things a bit easier, but he turned 23 , last month.

Leaves a back-up big role to fill and a compulsory under-23 player as per NBL new rules.
Boti-Ninnis mentioned today.

Mutley, for heaven's sake isn't it obvious that a really good import PG is needed here and nothing less will fill the need. Last season I shuddered every time Bruce was on court and with the ball in his hands. His turnover count was unnacceptable. As a PG coming of the bench, that is fine until he matures enough and improves his game enough to take the starting spot. If however rumors are true that he is not interested in the long run, then he will not get to the stage where he can successfully start. This is why an import has to be sought. As far as bitching when I have no ideas of my own, what would you call what you are doing and bringing up Rychart all the time. That in itself sounds like a lack of ideas because its been done to death. If you want to bitch about my comments, come up with something original.

Bruce as the starting PG? God help us.

good signing from the 36ers, gives us another good consistant 3 pt shooter, along with Ng, which i think last year we didnt have except for maher.
What should we do with our 10th spot it sounds like we will be signing a import PG and SG/SF and id say we would get a big guy, rumoured to be Aiden Sturt, then the last spot would be either a PG or a PF, not sure which way they should go.
Should they sign a PG say Davidson or if they want to continue on the young side a Kersten or a Sutton and have a line up like

C Burston/Sturt
PF Ballinger
SF Holmes/Hill
SG IMPORT/Herbert/Ng
PG IMPORT/Davidson or Kersten or Sutton

With Holmes sliding to PF to spell Ballinger

Or would you say give the import PG 30+mins and give the say 10mpg left to ng and hill, say 5 mins each at pg, which i dont think would be too bad and sign a PF like Hoban (again going young and cheap) or a guy like Josh Wood who is back from college and i remember reading about him when he first went Smyth touted him as a future 36er in the article i think, i think he is something along the lines of a 6'8 SF, (if i recall correctly) signing him would give us a fairly versatile team, and ending up with say

C Burston/Sturt
PF Ballinger/Wood (probably play most his mins at the SF spot with Holmes sliding to PF)
SF Holmes/Hill
SG IMPORT/Herbert
PG IMPORT/Ng
If Wood is say a versatile 6'8ish atheltic small forward and we get 2 good imports and our PG is capable of playing 30+mins per game, id probably go with this line up as it gives ups plenty of flexibility and size.

My dream would be if we offered say Ingles and Mills a imports wage and got them back from overseas instead of imports, that would give us a very young, exciting australian team to build on, however id say highly unlikely.

Speaking of which, can we hire Rick Brunson as our permanent mascot?

Thanks for the autobiog Herb!

LOL - just kidding - I think Herbert is a good pickup for the Sixers. I really miss the days where you just expected the ball to go in when a Sixer jacked up a three!

Bonzi Wells to Adelaide!

He heard we subscribe to the Don Nelson theory of defence in Adelaide and would love to play here!

Ninnis talks to Phil about his USA wish list, today.
If you heard/hear anything.

I assume Winitana is off the radar?

Does he still have his Chopper Reid mo?

Herb's a great shooter and torched the Sixers how many times!?

But we are getting guard heavy with no real ball distributors. If we let Bruce slip through our fingers it will be a very stupid move IMO.