Hoops

Boti Tears into Sixers

IMO opinion the one thing the Scott needs to do is give the players the mindset and freedom to play a confident (in themselves and there team mates) flowing fast breaking game.

It was like grass growing on Wednesday, it must have been one of the slowest, boring games I have seen from the Sixers. The fact that could'nt shoot from anywhere outside the key was also critical in their loss. A lot of players seemed more worried about making a mistake rather than being proactive/attacking in their game.

For a while I watched Ng making cuts, getting free up the court, in the wings etc, but not once was the ball delivered quickly to him - too mutch crap trying to outdribble a defender by the PG was also pretty obvious as were the lack of assists and a high rate of turnovers.

After seeing the Taipans onight the Sixers would have to be VERY confident. Its simple - stop Jones getting open looks and rebound and you cant lose...

If the Sixers capitualte Friday night this forum may well go into meltdown!

I said it yesterday and i will say it again, stop looking on court and start looking at the crap in the suit and tie.

Get that to work proper;y and do his job and the rest will fall into line.

The team itself is OK, not great, but this is not going to be a great year for them anyway, but if Ninnis is going to be there any period of time, he needs to learn how to do his job and not blame the players, they have no ehart, but heart starts from someone...If the 36ers dont have it on court they sure as shit better get it on the sideline...right now they dont have it anywhere...

I will continue to look closer at the coaching panel rather than blame the list....

Wow, fragile goods to damaged goods in a week. The Gilchrist saga has moved to a resounding yes on the "cry baby" stakes.
Can he do a Storey?
You guys know him better than I, but how can he contribute now?
Benching is probably going to have the reverse effect?
His confidence has to be through the floor, along with the teams and short of doing a lazarus its hard to see him helping your team in the future.
You could forgive him if he was putting out and things just were not going his way but....not putting out.....

Gilchrist might be in a bit of pain - he's played 2 bad games -might be affecting him.
He's not a good long range shooter - don't think I'd cut him or Groves either.. think it can be worked thru
( as I keep saying - from seeing pre season training-they miss Burston)

Isaac, any chance we had of pulling off the miracle underdog victory in Cairns was jinxed the moment you mentioned it!

Brad Davidson anyone...?

Yep - Boti hit it on the head with that one...

Agree with Isaac. Whatever game is penciled in as a win, we always find a way to drop. Whatever game is nigh on impossible, we'll thrash someone.

And if I can go back to what my Year 5 basketball coach explained to me - a point guard's job is to distribute the ball to the best option. Maybe Gilchrist could give that a go?

Personally, I think it'd be great if John went away, used all this as steam, got his head straight, put the team on his back in these next two away games and pulls a Wortho.

P.S Until we're riding high and winning games, I'd suggest we review the pre-game team huddle antics.

Thrashed with a feather duster IMO.

The one point I do agree with whole heartedly is Neil Mottram. IMO Neil should have been signed up to play for us. Last year he was forced to make way for Luke, but I reckon he could have easily played as a forward.

With an injured Matt Burston, we are seriously lacking height and need some brawn out on court. Motts will give us that beef.

Coops is by no means a starting 5 centre, and many would argue that his performance on court is satisfactory in defence, but insipid in offence. It is difficult to imagine him suiting up next season.

It appears to me as though Scotty is treading carefully with Molly. If he is up to NBL standard then throw him in the deep end and watch him swim.

We are seriously wanting in the F & C department. I say bring Motts back.

The other thing I can't get my mind around is the captaincy. Now, AB is our best player, but that doesn't mean you give it to the best player. IMO he is not the best option as captain. He is too introverted and have yet to see him exert himself as a leader. Rather, I see other players at timeouts and breaks geeing the players up.

I believe that the captaincy has brought too much pressure on him and he could do even better personally if he was solely focussed on being our best player. I would favour Jacob Holmes as the captain.

Isaac, if I had an opportunity to replace one player on the team to have the most chance to improve team chemistry and on court performance, at the moment that player would be Gilchrist.

When the offensive play is so stagnant and ineffective and we appear incapable of confidently breaking a trapping defence, the point needs to take a fair whack of the blame. It is worse when you have a PG with an attitude and focus problem.

Memo to Gilchrist - start/keep making assists and getting your teammates involved in the game, and all will be forgiven.

Gilchrist has two big tests coming up - Cairns away and then the Breakers away.

I dare say his long term tenure here will be re-evaluated based on his response in those games to the Perth / Melbourne criticism being levelled at him and the squad in general.

With two hostile crowds no doubt ready to lay into him... not to mention the Bruton / Penney train geared up to go at him... it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'd assume Groves isn't commanding huge $$$s by comparison.

I am an avowed fan of Boti's work, but sometimes he just really hits it on the head. This is one of the better examples.

Anyone think we have any change of being anything but 2-5 after the next two games? We play notoriously badly in Cairns. I seem to recall we have managed to break some really long losing streaks for them in recent years. And NZ last night showed that they are just starting to warm into the season.

At 2-5 we could just about write a position in the finals off in a year where plenty of teams will keep around the .500 mark. Even assuming we won every home game for the rest of the season, I can't see this team picking up enough road wins to make up the difference.