Hoops

36ers announce signing of Troy DeVries

If DeVries has Rob Beveridge and Marty Clarke backing him in then I am more than happy to have him. Its going to be an interesting season....could we end up as the NBL equivilent of the pheonix suns? undersized but able to put up huge nights offensively, especially from beyond the arc...

Perhaps another consideration is that his Spanish Team has been in financial trouble the past few years and he, like many other American players who come to Australia, decided that a confirmed pay packet, in a country where they speak English, in a league which he is familiar with, is preferable to the uncertainty of another year in Spain.

In particular , looking forward to ADL v MEL -
will be fascinating to watch it all.

Holmes - first pick of 'em all , so far , on training ability/form.

FYI i didnt actually change the wikipedia page i just checked it out as others were on about it before and it appears someone was having a funny moment.

they are probably paying him in happy meals rather than cash too haha.

Anyone writing off this team already is nuts given that it will have four new starters compared with last season. You can hardly compare the two rosters.

I would like to see them play together before making any rash assessments, but am certainly looking forward to another season.

"According to wikipedia it now says he has been snatched up by the burger king whoppers on a 10 year deal."

So we didn't get him in the end? I was always worried he'd finish up signing to a package / happy meal deal elsewhere.

Seen it so many times before - Whooper, fries, coke and an import. For 50c more, they could upsize him to a forward.

according to wikipedia it now says he has been snatched up by the burger king whoppers on a 10 year deal.

I think DeVries is a good signing as i read on the nbl site we were 3rd last in 3pointers last year, so this fixes that problem, along with Ng.

Im not too worried about the size of our roster as all teams bar Tigers and Crocs are small, or no bigger than us

Our lack of a gun SF could be a issue against some teams but Hill, Herbet and Holmes at SF with a import at SG like we have is pretty much the same as Ng, Herbert, Hill at SG with a import SF, i cant see a major difference either way aslong as the import performs and Hill, Herbert, Holmes and Ng are as good or better than last year, having DeVries for Groves should be a automatic upgrade in the rotation, and aslong as Winder is decent he will be sort of equal to gilchrist and better if he doesnt get injured,

Johnson if he plays like he did when anstey was out will be one of the top 3 or 4 centres (aussies anyway) and at 21 could develop into the best in the next few seasons,and if he doesnt miss games through injury could be a upgrade on Burston.

So personally im fairly happy with this sqaud and lok forward to see what they bring when the season starts

Igotmadskills, i could not have put it better myself i completely agree, its looking more like a team that will share rather than having the one go to man. because when that one go to man has a bad game the team is screwed. i think we can be a very dangerous team as other teams wont be able to shut us down too easily due to the vast options available on the floor. there is no longer that one guy to shut down.

Personally, I would have loved to have seen a "Johnson, Ballinger, Herbert, Ng, Hill" lineup.

Ng needs to start already. The man can shoot, but he just doesn't get any plays run for him beyond the usual "open pick".

As for Hill, BobbyTables hit that one on the head. Clarkey better be teaching that boy some fundamentals; if he could just get a lighter touch round the post and stopped trying to be Penny Hardaway on the drive, then he'd be a great player.

Oh well, couple of months to go...

This roster is about team, there is no 1 player that isnt a team player from what i can tell so hopefully the team gells. We needed that extra outside shooter to really spread the floor and let the little bigs go to work one on 1. Holmes will pull down enough boards and if we can finally play team defence we should be able to grab enough..
Dowdell can play more than just centre also so we have each position covered nicely.

Was Farley ever seriously considered, given we went the smaller option? Seems like a similar player to me, with DeVries' main advantage being youth?

My original response was a little pedantic, I probably didn't really need to say it. Was just saying.

On-topic - I agree with SixerFan, should be a good team to watch. I have reservations similar to some that have been expressed by others about the overall squad, but ultimately I'm happy to trust the new coach and just sit back and see what happens. The Sixers in the Smyth days often lived-and-died by the 3, and this season should be no different!

Start Brad Hill - now that's funny.

Considering last year he couldn't even finish layups, over dribbled through traffic many times, turned the ball over...he's lucky he's even on a roster to begin with.

Pre season form be damned - it means nothing once the season starts. Remember when we all thought Paora Winitana was going to be s surprise packet and give us a lift off the bench?

Rated highly by Bevo, on good money in Spain and the like - (Boti Nagy , news adelaidenow)

Kobe24 - He was just pointing out that anything can be updated on Wikipedia. I could change it to say that The Adelaide 36ers have just invaded Miami and kidnapped Lebron James. No need to get so defensive.

Kobe24 - NBL.com.au hadn't posted it when you made your original post. That's not the point anyway - everybody already knew who the signing would be. The point is that your original post was useless.

Might win the SEABL with this squad... And that is definitely a MIGHT!??

Kobe24 - that doesn't mean anything official because Wikipedia can be edited by anybody. You can update it to say he's playing for the Burger King Whoppers in the Filipino League if you want.

Big Sexy - I think I agree with you, I was 50/50 on whether to include Holmes or Herbert in the starting line up, I ended up going with JH because of the rebounding, but now that I think about it, you're probably right.

Wiki have already updated his profile as a sixers player

I don't understand why Marty kept saying "athletic SF" when asked what we were looking for?

This is, of course, assuming it is in fact DeVries we've signed.

Interesting, looks like Ng will be pushed to the bench this season. I'd thought he may get a starting gig under Clarke.

So I'm assuming:

Johnson
Ballinger
Holmes
DeVries
Winder

Then a bench of Dowdell, Ng, Hill, Carter...very small team we're running this year. It'll be interesting to say the least.