Hoops

36ers Rebuilding thoughts

Spinner, you've made good points, but don't forget which city Clarke is coaching in. He would have expected questioning when he took the job.

The "flak" would be alot less, however the Sixers have been out of the finals for years now and that's not normal. It's like Perth or Melbourne not making the finals repeatedly; it's something that can happen but fans never expected to happen.

I think the intention of the "3-5 year plan" is that even though the contracts are 1-2 years, it's to make sure that they don't take on baggage if the 1st three years of recruiting only produce 1-2 gems for the rebuild.

Essentially you're doing a PDR for players who want to be in a Championship team. You're saying "Right, we're gunning for a title in 2 years, so far you've been handy, but you're not what we will need."

I actually don't mind the idea of a "rebuilding" phase for the Sixers in the NBL over the next 3 years or so as long as it is done correctly.
The whole idea of rebuilding is to obtain/retain and develop talent to contend in the future, and I think the recruiting we have done so far is the first step to this.

In the offseason we made significant changes to the roster, we brought in Carter (26), DeVries (28), Johnson (22), Dowdell (23), Winder (26) - Retained Herbert (26), Ng (27), Hill (24), Holmes (27) and Ballinger (31).
The majority of our team is currently entering/already in what is considered their "sporting prime" (27-32) with the rest of the team yet to hit 25 years old. For me this is a great start to the rebuilding process.

The addition of Warbout, Daly and now Creek also gives the team more youth to build from, as long as management doesn't drive them interstate, and all of them could be developed into the components of a future Sixers championship roster.

As Isaac said:

I guess it's about succession. Phased development. Waiting for target players to come off contract.

he'd like to get a local in the PG spot eventually...So you could have an import in that role temporarily.

I have no problem with a 3 year plan and being patient but if you are going to play that card, atleast play your young studs like Johnson, it will only benefit his development, and i think he is ready to start now, not star but is ready to start, he showed that both in his time starting with Melbourne and his limited minutes in Adelaide. I believe giving Johnson the C spot and wearing the lumps of inexperience will help us now and in the future, as to me he is our best Aussie scorer now and only 22 years of age, so has real potential to be the best c in the league in a couple of years!

A few comments here about Clarke's view of the world - basically, pull your heads in fans. "Get over the glory days from the turn of the century, we are rebuilding now"

OK – we will just continue to support the club, buy our season tickets, come to every game and all just to watch a work in progress. Of course, at the end of which, I am sure you will deliver what you are building.

Aside from the fact that I think that attitude is a cop out, I don’t understand how a three to five year plan be actioned when players are only on a one or two year contract?

The problem with a large number of fans here is that they have no patience and i must admit im struggling to keep my patience as our current standing is 2-5 while tigers are 1-6 and i would say we have had no where near as much of a shocker as the tigers but our record is clearly not reflecting that. When i was chatting to Carter even he was saying that the team is so young, they are building, but i dont think that this current win loss record is what they have planned. But in saying that im still going to keep supporting and see how this goes. its very easy to sit on the sideline and say what he should or should not have done, and thats all good and well in hindsight.

Yea i like Clarkes recruiting of guys like Carter, Johnson, Creek and Dowdell, havn't seen Creek yet but the others have all turned out well IMO. Over all i like clarke, just wish he would make a couple of tweeks.

My first two steps would be start Johnson and play him 25 mins a game, give him and ballinger first look on the offense and plenty of shots each and live with his ups and downs as he would develop, and either replace Winder with a different import PG or start Carter and play him the bulk of the pg mins being spelled by a new aussie pg or devires, hill, ng sharing the back up role, with winder leaving or playing sg/sf.

Both moves would give us a better balanced team NOW whilst giving young talent a chance to play and develop for the FUTURE.

If those things happen id be more than happy to be patient and watch the 36ers develop into a strong team i think most of our aussie content is some of the best young players going around, im a big fan of Johnson and Carter, Dowdell has plesently surprised me and i have high hopes for Creek and think Hill will improve a little more.

I dont think Ballinger should be moved on but i also dont think he will ever be the guy to carry a team to the title, so we either need to recruit a better Aussie, which there are very few in the NBL, a real 'stud' import to be our best player (ie of the level of Brooks, Mee or Farley), or hope guys like Johnson and Creek over the next few years can be our best player, or at a similar level as Balls, as i see him and Devries as good complimentary players, who i like, but not guys who can carry teams to titles.

Journo, this is why teams have rotations, for when players lack in 1 area. Honestly Balls isn't the best defensive post player, but he's good with blocks and is working on the D.

If he's failing to do his job, just sub him out for Dowdell or Holmes. The moment you need scoring again, sub Balls back on. Simple.

It's all about finding that starting combo to get the team going and for those clutch quarters. Winder/Carter/Holmes/Dowdell/Johnson are already a good defensive combo to run on the floor.

DJ "should" get promoted to start and rotate balls back down to PF. Still can't see the logic in the existing starting Frontcourt.

Too much is being made of all this stuff. Sixers are currently ranked 7th offensively and 6th defensively. Surprisingly, Sydney ranked best defence, but worst offence! Melbourne 8 and 8.

Real table:
TEAM Off Def TOT
Cairns 2 3 5
Wollongong 4 2 6
Perth 1 5 6
Sydney 9 1 10
Townsville 6 4 10
New Zealand 5 7 12
Gold Coast 3 9 12
Adelaide 7 6 13
Melbourne 8 8 16

Doesn't sound like much, but Sixers need to find and extra 4 points in offence, and save 1 point in defence. That's only a bit better shooting and tighter D - not too hard!

Good review Jonno - I got wild when I read that comment from Clarke. (robert shaw , from tasmania was told by the crows to apologise to fans for comments)

Carter has his moments . DeVries looks like he'd run the point pretty good.

Clarke will start the same 5 agen today.

Haven't read the sunday mail
Boti said Clarke doesn't read reviews - looks like he does now. Not very friendly to ADL fans, is it.
That comment reminds me a little of the second Crows coach (robert shaw ) telling ADL fans they didn't know as much as Vics and telling the media to print only positive stuff , otherwise they won't be allowed to attend.

For any Cavaliers fan or just for any1 who likes a bit of a challenge and loves their basketall, i was on the cavs site and i found this quiz, it would be interesting to see what peoples scores are.

heres the link

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/cavaliers_quiz_060823.html

my highest score is 10 out of 20.

Please post your scores how ever high or low they are.