Hoops

Clarke: NBL should consider one import per team

Yes, I think so.
The one training here with the Adelaide 36ers
was telling Corey Williams to ' pass it '
at the High Stakes Hoops , here.

Pretty good numbers there for the Pythons, seeing Homicide didn't pass it at all.

KB3 - Sorry, just gotta computer issue and this one will take half an hour to turn a page...
Although.. He DID play High Stakes Hoops here.. I'd forgotten. .. Sixers boss man did tell me. So that may help to know him?

Aw, the one training here is not famous..
He conveyed the feeling he knew what he was doing, that he had everyting under control, at his first NBL training session.

I mentioned (on sixers open training sessions this week). I attended training on Thursday and they were very sharp.
I was looking at two Johnsons numbers 21 and didn't know who one was.
Anyways - I asked the boss man there.. seeing we're a bit short up forward, have you dragged one in .
He's a friend of Eddie Shannon, with ability and asked if he could train.
That's all I know about him.
From memory, he's about Mitch Creeks build.
Might be ex Phoenix , not sure....?

Who is this Kevin Johnson guy I have been hearing about lately? Young South Aussie? Big? Small? Ex Phoenix Suns? ;-)

I like 15. Aaron Bruce Rhys Carter Sam Harris Kevin Johnson here training really aching to play.

I don't agree that there should be 15 contracted players. Teams simply won't use all those players and why should the 8th man be getting paid the same as the 15th man, when all the 15th man is doing is training.
e.g. It would be like Mitch Creek getting paid the same as Jan Warbout.

Having 12 contracted players is fine. But 15 is too much. Your paying 3 guys money for training..They are getting paid to train..I can think of heaps of quality young basketball players in Oz that could do that.

That's interesting.. I liked Ron Howard's first game here. The pressure's gonna be on him , then , in a coupla weeks , with Carter fit n Bruce here and Kevin Johnson (looks a bit lika Creek) here.

We're not aware of that. That's what started the talk.
'cause we wanted to play Harris on Sun nite, but didn't think we could.

if we could swap Sam Harris in and out for some games
Kevin Johnson for Ron Howard in and out for some games
That's the flexibility he'd like to see.
Seems pretty good to me.

HO, I think you're right, Big Red is a little soft at times, but I have also seen him get mauled repeatedly without any calls. Hopefully the refs really are starting to get it - the attitude seems to be "you're big enough to look after yourself".

I am liking the way the league is at the moment too, with contrasting styles and younger, more athletic players. You've got your Perths and GCs and Adelaides going for fast, small lineups and then Melbourne, Townsville and even Cairns have gone quite big.

Agreed Paul, things are now quite good on the youth front. And the Sixers may not be as good as I'd like them to be right now, but I at least can hope for a brighter future with some younger guys who have a chance to be really good. It was depressing watching Copeland, Maher, Thomas, Timmons, etc getting beat all the time and knowing that next year they'll be even slower!

LA Boy, I feel like the Sixers are not far away at all right now. I think the main thing is that extra big like a Schenscher or Neville to allow Balls to play PF against the bigger opponents and Johnson to be an impact player off the bench while he develops.

We don't even need a Wortho or a Homicide I don't think. With Creek coming onboard, the Sixers finally have a SF prospect that can be an elite player - something we haven't had since Cattalini left the club. Until Creek develops, Hill will be okay I think, as he is finally starting to get it.

Shannon is pretty good and I think can do the job for this year and next. If we hang onto Bruce and Carter, perhaps we will have PG covered without the need for an import in two years.

LA Boy, agreed, there must be a balance. I'm just saying that the league (and especially the Sixers) have not developed young players enough in the past few years. Thats why the SIxers must rebuild the hard way - from scratch - without that balance

I knew there was at least one guy I forgot... I think my list should have been more than enough though!

"the NBL isn't a development league"

Its exactly this attitude that saw the Sixers running out teams of geriatrics in the mid-2000s. Not only did they not win, but they were boring to watch. Seeing Copeland, Davidson, Maher, Thomas, etc running around well past their prime was depressing.

Other teams had old geriatrics playing well after they should have too, because virtually no-one was developing any new talent in the mid-2000s. In a healthy league those old guys should be forced out by younger talent over time.

You have to give young guys a chance to get into the league and learn alongside vets. They have to learn how to focus and remain confident when playing in front of a big crowd. They have to learn how the refs call the game. They have to get used to the speed and savvy at the top level.

If you don't do this, you end up where the Sixers are now. Several years of losing and having to try to change a losing culture without enough vets who can still lead by example with their play on court.

AIS team in NBL with Uni scholarship attached.

Ideally, it would be great if the NBL could run a system similar to the NRL Toyota Cup.
The Younger Team (i.e. Under 24s or so) could travel with the senior team and play games before the actual NBL game.
I think the NRL Toyota Cup is a great example..Players still get the chance to develop and get to play extremly high quality games week in week out.
Obviously, Money is the big issue. With alot more money, something like this could work.

I just dont get the attitude he seems to have of wanting to spread the minutes out so much across all 10 players. Surely at the Elite level you have a rtotation of 8 players with the rest used only sparingly. Now he wants 15?

I'd go slighty further and say each team can have one Marquee player. That player can be from anywhere and is excluded from the salary cap.

It might mean then that some team have no imports, but instead have lured a Brad Newley or Nathan Jawai back to play.

In a manner of speaking, while we can certainly blame game performance for some of the comments, Clarke has certainly been firing off some comments which in all honesty needed to be said by someone of importance.

Unfortunately while as fans, we can all comment when our team loses, but the comments echo from everyone. Unfortunately not everyone has deep enough pockets to pay out fines for commenting.

Honestly I'm suprised the Marty hasn't received a fine yet. Must be quite good with his wordplay when making comments.

Certainly think when everyone heard him call the NBL a bush league on National TV, it was a good thing.