Hoops

Schenscher Has signed with Townsville

Well, IF Big Red has decided to stay in Townsville then good luck to him. For DJ at least that is good news as it means that he will most likely (and about time too) be the 36ers starting centre in 2011-12. He should have been last season IMO.....

But, here is something that I know I've thought about and I think a few others have noticed this as well. When it came down to it, the 36ers didn't do any better with DJ as the focus of the offense than they did up until the point when Balls got injured against Cairns.

What I mean is sure, DJ put up big numbers, but that happens when you're the focal point of the offense. The team structure during those last 3 games never changed. It was still the same "get the ball to the centre" mentality that we had before, the difference being that DJ is a much bigger target than Balls and while he (DJ) likes to be a bit of a mid-range shooter despite his 6'11" height, I believe he is be better under the basket than Balls is and he can create more (he just needs to learn to shoot left handed or other teams will just blanket his right side and limit his options). His extra height also showed in his rebounding #'s in those last 3 games, that constant on-court height was something the 36ers lacked big time in 2010-11 and hopefully Clarke has learned from that.

Hopefully Balls and DJ can combine well on the court as the starting 4 and 5 but the teams offensive structure needs to change. We need more than just 1 or 2 players scoring the points and grabbing the rebounds or the team and us 36ers fans are in for another disappointing season.

Now that we're not getting Big Red, should he 36ers be looking at using the extra money and points to get a PG like Gary Ervin? That to me is a no brainer, we should now be going hard after a high quality (for the NBL) PG and the best available is the reigning MVP (or the previous one in Homicide Williams). Having a PG who can not only dish out assists but one who can defend well and score 20+ ppg really is a must IMO.

That's my rant for the night, now I'm going to watch the just started Monaco GP on ONE. Lap 2 and Webber is 4th behind Vettel, Button and Alonso.....

Johnson so young , you'd expect improvement.
Did well when our starting Centre was injured.
Did well , the season before when MEL starting centre was injured.
Whether there's been improvement and whether he can play alonside Ballinger, we don't know, from games and the performances of Sam Harris at training were absorbing.

Helliwell is a little too slow for my liking. Would prefer a mobile energizer bunny as a backup big. Someone who can snap our boys out of a funk when they come out flat.

Isaac, out of those guys you listed I'd only see Garlepp and maybe Behrendorff as Gruber or Rickert types. The other guys are not mobile or aggressive enough. Even then, I would MUCH rather Gruber or Rickert than Garlepp or Behrendorff. If its one of the latter, we might as well just resign Holmes.

Good work townsville. After a strong season last year and great work ethic by luke, you would have been mad not to resign him. Even better for this thread now that he is off the list cos how many threads can you have on one player? Seriously!

Has any of this actually been confirmed? I've done a fair bit of searching and there is not one bit of evidence I can find that says that Luke Schenscher HAS signed with Townsville, other than Boti's article which is only saying that he believes its a given, not that it has actually happened.

I've checked news sources, twitter, facebook and found nothing confirming this. If he has signed with the Crocs things are being kept very quiet.

And what happened to the May 27th deadline the Crocs gave him?

Anons - How do they work? And how can I ignore most of them?

As a back up 5 n 4 ...... most times... I think of ..
Adrien Sturt..... blocks dunks a great 3point shooter
Came over here for a trial before, but someone said;
'Your in the wrong place my friend, you'd better leave'
Anyways , David Cooper's retired now, so worth another try.. A little better proposition than Mottram.

Overload us in the paint? Johnson, Schenscher and Ballinger? Considering Ballinger's game is not in the post and Johnson seems to be afraid of the paint aswell, I'd hardly say we'd have been overloaded. It would've been nice to at least always have a tall on the floor considering last year we had so many instances where the Sixers would not box out and we gave up offensive boards - or we didn't even try to rebound our own missed shots.

As it is, we've got few people on the team (if any) at the moment who are known as post players or good rebounders. I'll be buggered if I'm buying yet another season membership to watch Jacob Holmes be the only player on the Sixers who can rebound.

I think that line up could work well id use this as the depth chart

C Johnson(25 mins)/Clark (15mins)
PF Clark (10 mins)/Ballinger(25 mins)/Holmes(5mins)
SF Weigh (15 mins)/Creek (15 mins)/Holmes (10 mins)
SG Herbert (20mins)/Ng(10 mins)/Weigh(5mins)/Crosswell (5mins)
PG Ervin(30 mins)/Crosswell(10mins)/Daly (DP)

Giving Minute totals of

Ervin 30
Clark 25
Ballinger 25
Johnson 25
Weigh 20
Herbert 20
Creek 15
Crosswell 15
Holmes 15
Ng 10

If they want to make it a main 8 rotation use Holmes and Ng more sparingly and up the other guys minutes by 2-3 each.

I do agree that 2 import guards doesnt seem to work, im generally not a huge fan of import C's but if Rickert came at the right price he would be ok, but if not a proven import C id be going for a versatile import Fwd with some toughness like a Young or Maxey who both would likely come cheap as playing NZBL.

I think a line up of

Johnson/Mottram or Vanderjagt or Dowdell
Ballinger/IMPORT (Maxey or Young)
Weigh/Creek
Herbert/Ng
Ervin/Crosswell

Starting Herbert after his injury may be a risk but id be confident that if he stays healthy he would give us atleast 8pts 5 rebounds, some good outside shooting and defense, which is basically the same as Dillon did in Cairns last year, which i think should be ok.

Obviously id make contact with the top Aussies ala Barlow, Newley, etc and offer them what we had on the the table for Schenscher and see if they are interested in returning, but if not go with the team above and up Ervins offer a bit to get him signed up.

KET, you're right, we did use the bench too much last year. Its hard not to when your starting five is mostly bench quality material!

I'm not that worried about losing out on Schensch. As I have said before, I'd much rather throw big bucks at Ervin anyway. Hopefully no Luke will help make that happen. I think Ervin would be a big difference-maker for the Sixers.

I'm not really interested in Mottram. He had his chance a few years ago and did nothing to inspire confidence. I do agree with going for a cheapish import big to come off the bench. Would love a Gruber or Rickert type of player: experienced, good rebounder, energetic and aggressive. The kind of spark we need when DJ or Balls start a game badly.

If we had inside presence off the bench like one of the above, then I'd be happy to go with Dowdell as the fourth big. His outside shooting would be a nice complementary skill off the bench.

You could then go with someone like Herbert to start at SG. Whoever starts at that position HAS to be able to shoot the three reliably though, as the rest of that starting lineup is not great from long range.

You might have missed it, but Crosswell has already been signed as the backup point, so Daly will only be in the squad as a dev player now.