Hoops

Spain Game 2..... new links?

Saint Mary's essentially run 2 PG's and have for a while. Delly brought the ball up, and initiated the offense almost as often as WCC PotY Mickey McConnell did. Delly/Holt will more than likely be the starting backcourt for the upcoming season, and who gets named the starting PG/SG will be largely irrelevant due to the system they are running.

Strange to hear that you think Delly can't run a team when he finished second amongst all players (not just Australians) at the London Invitational in assists. Delly's not a smooth athlete, but to say that he's a "lost" as a PG is just plain wrong.

For the record I'm a Martin fan as well, and am surprised that he has not been getting more minutes/opportunities. I actually assumed that he must have been injured or carrying an injury at the moment for him to be getting so little time.

"Abercrombie is just a bum with hops"
that bum has an improving jumpshot, great defensive game and was Finals MVP. The bum is also a very approachable nice guy with no sign of an ego.
His defensive game whilst decent already is improving, averaging a few blocks a game in recent Tall Blacks games in Asia and Europe. As Paul said, he doesn't need the ball to be effective but this season he will have more of an opportunity offensively with Penney gone as will Vukona.
Mika Vukona is a beast, can pretty much defend anyone in International Basketball effectively (Stars are always going to shine but he is capable of limiting even the most talented players) and his heart and desire on the court cannot be measured. His game greatly benefited from a season at the Dragons under Gorj and came back to NZ with a much more reliable mid range jumpshot and will even knock down the odd 3 if left open.
Newley, Barlow, Abercrombie and Vukona are all such different players with contrasting styles to try compare them and what they bring to a game is difficult but I like Vukona and Abercrombie's for the reason Paul stated, neither of them need to hold the ball for 10 seconds of the shotclock to influence a game positively.

Nelwey, Ingles, Worthington

IMO they are just names that haven't proved anything at the International level.

Thats the problem with people these days--they think a certain team is good just because of the 12 players names on the list.

Abercrombie has proved himself at the International level--19 points against Spain at last years WC's (including many thunderous dunks), Avg. 12 and 7 at WC's and made All-Star 5 at recent Stankovic Cup.

Vukona had huge games at the Stankovic Cup (including 16 vs. Russia, and 15 another game not to mention tonnes of rebounds). Also he averaged 10 and 7 at FIBA 2010 WC's.

Ingles and Newley who everyone thinks is much better averaged 10.3ppg and 3rpg and 6 and 5 respectively.

Newley was 2/17 from 3-point land over whole tournament.
Ingles 8/26.

Newley and Ingles are just names..They were barely even that effective at the WC event.
And to be honest, they haven't been that effective at the recent Euro tournament.

So yeah on paper they may be better because one plays for Lietuvos Rytas and the other Barcelona.
But in theory, they haven't done alot and they are extremely inconsistent

I didn't get a chance to respond before now Paul, but I think Delly is strong enough now and more importantly, he's quicker and taller than Martin, who looked really slow against all of Spain's small guards.

I'd agree that when we first saw him play for the Boomers, Delly looked a little bit weedy, but one thing I've noticed is that he seems to have bulked up quite a bit in a year.

What really seals the deal for me though, is that Delly seems to have a more reliable mid-range shot, and seems more capable of creating something off the dribble, or getting to the basket than Martin.

Of course Vukona and Abercrombie could make the Boomers. They both would give us something we dont have in the present lineup. Vukona would get the spot of 1 of the extra bigs (eg Baynes or Kickert) that we are carrying and fill the role of a specialist stopper and rebounder. Abercrombie could replace one of the multitude of point guards (eg Gibson)that Brown has and give us another wing and would be a better defender than any we have.

We won't get a chance to see what will happen enxt year if we don't beat NZ!

Theres no doubt in my mind Delly is better than Gibson and, Offensively, he is better than Martin.

People are saying Martin is a great defensive player. But can he really be an effective defensive stopper against the best SG's/PG's in the world?

I have seen him be a great defensive player at ANBL level, but to be honest I haven't seen that same defensive effectiveness at the International level.

He only averaged 8.6mpg at 2010 WC's and only played 3 minutes against Slovenia, 1 against Serbia and 6 against Argentina.

Let's not forget, he is only 6"2. I don't think he would be able to guard the likes f Dragic (6"5), Milos Teodosic (6"5) or Juan Carlos Navarro (6"4) or Rudy Fernandez (6"6).
I don't think he would be able to contain Penney.
Im not sure if Martin marked up on Penney in the semi-final series against the Breakers, but in that series Penney still averaged 23.3ppg and lit them up for 38 in game 2.

Paul, I agree that was a poor game from the Boomers, particularly in the second half, when it did just become a loose collection of individuals jacking up shots. The discipline they showed in the first game was certainly missing. I wonder if that might have had anything to do with Nielsen? He was very vocal defensively in the first game and looked like he was orchestrating our defence much like Garnett does for the Celtics. But I didn't notice him anywhere near as much last night and I wonder if he just didn't have the same level of energy for this game? It would be tough backing up twice in two days against the Gasol brothers and Ibaka, especially when you are getting a bit older.

I disagree about Dellavedova though. I thought he created well offensively in that little purple patch where he and Mills strung a few baskets together. He was good in the previous game too. I don't think he is a gun PG or anything, but in some ways I think he is more of a PG than Mills.

He was also the only 'small' guard other than Mills to look like he belonged. Brown should never have started both Barlow and Ingles against Spain's pacy backcourt last night - neither could keep up with Navarro, who got it going very early. Delly should have started alongside Mills.

In comparison, Gibson once again looked out of his depth and showed zero ability to get us into our offence. Martin I like a lot at NBL level, but based on seeing him against quality intl opp a few times now, my gut is starting to tell me that he is too slow to cope with the better PGs. I wish Brown had given him some more opps with the starting lineup earlier in games to make a better judgement, but that is the way I have been feeling more recently.

Not a confidence building game that's for sure!

Its the Serge Ibaka show! He is just making everything right now. Wish Brown would run with Delly and Mills in the backcourt, but he hasn't since they had that little purple patch earlier in the game.

Running both Ingles and Barlow against Spain's quick guards doesn't work as one or the other just gets burned too often.

Final quarter coming up. Baynes has started to settle down a bit in recent games and I'm finally starting to believe in him a bit more. Has generally been solid on D and can be relied on to catch the ball round the basket and go up strong. I think he has now earnt the last spot on the roster for the qualifiers.

Nice jam on the fast break by Nielsen. Ogilvy needs to take a leaf out of his book and finish strong, instead of putting up soft shots that get swatted!

Yeah, their confidence is up and now they're draining everything. Would be nice if we had a shooter besides Mills who looks like he might make every shot from long range. All they can do is focus and hope the Spaniards start missing.

Would like to see them try to post up the Spanish guards a bit more with Ingles and Barlow. Unfortunately they were stopped from doing that earlier when Ingles was called for a crap foul while fighting for post position.

Delly has made a big diff in the last couple of minutes to get the lead back to ten. I like the way he creates on offence and he has got Mills going now with a couple of good looks.

Yeah, their confidence is up and now they're draining everything. Would be nice if we had a shooter besides Mills who looks like he might make every shot from long range. All they can do is focus and hope the Spaniards start missing.

Would like to see them try to post up the Spanish guards a bit more with Ingles and Barlow. Unfortunately they were stopped from doing that earlier when Ingles was called for a crap foul while fighting for post position.

Not a good start. The defensive focus is not the same and the Pau has found his range early. Only good thing for the Boomers is Patty hit a nice three for his first shot.

Yep - use the same legit Spanish link to watch game 2 on: http://www.lasextadeportes.com/inicio

That's why u need to read the whole thread bud... when I had time later on to check, I posted in the thread that it was 5am Adelaide time.

I'm going by the web page LC posted in the last thread so it should be. It was correct last time and the headline says 7pm Friday night tip off. There is a 7 hrs 30 min time diff from Spain to Adelaide, so should be 2:30am. Am assuming Valencia is on the same timezone as wherever they played this morning.

I think the link LC posted last night will work fine. Its an earlier 7pm tip off though, so gonna be an horrendous 2:30am start if you're in Adelaide! I'm going to try to watch it still.