Hoops

Ballinger and Crosswell out for season...

Maybe they were gonna move last seasons starting Centre to Power Forward and play a bitta Johnson and Helliwell at Centre.
Seems they were gonna put Helliwell on every time Perth put Nevill on , one game and Neville didn't trouble the scorers . Some think Nevills pretty good.

Hendo, I think we do need the extra big, simply because 10 mins of Helliwell every game will just kill us. It was depressing watching Wilkinson, Jackson and Vukona carve us up time after time by exploiting his lack of speed.

I think about 30 mins for each of DJ and Diamon is about right though. Just need a guy who can move his feet on D for about 10 mins and not cause us to leak so many points while our starting bigs are off the floor.

I don't think we should completely give up on the season. With the right replacements for Balls and Crosswell, I could see us making a late season run. In DJ, Simpson and Warren, we finally have the core of a good team. What we need is more from our bench, which regularly puts us in a big hole.

There probably aren't too many options, but a mobile big who can play some good defence would really improve the Sixers fortunes I think. Mottram sounds like the best of a poor bunch really. I liked Ben Knight's efforts for Sydney last season, but he'd be exposed as badly as Helliwell on D with his lack of footspeed now.

Dickel is sounding like one of the few realistic guard options. Might be worth it if he can play like he did last season for Sydney. Wouldn't expect too much though.

I hear Chris Paul wants out of Nola. Maybe he'd like a 3 month holiday from Stern and the NBA?

Dellavedova would be awesome, but can't see it happening this season.

Lets hope the Sixers are doing their due diligence and making the calls though. You never know who might say yes. Could we afford to pay Jordan for five minutes a game to close for us? ;-p

Isn't it more to do with once they nominate for the draft?
Because I know Jordan got fined not long ago for having a chat with a player in the draft or something.

With the season history, give Daly and Creek as many minutes as possible.

Save cash - tank the season.

We weren't planning on playoff action anyway.

Warren's young (quiet,shy) . He's gonna have to lead us now , I know. I saw another young American Guard
lose it here ,when Maher and Davidson were out injured.
Pretty sure Croswell will be missed and Warren will need some help. While forward there's plenty here , with Creek spending a lotta time on the bench and Simpson can do a few more minutes. A little bitta Helliwell , some Weigh and Johnson etc.

I assume that the insurance will cover injury payments - after all that is what you take it out for.

Panther32: Re Dickels socks, they hold his legs together.
Isaac: Jarrod Kenny has been training with the Breakers all season, think he came in short term as injury cover for Henry at the beginning of the season

Ok i'm going to be the devil's advocate here and say the season is far from over. We lost Ballinger who wasn't giving us much at all and we lost Crosswell who was a very steady influence but wasn't a big points contributor.
We still have 17 games in a 28 game season left, that's plenty of time to re evaluate what we have and what we need.
If i'm Marty and i'm confident the Sixers will owner my contract next season then i'm not going to recruit and just run with what we have.
But I think Marty know the target on his back is getting bigger and may think it's make or break.
Our standouts are Simpson, DJ (on one end) and Warren. We have two 3 men in Weigh and Creek so no need for another 3 man. What we need is the best possible PG we can get no matter the cost. Then we can rotate Warren through the SG spot. I don't mind Weigh covering the 2 spot a bit and chuck Creek at 3.
The biggest issue is there is not a lot out there.
Recruit Dickel on 2 conditions...we buy him white shoes and he's given shorter socks.
I think Marty has to pull a rabbit out of his hat from somewhere on this one as there is not a lot of quality out there. Would he have the balls to cut Warren for someone like Ervin to sure up the PG spot? Then go after someone like Jawai (if available) to split minutes with DJ and Simpson.

EC, putting it out there!

Rewind about 6 months, everyone was going bunta about "The Rash" saying how he was naturalised and should be playing, and now when there is an opportunity to push his barrow, we don't hear nothing from anyone!

I'm toey to get to the game Friday to see our team sans Ballinger and Crosswell.
Perhaps plenty of options forward , but Warren's gonna need a lotta help, now.

poach Daniel Dillon off Melbourne

I agree with "anonymous" (brilliant), this has brought things to a head and we need to shake up the backcourt. We need an import PG who passes first, has some experience and can lead. With Balls and Crossy out there's no leaders on that team.

PG- Import
SG- Creek/Ng
SF- Weigh
PF- Simpson
C- Johnson

Plus the rest and bring in an experienced Aussie big who can annoy on D (think David Cooper type)

I've written a long blog here

http://36reasons.blogspot.com/2011/12/where-to-now.html

Could be wrong but isn't Maynard an undersized 2?

Is it me or do some people see the role of a point guard to be more of a distributor of the ball and to look to get the ball to other scorers before taking the option of shooting themselves? Warren isn't perfect but he does have the makings of a very good PG. He's just more of a shooter than a passer which isn't a bad thing IMO considering he's averaging 16.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. They aren't the stats of a mug IMO, the only thing he needs to seriously work on (like the rest of the 36ers roster) is his defense.

Got to remember this is his first pro gig outside of college ball so even though he does have 4 years of NCAA ball behind him he is still learning the pro game and I for one don't think we should be looking to replace him. Simpson, DJ, Warren & Creek are the ones I'd be looking at keeping and building the team from there.

Dickel would be a good short term pickup. At least with him getting a few minutes @ back up PG it will take the heat off your Import and he is pass first so guys will see enough ball to develop. Dickel spent his days with the Tallblacks getting guys the ball when they were hot, Cameron, Jones, Penney etc.Dickel would also bring some leadership qualities and experience to the group. Tait wouldn't be a bad backup either and wouldn't command big $.

Whose that dude from Forestville? you know, um, the guy what carved up ABL teams like a hedge trimmer through jellyfish.

Coming in late into our 'over-coached' team may not make any difference.

Seems there was a press conference that : -
" I'm confident I can come back next season and I'll be around with the club this season . " Ballinger spoke. " I'd like to be here. I THINK Leeanne and the club wants me. But , I don't know . ".. hint hint.

'The club has not decided on a replacement captain , yet.' TV news said.

Helliwell's been all 'round the world an back agen
and has done a few good things here .
Not liked by hoops , of course .

I tend to agree with hustle. As much as I hate to admit it this season is pretty much done and dusted so why not move Daly and Warbout up to the rotation? I haven't seen much of Warbout but Daly hasn't been too bad considering his lack of NBL expereince and decent minutes. Lets put it bluntly, things could get worse but the way things are looking its not good anyway so I'd give our development players a go. Besides, its cheaper and the other players know what they're getting.

Honestly, if it were up to me I would only go looking for other players to replace Balls and Cross if they were available.

No matter who we get and how much money we throw at them, they wont be able to win games as they will only be given 10 minutes of court time to bring us back in the game at which point Weigh comes back on to lose with his 35min of game time.

Most likely Clarke would love Weigh as his Capitain.

Now???

I'm currently in year 12 and i chose to do a feature article on local Australian basketball players trying to live the NBA dream. It consists of an inteview as a source document so i was wondering if anyone was willing to give me Luke's email so i could ask him a few questions. it would be greatly appreciated. If you do not want to get his email exploited on this site then could someone please email me what it is at tmaglaris_03@hotmail.com