Hoops

36ers v Hawks, December 16

Warbout came on right at the right time. Last thing you want with 5-6 minutes left is to let up on the pressure and have the Hawks make a 10 point run at you. Then you are down by 10-12 with 3 1/2 minutes on the clock, with the opposition on a roll and feeling it.

Nothing worse for the confidence of a DP in their first minutes in a blowout game to get on with 5-6 minutes left, only to be dragged a couple of minutes later. Good safe move to wait until the game is over.

Weigh's injury resulted in less game time hower he's output on the stat sheets over the past 4-5 games has been much the same.

Perhaps Weigh is more efficient when playing 20-25 minutes.

Creek's pressure on Martin was excellent and while his shooting was poor I still felt more compelled to support him taking open shots.

I heard Weigh was nominated Court Captain at about 6pm
Must've been a late decision to play him , but he was pretty bad out there.
Shouldn't have played , but I mentioned that before.

Mitch Creek dunk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9llcGzTEjxo

Diamon Simpson dunk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXd5HSYkR7I

Look on the bright side with numbers, we got more than can pack into Woollongong, The Cage, and Townsville sowhy the major issue.

It all comes down to winning and if the team had produced 2 home wins more and were sitting just outside the top 4, I'd think we would have had perhaps just over 4500. But, if we lose, money isnt spent.

The crowd wasnt sizeable but theoretically, district was on, a-league was on, school holidays just began, people went away or began going away for the break.

Overall, those who went enjoyed the night me thinks so to those who didnt go or didnt wanna go, they lost out.

Most likely I'd have doubled up on Warren , rather than play back in a zone.
The Captain started and got worse as the game went on.
Some good runs , like 14-0 ,when he sat down.
Shouldn't have played.

Tonight's attendance was our worst crowd since 1 December 2007 when only 3,666 turned up to see us beat the Razorbacks 125-118.

Sadly the screaming banshee was the guy sitting next to me and his young son. Not knocking them as they were having fun and it was apparently it was just the 2nd time they've been but most of it (in the 2nd half) came from the fact they thought "Wollongong" was spelled wrong on the scoreboard.....

Ah there you go, according to Brett Maher on the OneHD replay (3rd quarter), Stephen Weigh was carrying an injury into tonight's game. "Somewhere around the foot" he was told by the coaching staff.

The only real complaint I would have with the performance tonight was Diamon Simpson's free throws. Can someone PLEASE teach him how to put some arch into the flight of the ball? Two of his charity shots in the 1st half hit the lower front of the rim for crying out loud. Other than that I couldn't fault his performance tonight at either end of the court.

Its a good thing he is proving to be such a strong player with most other facets of his game because he still struggles when taking free throws. He was 0/3 tonight and none looked like going in.

What price his overall game performance gets him Adelaide's 2nd PotW award for the season? This is his 6th double-double of the season, only 1 behind league leading Julian Khazzouh (who played 2 more games).

Yeah I won't argue about Creek's defense tonight, he earned it out there.

Did someone slip some Valium into OF's water before the game?? He had plenty of the ball when on but in his 20 minutes he had an absolute Barry Crocker.

And Brett Maher tipped the Hawks to win.....

A great win, but yeh, let's not too excited, the Hawks were a mess. Their starters contributed 23 points combined! We had 2 guys almost score that on their own. Forman and Davidson normally give us trouble- tonight they were terrible.

Jonno- some ok points but no team stays together for 5-10years these days. Different league than the 90's. Clarke has struggled to bring in the name guys from Europe. Creek was a good get but the only other one was DJ and that's because he was buried on a strong Tigers frontcourt.

King James- Weigh's lack of minutes weren't that directly related to the win. He sat a lot in the 2nd half when the game was done. It is a concern though that in such an easy win he basically contributed nothing besides some free throws. Creek's shooting was awful but he was impressive defensively. I don't like those two on the court at the same time. Tonight I would have preferred a Warren/Ng/Creek/Simpson/DJ starting unit but it ended well anyways.

Herbert has a sneakily good contribution, Simpson had a blinder and DJ was good for half the game (read: one half of the court).

Good to get the win but Hawks were awful. 63pts on 35% shooting with basically nothing from their starters and only 14pts in the paint. They just don't have a dominant scorer outside Catron it seems and 3 of their starters are on the downside or nearing the end of their careers.

I've done a full report at

http://36reasons.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-36ers-v-hawks.html

Great win by the team tonight as it will do the players confidence the world of good BUT I wouldn't get carried away. Sure we won by 24 but look at who we beat, Wollongong would have been hard pressed to beat an ABL team tonight and if not for Joevan Catron it would have been a 30+ win.

Saying that though I will say I liked what I saw defensively from the 36ers. They actually look organised and for once I didn't see anyone just dribble past Weigh like he wasn't there.

How would you be huh? Clarke is finally forced to cut Weigh's minutes and Creek, who we seemingly have all been pushing for more time, had a hard time getting the ball in the hoop. 1/9 isn't good for 25 minutes. And was it me or was Weigh limping when he was last subbed off? And I had to do a double take when it was 7:40 into the first before Clarke made a sub, and that was only after Creek committed a silly foul.

On a personal note its nice to know the 36ers think my Yamaha is a 'beautiful bike' hehehe.

I know its only the Hawks who are bottom of the ladder (the only team below us), but i hope this shows Marty we only need 8 man rotation, especially with a young team they should be able to log good minutes.

I hope next year they sign 8 main guys and 2 minimum guys, with the 8 main guys playing atleast 90% of the minutes.

Ballinger being off contract should help us with cap room to re-sign Simpson, Johnson and Creek. I would offer Ballinger a new deal but reduced greatly in minutes and he plays 15-20 mins a game off the bench backing up Pf and C.

I would basically keep our main 8, its a good young core and guys like Johnson, Simpson, Creek, Warren, Weigh will be some of the top players for years to come, and Herbert is a solid role player and Ballinger and Crosswell can give us some experience off the bench.

If Ng and Helliwell accept minimum $$ and minutes, i dont mind them staying, if not give those spots to young guys like Daly or guys doing well in ABA/SEABL/NZBL looking for a shot and happy to play the role as 9th and 10th man and prove themselves if they want extra minutes.

I think a rotation of the following would be strong for the next few years and we could still finish the season strong even if we dont make playoffs.

The rotation being

C Johnson (30)/Ballinger (10)
PF Simpson (30)/Ballinger (5)/Weigh (5)
SF Weigh (25)/Creek (15)
SG Creek (15)/ Warren (10)/Herbert (15)
PG Warren (20)/Crosswell (20)

That to me should be a playoff team, and for the next 5-10 years given our young squad.

Johnson and Simpson are great scorers and quicker and more athletic than most opposition they will face and have good complimentary skill sets,

our SF are 2 of the best young ones in the country, if Creek develops a half consistant jumpshot watch out! I would currently get Creek watching video of a guy like Darnell Mee, use him as a defensive stopper and develop a good all round game like Darnell had, then his jumpshot wont be the be all and end all, he can still have a great game without scoring much ala Mee and Damian Martin, Mackinnon, Saville, etc.

our PG combo should be as strong as anyone,

SG is probably our weakest spot but Creek, Warren, Herbert should be able to handle it by comittee and if we have any spare $$ we could possibly look to upgrade our SG, maybe we offer say Newley Ballingers $$$ and see what he says, (if we have enough to re-sign Creek, Johnson, Simpson without spending it) short of that im happy to let Creek, Warren, Herbert share it.

Basically our 9th and 10th man dont play, just in blow outs, foul trouble and injuries, unless they train the house down and earn there spot over one of the main 8.

Its been along time since we have had such a young talented core of players, no matter where we finish this season, we dont need to blow up the roster, which is a nice change especially given some of our old rosters in the past when we had an ageing Timmons, Wheeler, Copeland.

Aslong as they stay competitive and he adjusts his game coaching a bit and retains the young talent he has recruited ie Johnson, Simpson, Creek, this should be enough to keep Clarke for another year, (i know that wont be a popular comment on here).

Clarke has been far from perfect but has done some good things.
1. recruited some of the top young talent including our imports.

2. we are not great defensively but we are a tougher team, we dont back down to physical intimidation against teams such as Perth which some of the past line ups would have.

3. I assume he has contacts with some of the top young aussie talent in college ball, so hopefully we will see some of the top returnees coming to Adelaide if we have the $$ to fit them in. He has already shown this with Creek, Weigh and Johnson 3 of the top young talents in the league, also i imagine Simpson and Warren came through college coach contacts, with Simpson coming from StMarys. Hopefully this continues for years to come. Guys like Goorj and Bevo stay at the top by continuously recruiting the best young talent, Clarke seems to have a good ability to do this, better than Smyth and Ninnis showed.

4. He coaches a high scoring up tempo game, which i personally like from a fans point of view, scoring is no problem, we just need to get a bit better definsively, playing guys like Creek more will help this and guys like Johnson have to continue to work and develop in this area, we dont need to be a great defensive team but atleast a middle of the league level defensive team should have us in the playoffs with our offensive talent.

There are many flaws, including rotations, but if he uses the 8 man rotation i have suggested that will be alot better IMO.

Yeah i like your rotation, i would still start Weigh, but definatly play him less minutes and Herbert and Creek a few more.

it could almost be a blessing in disguise that balls is out now. it shows the points and money could probably be better spent. im a big ballinger fan but considering his form, he is costly. and simpson is just a machine

D Simpson puttin' on a clinic .... again !!!!!

nah I'd have Johnson @ SG lol, Simpson is playing like a beast

WTF have you done with the Sixers?

Simpson C
Weigh PF
Creek SF
Johnson SG
Warren PG

would have won plenty more games, what were ya thinking Marty lol

Agreed with Simpson, i hope the club have put a offer to him aswell as Creek and Johnson, the spare money from Ballinger being off contract should help.

If we can build around those 3 plus Weigh and Warren (or another import guard) things will be looking up very soon for the 36ers franchise.

D Simpson - where does he rate as the best ever imports play for the 6rs, potentially very very very high based on the blistering super consistent season he is putting together. Love to see him locked into a long time contract if at all possible. Captain too.

no unfortunatly watching online

good start to the game.

The injuries may be a blessing in disguise as it forces clarke to play a 8 man rotation and give Creek more time.

Hope we can continue this and win!

Sixers playing better defense already

Forum seems a little quiet for a Monday so I thought I would pose a question.

What are people's opinions about the NBL setting up a Draft System?


Seems a number of clubs are struggling to recruit numbers while Singapore and NZ (bar Ronaldson) seem to be struggling to attract any players at all.

Not sure that there is a big enough turnover of rookies to run a NBA style draft but could the league look at running a draft/trading system similar to the AFL?

You know how i feel, I Believe ;-D

Anyone nervous about our prospects know that this is the league's youngest starters that can step way up
and make a few mistakes.

whos been the captain for the last couple of games then. Neither ballinger or crosswell have started..

Man, I would love to see us win in a blowout at home. I can't recall the last time that happened.

Massive crunch game for us. Both teams are struggling like a kid with learning difficulties trying to do year 12 maths.

Once again the rotations are the key to the success. Creek is the red headed stepson this year. 10 mins is not enough if fully fit. Weigh will start and chew up minutes like a fat kid at a smorgasbord. Herbie seems to play his best when things are tight, the Ninja when we just need a score to get us up again, or get some momentum, and Daly did a pretty good job last game.

Helliwell is the worry though. I believe it is in instruction rather than skill level. With such a man mountain on the team, his strengths aren't getting exploited. The Sixers need to use him more effectively. All players are "tools" and Marty is the "tradesman". You don't see too many tradies using their jackhammers for drilling holes. IMO Helliwell's talents aren't getting used.

For the Horks, Oscar is still my favourite. Able to do almost everything, expect a great game from him. Martin is playing like a man possessed. Catron is another unit to watch out for. While Campbell and Saville are down a bit this season against their career expectations, both men know how to play and are patient men in the tight games.

Sixers SHOULD win, but this could be another game where they invent another way to give their opposition an away win.