Hoops

Anstey's coaching ability

Morrison a one on one player, only if isolated and within 6 feet of the ring. To be fair, I'd put Farrahkan in the push category. But again, he joined late, took some time to get going and then looked very ineffective after having niggling injuries. So there was only a month or two in there when he was actually good and going.

The 7 or 8 times a game they could get Morrison in that position, were generally very fruitful. But other than that he was mostly useless. You couldn't run an offense with the 5 man receiving the ball outside the paint, because it'd suddenly become 4 on 5! I think I recall him taking one shot (maybe 2?) outside 6 feet for the entire season. And I thought "Ah!! so that's why he never shoots them..."

Interesting point. Based on my observations I'd probably rate Melbourne about average in terms of capable 1v1 players:

Perth - Ennis, Redhage. Push: Beal, Knight (oft injured).
Adelaide - Johnson, Ervin. Push: Gibson.
Melbourne - Goulding. Push: Worthington, Morrison.
Wollongong - Clarke, Tiggs, Martin.
Sydney - Young. Push: Ogilvy, Carmouche.
NZ - Push: Wilkinson, Johnson, Abercrombie
Cairns - Push: McCamey, Wilson.
Townsville - Conklin. Push: Pace.

Melbourne didn't have great depth, and the loss of Dennis hurt them. I'll grant you that.

Yeah I suppose the improvement thing is a two edged sword. You can always take the interpretation that he had improved players but that should've led to more success.

It's kind of having your cake and eating too though, if you A. Fail to give him credit for helping them improve and then B. Criticise him for not doing better with the improved players.

Totally agree about the stagnant offensive issues, but I'm not sure how much blame should be given to Anstey there. They simply didn't have a lot of good one on one players. You need a certain amount of offensive ability to come from guys who can create. They only really had Goulding who could create consistently. Yes, ideally in theory if you have a good offense and everyone can pass the ball then you can get an offense going, but I still maintain that you need some serious one on one ability distributed through the team. And look at last year's roster....

Tomlinson is a good passer and a decent three point shooter, and those two things alone make him a decent enough floor general. But he doesn't get much penetration going off the dribble. Walker is a 3/4 combo man who was playing 3, he generally needs people to create shots for him. He can go one on one but is best when he's only two or 3 steps from the ring. Greer and Macmillan have both always been very limited offensively. Morrison was useless any time he was further than 6 feet from the ring. Ballinger is a good spot up shooter but doesn't create his own shots anymore. He can catch and shoot but he doesn't move with the ball.

That leaves Wortho and Farrahkan. Wortho can still score a bit, and Farrahkan added spark, but he was a late addition to the team, and after he had some niggling injuries down the stretch of the season he missed some games and when he came back he never looked the same again.

So with a team like that, it's kind of to be expected that Goulding would be bailing them out all the time and that they would look stagnant way too often. This year with both Dennis and Macrae there, and Barlow at the 3 with Walker reverting to mostly the 4 spot or a combo of 3/4, I'm tipping they'll look a lot more fluent.

On the flip side: so much individual improvement from Tomlinson, Goulding, Walker, Odigie etc, yet Melbourne were only a slightly above-average team. I disagree they were "undoubtedly the 3rd best team going around", and was very happy for Adelaide to play Melbourne in the semis instead of Sydney or Wollongong (and of course Perth).

Goulding far too often had to bail out a stagnant offense that provided few options. Defensively they were solid (and uninspiring), but didn't generate many easy transition opportunities. It was only late the regular season that Melbourne started playing to their potential, and even then they were sporadic.

Melbourne should be a clear top 2 side along with Perth this year. Not only do "United" (ugh) have the talent to succeed, they are balanced and should suit Anstey's very traditional game-style. Time will tell if he can put them in a position to succeed.

Holding onto their Tigers heritage is also paramount for the newly re-branded franchise, which bodes well for Anstey's coaching future. In saying that: I don't think Anstey's a passable NBL coach, but he's still inexperienced and can realistically only improve with more seasons under his belt.

The big fella has logged a few minutes against the Cavs today.

Currently in the third 0/1 from the field, 1 rebound.

Go Nate, minutes may be coming for the rest of the season now..