Hoops

Boti Nagy too soft on 36ers for United game

King James, that video just highlighted how piss poor almost everything was. Very few players wanted "in your face" defense.

hopefully we see something this week but I reckon safe bet to bet money on wildcats

I will agree that Melbourne got a lot of open shots from some crap defense, and I agree that the sixers did play poorly and were out muscled and hustled.
However, Melbourne still hit the 3pt at 65% and 56% from the field.
Let's give Melbourne all those shots again and see how many they make. The same open shots they have been taking all season and missing as Isaac showed in his post.
If Melbourne misses a couple of those early 3's as they have all season, it turns into transition for the sixers rather than having to restart from backcourt and giving opposition time to set.

Perhaps try a little objectivity, at least about the game.

Perhaps start with the shooting stats for both teams. The 36ERS numbers would win most games; just not those in which the opposition has a better percentage outside the line than their overall shooting percentage.

I admit the 36ERS perimeter defence looked suss, but then Melbourne's ball movement was great, and with a team with their height and athleticism, if you open up the centre by concentrating on perimeter defence, guess what happens!

To reinforce the point about Melbourne's advantage in height and athleticism, just think back to the number of times they got up to take 36ERS shots off the rim. I'd love to have that stat!

The 36ERS did change up defences in an effort to deal with what was going on, but with so many big and athletic players hitting outside shots at that rate ...

All that said, could be worth while the 36ERS coaching/fitness team comparing their warm up/pre-game prep with what Melbourne did. No doubt in my mind that the Melbourne players were at a much higher tempo/state of readiness when they took the court than the 36ERS.

For what it's worth ... I support the 36ERS but am a basketball fan first and I really enjoyed the game, notwithstanding Kickert's travelling in the post and a few other such reservations.

Why not appreciate the game for what it was - a great example of the sport. I at least have seldom seen it played at the level achieved by Melbourne last week.

Just hope they can produce the same level against Perth next time they meet.

Yep, I've got a real gripe about Boti, he should be more like those regular and real professional basketball journos that we have had in the "better" basketball population centres like Perth and Melbourne for the last 20 years or more - the ones who week-in week-out make sure they produce something about the sport that their editors will print, and which often get picked up in other newspapers around the country - Like um - you know - whats-is-name , and that other one ---er - what was that female journo out of sydney ?

I mean these is just so much better stuff being produced by all those full-time media liaison officers in all the NBL and WNBL clubs ( and Seabl) not to mention the fantastic output we get from the BA and the NBL offices, really , with all this great work I don't get it why you even bother to read Boti at all, you can get so much more from other writers - why even bother ?

Although I do admit there has occasionally been a few patches of time where not much has been produced by any of the above sources and , at least for those few days, you may need to read Boti - but then that is your choice is it not ?. Of course when that occurs I understand that it is Boti's fault that those other writers have been suppressed - he probably just calls up Rupert on the hot line and tells him to shut them down - just like you write letters and emails to your local papers and TV stations asking why they don't provide more coverage for basketball - I knoe Nick Marvin ( in his dual roles) has dozens of people all over that , lobbying ceaselessly in the smaller markets .

I was put onto Boti by someone here a long time ago. Whilst I dont agree with everything he writes, he isnt that bad.

I agree that there ARE too many Wildcats games on free to air. Im a Wildcats fan too, but its still far too many. Id love to see some Cairns on my tv.

The NBL podcast Ive been enjoying quite a lot.

I still think the music man threw the game!! GET REAL, Ths is what makes the game unique. Some times you win some times you lose and some times you cry. So cry if you want to but the game goes on!

I give a s%#t about the old days, so that makes 1.

Not sure if you saw the game, but Melbourne basically hit every shot they put up. No point in bagging 6ers about that.
Unlike in Marty's team when you are getting beaten every game and you keep doing the same thing over and over trying to get a different result and you wonder why he bagged him.
Maybe from Boti's experience of interviewing coaches over the past 30 years he realised Marty was crap.

He was too busy writing an article about us feral Wildcats and the hidden agendas of Nick Marvin to give the 36ers a bollicking ;)