Hoops

Spend less on your Australian Talent

Isnt this an Australian league???? Why fill it with imports this is where we should be supporting our aussie players not saying dish them for imports the only imports you get are ones who are either washed up or haven't made the cut to match the big guns in nba.
If you stop paying aussie player a decent wage what have tge younger guys got to aspire too.

paul's right.

Depth is key.

Look at the champions of the last decade or so. The recurring theme is that all the champions have had unbelievably deep teams:

2003 - 2005: Sydney Kings - Wortho, Crosswhite, Bruton, Smith, Barlow, Kendall, Smith

2007 - Brisbane - Need I say anymore. . Ere, Sam McKinnon, Gibson, Bruton etc.

2008 - Melb - Anstey, Thomas, D-Mac, Barlow and experienced vets like Hoare and Stiff.

2009 - South Dragons - Need I say more? Worthington, Ingles, Gibson, Donta Smith, Darden, Vukona, Carter, Horvath, Burston, plus Herbert, Dillon etc. In my opinion, the best NBL team I have ever seen.

2010 - Current - NZ - Throughout the three year reign, had the likes of Penney, Vukona, Braswell, Bruton, Hudson, Pledger, Abercrombie, Jackson, Webster, Boucher, Henare, Wilkinson

Perth - Lisch, Redhage, Martin, Beal, Ennis, Wagstaff, Cattalini, Weigh, Robbins, Jervis, Big Red, Knight.


The above list shows that depth is important. So is balance. Every team above had white collar scorers as well as "blue collar" workers who were willing to do the dirty work - i.e. Boucher and Vukona, D.Martin, Gibson etc.

Issac,

I agree that Hire and Wagstaff play hard, and are tough covers. In fact, i believe it is a testament to the culture or the organisation and leadership of guys like Martin that the past 5 years or so Perth Brand = Playing hard. I would like to see Hire and Wagstaff move from Perth and see if they sink or swim, purely from a curiosity perspective. We haven't seen too many people move from Perth as a case study to prove the theory.

One of the NBL's many mistakes was choosing to pick "role player" imports when local talent improved.

Instead they should have sort better imports to play alongside the improved local talent.

This of course would work in a perfect world where money wasn't an issue.

I would argue that the mix in the gong is rotten atm. Their 2 imports are not as good as last years, and did better with less australian talent and better imports.

United when evaluating the talent on their roster are under performing on a massive scale. 2 ex boomers, NBA draft picks, prob the leagues best 6 man (walker). Maybe Dmac can turn it around time will tell.

Breakers had your core you mentioned last year however without jackson have proven they are a .500 team.

In Perth, redhage (ex import), martin and knight have been great players. The rest could be replaced at anytime without much trouble.

Plenty of ways to skin a cat, but people who think expanding the number of teams will dilute the quality of the comp are mistaken as i believe as long as clubs select and pay for good imports, solid local role players can be found on the cheap and you can challenge for finals.

agree with above, but imports must be consistenly game high scorers.

Here are 2 quotes from Boti from the weekend.

"...while at Hillcrest, North and South will start the process of separating the wheat from the chaff of the women's comp."

"...but the upset of the round was at Hillcrest where South beat North 71-65, centre Kerrin Truslove with a 24-point, 11-rebound double."

It seems that Boti had already started separating the wheat from the chaff in his biased writing.
Maybe its the resentment from the spanking the panthers gave his daughters team the week before but to make the statment "start the process of separating the wheat from the chaff" only to call the result an upset is just poor reporting.

What else would we expect from Biased Boti however?