Hoops

Joey Wright re-signs for 3 years as Sixers coach

I don't think anyone is disagreeing with the general premise. Wright is a good coach, gets results, has a good track record, and is probably the best guy reasonably available. Sixers would be mad to do anything other than sign him up to go around again based on the last two and a half years.

The fact he is he longest serving current coach in the league, and has a pretty good reputation and record, and has been a positive for the club in leading it out of the Clarke wasteland tells you everything you need to know.

Like Wright apparently said, it's no guarantee he won't be sacked in a year's time.

I think when i use words like unchallenged and easy etc it can be interpreted with too much simplicity.

Of course it wasn't unchallenged or easy in the true sense but people must have known how i meant to interpret it.

Not downplay, but realising that what Adelaide achieved wasn't as far out of their reach in the first place when coached by someone who was not Marty Clarke.

How many times do i have to say that i acknowledge the 36ers did well that year ?

Including year 1 was necessary to form a a bit of an analysis in reflecting his first three years after signing on for another three.

I dont think Joey is as good a coach as everyone seems to think. That's the delusion i'm talking about. No one disagrees that he has had an influence as you constantly keep suggesting.

Also, the point of including Joeys first season wasn't to diminish the achievements but to point out various other reasons that helped form the whole delusion in a way.

Yeah but relatively unchallenged wasn't it ?

I think we were all pretty confident Perth and Adelaide would meet.

Paul, i never said anywhere that Adelaide's success wasn't earn't or that the season wasn't still competitive.

BTW, pointing out how far behind NZ and Cairns were, the two teams who would go on to contest last seasons title, seems to kind of support what i'm saying in a way.

I think a few teams that year were in a state of transition, and like i say it gave Perth and Adelaide a relatively unchallenged path to the final where Perth were far too good. I don't think Joey didn't have an influence on that, but i think a whole range of things made Adelaide's turn around a seem alot more miraculous than it actually was. I only raise this because i think, like i said before, that Joey isn't really a messiah like many claim he is. Especially Boti, who always points to this whenever he can.

I don't think Adelaide have been at a championship level in either of the past two seasons yet everyone seemed convinced they were on track to knock off NZ in the semis.

As beantown rightly says, the defence hasn't been good enough and there's a range of things at the offence end you scratch your head at. And yet there's no sign that its acknowledged by the coaching or that's its going to change. why is that ?

Look, it is what it is with Joey and i hope he does well i just don't think people think about this enough.

Paul, i didn't say it wasn't competitive but if you examine both semi finals with the exception of Adelaide's game 2 slump to the tigers, you'd agree that both Perth and Adelaide didn't have to work very hard to cruise through to the finals.

Like i said, the jackson-less Breakers opened up an opportunity for someone else and i think Perth and Adelaide were the only realistic challengers.

I'm not unhappy with the signing, but I think Master Chief is right, Joey is over-rated by some.

He's a good coach who seems to motivate his players well, but I do get frustrated at the seeming inability of his teams to play good defence and avoid being forced into mismatches so easily.

I'd also like to see us do a better job of creating mismatches on the offensive end. A simple pick and pop with DJ and Randle should be able to do all sorts of damage and yet we rarely see it!

With DJ's range we should be slaughtering opposing centres by forcing them out onto the perimeter, but it doesn't happen often enough and they end up punishing us in the paint at the other end!

Action in the above areas, plus retaining Randle and hopefully a little more money invested in a second import over the next 3 years should really put us in position to win a title.

In summary I think Joey can lead us there, but he needs to step his game up in a couple of areas.

"Well, I've coached for 14 years, this takes it to 17 years and I haven't been sacked yet , but I bet I will be." He told nine news last nite.

Well if they managed to assemble a team that was the closest to Perth and ahead of the others in terms of talent without spending as much as everyone else than that's great.

Didn't have much to do with my point about the state of that season.

I think the post Jackson/Lemanis hangover in NZ made it easier for everyone else that season.

It seems to me that there's a real delusion in Joey's coaching.

Don't get me wrong, he's an upgrade over Clarke, and was probably the best choice based on what coaches were actually available at the time but i haven't been as impressed by Joey Wright coached teams as everyone else seems to be.

Obviously people will point to the Bullets championship as evidence of his ability. I don't necessarily disagree that to win a championship a coach needs to have some sort of idea, but i think it's worth noting that as we all seem to suspect, the Bullets were massive salary cap cheats during a time of unbelievable cheating. This was an immensely talented and experienced team that no half capable coach at the time could excuse themselves for not winning it all if they were in charge of the same Bullets team. That's why i find it interesting that Joey said he believed one or more teams were currently over the cap, yet he happily steered that Bullets team for a number of seasons.

I dont think anyone can say that in the year Adelaide made the grand final, that they didn't do extremely well. Who could disagree ? But they were a big fish in a n incredibly small pond and despite a hard fought home victory in the GF series they were absolutely no match for Perth.

Last seasons team was streaky, undisciplined and unbalanced. It was only the mid and late season additions of a front court pairing that a team like Townsville could only dream of, coupled with the brilliance of Wilson that Adelaide found themselves in a semi final. Of course it was all too foreseeable that Adelaide were easily swept aside in a way that a disciplined and more structured team at least wouldn't be.

This year Adelaide have looked the same and sometimes even completely structure-less and it seems to me that Joey doesn't know what to do when he doesn't have masses of talent and experience to work with. I think Randle has saved Adelaide from being out of contention in a league everyone rightly says is incredibly tough.

I dont think Joeys a bad coach, i think he's an overrated one at the moment.

I think unless Adelaide assemble talent similar to that of Brisbane, we'll just more of the same thing over the next three years. I hope i'm proven wrong though.

Joey is a solid coach, but he's getting worst-in-many-years numbers from his 2 best aussies.
He can largely thank Randle for his team having a respectable record atm.

"Great news! Joey Wright is the best coach in the league. Next year we should have some cash to play with. With Ere leaving, Wilson sponsor and maybe Gibson the money can go to a legit import scoring 2-guard."

Surely you jest.

With what Shawn Dennis has had to work with your damn sure HE is the best coach in the league.

The Sixers simply could not do any better than this.

Any fan who expects a coach to do much more than Joey has with the tools he has had to work with is delusional.

His results and history speak for itself. Very few better options are reasonably available (if any).

Good signing. Cops a bit of flack but most coaches do, especially when the teams having an inconsistent run. But a couple of finals series after the club being a joke for a while is a good return so far. Hopefully he can retain some key players and get the momentum up to have a real crack.