Hoops

United vs 36ers - Sun 9/10 on SBS HD

I think Deng was benched for the Melb gameas a result of a post game tweet after the Hawkes game where he retweeted a comment critical of Joey not playing Deng enough against the Hawkes. Deng took his tweet down about an hour after posting it, probably after someone in the club told him too.
Hope he's learnt a lesson.

DD and Vince might need to talk to Hoggy's agent. More elite 3pt shooting could help this squad.

Spot on Luke.

Half of DD's offenses are things like...

- Double screen down low for Goulding. Goulding runs baseline, uses the screen and tries to get open for a 3 on the wing.
- Iso Andersen or Wesley in the low post (Last year this was primarily Warrick).
- Pick and roll.

If the above initial move doesn't work, there will inevitably be one or two more passes and then someone will jack up a 3.

Watching teams like Illawarra- constant movement, everyone touching the ball, then watching UTD is like night and day.

With UTD's roster, if they had Beveridge, Wright or Lemanis coaching, they'd be championship material. With DD, it's still possible but it means we won't have great structures to bail us out when, like yesterday, Goulding is having an off night.

Went to the game yesterday. Just some things I noticed, interested to see other people's thoughts.

MU offences etc would have been great, if Mu were filled with NBA players, which from what I remember, is where DD has come from previously?
A lot of simple sets where generally only 2 players were involved in any action/movement, which resulted in a lot of iso in the post.
Because you aren't dumping the ball to Blake Griffin etc, those possessions instead of resulting in points, a hard double team, or free throws, resulted in a kick out for a 3, which wasn't as open as you would get in the NBA because of above factors, also because of smaller distance to three point line.
MU didn't get a lot of second chance shots as defence can box out easier when weakside isn't moving.

ADL on the other hand had a lot of flow concepts, used blur action instead of hard on ball screens which opened up penetration for ball handlers and easy slips. A lot of DJ's open three's were from blur actions into penetration where he simply slipped out to 3 instead of rolling to hoop.

Hopefully MU can recognise this, if what people are saying DD does get let go if this doesn't improve, that MU go for a suitable coach for the NBL, not someone who has the sexiest sounding stops along the way. The club do a great job off the court with marketing and making it look the part, but at the end of the day, its about the on court performance.

Imagine United had Lemanis as coach.

Andersen/Wesley playing the Bogut, passing big man role. Williams/Majok setting screens and posting up like Baynes. Goulding/Moore coming off screens and scoring like Mills. Blanchfield/Barlow just playing their role and hitting the open shots aka Ingles/Broekhoff. Jackson/Tomlinson setting it up ala Delly.

*cannot* be considered exceptional shooters.

If Melbourne wanted to keep playing to the gameplan they did last season, as they apparently do, why pick up Jackson? Why let Kickert go?

The best three point shooters on the Melbourne team last year were Kickert (47%), Hill (40%) and Holt (38%), none of whom are with this team (ignoring Odigie who shot 50% on a small sample size).

Of those remaining there is Goulding (36%), Tomlinson (34%), Blanchfield (34%) and they've added Wesley (30%) and Ced Jackson (30%).

Andersen is harder to get a read on, but his last two season were (34%) and (41%) respectively. Moore looks like a quality player, but is he a better shooter than Holt?

33% shooting from three is a pass mark only, so most of those players can be considered exceptional shooters.

So their list might be better and more talented than last year, but they are arguably significantly worse from 3. That's not a problem if you playing a balanced inside-out game plan, but if your only way to win is to jack up 35+ three point attempts with average shooters you have a problem. This team is less like the Golden State Warriors than last year, but want to play the same way?

I didn't like coach DD last season and I don't like what I've seen of disUnited so far.

Maybe he needs two seasons to achieve his vision with the team, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for another month. If disUnited aren't in the top 4 by then, I hope he's shown the door pretty quickly.

The worst aspect to the 36ers' game were their crappy singlets

Jerome Randle was winding time off the clock as we had a narrow lead.
Daniel Johnson shot pretty good.
Jacobson and Hodgson played pretty good.
Sobey the worst player. If he is a player at all.

I still think Randle over dribbled at the end, so the rest of the team became offensively stagnant. So once he fouled out, the offense went to crap, until that Creek spin move. I still think this will be an issue.

Melbourne seemed to lack chemistry today

KET, you can see from my post that I also think we would have been under pressure if United had shot it better. My knee-jerk comment was directed to those writing off Jacobsen and Randle after one game. Happens every year. The end of the world is nigh sandwich boards will be out again when the Sixers lose their next game, I'm sure!

Nongerguson?

Anon summed it up.

Back to basics. Play 9 players. More time for Devin and Majok.

Randle amazing in the clutch again. The league's best closer. Is Cedric Jackson a spent force?

Demopolous racing out onto the court to help Cedrick Jackson up, forcing Jackson to be subbed off, pretty much sums up Demopolous's knowledge of the rules and ability to think.

Sorry if i missed it in the coverage but was Deng injured or did Joey just go for a shorter rotation? Seemed like he rode that first unit for a fair while.

Don't even think United are that good 'on paper' given all the roster advances other teams have made. A squad with a big man rotation of Andersen, Majok, Williams and Wesley is always going to struggle against genuine height, length and athleticism.

Others have mentioned the need to have either Majok or Williams on the floor at all times to provide (some) rim protection and rebounding. It's probably also a good idea to never play Jackson and Tomlinson together for the sake of floor spacing.

United favs and sucked big time. The Victorian version of the Kings.

I like how Adelaide played, but what if United hits their shot at a rate more representative of what they'll produce throughout the season?

I don't think Goulding will be kept to 10 points most games on 1/5 3s and 3/15 fgs.

I don't think United will shoot threes at a rate as low as 22% most games either.

The knee-jerk brigade with feet firmly in mouth as usual.

Nice turnaround by the Sixers. Randle especially stepped up after his poor game 1. After a rough first game, Jacobsen stayed out of foul trouble and played well. The knee-jerk brigade with feet firmly in mouth as usual.

Good to see Hodgey and Drmic play well in limited minutes. Hopefully that builds confidence. Was Deng injured, or did Joey just prefer the way Hodgey matched up on United's bigs?

Had my heart in my mouth when Sobey took over PG duties after Randle fouled out. Creek should be the guy handling the ball in that situation. Sobey is a loose cannon and Teys cannot create well enough.

United won't be happy with their start to the season. Having said that, they had plenty of open looks. On another night a lot of those would have gone in and the Sixers would have been in trouble.

Happy to come away from the first weekend with a split. The big question now is can the baby Sixers be consistent and back this up with a home win?

United needs to establish an inside game, which is why Majok needs to play more. An inside-outside game would help Goulding enormously. As it was they were just settling for too many bad threes.

Oh, and someone needs to find Blanchfield's game - it's been missing for over a year now

Coach D is an oxymoron = he can't

Wow. Huge win by the 36ers, nobody expected that. I don't think anyone expected United to be 0-2 either.

The Good Things:
- Randle is back, huge offensive game. Absolutely clutch.
- Creek's captain's basket
- Johnson's first half, we've got to see him play more like that, we want him to be demand the ball, be aggressive and shoot it
- Hodgson and Jacobsen had huge games
- Our inside defence saved us on many occasions thanks to the above names
- Teys is our best defender and we need him, I can see why Joey keeps him on the court

The Bad Things:
- We can't defend the three point line. United didn't have a horrific shooting night because of Adelaide defence. When United fix that for next time around, it will present a major issue for Adelaide
- Randle can't defend so the rest of the team needs to pick up the slack, particularly Jackson who's bigger and stronger than Randle. The amount of easy baskets Randle let him have was problematic
- I'm not sure if i'm on my own with this view, but Creek seems like one of our most unintelligent offensive players. Driving to the basket he either gets done for a charge or he veers away for a tough shot which he misses. He must must must use his feet better
- Why have Sobey on at the end? Sobey needs less minutes. Maybe have Drmic on instead and get him some shooting opportunities
- We lack an offensive player when Randle is fouled of

8 from 38 by the end.

- Goulding forced it too much. Ball movement is your friend.

- Majok 8 minutes. What gives? The guy plays physical, hard nosed D in the paint and battles hard for every rebound. He was one of the best rebounder in the NBL last year, maybe even the best per minute. Give him more time.

- Utd entire offense is too stagnant, too much iso and not enough movement.

- Randle is king. Get yours back on Friday Ced, or admit who the new PG king is.

If Melbourne got rid of Goulding they will win plenty of games.

United 8 from 36 from 3.

Says it all.

With shooting like that, the 36ers should really have won by more.

Randle unstoppable, but United should have been going full court denial for the whole game, instead of waiting till the end.

Andersen can't buy a three

Crandle with ice in his veins

Randle is amazing. Clean shooter.

Jackson vs Randle. How good is this?

United Still in it. Just.

Randle trying to take over, and it's totally ruined their offence

Why did UTD wait till 4q to start hustling?

There appears to be a lid on Melbourne's hoop

Just realised UTd plays Adelaide again Friday night. Correct my previous post.

WTF is up with Goulding?

Stop shooting Sobey.

FFS DD get Majok or Williams on court at all times.

Andersen is a 36 year old stretch 4. Wesley is an undersized 4. They aren't enough to lock down the paint in this league.

DD, learn or goodbye.

Kareem Hodgson

I know we haven't even reached 3 qtr time on Game 2, but I'm just gonna throw this one out there.

There is a significant possibility that DD is gone within 6 wks.

Illawarra next week- they are a very, very good bball team. After all this hype, Melbourne will be staring down the barrel of 0-3 unless they flick the switch ASAP.

Look at all you stupid fucks predicting Adelaide to come bottom and Melbourne top. Ferguson has not even played and we are smashing United. Eat a dick. Melbourne too old and slow.

Goulding dribbles the ball to control the ball. Holds it, then dribbles the ball down the court.

No call. Should of been double dribble.

Gee whiz Hodgson looks good out there. He could be the x factor

*lose

Watch Randle loose the plot in the 2nd half! He will freeze out the rest of his team.

Live on FOX Sports 3 as well

Was that demopolous giving Mike Kelly a spray in the last timeout of the first half?

Sixers for the title.

DJ for MVP.

Uniform still sucks though...

Tai Wesley's face in that last timeout before halftime says it all. "This coach is a dud".