Hoops

Kings vs Breakers, Dec 21

To me its not so much role players v stars, its the need for guys who play de and rebound and hustle at say an avaerage or better level.

Id say very few of the kings players rebound, play de, hustle at an above average level for there position and thats the bigger problem imo. Probably Lisch (when healthy) and Newley and thats about it.

When compared to Perth over the years, and basically anyone who has played in a GF, most of the players would do those things at atleast an avergae or above average level.

No one is saying Moller is more talented than blanchfield or a star, but he does play with energy, hustles, etc which is something the kings lack. If he is doing those things for 10 mins a game, thats 10 mins a game more than Blanchfield. Also when you already have Lisch, Newley, Cadee at the sg/sf positions, you dont need Blanchfield who is going to want to play big mins and take shots, you are often better in terms of gelling as a team having the guy like Moller to play his role.

Re imports, its not really about stars v role players again either, its the fact is with most imports you are not going to get a high level offensive player, who is also at the very least an average defender, rebounder, hustler. You usually get scorers who are poor defenders, or better defenders who dont score aswell. Given the kings situation, the need was more in defense and rim protection, given for a fair chunk of what ive seen of Tyler he has not provided much of this, and his scoring isnt really helping the team win either, so id argue they would be better off with a Egwu/Jacobesen type who do help with the things the kings were lacking. Very similar with Randle.

When you have a coach like gaze, who isnt great, especially on defense, you need some players who doe these things naturally to help the team and balance out that weakness too, and thats part of why those guys are so important.

Also one thing the kings have is a lack of continuity and culture, i think one issue with that is large amount of player turnover, even if the team isnt perfect it helps for team continuity and chemistry if you retain atleast 6 or 7 of your players from a previous season, and even start the season with an import with some NBL experience, even if they are not a star also. If they had something closer to what i suggested, they would have had around 7 guys on the team that had played for the kings before prior to this season, and many of them are average or above average defenders, so both factors would help the team.

Cadee might have had a whinge about the refs, but it doesn't mean he was wrong.

The refs straight up can't get the flop/charge call right - to the point no one knows what is or isn't a flop any more. Change the rule, it's not working.

Agree Lovebroker people on here talk like Moller is the second coming. He has no bearing on anything Kings or United related but I think the reasoning might be because signing Blanchfield basically made him expendable and Todd just like at Melb before has been a big disappointment.

One of the biggest blunders they made before the season was promising him a starting spot when they already had Newley.

People talk about Moller like he's the next Sam Mckinnon, OK he has upside but so far I have not even close to enough to suggest he will be anymore than a 10 min a game role player.

He certainly would not have impacted the Kings W / L record. It is debatable whether good Moller is better than a bad Blanchfield.

Blanchfield is a star who scores. When did that happen?

Not a fan of star & roleplayer argument often used when ridiculing star-studded teams in any team sport. Most competent coaches will always opt for a team full of star players if they can afford it and as long as the stars are not uncoachable dickheads.

The Kings' players look to all be coachable, nice guys except for maybe Tyler. Even then he's borderline acceptable. If you look closer, a lot of the times he was dragging his feet were mainly due to poor conditioning. The other times he was busy arguing with refs.

The main problem last night was coaching. We've banged on about how crap the shuffle was last season, what did Gaze pull out during critical stretches last night? You guessed it...

With that many guys able to score in different ways, what did Gaze run to break the 2-3? He had so many options and didn't run a proper counter at all. What about 1-3-1 with Newls at the FT? What about overloading one side with Tyler roaming baseline? Any U16s coach would've run one to kill that zone in a heartbeat.

I don't know what it is, but the appearance is that he didn't drill these guys at all. The adjustments game-to-game should've been taken care of in pre-season not now. It should be embarrassing for an NBL coach yelling 'HANDS! HANDS!' at this level.

Another Kings game, another video coaching session with my son on rebounding, close out and effort.

In the 3rd quarter Cadee closed out twice with his hands down ......I would of benched him if he was on my domestic team.

Tyler played well off that pick and mid range jumper ....the Kings then went absolutely away from it (and I'm not sure if related) Tyler had a giant sook. 3 plays in a row he stood at the top of the key as an interchange and then just stood there as a shot went up ...no dive to the basket, no step forward in case the rebound went to the free throw line ...hell no even get back to stop the break.

I have no idea what Todd B is doing and nor does he and some of the subs were simply perplexing.

They are a very poorly coached team.

I distinctly remember when Gaze was commentating on a Kings game just before he became there coach ( i think it was that temporary American coach in charge).

I remember Gaze harping on about the next season how there D has to improve as it was a mess.

LOL, it has become worse under him.

The defense gave up another 90+ points last night.
Worst D in the NBL by a mile. They have no clue what defense is.

The Refs weren't that bad last night. Calls went both ways.

I'd rather go with a more budget team with the proper types of players and shell out more money for Gorj, than pay so much over the cap on players and a coach that can't actually coach...

Hammer commentating like a coach in waiting!!

I heard Gaze gets $600 K a year. He would like that cash (who wouldn't) & would do a much better job!!!

Cool story bro

I feel like the Kings have shown enough lately to make a playoff push

I got a warning in a basketball game for saying "that's a terrible decision ref".
Ref said to the coach tell him to "zip it".
Coach said very quickly "what if he was right?"

NZ bench almost out scored NZ starters! Great depth!

Hard showing on screens should have at least been tried out for a few possessions. Kings are athletic, they could scramble rotate okay I reckon. Why not simply instruct your team to try It, Gaze? Or if Tyler doesn't want to play, drag him. You showed in the Cairns game that you have enough sack to do it to Tyler. So it's hard to know who's fault it was

So where do you coach Angus H?
I for one criticise Gaze and JVG often but I never pass judgment on the technical stuff. Surely there must be more to it than singling out bigs and on ball screens for the last 2 seasons.
Kings win almost every stat in the game.
Far more to it than that criticism I am guessing.

Randle unloading on the refs on twitter...

Surprisingly refs pretty fair doling out the crap calls both ways. Game was lost the usual way, poor coaching particularly in 3rd quarter. Back to head in hands, poor body language and no answer vs NZ's 2-3 zone, mind boggling with that many offensive weapons in your team.

The Newley flop/foul was awful, but outside of that I don't think the refs did too much wrong tonight. Sydney got the benefit of the doubt on a few non-calls too. Definitely not the reason we picked up the L.

Loving it in the press conference after the game someone from the media mentions Randle has just posted a whinge about the refs on social media they ask Cadee what he thinks about it and Gaze jumps in and says we want to be a class organisation that doesn't whinge about the refs and then Cadee answers by whinging about the refs!

Thanks for your thoughts Damo!

Honestly, considering the minutes Blanchfield plays and with the unit he plays with, I don't care about +/-. He was awful tonight, regardless of the shot late in the 4th Q.

Another kings loss, another trash post from AngusH. Same old same old

If this was another person coaching he would be fired by now. no finals for 2 years and you still keep your job. smh

Fantastic effort on the road.
Loe game of season.
Penney found some much needed shooting touch.
Sosa most mature game I have seen from him.
Sydney execution down stretch hurt them. Where was Tyler's automatic J.
Huge psychological game for us.

Shocking final play by Blanchfield. Perhaps next time he'll pay more attention in time outs.

I feel like the Kings have shown enough lately to make a playoff push

Is it a coincidence that every single big the Kings have had for the last 2 seasons has been awful defending the on ball, or is it coaching? Which is more likely?

I'm pretty sure Blanchfield just bets his game-day pay against the Kings, and I'm only 25% joking. Just awful. Throws up contested jumpers early in the clock, had one of the worst steal attempts in the 1st half I've seen to leave a wide open shooter, etc... hell, the one good game he's had, he took himself out with concussion. The only positive plays tonight he had was when all he had to do was chuck it up at the basket and hope for the best.

He was stripped as, bro

Dribbling through traffic when you need to get a shot up in the last couple of seconds? NO!!!!

Nek minnit....

Blanchfield FTW!

Who is better?
Jason Cadee or Klay Thompson?

Sosa having his best outing. On ball working for us. Penney holds the key for us.

Is tom Wilson sitting on kings bench??

Great 3 off the backboard by Blanchfield

West Adelaide's under 16 coach was dismissed of his position after gaining ABL coaching position at North,now is this a standard practice most clubs would do in this situation or is it something unusual?

Breakers are just like the Kings last season... dominate the league early then nosedive.

Kings by 47.

Time zone issues.

Sydney are2 year’s behind the rest of us (maybe even 20 years if you’re looking at the Kings offence).

Childress plays for Adelaide Tom....

Forgot Childress.
Newley, Ellis, Childress are probably stronger offensively than Penney, Abercrombie, Vukona and Delaney.
Breakers will probably zone a bit, because Newbill is the only Breaker who can contain Childress off the dribble one on one.
It is a poor zone because we leave the Free Throw line so open. Sydney have Childress and Ellis who can get in there and create havoc, or kick out to shooters.
Randle will burn us with high pick and roll in man.
Foul trouble could hurt us real bad.
Sydney have the edge and their outside shooting will dictate how long we can stay in a zone. I don't think we can play Sydney man to man.

I wouldn't say he coached very well. He sure did change some things and its a small improvement over the usual garbage we saw. Smyth no doubt had an influence on those changes.

Growing a pair to bench Tyler, more pacing the sidelines yelling instructions, pulling players' jersey serving in-your-face mini dressing downs and more timely subs/timeouts.

These certainly helped but you shouldn't be under the illusion that its the main reason behind the big win. There were some very helpful home cooking by Mayberry that put the undermanned Snakes in foul trouble and they were in a scoring slump.

I agree with AngusH as well, far better for the debacle to worsen than put up with the bs they either naively or arrogantly served to the fans. I'd say a significant number of members agreed as well, the lackluster crowd numbers were inflated by promoted free tickets.

They will get a bit more patronage from new fans over the holidays but the moment they reach 14 losses, I'd hedge it won't help them much. I don't think it will change much next season, they'll probably try to woo the crowds back by spending even more money.

No anon, just NO... Both JvG and Gaze need to go... Both have been serious problems and need fixing... I'm with AngusH, I'm an 18yr member and if I could have given my membership back this season I would have... I won't be renewing next season unless serious changes are made and I can't see them happening unless the rot on court continues...

No doubt the Kings will figure out some way to lose this one in front of a very underwhelming crowd...

I'll be at the game tomorrow, but I hope they continue to underachieve and the crowd figure continues to slide, because that's the only way I see a major shakeup occurring before next season. If we finish 2-3 games out of the semis then I completely expect JvG and co. back next season for another underwhelming season of underachieving with a poorly built and overpaid roster.

Kings member here. They actually looked pretty committed on defence from the 2nd quarter onwards against the Taipans, and if that continues they should be competitive against any team in the league.

Hope this kicks off a winning run and they can get more than 4,000 punters to attend games at Qudos.....

Phil Smyth! Phil Smyth! Phil Smyth!

Key matchups will determine this.
Newley (far more aggressive offensively now)/ Abercrombie and Penney.
Randle/ Sosa, Ili.
Tyler/ Pledge and Loe.
Ellis/ Vukona and Delaney
Cadee and Blanchfield / Newbill

Sosa and Ili have to contain Randle.
Ellis and Newbill could tip the scales.
Breakers will hang their hats on Abercrombie and Penney.