Hoops

The standard of the league has dropped, noticeably.

I reckon the league's still improving except for the officials.

"But when it comes to the speed and pace of the game, entertainment value, they're taking us right back to the grind it out style they used to play in the early 10's which bored us all to tears back then"

Perth are averaging 100 pts per game, never would I have imagined a Perth team to average this much ever. Terrico nowhere near as showy as Tokoto, but Cat's have been there done that and it didn't work, White is an upgrade and can flat out score which is what we were missing. Ennis was enough to build the Red Army back up, now it's all about titles. Ennis, Prather both worked in excitement factor and a title. Tokoto, Daniels did not work. That's a 50% title strike rate with a showy player. Happy to take the more experienced less showy guy any day of the week.

Ennis > Cotton > Prather > White > Tokoto > McKay > Beal > Daniels > Johnson > Ingram

That's my order when combining showy with success.

Horrendous analysis. And thanks for mentioning new Zealand having lesser imports without taking into account Corey Webster came back.

The best parts were when he called Carrera a star player and Perry Ellis absolute class.

Carrera played what, 5 games last season? The club decided to release him (because he was crap) and go with Jerry Evans junior for most of the season (the definition of a budget import).

Perry Ellis couldn't defend my keyboard.

And nice work using import replacements like Christmas without taking into account we're three weeks into the season and that underperforming imports may yet be replaced. You talk about how crap Gee is without mentioning he's been replaced by Lamar Patterson.

I guess at the end of the day this may very well have been a troll post, so I guess the jokes on me.

Ha ha I just realised from the above post that rotny clarke isn't in the league this year. I just plain forgot about him

Perhaps the local talent has now improved, aside from the loss of Creek.

You were focusing on the athleticism of the imports. Then you mentioned the loss of Creek. Sobey has definitely stepped up in the “highlight reel” category.

You also mentioned the NBA. The NBA has become a 3ball league. The NBL is starting to look a bit like an imitation of that.

NBL hasn’t been in better shape for years.

I think you're been narrow minded in how you measure entertainment in basketball. Entertainment is more than big dunks and blocks. Watching perth this year is night and day, the floor is spaced, plays are been run to perfection regularly and they are scoring more than in some time. Highlights are great but even the casual fan once watching will realise if they are few and far between. Many of the imports we have lost had flaws or had them when they arrived. The reality is teams need to take the best player available, to serve their team needs, if they do that they should win, if they are winning its usually entertaining. Dare i hypothesise the casual fan wants to watch a team that wins and plaus well rather than a team who loses every week but has a good dunk every game.

I think you're been narrow minded in how you measure entertainment in basketball. Entertainment is more than big dunks and blocks. Watching perth this year is night and day, the floor is spaced, plays are been run to perfection regularly and they are scoring more than in some time. Highlights are great but even the casual fan once watching will realise if they are few and far between. Many of the imports we have lost had flaws or had them when they arrived. The reality is teams need to take the best player available, to serve their team needs, if they do that they should win, if they are winning its usually entertaining. Dare i hypothesise the casual fan wants to watch a team that wins and plaus well rather than a team who loses every week but has a good dunk every game.

I think the parity of the league this year almost makes up for the loss of some great imports last year. People like close games, and having as many teams in contention for finals for as long as possible is essential.

We've lost some athletic guys, no doubt. Tokoto was an athletic freak. Who could forget Conger's double handed block off the backboard? Kennedy not as dynamic as Prather.

I'm not totally convinced about how much this impacts ratings etc. I'll sit on the fence on that question.

Only lowlight has been the how the game is being called by the refs. Game after game has enough highlights to keep the NBL fan interested.

I don't think the cost of nba games would have come from the salary cap, and there is no way teams would prioritise those games over recruiting a better player.

Some imports may not be as great as ones like Prather but at least the locals have stepped up enormously

Well as I understand it, each game cost the team at least $80,000 to play, and some teams played twice. If those games are the difference between keeping a Casey Prather or not I say you keep Casey Prather.

I agree that there has been a slight drop nothing too bad but I did think during the offseason there clearly was a move around the league to cut back on costs whether that was in return for going from 3 NBA games to 7 this year I'm not sure.

Tokoto wasn't much but it was a shame Conger priced himself out of the league. It wouldn't surprise me if Prather returns though.

The only thing holding the NBL back is true rivalry games and expansion so we can really start getting excited about those potential rivalry games, the talent and action, close games and scoring is fine, nothing to see here folks...

"When the NBL looks at its ratings and sponsorship at the end of the year, the athleticism and entertainment value of the players in the league will directly translate to more gains for them than the objective results of individual teams."

This is a guess on your behalf, based on no fact. Do some research into the habits of Australian sports fans. As it is, TV ratings are up this year on both FTA and STV.

My question to you is, do you think the standard of the league has dropped or the spectacle? They are two different things.

My personal opinion is the standard is pretty much the same, but the spectacle from an early-season perspective, when there is always rust, is very good for this early on.

This has been the most entertaining start to a season I can remember. A few bad games, but lots of good ones and a few classics already.

For real? Overtime after overtime.. Sobey triple double first since 2015. Every team with wins and losses. Blocks and dunks in most games. No entertainment at all.

"Every NBA game is a barn burner full of highlights" said no one ever. There are less dunks in the highlights so the league is terrible....