Hoops

Perth 2019/20

I find the timing of these announcements interesting.

Usually IMHO, teams get out early in announcing departures for one of two reasons.
One, they're getting ready to announce the replacement.
Or two, the departing player is in serious negotiations to sign elsewhere.
(Or three, he was a pothead, and they're worried the news will leak.)

This ignoring the obvious scenario where a player has physically left on a plane (mid-season) and it needs to be explained.
Not applicable here because they could reasonably pursue off-season opportunities or simply travel.

Yet we're seen official (but vague) announcements of the departures of Brandt, Jervis, and even Nielsen,
with no reciprocal in sight?

If it's not an import starting 5 man then it could be Bairstow.

Prather never played in Russia due to injuries, it must have been a bad injury.

How's Prather doing? Has he made it back from injury yet?

Terrico is not returning. Shawn Long looks likely to sign for the Wildcats.

Familiar face returning is Casey Prather.

Cotton, Prather, Long is the Wildcats imports.

and that was D2.0 reporting from our European bureau.

Unless they have their eyes on somebody LIKE a Motum, ie coming back from Europe, I'd assume they're going for an import Centre.
Long would be awesome. IMHO he was the best 5 in the league this season.
But as usual,we're obsessing over known players, when that usually doesn't happen with imports. More likely to be some unknown.

I'd love to see Reath back in Perth, but he seems to be doing quite well in Belgrade.
Sad that Tommy is leaving, and I have heard a rumour they are chasing a vet for the backup 5 spot. No idea who that might be. I personally don't think Jawai would want to come back.

I thought Pinder might be under consideration for the backup SF role, but not sure how he's doing in Warsaw.

Bump


Roster looking like
Norton/Martin
Cotton/Steindl
Import / ?
Kay/Wagstaff/Vague
? ?

Does White come back?
Do they get Long or another import centre?
Who is in contention for remaining bench spots?
What other local could they start at centre?

Don't need Waxy.
Perth have enough veteran presence if Martin and Wagstaff sign on.

Should be going youth with that spot eg Jesse Hunt type and be banking on improvement from Vague to offset the decline of Wagstaff.

Waxy is useless. Can get lazy. He should retire.

I guess it depends on where they want to add strength.
Starting 5, main rotation (7~8) or depth at the end of the bench.

Assuming they'll get White or an import like him to play SF, you'd have to say that if there is any weakness in their starting 5, its at either PG or Centre. Given they have Norton and Martin at PG, I guess that leaves Centre, and yes Long would be a great addition. But again, at the cost of Jervis and moving Brandt to the bench?

My personal opinion, and its only that, keeping in mind they just steam-rolled the next best team in the league, is that in the interests of improvement they should look to strengthen the rotation, with a 6th man type signing.

But it will be interesting to see what they do with Dech. I think he is earmarked for the backup PG role, when Martin retires. So the question is whether he gets a full-time gig next season?

Also depends on how quickly Vague develops.

Using an anon in case your opinions backfire...makes sense.

Also the winner of the NBA draft lottery will stash Zion in Perth for a season as a Next Star so that they can tank for a 2nd #1 pick.

Stop talking sense, anon. Perth will sign White, Long, Melo, and have Cotton naturalize.

Man, people must still be drunk from celebrating, talking some absolute shite.
Kay at SF???
Yeah, why don't we play Cotton at Centre whilst we're at it.

The Leagues has seen some great imports, why do people insist that every single one of them is a perfect fit for the Wildcats, and then start making up random shit to go along with it.

It doesn't matter that Long is better than Jervis or even Brandt for that matter.
There is only one restriction on Salary and that is that you must have five guys under $400k. Which is precisely to stop the kind of shit you guys keep going on about.

So any talk of third import requires a couple of things. Number one you have to resign guys like Stiendl and Vague to get the basis of your bench, then you need Martin and Wagstaff to re-sign for peanuts. So then and only then, you have potentially 6 cheap guys, and can afford to swap one for an import.

Even then you have to ask what is the best use.
When you have a roster that potentially looks like this:

Norton / Martin
Cotton / Dech
White / Stiendl
Kay / Vague / Wagstaff
Brandt / Jervis

You have to ask where the weakness is, and I dont think it sin the front court

Wildcats are speaking to Long right now. Jervis looks on the out. True, Angus is accepting to come off the bench which he doesn't mind, as Long gets into foul trouble and has the speed and strength to go with a PF so you might see Brandt and Long on the court at tyhe same time.

Anonymous
Within the hour

try recruit some WA guys!!

Yeah, like no other league in the world does.

try recruit some WA guys!!

Long can shoot the 3 very well, so there'd be opportunity to go tall and play he and Brandt together in spurts. Brandt only averaged 20 minutes a game this season anyway.

If you have an opportunity to sign someone of Long's calibre (especially after having a season to adjust to the league), you can't turn it down.

That said, I doubt it happens.

The other guy I didn't think about was Lamar Patterson? He'd prob be a better fit, than Kennedy. Terrico > Patterson > Kennedy in terms of fit for the Cats.

We've tried that backup import C in the past and it just didn't work with Cooke and McKay, so maybe if Terrico is gone, then they might try it the other way and have a starting import C and a bench SF import. Can Kay actually play starting SF, he definitely guarded SF, PF and C all year long? If you went Martin, Cotton, Kay, Brandt, Long, it feels too slow and unathletic, but then again the other team wouldn't get a rebound, Long and Kay can both shoot the 3 at reasonable clips too.

Long is very good and under-utilised in NZ, given his stretch capabilities may be priced out of our range.

A front court of Long, Wesley and Abercrombie should have resulted in a better record that what they got.

I think Long is a great NBL player, really came along once he got to know the system. Possibly the best big man in the latter part of the season.

But it would be a strange fit.
Unless they think Brandt can help out at PF, which I don't feel he can, you'd basically be pushing him out the door.
Gus is contracted, and on record that he and his wife want to call Perth home. (And yes, they even bought a house ;-))
You can't expect him to play 10 minutes off the bench as Long's backup.
Jervis is the perfect fit. He stood up when it counted, and he's going to be happy to play out his career, at home, on the bench, for lowish salary, and whatever minutes he gets.
And why spend money, an import slot, and opportunity cost, on something that is really a luxury.

I can't imagine La La strutting her stuff in Perth, but somebody LIKE Carmelo would be a good fit.
If (and its a huge if) they wanted to use all 3 import slots, then what we need is a pairing of a 2/3 (like White) and a 3/4.
One option is to retain White as the starter, and bring in a 3/4 to effectively replace Wagstaff as the 6th man.

If they were to get Long he'd be our 2nd import and Terrico would be replaced with someone cheaper as the 3rd import who can shoot 3's. You'd expect the league to improve again next season, and would feel Cats would want to fill that 3rd import role if a suitable player came along. I just feel they didn't have a 3rd import as they couldn't find the right fit.

If Perth didn't go with 3 imports this past season, I don't see them going on to add a 3rd high profile import like Long in 19/20. You're dreaming. If you're lucky White will resign for marginally more than he signed for last season, but more likely his asking price is up and Perth are looking for a similar guy at White's 18/19 salary to team up with Cotton.

Add Long to the Cats and the league is fucked. I doubt White would be back if he was signed though.

Carmelo? Are people really this dumb?

Gleeson has signed on for another 3 years, so at least we have a coach in place to start working on the squad for next season

Although I still think that Dech will be Hires replacement. Reward his loyalty to the club. Vague more minutes and keep 3rd import up the sleeve

be good to lock up Terrico for 2 more years to keep the team together.

Just have to get Clint firing consistently which I think he will.

Hogwash, possible in theory, but money would be tight to make it all work.

Why not go for Long and White for it to work Jervis would retire or go elsewhere.
Martin and Wagstaff would sign cheaper deals potentially freeing up $$ for Long.
Bottom 5 would be Vague
Hire replacement,
Steindl?
Wagstaff
Martin.

Love Kennedy but I don't think he is what this team needs from an import. This season vindicated our decision to add a genuine perimeter threat, which DJ ain't.

Someone posted on his twitter comment, "Carmelo Anthony?", so I would say this is the only reason why 6PR mentioned this. He jerks over Long all the time, so I would say we must be in talks with him and that would prob mean Terrico coming back is unlikely. I'm fine with that, but they still need to use that 3rd import spot for a bench guy that can hit the 3 at a higher clip than Steindl if they were to go with a starting import C. Only other real FA's Carey would jerk about prob are Sobey (doesn't fit), Boone (doubt he'd take a pay cut and come off the bench), Wesley (no room with Kay), Kennedy (best fit to replace Terrico if he's not coming back).

Seems highly unlikely that we would chase a gimmick signing that goes against our main selection criteria.
Long, on the other hand ... that sounds like a solid guess to me.

I only caught the last 20sec of this so don't know the whole thing, but 6PR were talking about a rumour that Carmelo Anthony could be a Wildcat next year.

Might be what Corey is talking about, don't see it happening though lol

No idea but the thought of having him as a fan rather than an enemy is frightening so I have very mixed feelings right now

What's this rumour Carey Suicide is going on about? He said on twitter if the rumour is true, then he's going to be a Cats supporter. Long?

Jesse Hunt 14 pts 8 rebs 42% 3s

Brandt has a year left on his contract so he's staying. If they brought in a 3rd import I assume it would be a C and Jervis would be booted. If it was a Long calibre C then Brandt would have to move to the bench, if it was a Cooke/McKay level C then Brandt would continue to start. Prob the only other import consideration would be an Ingram like 3pt shooter off the bench, but does that make Steindl redundant? Always good to have shooters off the bench though these days.

I think they are keeping 3rd import slot up their sleeve for when Damo, Wagstaff, and Jervis all retire.

There is the bottom 5 rule remember. We might not be able to afford an import in there

is Brandt staying

Hire's retirement opens up the 3rd import nicely, so there is no need to 'get rid' of anyone in particular.

Gleeson to re-sign apparently.

I feel like they will probably bring in a 3rd import to be a 6th man. It would be foolish to assume we can go in with almost the same roster and win. They should strive to continue to improve and be the benchmark instead of letting others catch up.

@Jack Toft - That's how it would pan out if he was playing for Adelaide. Perth don't treat there stars like Creek ;) hehe

Perth should stick to two imports and building there Aussie guys like normal, it’s sound business practice and snubs there nose at all the know all’s

I didn't realise Thanos was our GM.

So proud to have a GM with balls.

"Damo ... probably only a season or two from retirement."

Yeah, but you would have to have a heart of cold, cold stone if you were the GM, called him into the office.....

GM: G'day Damo, nice to see you.
Damo: (pulls up a chair)
GM: Nah mate, don't think you'll have time to sit down
Damo: What about a nice almond milk, soy, decaf latte?
GM: Yeah, I could go one, but not for you.

GM: I have you contract here for next year....(points to space in air)
GM: Oh, I'm sorry, there doesn't seem to be one. Guards! Escort this man off the premises. Yeah, we've already cleared out your locker and thrown it into the dumpster.

Guards wrestle Damo to ground like he just threw an egg at a senator...

GM: Mmmm... I think these will look better on me than you (yanks off championship rings from fingers)

Thanks! Will check it out

Damn, it was in the West Australian this morning, had a quick read while I was waiting for my coffee.

"People suggesting replacing Hire with an import or anything that resembles a starter are dreaming."

This is mostly true.

If Damo takes a pay cut, they might be able to squeeze somebody in, otherwise they're looking for a bench player on low to average (bench) money.
Even if they can, any import would need to be at best a 6th man type player, as their starting spots are taken.

Also need to keep in mind that Damo, Wagstaff, and Jervis are probably only a season or two from retirement. So where possible they want to bed in younger local talent. Dech, Pinder, etc