Hoops

Top 4 Teams - Signings 20/21

Cairns radio today said Machado had signed a 2 yr extension to stay.

I bet he's really #sad

The same Torrey Craig who signed a 2yr $4mil deal in 2018 and is averaging 30min, 8pts and 7reb for the Denver Nuggets in the last 5 NBA games?

https://au.global.nba.com/players/#!/torrey_craig

I reckon after players like Machado and Oliver come to the NBL and get some confidence and experience in a more team-based environment, they'll do better in the NBA and Europe than before they came.

You are deluded if you think the talent level of individual NBL players is remotely close to NBA standard.

Perth keep
Cotton
White?
Plumlee?
Norton
Kay
Wagstaff
Steindl
Travers
LoBuluk
Martin?
Majok?
Vague . Let him go.

Much will depend on Cotton playing as a local.

Yeah, not sure "not big enough" matters much any more in the NBA. He could probably start at the 5 in Houston.

The difference between Oliver and other NBL bigs is he can play above the rim and shoot from range.

He's not big enough for the NBA, but Europe will definitely come calling.

Cotton, Norton, Steindle, wagstaff, Wani and Travers are the only ones I'm confident in being there.

Martin may retire (especially if Cats win the championship)

Vague will go, disappointing year.

White mite be pushed out unless he has a big playoffs again.

Plumlee...only if Jack sells the team to a Russion billionaire.

Kay I can see heading to Europe while he's young like Brandt.

LOL
Maybe for the sake of the rest of the league he should have.

Yeah I think we could squeeze him in next to Cotton if someone was forcing us to construct a superteam

Wildcats

PG - Machado
SG - Cotton (naturalised)
SF - White
PF - Kay
C - Plumlee (playing for free of course)

Bench - who cares

If Machado enjoys being in Australia he will still in Australia I feel. Otherwise Europe or China.

Oliver won't be back. He's too young & talented.

Machado a chance to return, but it won't be to Cairns.

While I' really hope the Taipans can keep them both, I get the feeling Oliver is more likely to move to NBA or O/S and Machado is more chance of staying. Deng is already contracted and Noi may be as well (though with an NBA out-clause)

Read this Grantland article and watch the video to see how far NBA teams are taking their video analysis of games now. 15 teams in the league are using cameras that cost $100,000 per year to log advanced movement information and then the Raptors have talked about some of the software they've built on top of it.

Particularly interesting is the software's analysis of where their defensive players are and where they should be, showing a "ghost" player (think of ghost drivers in Mario Kart). They can build a picture of how is most often out of position. The software takes into account player tendencies, skills, size and so on.

One thing they note is that the actual players are frequently less aggressive on help defense than the ghosts. Broader suggestions like this would be easier to deliver to players than instructions specific to certain situations.

Full story

If you're spending tens of millions on a roster, venue, and everything that goes with it, why wouldn't you set aside a few hundred thousand for hardware and software development to improve even the 1% it might take to snatch some wins?

The 15 teams using this type of camera are listed as:

New York, Orlando, Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Toronto, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, Golden State, Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix.

Ultra-aggressive help defense is really hard work. Replay that clip and watch how far DeRozan's ghost has to move as the Knicks swing the ball. That's brutal, and it's not a coincidence that the only team that consistently mirrors the help defense of its ghosts is Miami, Rucker says. The Heat have three of the best wing defenders in the league in Shane Battier, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade, and the latter two are among the NBA's most gifted pure athletes. James can mimic DeRozan's hyperactive ghost in a way no other player can, Rucker says. "LeBron basically messes up the system and the ghosts," Rucker says. "He does things that are just unsustainable for most players."