I couldn’t think of an exact title or subject for this blog entry, so I decided to just look at some random NBL stuff and write about it.  Here we go:

- Tony Ronaldson this weekend will surpass Andrew Gaze as the player who has played the most amount of NBL games.  A lot of people love the Bear and some hate him.  I remember when he went to Arizona State and came back half way through his freshman season and signed with the Eastside Melbourne Spectres.  He has been to multiple World Championships and Olympic Games and can be credited with hitting one of the biggest shots in Australian basketball history (QF game against Croatia at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta)  I love the Bear and how he plays the game.  Breakers fans are blessed to have him.

- It seems that Dragons import Tremmell Darden may have turned the corner and finally found some form I picked him up early (5th round) in the FNBL draft. I got rid of him when he was producing nothing. Only time will tell if his form can hold. I haven’t seen any of his games but appartently he can get it done at the defensive end.

- How awesome is it that Lindsay Gaze is going to coach Tianjin in the Chinese Basketball Association How long do you think that it will be until they are running the shuffle? I will bet during the first game! This guy is a true ambassdor for our sport. Can anybody say Asian Champions League?

- I was really disappointed to read that the NBL want be holding an All Star game this season In his article Boti Nagy refers to this season as a ‘tread water season’ It certainly seems that way doesn’t it? Mookie from A Stern Warning also has a great blog that explores heaps of different basketball concepts. He also agrees with me about the removal of the All Star Game. The All Star game is a chance to get all of the best players in one location and showcase their skill set. Is Chuck Harmission listening?

- If there was a ‘I hate the way that Lindsay Tate plays basketball’ club, I would defintely join. In my brief viewing of the game on Wednesday night, I counted four travels that were not called. Come on Eric Cooks, play Rhys Martin more.

- Former 36ers player Darren Ng has a great blog that has been outlining his season so far in Singapore. There is a great write up of the China vs Invitational Australian Team. It is an interesting read.

- Mookie has also wrote an interesting article on the Wollongong Hawks Some of the Hawks players individual stats are down but they are playing much better. They got the job done against the Taipans the other night. How long can it last for? Kavossey was huge down the stretch for them. I also love the way Anthony ‘I take no crap from Martin Cattalini’ Petrie plays.

- Patrick Hunt has been appointed to the new role of AIS Applied Technical Advancement Coach commencing in January 2009. That certainly is a big job title. I wonder what will actually come of it. Basketball Australia is looking to secure international success by appointing Australian Olympic legends Andrew Gaze, Andrew Vlahov and Rachael Sporn have been appointed by Basketball Australia to help evaluate the success of the Boomers and Opals Olympic programs following their recent campaigns at the Beijing Games, including making recommendations on what is required to secure medals at the London Games in 2012. Whilst all three of these people have very impressive credentials, the most important thing is getting our coaching staff sorted out and identifying game styles etc.

- The Gold Coast Blaze have parted company with Juaquin Hawkins due to injury concerns. I applaud this choice and can’t believe that they actually bought him back this year. Before his minor stroke last year, his stats were not overly impressive. He came in with a lot of hype but never really delivered a whole lot. John Rillie commented on The OT with JR and Rod about this scenario and had some inside mail that the Blaze were looking at former 36ers import Mike Chappell. This is not a good sign for the Blaze people. Not good at all!

- My new team the Sydney Spirit take on the South Dragons tonight in Melbourne. It should be an interesting match up. If the Spirit can pound the offensive glass consistently, they may be in with a chance. The Worthington (if he is playing) vs Knight matchup will be the key and the Martin vs Gibson matchup will also be crucial. My prediction: Spirit by 5!!

As I was watching one of my favourite reality TV shows – Project Runway, an ad break came on. My wife was cooking dinner and my legend 2 year old son Jalen (yes I named my son after Jalen Rose: I have loved him since the Fab 5 era at Michigan and my wife loved the name. Except on the day that he was to be born, she wanted to spell it Jaylen and I talked her around!) had gone to bed. Earlier at 7:00pm we had been watching another family favourite – Home and Away During the ad breaks I switched the TV over to Fox Sports and checked out some of the Hawks v Taipans game. Jalen got super excited and started calling out ‘Basketball Basketball Basketball’ I quickly changed the channel back before my wife realised what was happening and told him to be quiet. Anyway,  the ad break came on for Project Runway and my wife hit the ‘back’ button on the remote and it changed over to the game.  She realised that it was a close game and kept it on (to my excitement!)  It was just after half time and something was going wrong with the shot clock.  They had a close up on the coaching staff of the Hawks and I noticed that one of my favourite all time NBL Players Kevin Brooks was a member of the coaching staff of the Hawks. This got me thinking: who has the best assistant coaches in the league?   Then my next thought was ‘This would be an awesome blog entry’.

So here we go.  Here is a team by team breakdown of the assitant coaches.  I will attempt to do my best in being fair and impartial.  I am by no means an expert but I think that I have a pretty firm grasp on who is who in the world of assistant coaches in the NBL.

Cairns: Mark Beecroft is left as the only assistant coach after Aaron Fearne left the Taipans to be with Nathan Jawai in Toronto.  Mark has an extensive coaching background and has been a fixture on the Cairns basketball scene for a number of years. He is a good bloke who knows what he is talking about.

Townsville: Rohan Short (on his profile he has the most obvious nickname of all time – Shorty ) and Lyndon Brieffies (who I have known for years) both seem to have solid understanding and experiences. Undies was a solid NBL and ABA player for a number of years.

Gold Coast: Mark Watkins has had a stint as a head coach for the West Sydney Razorbacks and some time with the Canberra Cannons. He was criticised for his teams underperformance during his time as head coach of the Razorbacks. Not sure of him. To be honest – I haven’t heard to many positive things about him.

Wollongong: I visited the Hawks website to get some information but unfortunately all I got was a list of names (Kevin Brooks and Matt Flinn). I have no clue who Matt Flinn is and couldn’t tell you a thing about him. Everybody knows who KB is but I wonder how good of a coach he is. He was an outstanding player who had stints with the 36ers and Kings. Brooks started his managerial career as head coach of the Australian Basketball Association Woodville Warriors. In June 2005 he joined the Stamford Grand Basketball Academy in Adelaide, South Australia as assistant coach, training a future player-base for the 36ers. In 2007, Brooks was named coach of the Wellington-based Central City Saints He was a great player!

Sydney: Shawn Dennis and Brett Coxsedge both have solid pedgree’s and have been around the scene for a while. I think that Coxsedge was involved at the NSWIS level and Dennis has bounced around the league as a head and assistant coach at Newcastle, an assitant coach at Woolongong and now at the Spirit. I think that he also coached in Korea or Japan for a while.

Melbourne: Darryl McDonald, Warwick Giddey and Ian Stacker form an interesting trio for head coach Alan Westover. McDonald is one of (if not the) greatest PG and imports to ever play in our country, Giddey was a solid solid player and Stacker has had extensive head coaching experience in the NBL. Stacker really polarised people – you either loved him or hated him, but he generally got the job done. I personally feel that this is the strongest combination out there and the Tigers are lucky to have them.

South Dragons: Guy Malloy has been in the NBL for ever and a day. He has extensive head coaching experience and has gone a ‘full circle’ and ended back with BG again. I have no clue who Craig Simpson is but he has a cool job title – Video Coordinator / Assistant Coach Malloy’s coaching experience is a bonus here.

Adelaide: Richard Hill and Liam Flynn. I have known Liam since he used to coach the under 14 boys at Southern Districts in Qld. Richard Hill is not a name that I have ever heard of. Steve Brehney was here for ever and a day.

Perth: Mark Radford came from NW Tasmania in the SEABL. He is a first year assistant in this league. Mick Downer is another Southern Districts old boy who has held jobs with the QAS and WAIS. Interesting that a rookie head coach would take two rookie assitant coaches into battle with him.

New Zealand: Dean Vickerman shot to fame by being a member of the Melbourne Tigers who wore red boots. In Andrew Gaze’s book (look out for a book review next week on this!!) Vickerman tore strips off of Lanard Copeland at their first training session. He has had coaching stints in the NZNBL, Singapore and the QABL. Judd Flavell played in the NZBL for 14 years and is entering his third year with the Breakers.

So to wrap it up:

Assistant with the most kids starting with the letter ‘D’: Daryl McDonald
Best staff: Melbourne Tigers. It isn’t even close
Worst staff: Perth Wildcats (followed closely by Adelaide) No experience at all
Best assistant who would win a game of one on one: Kevin Brooks.
Best assistant to set a screen: Lyndon Brieffies.
Assistant who problary should be a head coach: Ian Stacker or Guy Malloy. Both have proven track records.
Assistant who will problary be asked to takeover mid season: Mark Watkins (that is if the Hammer doesn’t want to player/coach again!)

So there you go.  Assistant coaches are very important to the running of NBL programs.  You have got to love them. 

Go the Spirit!

Everybody is going to town on Brendan Joyce and the Gold Coast Blaze (myself included) but not many people have been overly critical of the Adelaide 36ers and their play.  They currently sit second last on the ladder with a 2-5 record.  Maybe they need to bring back Lanard Copeland from retirement.  At least he can get it done.  Rookie coach Scott Ninnis has had a tough induciton into the league and believes that they need to toughen up if they are going to be successful.  A lot of hype was made about the recruitment of Luke Schenscher in the off season and people were hoping that he would be the answer to the Sixers fans prayers.  He has had a slow start to the season but seems to have turned the corner with his player of the week performance I picked him up for my FNBL team and have been happy with his performance since I picked him up.  John Rillie had some interesting thoughts on this award and thinks that it should have gone to a player who played on a winning team.  I personally feel that his performance warranted getting the award and he is going to be a nice player in this league for a while.

Boti Nagy wrote this scatching article about the Sixers management  recently and he is openly campaining for Mark Tyndale’s sacking.  He states:

Adelaide is 2-5 and management has at least as much to answer for as rookie coach Scott Ninnis who, realistically, has little or no responsibility for the fact Brad Davidson, Paora Winitana, Brett Maher, Adam Ballinger and Aaron Bruce all have missed games through injury.

It looks like some of the decision-making was hindered again by a young front office, maybe overpaying some and therefore restricting bargaining with others.

Lets have a look at their roster:

Aaron Bruce: a lot of hype was around about his pre season signing.  He didn’t have the greatest senior season after representing Australia at a WC early in his college career.  Seems to have some slight injuries but should be ok.  I am not a great fan of his and never have been.

Brett Maher: he has announced that this is his last season and he deserves to got out with a bang.  Good solid veteran who can still be relied upon to do the right things.  Seems to have an injury every second week now.  Hopefully he can get through the season.

Brad Davidson: is one of my favourite all time NBL players.  I remember watching him play ABA in Townsville and Burdekin.  He is not afraid to take a backward step and mixes it up with the big boys.  Heaps of heart but not a match winner.  He is a good solid 2nd or 3rd guard in the rotation.

Paora Winitina: is the guy who came over from the Breakers who doesn’t play on Sunday’s due to religious reasons.  Boti Nagy was in love with him during the pre season.  Has had some injuries so he hasn’t had a chance to do a whole lot.

Mark Tyndale: once again if Boti gets his way, this guy will be gone very soon His numbers don’t seem that bad but my friend Grandmaster Funk from Ozhoops League 4 FNBL fame is desperate to get rid of him.

Adam Ballinger: very good reliable import. Huge upgrade (in my opinion) from Dusty Rychardt who they had a couple of years ago. Can mix it up and play inside and out. Gets to the boards. I love his overall game and his carrot top!!

Luke Schenscher: enough has been said about him above.

Jacob Holmes: this guy has been in the league for years.  To slow to be a three man but not big enough to be a four man.  Crashes the glass with reckless abandon but is slow and unathletic.

David Cooper: athletic shot blocker who is a servicable NBL player.  Have loved his game since he played for the Uni Reds and the Brisbane Capitals. 

Brad Hill: I don’t really know enough about this guy to make a judgement. Is he the one who broke his arm when getting smashed by Larry Abney?

In one of my previous blog posts I compared Brendan Joyce to Moaning Mrytle from the Harry Potter series I unashamelessly plug my blog on Ozhoopsboards and LegoSHAQ attacked my ability to prove a point and my focus. He also made a mention of my poor grammar So in response to this my point is this: The 36ers seem to lack athletes. Holmes has always been very groundbound, Tyndale apparently (I haven’t ever seen him play) is not overly athletic and Schenscher is a huge 7 foot guy who is not blessed with speed. Cooper is a shot blocker and very mobile for a big guy. Maher seems to be always injured and Davidson and Bruce are very quick and athletic. They also seem to lack depth in the 3 point shooting department. In the game against the Wildcats they went 6 from 22 from the 3 point line which is not fantastic. Maybe they should get the man in the picture back out of retirement. He knew how to get the 3 ball up and how to get his own shot going!  Unless they play a ‘grind it out’ game style, and try to beat teams in the half court, I just don’t see how they are going to be successful this season.  Maybe they need to get Darren Ng away from Singapore and the blog scene and back into a 36ers uniform. He has the best surname ever in the NBL!

It would be a shame to see Brett Maher go out on a low. He is a true legend in our league and deserves to go out a winner.

If you are a 36ers fan (or a NBL fan) let me know what you think.  I will be interested to hear some view points on this squad. 

Go the Spirit!  J Smith should be back!

So the other day I was attempting to think of some original things that I could add to my blog to make it stand out and be original.  I thought that a good thing could be doing a review of all of my basketball books every so often.  I have heaps of basketball books (I counted 40 the other day but I am sure that some of my dodgey friends have some!!) and am constantly re reading them and trying to get some cheap new ones. 

The other day I finished reading my latest re read of the entire Harry Potter series and was looking at my book shelf for a book to read.  I decided to read this awesome novel by my favourite basketball and sports author of all time – John Feinstein  For a complete listing of his works please go to this link and check out what is avaliable.   It is well worth it!

The Last Amateurs emphasizes the efforts of the true scholar-athletes at the highly respected institutions that make up the league, where academics come first, and athletes play for love of the game rather than as a farm team for the NBA.  The story is about the Patriot League   The motto for the Patriot League is ‘Today’s Scholar Athletes, Tommorrow’s Leaders’ and this story emphasises the journey that the players take and the battles that they face.  The 7 teams in the Patriot League at the time the book was written were Bucknell, Army, Navy, Lehigh, Lafayette, Holy Cross, and Colgate. American University has subsequently joined the league. 

One of the most interesting parts of this book is the differences that these students face as compared to other players in their conference.  The players who are at the Navy and Army face huge challenges both academically and socially.  At the end of the season there is a 11-1 tie between Navy and Lafayette and Navy.  A tie break system had to take place to negotiate who would host the final and Lafayette had a better RPI index.

The book outlines some of the unsung heroes of the league.  Each team was only guarnteed one NCAA spot, so the championship game for the league is a huge deal.  Tournament MVP Stefan Ciosici from Lafayette is one of these heroes.  He missed out on the championship game from the previous season due to a knee injury and was unable to celebrate with his team.  He was determined to get the job done and battled with his knee throughout the season.  He was able to celebrate with his teammates and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  I can’t remember where I got it from.  I think it was from a bookstore in New York on my first visit to the USA.  If you are keen for a good read, get it!  You won’t regret it. You won’t know any of the players.  Only one player from the Patriot League has gone to the NBA is Adonel Floyd from Colgate.  He was recruited by Duke but decided to go to Colgate. 

Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did!

 I was watching Harry Potter the other day and some how got thinking about Brendan Joyce.  For those who are not familiar with the Harry Potter series, Moaning Mrytle is a ghost who is always complaining about how nobody cared about when she died.  She doesn’t have a lot of friends and is always complaining about something.  Check out this You Tube package to see what I mean

This is similar to Brendan Joyce.  In interview with him he talks about how his team and the crippling draw that has affected his team. He also was blaming the ’schedule’ in this interview after the 102-85 loss against the Taipans. He constantly mentions ‘double headers’. Come on Brendan! In this interview after the Hawks game he failed to mention double headers and actually didn’t blame the schedule for his loss. It seems like that I am a Brendan Joyce basher. This is my second post that his team will feature in. In first one, I outlined their roster strengths and weaknesses When it comes down to it, they just are not very good. Every man and his dog know that Daniel Joyce is playing to much and now that they are thinking about dumping Hawkins due to injury  Hopefully they will turn the corner. In this interview Joyce states the following:

“We need a player who can play off the dribble and rebound. That is what Hawk used to be able to do. The vision I had for (fellow import Luke) Whitehead was not the position he is playing right now. He is playing in the three again when we wanted him in the four spot.”

Can anybody say Julius Hodge? Do they have the money for him? Do they have the desire to get him? The last thing the NBL needs this season is a Gold Coast team to go 0-30 or 2-28.

Other thoughts:

- I love John Rillie’s blog.  It is banned at my work and I had the day off yesterday.  I read it and was very impressed.  He is a role model for all us other bloggers.  I am looking forward to listening to the 7th episode of his podcast. Carl Ward was always a favourite of mine in the ABA.

- Great to see that my new found support of the Sydney Spirit lead them to a victory against the Hawks. I am sure that it was all of my moral support. Got to love this interview with Liam Rush and this one with Matthew Knight

- I am a huge fan of iGoogle This program basically allows you to RSS feeds of different websites to your own personal page. One basketball blog that I have on my page is Schibz Speil His latest post is titled New NBL: Reforming against the economic grain It is an interesting read and well worth looking at.

- Boti Nagy really wants the 36ers to get rid of Mark Tyndale. He goes to school on him and there management in this article. I loved this quote from Scott Ninnis:

“Obviously Mark’s not playing well,” 36ers coach Scott Ninnis said.

“But he’s no orphan in that.

So that is that! I am going to start reviewing all of my basketball books very soon. I am trying to make this blog interesting and thoughtful. Please leave a comment. I am attempting to see if people are actually reading this and what they would like me to discuss

So after watching the Crocs vs Spirit game on Thursday morning (on replay with my 2 year old son) I have made a startling discovery – I love the way that the Sydney Spirit play and they will now be a huge supporter of their team.  I live in Queensland and it will be extremely tough for me to get to games in Sydney but if I can I will.  The chances of this happening are slim to none!

How can the Sydney public disrespect this team by not showing up at their games?  It is painfully obvious that things aren’t right and somebody (e.g Chuck Harmison and his band of merry men) need to answer for this.  This team plays hard, are young and play together.  What more could basketball fans really want?  I really enjoyed the game the other night and appreciated how hard they palyed.  Here are my thoughts on each of the players from their roster:

Julian Khazzouh: I really think that he has a future in a Boomers uniform.  He is huge, crashes the offensive glass and blocks shots.  Even better – he is Australian!

Matthew Knight: Came into the league with pretty big wraps last year.  He has a pretty solid all round game and I love the fact that coach Beveridge plays him and Khazzouh together.

Liam Rush: Andrew Gaze stated the other night that he was the most underrated player in the NBL and I would have to agree.  I have had him for the past two seasons in my FNBL Team on Ozhoops and I am pretty excited to have him again.  Gets it done, runs the floor and can finish.

Derrick Low: I was (and still am a little bit) doubter about this selection at the start of the season.  His boxscore from the Crocs game the other night wasn’t exactly outstanding but he seems to be doing a good job.

Damian Martin: Very very solid in my opinion. He has reasonable size for a PG (188cm and 91kg) and is a true leader in every sense of the word. Great player. Everyone goes on about this guy and that guy for the next Olympic games. I would be suprised if he is not there.

The Bench
Tony Rampton is a very servicable backup centre. Graham Dann is the biggest enigma to play in the NBL since Aaron Trahair. Will he ever live up to his potential? David Gruber seems to be the ultimate ‘meat and potatos man’. Drew Williamson played well the other night and I love Clint Reed. The only thing is when J Smith returns, what happens to Reed?

So there you go Sydney people! Get behind your team.

Other NBL stuff:
- Nic Horvarth being out for the Dragons is a huge blow He has been outstanding this season and hopefully he will be back on the court soon for all of us FNBLers!

- Is it just me or has Brett Maher been under an injury cloud for the past two seasons. It seems that every two weeks, he is in doubt. I am really looking forward to reading his new book and seeing how much he goes into his relationship with former Boomers coach Barry Barnes It should be a great read!

- Is Brendan Joyce playing with a full deck of cards ? In this article he makes the following statement:

Joyce, who has an agreement with the club for four seasons, insists there is no undue pressure on him to ignite an instant resurrection.

“Everybody knows that with a new franchise there are highs and lows,” he explained.

“Most franchises take four years or more to make the playoffs. We did it in our first year.

“We’re in a low spot at the moment, but we have a long-term goal.”

- I really hope that Stephen Black can make it back and this is not the end of his career I love watching him play. Whilst this is a bonus to my FNBL team because Scott Cook will see more minutes, the guy is a legitimate player in the league and is heaps of fun to watch.

- Is Andrej Lemanis the next Lindsay Gaze? He is pretty laid back and relaxed.

- A very in depth interview with Aaron Bruce provided some interesting reading. How is this for sucking up to the coach:

What do you think of him as a coach?

Bruce: He’s outstanding. He’s got a really good attitude towards improving and taking things from each game and each practice and trying to get better. I think he’s very enthusiastic about improving as much as we can in the shortest amount of time possible and that’s great because I think he really pushes us every day at practice.

.

So there we go people. Go the Spirit and the NBL!! Check out this Old School NBL dlip to view the top 10 dunks of 2000 How young does Matt Neilson look? Got to love Kevin Brooks behind the back! I loved Saville’s ‘postering’ of Simon Dwight. The number one dunk from Kedrick Johnson was a huge travel but I loved it anyway!

-

The Melbourne Tigers. Everybody’s favourite team. What is their problem at the moment. In my opinion, it is painfully obvious: they just can’t handle the ball against pressure and they lack a true PG and every man and his dog is aware of this problem. Ebi Ere is a fantastic player and I am sure that he will continue to be one. The only problem is that he and Rod Grizzard just don’t fit into the mix. So where to from here for this apparent [b]Greatest Team Assembled Of All Time[/b] Is it time to hit the panic button? I say yes for two reasons:

1. They just aren’t getting it done. Why oh why did they recruit Rod Grizzard? His FG% is awful and his 0 from 6 from the 3 point line isn’t the greatest thing to have. I say get rid of him. We all hated Sean Lampley but at least he was better than Martin Muursepp and got the job done.

2. They are trying to give everybody minutes. In their game against the Dragons they had 9 guys play over 14 minutes. I admit that I havent seen any of their games live but I am sure that they are not a up in your face defensive team. They problary grind out it out in their half court sets. You just can’t justify playing everybody playing those type of minutes unless they are uptempo and defensive up the floor.

So there you go. I think that the Melbourne Tigers should try and get somebody like Rashad Phillips who played for the Wildcats a couple of years ago. He could be the solution to their problems.

Other random NBL thoughts:
- Just over 1 000 people at the Spirit vs Dragons game is not very good. Just under 10 000 people at the Dragons vs Tigers game is fantastic.

- Is Nic Horvarth eligible for the leagues most improved player? If so, I think that he is a good chance. My friend Grandmaster Funk from League 4 FNBL fame is keen as on this guy and after looking at this boxscore from the game against the Tigers you can understand why.

- I recently dumped Tramell Darden from my FNBL team. His production has been awful up until the other night.- I am happy to see that Kavossey Franklin has turned the corner and finally found some form. He is a classy import and has been around the league for a long time.

- An interesting thread has appeared on Ozhoops Boards rating the imports in our league.  Nearly everyone went with Ebi at the top spot. Based on this seasons production, that is interesting to say the least.

Well everbody is hugely concerned with how basketball in Australia is going and I am another one to add to that list. It seems that the basketball community at Ozhoops are also very concerned.  This fantastic site has so many dedicated fans who are genuinely concerned about how the league will look in the future.  Many a post on the boards have been dedicated to this topic.  My concerned is that the best players need to be playing in our league.  The whole Luke Kendall scenario has been a ridicolous scenario and thank god that the last guy who missed out on our Olympic team is back in our league.  Even though he is playing for the evil Perth Wildcats, he is still better off playing NBL than playing for Kilsyth in the ABA!  John Rillie on the OT had some interesting things to say about this topic.

On another topic (this is my first go at blogging…….please forgive my lack of blogging knowledge!) how much are the Gold Coast Blaze stinking it up at the moment.  Surely some changes have to be made.  Lets look at their lineup:

C: Ben Melmeth – career underachiever.  Left Utah because he couldn’t hack it with Ric Mujareus and missed out on playing with Keith Van Horn and making it to a national title game.

PF: Luke Whitehead – they bought this guy in to replace Hawkins last year and he was stinky then and still stinks now.  He has been slowed by injury but I wouldn’t expect much from him.  He is a pretty good athlete.

SF: Jaquin Hawkins – solid veteran guy who is not worthy of an import spot in my humble opinion. 

SG: James Harvey – love him.  He is a bit of a gunner but can light it up.

PG: Shane Heal – cops a lot of crap but is a competitor.  Has slowed down a little (he is 38 years old) but still a solid player at NBL level. 

The problem is the bench.  Daniel Joyce is the most critiqued player in the league.  Tyson Demaos rarely gets on.  Scott McGregor and Pero Cameron are both slow 3/4 men who just can’t get it done.  Casey Frank is the only positve off the bench. 

Big Shoot Joey from Ozhoops has the following to say:

Some very good constructive ideas have been put forward, but the reality is all these awesome ideas are going to fall on deaf ears…..listen carefully ladies & gents

The Board and the coaching staff are not going to make a move, they’re not even thinking about making a move…….they’re not even thinking about thinking about making a move

There are many reasons for this, obvious ones being, points cap, current salary, contract length, and other current contract issues. But the current people in power want to tough it out with the current roster, rest assured next year there will be wholesale changes.

Maybe just maybe when we reach 0-20 and the crowds fall under 1000 people then our wishes for some kind of change will be considered.

If this is the case, Gold Coast Blaze fans are in for a very very long season. My mail tells me that they could have signed Chris Goulding to their roster. He is a local SE Qld boy who would have loved to have stayed home. He had a huge SEABL season. Now he is in Perth and only time will tell if the Blaze have made the right move.

How long will Brendan Joyce keep his job for?