Basketball and everything in between

              vs                     

Is Pero Cameron the luckiest man to be in a ten man roster in the NBL at the moment?  After reading this story about Greg Vanderjagt being removed from the 10 man roster of the Gold Coast Blaze, I would say so.  This interesting statement was made in the article:

With the addition of Justin Bowen, the Gold Coast’s TTP is 74, meaning that one player (with a ranking of seven or more) must be cut, Joyce has the choice to demote any one player, with the exception of guards Daniel Joyce and Tyson Demos whose rankings are not significant.

 In short, Greg Vanderjagt has been removed from the Gold Coast Roster to make way for new import Justin Bowen.  But why I don’t understand is why the Blaze just didn’t give Pero the big ‘heave ho’ and keep Vanderjagt on the roster? 

In the above quote, it is stated that they needed to get rid of a player with a ranking of seven or more.  After perusing the NBL Points Ranking Document I see that Pero Cameron is rated an 8 and Vanderjagt is ranked a 7. So why didn’t Brendan Joyce just bite the bullet and cut the big New Zealander?  In their last game together against the Crocs, Vanderjagt played significant minutes and Cameron played around three. 

I am the first to admit that I don’t know about player contracts and how much people earn but I would think that Pero would be on much much more than Vanderjagt who was only picked up when the Bullets fell down.  Maybe that is the reason why. 

I remember when the NZ Breakers first came into the league and Cameron was playing for them.  He is a a legend in NZ basketball and has some significant highlights throughout his NZBL career. But lets face facts – Pero is 34 years old and very undersized and slow for a forward.  His stats over the past two years have not been fantastic and in all honesty, I feel that Brendan Joyce has made a mistake in keeping him on the roster this year.

Greg Vanderjagt – you are the unluckiest man in the NBL!