Noice

Fantastic!!
Great signing, probably no one better who is going to play NBL to replace Schenscher!
Gives us a good looking team so far

C Burston
PF Ballinger
SF Holmes
SG Hill/Ng
PG ??

Not a bad start with upto 2 imports to come, worse case scenrio grab a import PG and import SG/SF and a few young guys and that doesnt give us a bad looking team.

A very good signing. Fingers crossed Matt keeps healthy for the season.

Jonno . Why are you sure there will be 2 imports ?

Nice work Scotty.

Disappointing for Cats fans. Great signing - we still haven't seen the best of Burston.

Excellent signing! Hopefully Matt has a word to his mate Liam Rush to join the team also :)

Good work by Ninnis and others involved at the club to get Burston signed up.

Not meaning to knock Ninnis back a peg, but wasn't the signing of Burston a fait accompli given his wifes situation?

Good work by the SOS, who seem to be moving with appreciable speed.

I'd still like to see Bruce signed though, and Mottram.

No Cooper.

TC2, or the other way around? Or are the Perth Lynx really that average?

No idea TC2, I am likeing that he has a good relationship with ex players of his. Holmes and Burston are 2 players that he has brought here now.
Now for Shane Heal...

I don't follow the Lynx but from all accounts the whole organisation is a basket case.

Any word on Bruce? Have not heard his name being mentiond by the 36ers or any other clubs. Is he pricing himself out of the league?

Fab signing if can keep fit still can develope more.
Now SOS and Scotty can now sort out rest of team to balance out.
Liam Rush would be a good next signing.
Decision who Aust PG would be next signing my guess

The PG will be an import .The back up will be an Australian ....

The PG will be an import .The back up will be an Australian ....

yea from the article i read the other week on nbl site scotty mentioned a import pg, saying you need a top quality pg to be successful.
there was also a rumour on a article on gaze.com.au about the 36ers talking to Crosswell,
i personally wouldnt mind a pg combo of a import and crosswell
Say if we signed a aussie such as rush in stead of a 2nd import or a import on the cheaper side say isiah victor who could play SF-C, and rouned it out with young aussies like Burdon, Kersten, Hoban, we would have a fairly decent team IMO

C Burston (Young SA player - Hoban)
PF Ballinger/Victor or Rush (either could start SF and switch with holmes)
SF Holmes/Young SA player (Burdon-would play his minutes at SG)
SG Hill/Ng
PG IMPORT/Crosswell

Very Nice, now hurry up and send me my season ticket renewal forms. Its gonna be done!!!

i dont think so, if we get the right import(s) i think we look better than Townsville, Cairns, Wollongong, and on par with Perth and Gold Coast, nz have the best guard combo but i dont think there front court is that great depending on the imports they get the tigers look to be putting together a super starting 5 with a not a very deep bench, crosswell and say a isiah victor or Holmes and ng off the bench would give us a better bench depth than the tigers have IMO, there bench is likely to be something like Batthie, Corletto, Greer, O'Hea and Johnson.

agree anon. I'm happy with progress but we will need to add a gun scoring PG (better than Bruce) and another real solid SF.

I agree if we get the remaining pieces of the puzzle we will look really good for next season.

HOMICIDE AT PG

there isnt a great need for a strong bench with 40 minute teams. Look at NCAA teams, they rotate 7 players. ideally the bench guys should be playing around 10 minutes, so I believe the Tigers are right doing what they are doing.

My team with minutes expected next to each name.

Burston 30
Ballinger 32
Import (Donta Smith?)32
Rush 30
Import 32

Hill 18 (at sf and sg)
Horvath (18 at pf and c)
Winitana (0 in case of emergency)
Cooper (0 in case of emergency)
Davidson (8 as back up PG)

dont know if this would work points wise, but i think stacking the starting 5 is the way to go. have 2 reliable subs (Horvath to rotate between PF & C and Hill to rotate between SG & SF)Davo as back up PG for cheap and Cooper for emergency foul trouble and cheap and winitana as he is cheap and flexable.

But in big trouble with one major injury, fouls per game.........game plan take charges, talk a lot of shit

Milhouse,
You seem to have forgotten that Holmes and Ng have been signed already?

Anon, Rush isn't a PF, nor would he play a back-up role where Holmes can already cover for Ballinger at PF.

-'C Burston (Young SA player - Hoban)
PF Ballinger/Victor or Rush (either could start SF and switch with holmes)
SF Holmes/Young SA player (Burdon-would play his minutes at SG)
SG Hill/Ng'

Might get you 5 wins with that group starting, so lets hope not.

i know there signed already, personally i would not have signed them. My point is why are we getting all these expensive bench/role players with a decreased need for bench depth?

especially as you only have 4 starters

I think if we have a import combo guard playing say 20 mpg at pg and 15 mpg at sg our guard rotation is ok, and if we have say a holmes or a import (say victor) off the bench playing 20-30mpg backing up SF,PF,C i think that gives us a good 7 man rotation.
Ideally i would like to sign a Rush with 2 imports or even Horvath to split the minutes with Burston but not sure if that would fit within points/salary cap

The team i mentioned before with mpg

C Burston (30mins)/Victor (10mins)
PF Ballinger (35 mins)/Victor (5mins)
SF Holmes (25 mins)/Victor (10mins)/Hill (5mins)
SG Hill (15 mins)/import combo guard (15mins)/Ng (10 mins)
PG Import combo guard (20 mins)/Crosswell (or Bruce or Davidson) (20 mins)

If we could add a rush to that and would reduce holmes's, Hills and victors minutes at SF, ,and/ or a Horvath or Mottram to basically split the minutes with Burston that would be awesome but not sure if we could do that, due to caps, the young guys like Burdon and Hoban just get occasional court time where suits.
I reckon thats atleast on par with gold coast starting Gibson, Harvey, Import, Petrie, Vanderjagt and better than say townsville with imoprt, Crawford, Tovey, import, Hinder and cairns and wollongong will have.
My ideal 36ers team would be to have a line up of
C Burston/Mottram or Horvath
PF Ballinger/Holmes
SF IMPORT(can play 2,3,4) or Rush (if they got Rush get a import PG)/Hill
SG IMPORT (combo guard)/Ng
PG Bruce/Crosswell or Davidson,
But i dont think that would be possible within the caps/budget

I support any move to bring back Neil Mottram

Where IS Rush playing at the moment? I would fully support him coming to the team. And i dont think anyone should have forgotten the heart and desire Mottram brought to the franchise even in a dire period of our history.

Yeh just like B-Easy said - where is Rush?
Is he even a possibility to play in the league?
I thought he went to Europe after the Spirit went bust last year?

Cos I think he's a great player, but I'd hate to get my hopes up (and by the look of it, quite a few other people's hopes) for a guy who may not even have the slightest interest in playing in this league?

Mottram is useless... what do people see in him?! He was useless before his last stint at Adelaide and useless when he was here. He was useless when he played for Eastern in the ABL years back.

Did I mention Mottram is useless?

How was he useless lockstock? Was it the hustle and energy he brought to the court? Was it the rebounding and strength down low that he gave when Horvath and Cooper shied away from getting hit? Was it the 100% he gave every game? Or was it that he was the perfect team man and not just another over cocky topshit baller?

What about Ben Knight if Mottram is not available ?

Knight does not appear to feature in the Perth team and most likely he could be relative cheap. Could be a good back up option for both PF and C .

No it was the 1 foul every 2 minutes of court time he brought. And the fact he has NO low post game whatsoever - and can't pass out of the post effectively either.

100% should be an absolute minimum.. I wouldn't be saluting that. Team man - ok but he doens't have the ability to not be. He just didn't add anything to the team at all. Apart from a few hard fouls here and there.

he was fouled out of it by the refs any blind freddy could see that,

id take motts any day

Most of those fouls were hardly Motts fault considering the lack of perimeter D and him being the last line of defense. I cant actually remembering him foul out so it cant have been such a bad problem.

Think of it this way Mottram or Cooper?

Thomo, doesn't matter who put the fouls on him - if they were called, they were called.

lockstock, giving 100% should be the default, but it's not, so you have to factor that in.

Coops vs Mottram - last season, you could flip a coin IMO. This year, I'd be concerned by Coops' run in the NZ NBL. Admittedly, he's coming back into the game after wedding and honeymoon, but the stats aren't particularly special. Motts is putting up OK numbers interstate, last I heard.

Thomo - then why didn't the refs see it?

B-Easy - Cooper... better rebounder, better shotblocker, and can knock down the wide open mid range J. And less injury-prone so you're more likely to get more time out of him throughout a season. It is a big man's job to be the last line, but they can easily contest without constantly getting whistled.. well some.. a problem Andrew Bynum has had recently, but compare that to Pau Gasol, who did a good job competing but staying out of foul trouble.

Isaac.. I'm not sure there are really many players who don't give 100% to be honest. Our perception of what giving 100% should look like is quite stereotyped, but I don't think individual styles and the way (or lack of) players express their emotions are taken into account enough. For example someone like Dave Chappell often looked like he was cruising, but that was just his style of game, and he rarely showed emotion. It is those types of players who often get critisized for not playing hard enough. I don't buy into it 'though.

Unless your name is Emmanuel Adebayor. Lazy sod

That's fair enough, but there was a recent 36ers year that was particularly characterised by lesser effort. Any time the ball is loose on the floor or there's a contested rebound or you don't get a hand in someone's face - those things add up. The Dragons were a team last year that did those sorts of things and it paid off. Doesn't mean a 36ers team should be bumping and holding and grinding out 80-75 wins, but I still think players making that extra bit of effort can help your cause. Of course, I don't think you necessarily want your centre throwing himself onto the floor all the time and risking injury.

I am surprised how highly some people are rating Victor on this site. Sure, he is a decent player that can fill a role & play multiple positions but he is not going to win a game for you of his own back.

I'd prefer the 36ers go after 2 new imports (permitting cost & points) & try & lock away Bruce to back up the import PG / combo guard. With the reduction in game time I don't see the point in having Victor coming off the bench. Holmes should be that player backing up the SF & PF positions.

I definitely agree. The imports need to be game-winners at PG and SF or SG. No point in having Victor in primarily a back-up role.

agreed, and no way can victor play SF with his total lack of a jump shot. Isiah victor reminds me of a poor man's leon trimmingham. We need match winning imports with the players we have signed so far.

"The imports need to be game-winners at PG and SF or SG. No point in having Victor in primarily a back-up role."

That is fine but when there is talk that we cant afford to get two imports, I doubt the likely hood of us getting two quality game winners. At the bare minimum we get one quality game winner import and get Victor cheaply I would take that.

Victor can hit the outside shot from what I remember.

lockstock did you just mention Pau Gasol and Defense in the same sentence!?

Seriously though I agree that yes Coops is a better shot blocker but Motts is easily on par for rebounding and Coops may be able to occasionally hit the mid range but he rarely has the confidence to shoot it.

KJ, I'd gamble on a cheaper unknown if the alternative was Victor when we already have Ballinger and Holmes.

Need to look at who is going to take the big shots and in the roster so far, there's Ballinger and Ng.

I also wonder why so many rating Victor so high and surely we can get a stronger scoring import.
Why also so many Mottram fans the guy is only on a par with Coops at least a Ben Knight can score and also rebound etc aggression . I would rather see big guys foul them rather than let them blow past them.I also think a Matt Smith has more upside than Coops and Motts. in scoring and potential as a cheap back up. It would be obvious if we have import PG that we would not be able to afford Bruce as a back up.
Then Crosswell or Davo would be obvious choices.
Can some-one answer Jordans question where is Rush and is any chance to play NBL and are Sixers actually interested as many posting him in their proposed team when there might be no chance

Rush was in Europe last I read about him. Left the Spirit to play in Sweden for the Sundsvall Dragons. Then might have travelled around afterwards or still be with them?

BTM, I had forgotten about Matt Smith, but you could be on to something there. He has definitely had some good games AGAINST us over the years!