isaac. ur heading is slightly wrong, it should read: Smyth: no plan.
4 ever waiting, losing out, not keeping and if only is all too familiar.

Give them 4-6 weeks, all will be okay...

I love the 4-6 week joke......

Has Newley said he will only leave if signed by an NBA team? E.g. if Houston doesn't sign him could he bolt to Europe? Or the NBDL?

If he has committed to the 6ers unless he specifically goes to the NBA, I would wait. If he has made no promises, I would look for someone else. Tough call, though.

I think you have to wait and see. Even without him we have a better 9 players than last season and we are overloaded at the guard spot.

He said he'd not want to rot on a Euro bench when the cards on the table were NBA, Europe and NBL. Now, the single card on the table is pretty much Houston's, and it's their call. i.e., his thoughts of playing in Europe are (I'd guess) less of a factor.

What is the deal with Adam Ballinger in relation to citizenship. A previous article by Boti had him quite confident that he would play as an Australian for the sixers around the time Adam signed.

Was touched on in the other thread but the Rockets currently have the following players signed as far as I know it for next season:

1 Yao Ming
2 Chuck Hayes (Restricted free agent)
3 Battier
4 McGrady
5 Alston
6 Mike James
7 Luther Head
8 Aaron Brooks
9 Spanoulis
10 Wells
11 Snyder
12 Reed
13 Novak

You would assume that they will re-sign at least two of their free agents of Mutumbo, Tsakalidis, Lucas and Sura which will take them up to their 15 roster positions.

That also leaves the Rockets other second round draft pick, Carl Landry (PF) who was the first pick of the second round who you would assume has a better shot of making the final roster than Newley.

The 36ers are doing the right thing waiting for Newley. A great effort for him to get drafted but will be very difficult to crack Houston's roster given the amount of guards already on its roster.

hey stephon your still there :)

i think the sixers should wait and see what happens,

ppl would scream murder if we signed someone then newley was available and ppl would also scream murder if we wait and dont sign anyone

damned if they do, damned if they dont a classic catch 22

Thomo, the suggestion isn't to run out and sign someone - they can't. It's that they might want to have some feelers out, talk to a few options and lay some preparatory work in case Newley is unavailable.

e.g., "Damien Ryan, if Newley goes OS, we might have $xxxk to spend on a shooting guard. We should know more in 3-4 weeks. Just wanted to let you know in case you could hold off on signing in Europe or with Perth?"

Maybe he (or someone similar) says "Bird in the hand, sorry" or maybe they don't sign anything in a hurry.

yep understand isaac just refering to a post in a previous thread calling mal silly for even signing him,

selfishly i hope they say not this year to newley, and allow him to play a season here

but for the exposure of australian basketball i hope he makes it now and gives it a red hot crack

Who should they target if Newley goes??? should they get another shooting guard???
I would look at guys like Damien Ryan, Aaron Trahair, Mark Dickel, Phil Jones, as i dont think there are any aussie/nz guards better than them available, if i couldnt get one of them maybe take a chance on a youngster like a returninc college player like a Stefan Blazynski. If they looked at guys who are not guards, who else is left just guys like Derek Moore, Frank Drmic or younger guys like Kickert. It will be interesting to see what happens, they may just put someone like Eric Burdon in the 10 and give guys like Davidson, Sutton, Copeland and Ng a extra 5-10 mins each to cover Newleys loss.
I say its a upgrade on last years team either way and good luck to Newley!

again with the old jokes

Found this:

The team's other selection, Australia's Brad Newley, could wind up joining the Rockets' Class of 2007 at the NBA's summer league in Las Vegas.

Stephon,

The problem isn't whether he cracks Houston's roster, it's how highly Houston rate the NBL.

If Newley makes their roster, he's gone. If he doesn't, are they more likely to send him to Europe or the D-League for development?

Certainly the D-League would keep him closer to them so they can monitor him.

Not having a plan b, or at least an idea of what they MAY do in the event he doesn't return is just plain dumb, IMHO.

But either way, it's not just a case of making the rockets squad or playing for Adelaide.

Please can the the old jokes be filtered and banned to stop those trying to be funny!

i cant believe im actually going to say this , i agree with 123abc.

i know i know im allready regreting it got me a morphine induced moment