Boti must be loving being able to comment on the rock every week now.

Would have preferwed Vukon but Winitana looks like he brings a similar game at less points.

Isnt Winitana more of a shooting guard?

Shooting / Point. Not sure about him being a Grabau type either???
He is a tough nut, and does have pleanty of ability but i think Brad Hill is more of a 3 man than what Winitana is.

With the line up that has been selected i can also see the sixers having to run very similar stuff to last year, in the way of a motion offence. Not sure if this will be a good thing or bad.

For me i would love to see more structure and stuff to get our better players open. Hope this is what evolves because the coaching staff have done a good job to put a good squad together.

Would have preferred a player who was available for Sunday games, although we may not have too many so it might not be an issue.

Love the fact that as an ordained Mormon Bishop, he leads the Tall Blacks Haka !

that was me

Good signing in my opinion. Shows Ninnis has a focus on defence this season, which Phillip never ever did! With Davidson, Winitana, Schensch, Ballinger, Cooper, that's a pretty good defensive group.

Now we have Jesus on our side too. Any chance of an exchange program with the Utah Jazz? The Sixers should target the local Mormon community (Sunday games excepted) for season ticket packages

Why can't he play on Sundays? I think it is a good signing. As Ninnis said he is a bit of a diamond find. This guy has impressed me with limited minutes and at times he has looked better then vikona and is a much smarter player. I think his main negative is that he lacks in confidence at times, so hopefully Ninnis can instill confidence in him and we will see him at his best.

KingJames

refer to:


http://linky.com.au/kp1x3

As dont know too much about Paora but was really hoping to gain a scoring Fwd. From plyrs currently have our scoring potential is a little suspect with Schenscher a unknown in scoring good points and Holmes not a big scorer . If brett can stay fit he will add to Ballinger and other import and a possibly
Brad Hill Holmes and Schenser

He'll play more of a SG/SF role and I guess Coops and Holmes will cover any spare minutes at PF.

Good news for lovers of John Casey-isms: Paora is a former NZNBL Rookie of the Year.

I hereby start the 'Bring Back The Dench' campaign so we can hear Casey say something along the lines of: 'one former Rookie of the Year to another, and Dench/Winitana finishes in style!'

Well, I guess that puts the nail in for Dench and Sutts. Wonder if they will find other clubs?

36ERS appear to be lucky with the schedule. No Home games on a Sunday and only 3 away games on Sundays - 12 Oct - Bullets, 16 Nov - Blaze, 4 Jan - Slingers.
Being unavailable for only 3 games during the regular season shouldn't hurt the team too much?

Skip, I thought I read on here that Dench had been resigned?

IMO - I think it is a good signing (Winitana) as in the limited minutes I have seen him play he hustles his butt off, his smart with his ball use and is a very solid defender. I remember that game against us here last here where played extended minutes in the 2nd qtr and he was the catalyst for pushing them wlel out in front with some steals, string D and some big threes.

Will definitely provide solid backup at the 2/3 spot to Maher and Hill.

Should of checked that darn spelling of mine (as Issac advises!) before posting - terrible - apologies to all! :/

I remember also someone saying Dench had been resigned. I guess that was just a very bad joke?

Cavalo - As far as I know, the team so far is Luke Schenscher, Brad Davidson, David Cooper, Brett Maher, Adam Ballinger, Jacob Holmes. Brad Hill, Ryan Kersten & Paora Winitana

Only one spot left in the 10 which will be an Import.

I've not heard anywhere that Dench is back on board.

Article now on Adelaidenow

http://linky.com.au/75x38

Interesting signing.
He is a 4pt player so seems like they could have got a better(bigger name) player if they do in fact have 19pts left for 2 spots.
He is also 32 years old so maybe they wanted some experience in case Kersten and Hill aren't ready for regular minutes this season.

Sounds like he will be a strong defender to throw at high scoring SG/SF.

Seems like we are a bit guard heavy would have preferred a backup PF.

Unless they are going to use the second import at SF. Then use Holmes as a backup PF/SF for 30min off the bench.

I like this signing, it looks like the sixers have gone after some players that can play multiple positions. Even if holmes starts at SF he will be spending time at PF this year. If we get hodge he can play 4 different postions, Ballinger 3 different positions and Winitana 3 different positions. It also gives us some size at SG along with Hill.

Sixers have always been a guard oriented team. I can't see a reason to change from that.

Paora could end up being a copeland who plays better Defence.

I'm not sure if Dench resigned - I thought he was being cut personally, rather than leaving of his own accord?

Seems a good choice given the options. Every team needs to have more players who can play multiple positions and there are few players in general who likes to play strong defence .

Dench is out.

36rs still to slow too many forwards not enough guards

Go Dragons

Yea i was thinking the same thing, are the 36ers thinking of unning and 11 or 12 man squad and signing say Dodman and/or Burdon also and picking there best 10 for each game??? They could probably get both Dodman and Burdon in for 5 points, (im sure they could get one of them re rated down 1 if they really needed to) if not definatly 1 more would fit.
Adding say dodman would also give them the back up power forward they seem to need.

C Schenscher/Cooper
PF Ballinger/Dodman
SF Holmes, Winitana/Hill
SG Hodge/Maher/Burdon
PG Davidson/Kersten

That would be a good group of 12 players looks quite well balanced to me also.

When you've got the likes of Schensh, Cooper, Ballinger and Holmes, you've got your PF spot covered. But it sounds as though they can still sign up 2 Dev. players which my guess would be Hoban (PF) and Burdon.

Hey.

my coach is dean whitford!!! he played for south sa...

he never has played in front of us.. but did he play at the olypics??? he is a gr8 coach 2..

SORRY this has nothing to do with drafts...

:)Plz tell me!!!

Burdon can be a development player Boti got it wrong.

Considering the height range of the talls the sixers have; they have C and PF covered. If you get a 6.6 off guard/forward; then you have more rotation for the 2-3 spots when you need to rotate the 4-5 spots.

It's quite a good setup, in this day and age you don't really want to have an entire team of "single role" players. You want people who can rotate position. Ballinger for instance, definately THE best PF I've seen in the NBL; but has good height and well rounded defense and could easily play C if needed; considering his footwork, I'd consider him to rotate to SF if need be during certain plays.

32yo bench player and you are excited. Love your enthusiasm boys.

Dean Whitford made the Australian team, I think in a non-Olympic year, (as a 'utility' which today means sort of 3-man)

Not bad at 5'10"

Dean Whitford was Olympic reserve in 1964. Probably would've made the team if Werner Linde hadn't had such a blinder in the the Aust Championship final.
In those days the Olympic team was selected at the end of the Aust Championship carnival.
Dean was the first district player to play 500 district games.

Well we still need an import....if there is no hodge for us...which is likely...how about a Donta Smith currently in bulgaria or Tamar slay also in europe...they are players that could help us...Donta is a talented player in the same vein as hodge.

just thought i would throw it out there...not much to do with paora, but u get that

so what if hes a morman at least he got chosen