BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILL

For me, BOTH players are grea signings. Ballinger needs no explanation, however I think with a coach like Clarke, he can help guide and nurture Hill's abilities and help him reach his full potential.

I'm happy to give Brad one more year, only because he's got a new coach who should be able to squeeze out any upside hes got in him.

LC, I agree. When Hill came from AIS, his first game was very good. Hopefully reuniting with Marty can push him to his potential.

The joker who posted the 'Balls to Tigers' thread should be shot!

Good to hear that Balls is signed for 2 years as well.

Ballinger, great news for Adelaide of course. With Hill, people forget that he is younger than Jess Wagstaff and Tim Coenraad - he is still just a developing player who has needed a coach to teach him the game as Clarke will be able to.

Once he learns when to attack or defer, pass or shoot, he will be a very good impact player off the bench, especially if playing with a smart point guard which he hasnt since his early years.

wow, this roster is going to be so much better than last seasons!! i cant wait!! (sarcasm)

William the roster is half complete. and the impact players of last season have been signed so its a good thing. with groves (id say most definately) gone and gilchrist out we are going to have two new imports that compliment the rest of the team. not to mention the different coach. out of the signings IMO it appears we only have 2 starters signed Balls and Herbert and even herbert is still questionable as to whether he will be a starter or first off the bench. Johnson is in the same boat i think too but who knows besides Marty

Great signings. I guees one game in Perth qualifies for "at times" in Brad's case. little bit of spin there.

So we have...

C - Daniel Johnson
PF - Adam Ballinger
SF - Brad Hill
SG - Nathan Herbert
SG - Darren Ng

U24 taken care of (DJ was a great signing). 2 import spots and 3 Aussie spots to fill. We need some more bigs and a solid PG. If we got Burston back as primary to mentor DJ and a solid PG to mentor Darren, we'd be looking good IMO.

VERY excited to see what Marty can bring.

Attn: Marty Clarke
Re: Brad Hill's game

- Needs to be able to make a simple layup not stuff it up
- Needs a jumpshot
- Needs to stop attempting to dribble through tough defenses

Hill is such an odd case. Athletically he's probably the best young player, or at least among them. However in terms if the game he played last season, he was nowhere near NBL quality.

Yep, agree with the Big Ranga signing being required.

I'd be disappointed with the Hill signing if Marty Clarke wasn't the coach. After watching Goulding in the HSH tourney so far, he pretty much fills the role I'd want Hill to be.

Hopefully Clarke does something for him.

Anon, Adelaide didn't have to beat Melbourne's offer, just give Balls something reasonable and he was happy to stay as they like it here. Emailed from Israel and said he was counting the days until he got back in town.

After last year, I thought Ballinger, Herbert, Ng and Burston were musts to retain. I thought Holmes and Hill were potentially keepers too. They've so far kept three of those four and one of the other two. The U24 spot has been well handled. The more crucial issues then are imports (still to come) and some muscle in the paint.

You would think with signing Hill that we wont be getting Farley as we can't go with 4 shooting guards like we did last season!

Hill has potential but I think it was time to let him go (due to Ng and Herbert being signed). Hopefully he proves me wrong this season.

Is Jacob unlikely to be signed? If that was the case, it would likely open up a spot for Forman.

Schenscher / Johnson
Ballinger / Forman
Herbert / Hill
Import / Ng
Import/ ??

Would like rather nice I reckon.

Good to see Ballinger locked in.

Have seen so much potential in Hill for awhile now, but took a big step back last season. Needs to recognise that his NBL career is on the line this season and start making some solid contributions off the bench. Hopefully Clarke can get him heading in the right direction again.

With Johnson, Ballinger, Herbert, Ng and Hill now signed, it is looking like the Sixers will need to sign strong imports at the PG and SF positions.

I think we can get away with Ng at SG as long as PG and SF can both defend effectively, our SF can get to the basket and at least one of the two can shoot the three.

Probably use Herbert to backup Ng and give Hill a few minutes behind an import SF.

Need another solid big man to rotate with Ballinger and Johnson as well. Obviously Schensch would still be good, but I'm not expecting to see it.

Perhaps a guy like Trueman might work - but he isn't too experienced so could be a risk there.

If the Sixers went for an import like Bennett Davison, maybe he could be rotated between SF and PF? If so, you might need another solid Aussie SF to soak up some of the minutes he is playing the PF spot.

None of the five signings are bad but so far it hasn't been amazing either considering we finished dead last. Though it is still early days.

Bringing back Ballinger is, of course, an obvious and positive step.

So far we have, in my opinion, signed one genuine star (Ballinger), one genuine role player (Herbert) and two interesting prospects (Johnson, Hill.) The re-signing of Ng does nothing for me. I like the guy, he's one hell of a shooter, he has improved over the last few years...but I'm not convinced any team that has him playing serious minutes will ever achieve much in the post-season. But we'll see.

Obviously the imports are key. We can't have what we had last year, with one import being essentially useless (Groves) and one being decent but undynamic (Gilchrist.) We need two new imports and they have to be quality players who will bring it at both ends of the floor and at least one needs to bring the Farley/Hodge entertainment value as well. The imports just have be to top quality for this team to get anywhere.

Does anyone know the status of Holmes and Forman? Have the Sixers approached one or both of them?

I still think this team needs another quality Aussie signing...above the Holmes/Forman level.

My hope is that Clarke makes a real difference. I'd love to see a Sixers team play together, that the action on the floor will be cohesive and that they will play tough. Man, its been so long since the Sixers were all three of these things.

Does anyone know what Clarke's coaching style is? Is he a free-flow kind of coach or more of an X's and O's type coach? I'm assuming (or hoping) he's the latter.

Anon 660, i like the line up you have, that would look really good. but whether it happens or not, we will soon see.

Anonymous, I don't mind the look of that team you've just posted. Couple of questions marks though:
- Could Farley play at a high level for a full NBL season?
- Would Holmes/ Hill be enough at SF?
- Would Allen/ Johnson coexist well as two young bucks looking to establish themselves?

Might work okay if you gave Farley more minutes at SF and rely more on Ng/ Herbert at SG.

Think I'd look for someone more experienced than Allen to share the centre spot with Johnson. As I said before Schenscher would be great, or even Burston, but that would reduce the points we can spend elsewhere.

Beantown, regarding Farley i think he has what it takes to last the full season. against the monarchs he was on for the full 48 minutes and worked hard till the end. then came up with a pretty good performance the next day against the cyclones. i think his uplifting character and his playing style will fit well with what we need. One of the main things i didnt like about last season is that even with ballinger as captain no one brought life to the team in the sense of amping there mates up even if they were down a few baskets. Farley can do exactly that and keep the team fighting to the end rather than flopping at the end. but thats my personal opinion.

SRT070

Your Personal Opinion is correct tho,

Willie Farley has the special ability to attract a crowd and improve the players around him

He needs to come back to the Sixers

Time for everyone to get the Dome over the next few days to convince Willie to play for us!

I'd prefer a more experienced center like Burston or Big Red to add some consistancy.

I'd also REALLY like to see Ng's minutes increase and turn him into a genuine starter... and in my opinion the primary distributor.

Have someone handle the rock until we're into half court, then either have Darren distribute or run set plays to get him a decent look, alla Maher.

I still have a lot of belief in Darren as the best on-court decision maker the Sixers have. He never loses his head in clutch time and always seemed to hit Ballinger whilst Groves and Gilly were jacking all sorts of unfathomable shots.

SRT and The Banker, I've been really impressed with Farley's play and fitness in this tournament. I certainly think he should be up for consideration by the Sixers.

Other than my worry that Farley's body may struggle with a full season now, the other concern I'd have is that he doesn't get to the basket as well as he used to (still not bad, but I doubt he would do it against NBL teams consistently). Since we will probably need to use the other import slot on a PG, I'd worry that we wouldn't have a guy that can really slash to the basket and score consistently.

Still well worth considering at this stage though. It really depends on what other options we could find for the SF spot.

Damn.. missed this when i posted the other topic.. sorry

Ng is rubbish at bringing the ball up court - he's not strong enough will often cough it up in the presence of a physical defender.

On topic, I'm pleased re. Ballinger, ambivalent about Hill. He has upside and I hope Clarke can bring it out of him, but he was probably my least-favourite non-import Sixer last year.

Me - the actual contracted players are:

Adam Ballinger
Darren Ng
Brad Hill
Nathan Herbert
Daniel Johnson

Hey, I'm all for a solid PG if we can find one. And you're right re: Groves and Gilly not being indicative of how a decent point can play. For me, guys like Ricky Grace and D-Mac are true pure point guards. Can probably include Darnell in that group too.

As people have said, a lot depends on the imports Marty goes after as to what role people play.

Reckon Holmes is safe.
New coach will bring new team attitude - one with a plan is a good start.
Sign some Schensh and some good imports (and there's plenty on offer this week)and we got game.

I'd love for Clarke to go after Aaron Bruce, however Gilly would play better under Clarke; especially if he is the one and only import.

Probably a combo guard at best; would do well as a slasher with Bruce running point. Fast break would be alot better; especially if Hill improves under Clarke.

Provided you got someone like Big Red along side Balls; you'd have great Transition D, great Fast break team AND a more versitile rotations.

As Anon said, my mail was Gilly was out for 10/11?

Not sure about Bruce - would we need him if we pick up a solid import PG? Nothing personal, but how passionate will the guy be if he can take or leave basketball from year to year?

Not impressed with the Hill resigning, I thought it was time for him to see whether the passion was really there by taking his game elsewhere, but doubt there would be many opportunities open to him ( which should tell us something).

Happy with everything else that has happened so far, but need two impact imports as a minimum.

I guess given the current climate of more teams coming back in, talent will be scarcer than this time last year when teams were folding.

Hill has been signed for 1 year only so is obviously on his last chance

Hill has been preforming well some far in the HSH.

Hope Marty is a bloody good coach to "develop" a player old enough to have developed already.
Hill with limited minutes only until he learns how to play I can handle.


So the Ballinger signing means every tool on here that said, its all said and done he's going to Melbourne need to..err shutup??

Welcome back Balls - I can deal with Hill being on the end of the bench on a very short leash.

I like Schenscher. He is an Adelaide boy, team player, a very good NBL centre who plays in the paint and has a decent baby hook like a proper big man. If Ballinger was off he was a good option to bring in. However, he is not worth the full 10 points if we can get Ben Allen and another Aussie Guard? Brad Williamson and Damien Ryan are 7 point players.

How about this Ratzsch guy - 6'5-6'6, athletic, hustle guy, can shoot and gets boards. Quick enough to guard the 3 which has been our massive weakness over the past 5 years. When it comes to guarding talented 3s, Holmes (if retained) and Foreman are too slow, Herbert will battle but is too short to contain the bigger guys and Hill is not up to it. How many points would a young guy from a non-NCAA college be??

I like the fact that we have managed to resign guys that have played and trained together so they understand how to play together, but these two signings don't really do it for me.

Hill - for obvious reasons, hasn't shown a whole lot of improvement recently and seems to make some poor decisions on the court. If Marty Clarke can work some magic on him I think he could become a decent role player off the bench.

Ballinger - In my opinion he is very one-dimensional. He is a scorer, and that is about all he brings to the table. If you pay attention to the way he plays, he struggles defensively against more mobile bigs (Petrie is the first player that springs to mind) and his post defense isn't that great either.
If he is surrounded by the right players, he becomes a high level player and can turn a game on his own, but if he isn't getting the ball in his spots he is ineffective and can't play his way into the game through his defense.

Hopefully Marty and the rest of the organisation can pull together a team that gels and plays team-oriented basketball, we are due for a turnaround!

I like the 5 signings we have so far, i was thinkuing how bout we sign 4 guys from the Fleet being Farley, Schenscher, Jackson and Forman, all have played well together so bring some continuity, 2 are SA boys and i think they would be good fits for the team.
I reckon Farley could split his minutes between sg and sf along with Ng, Herbert and Hill,
I would then sign Daniel Dillon (or Sedale Threatt Jr if an Aussie) as our back up PG

Id love to see a roster of

C Schenscher/Jackson
PF Ballinger/Forman
SF Farley/Hill
SG Herbert/Ng
PG Jackson/Dillon

Aslong as Farley and Jackson keep up their performances they should be pretty good imports and not overly pricey i wouldnt imagine and would bring some interest from the fans.

I also still like the ideas of bringing in guys like Ben Allen (possibly instead of Forman) or Ratcz, Bennett Davison, Danridge, i think it was Freddy Robinson, all have looked good to me.

Ah so many good options which is good to see, i look forward to seeing what they put together!

Great that Balls is back on board. If he retains the captaincy, I issue him with some opportunities for improvement:

* On field leadership: DEMAND THE BALL. If some ars#@$% & import don't pass to you on the soft side, rip him another ars@!$%^. Show the boys you are the boss. The BMC is your court, the opponents are there to get their butts whipped by your boys. Any punter on your court friggin answers to you. F 'em, your court your rules. Any ballhog gets a new ars@*&^%, no stories asked. Whip those visiting teams into sissy bois. I want to see the tears of pussies pour down their faces as you and your team put them in your place. The Dome IS the house of pain
* Whingers go F themselves. You're 10 points down, 2 minutes to play. A player says " We've lost the game, lets play junk time" New Ars#$@%^ required. F'ing rip into the whinging B, unacceptable attitude. The game's not over 'til Skip plays a crap song - eg Barbie Girl by Aqua. Balls, you need to tell them no f'ing whingers. Play ball, never give up.
* Fans are king. You might be feeling like crap after a 1 point loss, but if a kid comes up for an autograph in the Apollo room, bring out the pen and the Brett Maher smile. Put some ink to paper boy, don't shun them like a leper.
* F'ng smile. If someone needs to pull your finger to release a fart, then I'll be happy to pull it.

Balls is a great player, but I reckon he needs to be a more determined leader both on and off the court. Now is your time to shine.

Anon posters, I await your shite. If you are going to have a go at me for this, I'll see you in the carpark

Is Ben Magden in the picture?

I suggested Ben Madgen a couple of days ago but i dont think many people gave him much thought.

I think he would be a major recruit for teh future if we can get him