Easy answer. If Marty's all about experimenting with lineups and what will suit best, he needs to look at trying out DJ as the Starting 5-man already.

Next, he needs to bench Howard and start someone in his place; probably look at rotating Hill down to the 2-spot to cover for a missing Darren Ng and get Creek to start.

Yeah... Howard is an import, but he hasn't done diddle so far. I'd rather follow the idea of teams like New Zealand and Wollongong and have one import off the bench.

Yeh apart from the one off 17 point game he had he has done nothing. DJ starting would be smart and im hoping if we pick up a few more losses that Clarke really starts experimenting a bit more and see what some of these guys can do.

now with Ng injured i would like to see Harris suit up, but we will suffer a little more from the 3.

As Isaac has mentioned, some believe starting DJ and Ballinger = bleeding points, but something needs to happen in the big man department or we're toast.

Personally, I'd:

- Start DJ at 5 and see how he reacts with increased minutes and responsibility. Dowdell as back-up.

- Keep Ballinger starting at 4 and structure a lot more plays around his low post game / penetrate and dish to mid-range jumper alla Grace / Fisher back inthe day. Switch to 5 for limited minutes only as required.

- Keep Holmes starting purely for his interior presence, rebounding and maturity.

- Keep starting Shannon with a view to the penetrate and dish to mid-range / wings as mentioned above.

- Experiment starting Howard for a couple more games before pulling the pin. Use him as a purely spot up 2 with plays structured for him. If he can't deliver, bench and look at Creek to start until Carter is back.

- Hill to come off the bench as an impact player with minutes dependant on form on any given night.

- Keep Bruce getting solid minutes off the bench and see how he progresses. Solid back-up to Shannon and handy in a press.

- Offensively: I'm not sure why we have so many plays with no motion and 4 flat footed guys watching one guy go 1 on 1, but it's street hoops stuff and not helping. More structure required.

- Defensively: Gamble with the press more often, especially when Carter is back. If nothing else, it'll lift intensity. Rotate Daly in if required.

My 2c as an arm chair expert.

If Howard is a dud for the next half a dozen or so games with increased minutes, then re-evaluate. Possibly cut with no replacement if the season is a write-off.

And honestly, if Clarke doesn't care about height at the 5 spot, then put Holmes at the 5-spot and at least let balls have his natural 4-spot back.

Personally anything Holmes takes shotwise that isn't within 5ft isn't wasting your time on.

I disagree about bleeding points inside. How could we get any worse inside when Tigers scored 46 points inside and Breakers 40 points inside. The extra height will help.

I find it crazy that Clarke can be manic with his subsitutions yet has never once this season changed the starting 5 (besides when import changes).

When Anstey went down DJ started. Yet here we are getting destroyed inside and the coach doesn't even trust DJ to give him a start or decent minutes. I truely believe that if the coach actually started him or at least gave him more significant minutes he would have been alot more confident and would have made a huge difference against Melbourne, Townsville. but instead he wont start him or give him enough minutes. Earlier in the season when he did come on he did an excellent job and I can't see what he did wrong to not get any more minutes. If Clarke doesn't think he is good enough then he should have got Schenscher instead! The season record is 5-9 and every week we all talk about how he should start yet Clarke cant seem to swollow his pride and actually make changes to the starting 5.

Anyway this would be my starting 5

DJ
Ballinger
Holmes
Howard (Ng if he wasn't injured)
Shannon

We need all 5 people scoring. We can't have 4 players and have Holmes be a liability on offense. Holmes scoring ability in the ABL was shooting over small people and he did that very effectively so why not run an isolation play to get him on the low post against a small forward. He would be much more confident doing that then in his current role and could at least try to get to the line other wise where he seems to be quite good. Ballinger will not have to waste energy trying to guard the other teams center (most of the time) and will be more effective the rest of the game. On the negative side Holmes or Ballinger will have to chase the other teams small forward around.

Then we can make the appropriate subs when required (NOT every 2 minutes) of

DJ > Ballinger/Harris
Ballinger > Dowdell
Holmes > Creek
Howard > Hill
Shannon > Carter

That is a much more balanced and solid line up in my opinion.

We need all 5 people scoring. We can't have 4 players and have Holmes be a liability on offense.

Isaac, that is an exception. No other team is like that or have Penney for that matter.

Isaac + others, do you think playing Holmes at the 3 would work or do you think he would be too slow on defense and/or he still wouldn't be effective on offense?

Perth get good mileage from Robbins. Brisbane got it done with Boucher too. Dragons with Vukona before he started to score a bit more. Breakers were doing fine before Penney returned too, don't forget.

I think we have to forget about Holmes and the ABL - it's completely different and he can play close to the basket and have size/strength advantages over most opponents. That's just not happening in the NBL now where he is forced to play up a size because Ballinger is not a strong defender. Holmes has to be our equivalent of Boucher - rough up the other team, always finding the open man, etc. Maybe he can do a better job of it with more space to move, as a bit of a point forward because he's a smart passer but won't be as effective rebounding far from the basket. But pushing him to SF cramps what (until recently) was an excess of guards. Without Ng, maybe Hill can start at SG though.

Starting Ballinger and Johnson is such an obvious solution that if Marty isn't doing it, there must be a reason. The guy is not trying to destroy his season, lose games and get fired even if some decisions puzzle people. For Harris getting minimal time, the reason is because his training doesn't translate to games. For Ballinger and Johnson, maybe it's the defensive issue or maybe they cramp each other.

We've given up a lot of inside points recently - something's up with the frontcourt and I don't really buy the "Ballinger played out of position" stuff.

As for what to do with the rest of the season - my guesses:

Try and find out which is the best way forward out of Shannon/Carter and Carter/Bruce + spare import spot. Advantages each way.

Mess with the front court combos to isolate whatever is hurting us there know what to do come 2011/2012.

Keep playing Hill and Creek a lot.

Throw Johnson in the deep end (even if it means losing some games) to see what he can do when he has to carry a team.

1) In the short term I would like to see Howard given more of an opportunity. I didn't see Saturdays game against the Breakers but previously IMO his minutes had been to few.

Give him some serious court time and give him the opportunity to prove himself. I was surprised by how many minutes Bruce got when Carter got injured and as much as I like him he was only originally going to be with the team until Carter returned from injury waivers. Maybe more minutes to Howard would have been beneficial so he could settle in quicker.

I think Howard could be very good for the team but needs more of an opportunity. If it doesn't work out, consider cutting him and get Aaron Bruce signed up long term.

2) Try DJ or Dowdell in the starting line up at the 5 and move Ballinger to the 4. It can't harm.

3) Persist with Brad Hill. I wasn't the biggest fan of his in the past, but his improvement this season IMO has been one of the biggest positives of the Sixers season.

My primary concern with shifting Hill to the shooting guard roll is that he can't shoot.

Lol at Loco

Howard is a problem, because he does not seem a catch and shoot type. He wants to put it on the floor before he shoots ala Sanders. He does not have the handle to face up and sit the guy back to give him room to get off his shot. His shooting form looks great but he is not getting open looks so he forces stuff.
Sixers have no margin for error when they play. Few easy baskets, so your guys are always under the pump.
It's hard to get results under that scenario.

I think Isaac has hit the nail on the head.

I like Shannon, I think he is a calming presence and he seems to get the flow of the game. I like Carter too, hes up and in, aggressive, and seems a good team player, stays in front of his guy etc.

Bruce for me, isnt a great fit. Forces the tempo too much, isnt a great shooter, gets burnt defensively a bit as well (but that could improve with fitness). Against the Breakers Bruce made 3 turnovers in the space of a minute, trying too hard to make the superstar assist play, instead of just moving the ball ahead and working transition.

I think starting DJ could be interesting, and it would be a good way of seeing what we do as a group with that lineup. How often do Balls and DJ play together? Must be a plan of the coaching staff to have one of them on at all times (given the other two options Holmes and JD, offensively, are limited).

Hill isnt a great shooter. It baffles me that he can hit the side of the backboard or even airball open 3pt attempts. His shooting is not at NBL standard. Opposing coaches would scheme to help off him, play as a penetrator. So starting Holmes/Creek/Hill together would limit our offensive spacing. Hill at the 3 only, and take it to the rack.

Its a shame about Ng being injured. I think he has improved this season as a bench 3pt threat. If he improves his ability to handle the rough stuff, whilst also remaining aggressive on O, he can fill a role off the bench.

The Howard situation is also interesting. From watching him on Saturday I think the guy has a positive mindset and seems engaged and willing to play team ball. I dont think he has found where he can be a contributor on offense yet. Not sure he could handle well enough on a pick/roll situation, and not sure hes a pure enough shooter to come off curls and screens for open Js. Not sure what his fit is at the moment, but I think he needs a bit more PT to get into the flow.

Liked watching us play a full court trap and be aggressive defensively. Thought our zone was terrible, and noticed in the last quarter that the trap on the ball in the Halfcourt came from Penneys defender? That was confusing. If I was coaching, Penney is one guy you dont leave no matter what. He still scored in the 20s without having a great shooting night, leaving him open only encourages him to score more. That may have been a coaching tactic, or just up to the players at the time, either way, somebody needs to understand whats going on there.

Offensively our late clock stuff was average. Breakers showed hard for onball screens and we didnt work mismatches or rolls out of it.

I think one of the problems with starting both Ballinger and DJ is the lineup may get bigger but neither player is a strong rebounder. This is why Holmes will continue to start because he is by far one of the best rebounders in the competition. Yes we are giving up points in the paint but a lot of them would come from offensive boards.
DJ is averaging about 16 minutes per game and is only getting 3 boards and only 1.8 defensive boards!
Brad Hill is only averaging 2.8 rebounds per game.
We have Holmes and Ballinger and then daylight till our next best rebounder (who used to be Winder then DeVries) who's Dowdell at 58th.
Between the top rebounder and Jeff Dowdell at 58th GC have9 active players, Perth 7, NZL/Cairns?TVille have 6, Melbourne 5, Syd/Wol have 4 players, Adelaide have 2.
I would still like to see Marty stick with his full court style defence even if Carter is out. We have a pretty athletic bunch who can run the floor so we need to ceate some easy buckets. Our defence needs to be absolutely relentless to create bad shots and then BOX OUT!!!
Howard from looking at footage on the net would relish this style as I truely believe he is a get to the basket type player. Shooting outside doesn't seem to suit him.
Unfortunately Ng is our best shooter and with players like Howard, Bruce and Shannon who penetrate very well they won't have that spot up shooter in the corner now.
DJ just simply needs to toughen up and why not give him a start to see how he goes, there's nothing to lose. The only issue would be how Jacob would go guarding those quicker style 3 men.

Re: Howard. I think Howard is realising what alot of other imports do in this league and that's "There is alot less space to move".

D-League and NBA usually have plenty of space to drive and make room because the style of play allows for more individual gameplay.

In the NBL games, I tend to see the lane collapse alot quicker; you'll find that the majority of slasher type imports don't react quick enough or are put off by the lack of lane. Guys like Homicide and Ervin prefer the collision and/or are quick enough to wiggle past the defence and still score.

Unless there is some kind of NBA iso play (highly unlikely) then guys like Howard won't get that many shots. Unfortunately it's all based on the mindset of the player as to whether they can or can't.

The cramped court is unfortunate. Wish we could retrofit stadiums to give them all the space needed.

NZ got good mileage out of camping shooters outside and isolating Pledger in the paint. Not sure that we have a big who can excel in that situation, or the punishing shooters now that Ng is out of play. NZ can run a quartet like Penney, Bruton, Braswell and either Abercrombie or Webster.

The Brad, height isn't the only factor in rebounding. Guys like Holmes are the perfect rebounders because they read the deflections before the ball hits the rim and know where to be. Holmes also has the drive to actually "bang" under the rim and get the ball. Wilkinson isn't exactly a "banger", he just didn't get boxed out and got the easy putbacks

Balls can read the rebounds well but doesn't exactly seem to work well with 1-2 people on him. Wouldn't call him "Premiere" in relation to rebounding.

While Ng is a good shooter, he doesn't have the pick n' pop yet. Certainly can shoot a set shot but he's not Maher yet. Once Ng can come of a screen regularly and drop a 10-15ft shot at will, then he's set. He's been stepping up this year though; if he becomes more of a focal point, he can arguably start and become a centerpiece.

Losing NG is a real blow to Sixers moving fwd this season as has no real shooters in team and having balls playing centre.
So obvious move for many reasons is to get DJ playing main Centre role and even back him up with Dowdell and if have to Balls or Harris comes into squad.
As well as Bruce has done since coming back he is not your back up for NG after Carter comes back.
Unfortunately Howard is not or ever was that I could see the shooter Marty looking for especially now.
But need to get him into game and moving around to do what he is capable of.
Shannon has shown he can shoot 3s if open so he may cover NG a bit but needs to not hang on ball too long and get it moving around to get open shot.
Keep thinking any week Creek is going to bust out but apart from creating excitement at times noy happened yet

Big Marty, I don't think you will find anywhere in my post where I state height is the key. In fact my first line agrees with you totally.
"I think one of the problems with starting both Ballinger and DJ is the lineup may get bigger but neither player is a strong rebounder."
I know personally that height doesn't count for everything, especially when there's nothing beating in your chest or your too stupid to know how to rebound.
But it also needs to be 5 players boxing out, we cannot simply rely on Holmes all the time.
For starters thee were numerous times when players like Boucher and Vukona simply taped the ball to the top of the key. Our guards didn't body there player so the ball went straight to them.
As much as it comes down to the individual and effort it's still a team thing. And it kind of pissed me off when Marty wrote in his article that they could practice boxing out at trainings but it's not going to help...it's a pretty good start!!!

Agree Brad my man. Wasn't arguing with you, just continuing on your post.

It seems the general consensus with news writers and commentators when it comes the Marty Clarke's tactics is "what the?".

No one seems to get the lineups and/or the subbing. We've seen mixed results from it.

To para-phrase the subject title: I hope there's a plan for the Sixers.

Was discussing the subbing situation with a friend before social last night. Given the new 40 minute format, why are we running 9 and 10 deep on any given night?

Surely guys can run a game out with more minutes than they're currently getting. Seems to prevent a few guys from getting into their rhythm.

Loco, every team is doing it to maintain a higher level of intensity. Have a look at box scores.

e.g., NZ against us played: Penney, Bruton, Vukona, Wilkinson, Webster, Pledger, Abercrombie, Henare, Braswell, Boucher. 10 man rotation.

Will we see the sixers run one short , without Ng, on Sunday?

My team for the 36ers next year is

PG Shannon/Carter
SG Bruce/Herbert
SF Creek/Hill
PF Ballinger/Dowdell
C Schenscher/Johnson

Just run with Schenscher as our 2nd import

I have always liked Holmes and Ng, but both are 2 of the older Aussies on the team and probably 2 of the most one dimensional, i like them both but if we can keep both Carter and Bruce and Herbert recovers well i think they are upgrades on Ng, and then for me its between Dowdell and Holmes for back up PF, i picked Dowdell mostly because he is bigger and younger, but wouldnt mind Holmes as back up PF at the same time,

i just cant see a team with Ballinger and Holmes at starting PF and C being great, so we have to recruit someone like Schensch and let one of them go or give Johnson the green light and plenty of minutes at C and run Holmes off the bench, which is what i hope they do the rest of this year.

I'd use Bruce at SG in a Maher like role, i could be wrong, but didnt he play mostly SG in his awesome college season? It also gives us 2 good ball handlers and play makers on the court most of the time which helps against some of the high pressure teams.

Part of me thinks we should also go for a 8 man rotation and activate say Harris and Daly as our 9 and 10 man, while hopefully upgrading say 2 of Hill or Herbert or Dowdell ( i left Hill in as he is having his best season and is younger than Herbert and not coming off injury) and bringing in a 2nd import along with Schenscher, giving us a roster of

PG Shannon/Carter
SG Bruce/Daly
SF IMPORT (Ebi Ere would be awesome) or a top Aussie like Redhage or Wortho/Hill
PF Ballinger/Johnson (or Dowdell if Johnson is more expensive and too much higher on points)
C Schenscher/Harris

oops i missed Creek, leave him in as back up SF or PF instead of Hill or Johnson

I think you need at least one more shooter* given that it's not going to be Carter, Creek, Hill, etc. I don't think Bruce is that guy - 36% from the field and about 26% from three.

I imagine the pathways on offer are Shannon/Carter or Bruce/Carter and probably not three of them. I was emailing paul about this and probably agree when he said that Shannon/Carter would make a quicker push for success while Bruce/Carter would be aiming at the future. If loading up on a single big import, then it might have to be Bruce/Carter.

*Shooters like either Williamson, Corletto, etc. Or Ng.

Bruce shot 39% from 3pt in college, finished with career stats of FG 43%, 3P 39%, 14 pts, 3.5 assists, if he can replicate them in the NBL at some stage i think he could play SG and provide some consistant 3p shooting, and give us more than Ng, Williamsons, etc, or use Daly as the shooter (if thats his game) or his spot to find a good 3pt shooter to play spot minutes, and if the import is someone who can also shoot the 3pter along with Ballinger i dont think its too bad.

Probably true though it probably will end up being 2 of Shannon/Import, Bruce, Carter, if thats the case im chosing Bruce/Carter and a stud import SG/SF and going after the best Aussie/NZ SG/SF we can get, may be worth taking the risk on Harvey's injuries and use him as the 3pt shooter,

Maybe a team of

PG Bruce/Carter
SG Harvey/Newley (ask the question no matter how unlikely) or Import/Daly or 3pt shooter (Greenwood)
SF Creek/Hill
PF Ballinger/Dowdell (or Harris or someone cheeper if not enough points or $$)
C Schenscher or import/Johnson

would be better

Ah intersting times ahead for the 36ers, even though i dont think we will make the playoffs this season but with good young(ish) aussies like Creek, Bruce, Johnson, Carter, Hill, Dowdell around the club we have a good core to build around and we have to try and keep as many of those guys as possible and target top players like Schenscher, Newley, or good imports and we should improve.