I have to admit that I said it was a waste of time playing him as he will never make it as an NBL player. After watching him last night and seeing his confidence increase I believe I am wrong about that and he could, if he continues the way he is make a roster. I still think it could go either way but its good to see him putting in a great effort out there.

The next Brett Maher was very far fetched though but I hope I am wrong about that one also!

Having said that, if we want to win we still need to play our main players the majority of the minutes. Sydney had 4 players play 30+ minutes we had none. Hawks do this so well also.

yeah but who does sydney have to bring off the bench??

maybe they play so many minutes because they dont have the players to bring on. i have to admit i get frustrated sometimes at martys subs but it is what has allowed creek and daly to get time. also we do have a fairly good and even bench. we might not have a lisch or braswell to bring off ( really they play starters minutes anyway) but creek, hill, ng, johnson and to some extent carter is a pretty good bench.

I don't think Gaze quite called him the next Maher, but wondered if he might be (and I've wondered the same thing). He's playing pretty well for a first-year player.

Daly was phenomenal last night. his composure under pressure was exemplary, and seems to have a nice J.

Although, I always get nervous when coaches decide to "blood" younger players a lot in their first year or so, when we have such better options to choose from (our starters).

My fear is that we are putting their talent on display for other teams to poach, in the next couple of years or so. The fact is, we cant offer the same $$$ that other clubs might be willing to pay, if they want them playing higher in their rotation.

There is no point in going down the "we re in a building phase" if by doing so, leads to those younger players going on to another team or europe etc in the next few years.

Im a big believer in the percentage of court time should probably mirror the percentage of our salary cap. Essentially, player 8-12 are paid to train, not play. Lets get balls and co over 30+ mins a game.

I do understand there are obvious exceptions to this like, McKay, Blakemore, Maher, Bradtke etc who all were solid contributors in their rookie seasons. but mean players like Garlepp this year. He would've been very handy for us this season.

Coopz, I took issue with someone saying the same thing last week.

You can't seriously think that hiding a young talent deep in the roster and not playing them (therefore letting them get experience in real game situations) is going to stop them going somewhere else. That is more likely to drive them away.

Develop the talent that you have, throw them into the deep end and see if they will swim.

Play the best person you have available, who is playing well on the night. Daly proved yesterday he deserved every minute he got.

If we had done so with Magden last year when we had the chance, maybe we would have known not to let him get away to Sydney this year.

... *not* letting them get experience ...

there has been a massive problem in this league of producing very good young talent through the nbl. alot of the good talent is very good through the juniors and have shown alot already and have excelled through the ais or through college.

i have seen alot to like this year though but still even guys like walker have very limited games and ild like to see us developing more talent. the big problem is there is absolutely next to no incentive for clubs to do this. look at madgen they gave him more on-court time and i think have given him license to take the game on and its paid off but if he was to leave syd at the end of the year what do they get??

the problem is clubs get nothing, in soccer you get a transfer fee, afl clubs are forced to trade, and in overseas bball you have longer contracts so you at least know you will get longer to work with a prospect and when they develop you have them on your list. these year to year contracts in the nbl kill any chance of our league really trying to develop players.

Got more mins due to injuries (Carter Bruce Shannon)
and we needed him , last few games.
Brought it down/distributed safely, shot well, guarded well, last night. Sure looked pretty good, very good.
(got fouled by Dann on that drive, not called, then, unlucky for us got subbed out, late in the game..
hindsight.. shoud've left him on.)

although there isnt much pressure on him to perform at the moment so will be interesting next year if he gets given more time and resposibility to see how he responds.

how old is he? height? looks around 6'1 or 2 at a glance.

I still think the non foul call on Dann was the correct one. Daly forced the contact and Dann was straight up

until he swung his arms down and clobbered him

He is alsmot 20

Coopz, good post, but why couldn't we offer the same $$$ that other clubs are willing to pay? All clubs are bound by the same salary cap, and it's not like we have any one on long term contracts restricting us. If we wanted them, there's no reason we couldn't pony up.

the comparision to Maher needs to be at the same stage of his career. Not as we can easily recall Brett in his heyday.

the are similar - well credentialled junior history at the same club, same position.

I cant recall where Brett was at in his rookie season - perhaps some persons out there can comment that can recall Brett's rookie NBL season.

Daly impressed me last night. He's got the speed and dribbling to get to where he wants to on the court. He showed a good understanding of how to create on offence and while he was on we were moving the ball and getting great shots. He also showed he has a nice jumpshot and he was a pest on defence too. Obviously early days, but it was a great showing from a rookie. Lets hope in another year he can be giving that sort of performance consistently. Then we might be able to say we've found the next Brett Maher!

The only bad thing I can see about Daly is that he's a PG in a team full of PG's...going to be a shit to lose him cause of that.

Yep i was impressed, to be honest i was not expecting anything from him at all this year. I'm not in touch with how he goes at Sturt but apparently his plays well but i always just saw him as small and bound to the pine. Sure at this stage he is not going to set the world alight but he is a very safe pair of hands and does hot hinder the team at all.

XY, i see your point, but i can't help but think a lot of the time that he comes on, he is not our best option at the time.

If someone comes on to replace our starter, then Daly replaces him, shouldnt we just put our starter back on.

Now there is no doubting he was great last night in that scenario, but i am more talking about the season as a whole, and not just Daly.

If he is coming on at all in the future when both Carter and Shannon are fit, that is when we have better options available.

Just watched the match again.I noticed a massive turnaround in points for verses points against whenever Daly/Creek were on the court compared to Howard/Carter. Quite significant , looked a good combo with Bruce.

really? did carter look the better option last night?

Are we comparing Daly as he is now to Maher at his peak? Could it not be possible that Daly is comparable to what Maher was at the same age and level of experience? What we saw last night from Daly, then multiply his continual progress by the number of years he has left to reach Maher's retirement age, and it could be that he is right on track. He seems a nice enough youngster and with good progress and continuous commitment to the 36ers, we could be looking at the next Maher.

phil, i assume that was aimed at me, right?

read again, i said a fully fit carter AND Shannon.

i would hardly say carter is fully fit right now after months out.

He's looking better each game, as clarke is slowly implementing his youth policy. Think he needs a guicker "catch n shoot' jumper though...it looks too slow especially compared to brett mahers...but maybe im being too critical

Maher shot 3/20 3pt in his rookie year fresh out of the institute.

He did tell me during a round of golf (thanks for having me Brett!) he was changing from a set shooter to a jump shooter though!

Daly looks the goods, but he may be a bit short to be Brett Maher.

Brett is 6 2 or 6 ft 3?

Daly is lucky to be 6ft, not a huge issue (see Ervin) but enough to keep him as a solid player and not a star at NBL level IMO

Mind you very very pleased to be proved wrong

I think the whole Maher point is being over blow, its really just a comparison of a young point guard from stuart who has shown something.

If he keeps on improving he might be a similar player to Brad Davidson.

If you had seen him play the ABA grand final when he should have won the MVP award you would realize he was good enough for NBL, decided to stay in Adelaide rather than go to college, Marty Clarke has a tough decision to make as to who doesn't play when Shannon is fit, big bonus though maybe Shannon can have another week off to get cherry ripe.

The sixers can't make the finals time to get more minutes into Daly, creek and Johnson and maybe less time into guys that probably won't be there next year.

I think Gaze said he was a Brett Maher clone and he does play in a similar style

Daly anticipates the hole game. He knows the offence better than most of the guys. Follows instructions when he gets on the floor. 3 seasons out from being the full time point guard for the 6ers and freeing up an import spot somewhere else.

It would be interesting to see if Daly would have had an opportunity under a different coach, i think not, im sure there are few Daly types kids around the country that coaches dont put the time into.Its time as 36ers fans that we realise what Clarke and Radford were hired to do, stop looking at Win and Loses,that shit will take care of it self if you get the rest in place. Build for the future or buy championships it is as simple as that in the NBL.

^^ We don't have a johnston on the team! (It's Johnson, ya clown)

Daly is good and he thinks so too. But he's not that good - he still needs to work really hard and hopefully mum and dad kep their mouths shut.

Gee we need him to make it.

Inflated are you for real! Making the 36ers roster as a 19 year old means you must be pretty damn good. He was on the 36ers train on squad as a 17 year old I believe. He was a highly rated junior and he has worked extremely hard to get where he is now and if you knew the kid you would know how modest he is and how much he himself knows he needs to improve.

Keep in mind he came into this year as a development player. Some would say he's been thrown in the deep end with a 1st year player logging minutes in crunch time, but he's shown he can handle it. His D was great vs Kings and he probably has the freshest J on the whole team. The kid is special! And whats with your comments about his folks? Your a joke man, quit stirring sh*t.

Daly has the potential to really grow over the next 5 years. I would suggest that if he keeps playing well and listening to coach's instructions, he will get more court time.

Well done so far. Keep it up.

Ive been to training on the odd occassion and seen Tom's enthusiasm at training and while it took him half the year to get actual court time, he proves that whilst he hasnt got the height, he has the ability.

When the 'doubters' said at the beginning of the year he will never play, i figured that he would get court time to improve himself because I will be honest, earl on, he was a raw shot on the basket.

But to his own credit, he has come a fair way too proving himself both personally and on this forum.

Goodluck to him I say. The 36ers should keep him for another year and see where it takes him.

There won't be any "next Brett Maher"; so don't even try to compare. Just as annoying as calling Lebron "the next Jordan".

Daly has been good for 2 games. Give him a full NBL season playing quality minutes then make the judgement.

The big test in the NBL is if you can run the point against Perth, he done well. There are plenty of people that cant handle that kind of pressure,most comment on this forum regulary i would suggest.Do the work and good things happen.Sit on your computer and not much really happens, lets be honest!!!Well done Daly!!

dave - good enough to back up, say, Carter if he started? Is Carter/Daly a good enough PG duo? Or do you think they might have to run a starting PG, a starting SG, and two versatile backups? Or three point guards capable of scoring, and a SF that could score/defend at SG?

e.g.,

Carter/Bruce
SG import/Daly
Herbert/Creek

I'm wondering if we'll see some movement towards multiple ball-handling guards on court at any one time? Adelaide has done it a bit with at least two of Shannon/Carter/Bruce/Daly on court at once. Perth start two PGs. Wollongong have been running Ervin, Demos and Martin at the same time recently.

To answer junior development question... Was a small guy playing div 2 for awhile and then grew and blossomed out of nowhere. Always been a hard worker and it's paying off

he is staying with the 36ers