The concept of an import is to add an extra dimension to the team that isn't there.

Unless there is a gap, no need to add.

Yes, one import is good.
Hopefully the $US-$AUD stays the same for next season, because it is very appealing for imports.

Essentially, $350k AUD is $350k USD.
That kind of money is very close to the NBA minimum for a 1st year player (473k USD).

I would try to build my team with Aussie talent and then make a decision on how many and what type of imports I need.

Of course, if I already had a good import who wanted to stay I would sign him early as a good player is a good player, regardless of where he is from.

With what the 36ers have recruited in 2010-2011, then spending the import cash on a very good Australian player would make sense.

Without a doubt you need two imports. The Aussie talents is not as deep as what every one thinks but the real issue with having two imports is the excitement and crowd they bring in.
If we can get two good american imports then thats what the crowds come to see.
The young kids don't come to see Australians play, they come to see the Willie Farley's, Juliuis Hodge's, and Corey Homicide's play and entertain the crowd.
Untill we get two good american imports that excitement will never be back. Who cares if they aren't the best blokes, just make sure they can play.

MACDUB, good point though players with some NBA under their belts have come here and not exactly blown us away. Will Blalock, Orien Greene, Awvee Storey, etc.

Still, worth a shot going for one guy. It's a risk, but the same has applied with cheaper imports recently.

I think the first point of cash throwing should be at Schencher, bring him back to his home town and let him do what he does best. then yes i completely agree that we should put decent money up for a quality single import. that way johnson gets some experience against a proven centre and i think will benefit alot more from it, as currently he does some stupid jump shots that look hideous at the best of times. feel free to criticise that theory.

Sorry, I'm going to suggest the 1 import slot and one quality local player. You'd be better off trying to lure Brad Newley back with that kind of money and get someone who's a lccal boy and who's seasoned.

And anyone who says he won't come back because there's better money over in Europe, has just answered why most of the good imports aren't here already.

Balls may be naturalized, but he's still costing the team that marquee money. So you're either going to tell him to cough up some cash to get some "quality" import players or the SOS will have to conjour up magical funding for 2 imports; and go out of the salary cap.

Only thing that's needed for us is a 2nd scoring option that's reliable. If you can get that locally, then don't look elsewhere for it.

Sorry, I'm going to suggest the 1 import slot and one quality local player. You'd be better off trying to lure Brad Newley back with that kind of money and get someone who's a lccal boy and who's seasoned.

And anyone who says he won't come back because there's better money over in Europe, has just answered why most of the good imports aren't here already.

Balls may be naturalized, but he's still costing the team that marquee money. So you're either going to tell him to cough up some cash to get some "quality" import players or the SOS will have to conjour up magical funding for 2 imports; and go out of the salary cap.

Only thing that's needed for us is a 2nd scoring option that's reliable. If you can get that locally, then don't look elsewhere for it.

"The young kids don't come to see Australians play, they come to see the Willie Farley's, Juliuis Hodge's, and Corey Homicide's play and entertain the crowd."

This is just reciting the same old tired tripe.

Yes, imports often have a different attitude, a certain flair to their game, and this can really excite a crowd and entertain people. But to say that's all "the young kids come for" is just ignorant. You get a close game late in the 4th quarter with two good teams and it doesn't matter where the players come from.

I absolutely endorse the 1 import outside of cap rule, 2 inside cap rule. The team can do either.

Maybe we could see Roy Tarpley or Darryl Dawkins in 6ers uniform next year if that was the case.

Many of the successful teams in recent times have either had only one import or one of their two imports a role player - Perth, NZ, Wollongong, Townsville, Dragons 09, Kings 08, Bullets 07 - so I think you can easily do one import. But if you cant get the right local talent a second import is a good fall back.

Bobby, agreed. Perth sold out their venue with a sole very vanilla import. Winning helps!

36ers could use only one import although would they be better getting a centre import than a 2 guard?
Seems centres stay around and have been a bit more effective over the last season.

Vanilla Import love it lol!!!

My approach would be to make a list of the available Aussie free agents at each position we need to upgrade our starter, in 36ers case just about everything except for pf, and rank them, go after the top player on the list and work your way down the list as required, obviously the price tag and points will drop a bit as you go down, after you get past your say 4th or 5th option, you would have to look at a import, or gamble on giving a young guy more repsonsibility.

eg for starting pg our list may look like

1 Mills (Dreaming i know)
2 Gibson
3 Markovich
4/5 retain Bruce/Carter combo
4/5 IMPORT

Say we missed out on our top 3 then we would have to consider if we need the import else where and therefore go the Bruce/Carter combo or if we go for a import at starting PG, then id rank the available imports with nbl experience ie Ervin, Williams and Ubaka, and if we cant get one of them id go for a fresh face.

Say we got lucky and got our first 3 choices of Aussies in each position and hypothetically (without knowing who is available) recruited, Gibson, Magden, Weigh, Schenshcer, id be happy to go with no imports and fill out the bench with our current players ie something like Carter, Herbert, Hill, Creek, Johnson. I know its highly unlikely we would recruit anything close to those 4 aussies but thats what id be aiming for and replace the ones we miss out on with imports. If we miss out on all of them we would need 2 good imports, if we get say 2 of them we possibly could go with 1 import, it all depends on our aussies and salary and points caps.

I assume the "vanilla" is referring to him being a plain and ordinary player. Similar to the description of "vanilla sex" middle aged men have.

i thought it was in reference to him being white?

Was just referencing Lisch's game. He's not a brash trash-talking dunker.

Throughout the 1990s there were around 14 teams playing NBL. All of them were Australian. Most had 2 imports.

In the 2000s, there were 11-12 teams playing, until 2008, when there were 10. NZ joined the league in 2004, which expanded the local player pool by including a second country. We started seeing teams playing with a high quality local line up and a single import and doing really well. e.g., some of Goorjian's teams. We also saw a successful strategy of playing 1 import for much of the season and bringing a second import at teh back end of the season to improve the team leading into finals. Smyth did this and recruiting Matt Garrison was a significant help to winning in 2002. This strategy has the advantage of not having to pay a full year's salary to the second import.

We now have 9 teams, with NZ still there. So the size of the local talent pool relative to the number of NBL teams has increased significantly - by around 80%since the 1990s and by about 30% since the early 2000s.

Given that situation and even though much of the talent is buzzing off overseas, the 1 import - or even no import strategy looks reasonable. History suggests it can be successful, if you build a good Aussie unit and recruit an import to fill a gap, rather than vice versa.

It also reduces your reliance on getting your imports right - 1 dud is better than 2 duds in your starting line up.

Well said, I love the strategy of leaving one import spot open in case of injury, assuming you can get the local talent to cover that other spot of course.

Re available talent, also factor in how many more kids played basketball in the catchment times for this NBL generation (roughly 1990-2005ish) than before that.

I would get 2 import shooting guards to complement the Aussie talent - Signed Marty Clarke