OMG! Where will our scoring come from! What about our defense!

We're going to be a shit team now.....

Now???

Bartlett at backup PG, he was good for Perth.

No idea which decent PFs are available.
Sign a youngster and play Creek more I guess.
Not like we can play worse!!!!! :(
Plus Balls didn't add much to the team this season anyway.

The only thing that may keep us off the bottom of the ladder is Khazzough staying in NBA after his trial with GSW this week.

so who will be captain for the rest of the season?

How about get greg vanderjagt, and Shane Macdonald?

I don't think we will get another point guard as Clarke would want Daly to play instead.

I don't think they will get a Euro Australian player now that our season is basically over, as well as I don't think a player that is over there will want to come back. So with that in mind I think our best option is Vanderjaqt. The other option is possibly Mottram but I don't think he is mobile enough and we already have Helliwell over using that ability.

I would put Simpson as captain.

Most likely Clarke would love Weigh as his Capitain.

Call the guys in Europe who might be a chance - just guessing at Newley, Markovic, etc - they might be more than happy where they are but you have to check. Check with Dellavedova just in case he wants to go pro early. If options are few, consider Maynard and Motum? Though they might be best seeing through college.

Options otherwise are pretty slim. Going through the list of Australians in Europe shows a lot of guys who'd be on good money and getting decent opportunities already.

No ideal captains in the team. Just rotate them or something. Hawks did that way back in the day, I think.

They should throw everything at Newley
Good time for him to come home and play here before Australian duties

Pull out the cheque book and get Newley here

1. Warren
2. Newley
3. Weigh
4. Simpson
5. DJ
--------------
Then play your bench sparingly
6. Herbert
7. NG
8. Motram
9. Heliwell
10. Daly
--------------

If I were the club I would save my money, look to sign up DJ, Simpson and Warren and recruit a bck up gaurd - someone like Luke Kendall. I'd be happy t move Weigh to SG and give Creek more time along with Daly. I don't believe that we can save the season at this point. I'd be planning for next year.

Sorry I forgot they had Creek

* add him for Daly who becomes 11 and plays at home

-------

I wouldn't play Weigh at SG but instead give him PF minutes backing up Simpson and use Helliwell smarter or more sparingly. There was a passage against the Blaze where I thought Helliwell looked pretty decent - gave us a mismatch.

Then give Weigh's adjusted minutes to Creek.

It was already hard finding minutes for Ballinger when Simpson/DJ have been doing well, so I wouldn't rush to plug that hole. PG or upgrade somewhere else instead (Newley if that was possible).

Very tough losing two Australians like that.

if vasiljevic is still playing he might be useful.
dickel too maybe

At least they are not stuffing around this time, and operating asap in both instances which is good to hear.

When is the next Olympic year and/or world champs? You would think Delladova would want to stay in College until the end of the current season, but i would be calling anyone and everyone, and leave no stone unturned. In the mean time, sign Mottram for a 5 day contract, have a look at him, but keep hitting the phones.

I would imagine an Aussie PG replacement would be much harder to find at the moment, so i would expect Daly to be kept in the 10 and with Creek getting more {some!} opportunities, but i would like to see real attempts to get another post/big option.

Hmm what about play current players and see what they bring?

Johnson (25) / Helliwell (15)
Simpson (30) / Johnson (5) / Weigh (5)
Weigh (30) / Creek (15)
Herbert (15) / Ng (15) / Creek (10)
Warren (30) / Daly (10)

I know that might cop some flak, but what do you have to lose? Why pay somebody to come in over the top for half a season when you could throw these guys into the deep end and see what comes out.

The only way that makes sense is if Newley (or somebody similar) is available.

Otherwise, a real test for Herbert, Creek, Ng, Helliwell to perform knowing they get minutes. Coaching staff can decide if they are retained next year based on these opportunities.

10th man can be any other member of the training party, Warbout/Madgen etc.

Jawai has tweeted he has one more game left in the season then he is on his way home

home to cairns?.............or adelaide?

I Would have thought if Jawai is coming back to the NBL then the Tigers would have already snagged him long before this news.

I dont think Adelaide should blow money on an injury replacement just because.. Ballinger wasnt really having an impact and Crosswell should be covered for with the existing squad filling in the gaps left.

If Johnson, Simpson, Weigh and Warren are all on point at the same time then you still have a good team. Wont be very deep into the bench but if Marty can rotate better, which now he may be forced too, then it wont matter so much.

Marko didnt have a contract for much of the off-season and still didnt look to come home. He is a good player in a good comp over there (with teams ranging from sub-NBL to above-NBL) so he is unlikely.

Dickel would be a good one, would help with the coaching side of things and replace Crosswell's experience.

If Jawai is coming home to stay, this will be a genuine test of Clarke's ability to recruit former students. Jawai, Johnson and Simpson rotating through the 4 and 5 would be imposing, but still leave the Sixers very vulnerable to good shooters, which the NBL has plenty of.

Still, you wouldnt say no, would you?!

No matter who we get and how much money we throw at them, they wont be able to win games as they will only be given 10 minutes of court time to bring us back in the game at which point Weigh comes back on to lose with his 35min of game time.

I tend to agree with hustle. As much as I hate to admit it this season is pretty much done and dusted so why not move Daly and Warbout up to the rotation? I haven't seen much of Warbout but Daly hasn't been too bad considering his lack of NBL expereince and decent minutes. Lets put it bluntly, things could get worse but the way things are looking its not good anyway so I'd give our development players a go. Besides, its cheaper and the other players know what they're getting.

Honestly, if it were up to me I would only go looking for other players to replace Balls and Cross if they were available.

Coming in late into our 'over-coached' team may not make any difference.

Seems there was a press conference that : -
" I'm confident I can come back next season and I'll be around with the club this season . " Ballinger spoke. " I'd like to be here. I THINK Leeanne and the club wants me. But , I don't know . ".. hint hint.

'The club has not decided on a replacement captain , yet.' TV news said.

Helliwell's been all 'round the world an back agen
and has done a few good things here .
Not liked by hoops , of course .

Whose that dude from Forestville? you know, um, the guy what carved up ABL teams like a hedge trimmer through jellyfish.

Put a fork in it, the season is done..........

Start planning for next year. Give the guys you want to be around next year good minutes and let them develop.

The only reason not to do this would be a Barlow, Newley or Ingles wanting to return. Jawai is not a good enough excuse to shell out the bickies.

Sure Diamond Simpson up for next year now and start looking for a good SG import for next year

Get rid of Warren at end of year and look to entice Maynard into a PG Starting role.

PG - Maynard
SG - Import
SF - Weigh
PF - Simpson
C - Johnson

Just a few of my thoughts and slightly risky of course.

Who is contracted next year at the Sixers??

Unfortunately, title may read Ballenger out for ever.

Dickel would be a good short term pickup. At least with him getting a few minutes @ back up PG it will take the heat off your Import and he is pass first so guys will see enough ball to develop. Dickel spent his days with the Tallblacks getting guys the ball when they were hot, Cameron, Jones, Penney etc.Dickel would also bring some leadership qualities and experience to the group. Tait wouldn't be a bad backup either and wouldn't command big $.

Isn't Jawai just coming home for xmas?

Is it me or do some people see the role of a point guard to be more of a distributor of the ball and to look to get the ball to other scorers before taking the option of shooting themselves? Warren isn't perfect but he does have the makings of a very good PG. He's just more of a shooter than a passer which isn't a bad thing IMO considering he's averaging 16.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. They aren't the stats of a mug IMO, the only thing he needs to seriously work on (like the rest of the 36ers roster) is his defense.

Got to remember this is his first pro gig outside of college ball so even though he does have 4 years of NCAA ball behind him he is still learning the pro game and I for one don't think we should be looking to replace him. Simpson, DJ, Warren & Creek are the ones I'd be looking at keeping and building the team from there.

Could be wrong but isn't Maynard an undersized 2?

HoldenV8 you are on the money with what I think is a good point guard. Does not have to be a huge scorer but does need to be able to score when needed. Needs to be able to distribute the ball and run the team.

My team for next year if I was GM/Coach.......In my dreams from an arm chair

PG - Maynard (College) / Robbins(Perth)
SG - Import / Williamson (Perth)
SF - Weigh / Creek
PF - Simpson / Rychart (Cairns)
C - Johnson / Massey (College)

Whilst I doubt Robbins would be ineterested in leaving Perth, he is one player I would like to see play in Adelaide. Such a tough character. He would bring a bit of spirit back to the Arena.

Williamson - A taller, heavier, better defender Darren Ng (Probably not a better shooter though)

Rychart - Probably getting a pretty good gig in Cairns but just a guy who does all the basics well.

Massey coming off a Senior Year with Southern Utah. He will surely be looking for a place to play in 2012/13

(Williamson vs Simpson) - Would definitely like to see Williamson in a Sixers uniform. However I wonder if they could ask him to play some SEABL or CABL before next year to see how the knee is going. Happy to switch if knee is ok.

Maynard will be a starting point guard in the NBL soon enough. He is a good passer and has three point range. Looks after the ball well. Currently stating PG for Bryant I think.

Import SG has to be on the money, someone who is a proven scoring threat. Well feel free to critique or not at all. Just my thoughts for an arm chair.

Why on earth would you want Drew?

also apologies I couldn't remember who is contracted for next year

Don't waste money. Let he guys who are left step up and let's see what they are made of. The loss of Ballinger does not change a thing and the way Crosswell was playing before he got hurt yesterday, he maybe no loss either.
The bright points of the season so far has been the arrival of Simpson and the incredible improvement of DJ. Well done son, it is a pleasure seeing you play now.

I agree with "anonymous" (brilliant), this has brought things to a head and we need to shake up the backcourt. We need an import PG who passes first, has some experience and can lead. With Balls and Crossy out there's no leaders on that team.

PG- Import
SG- Creek/Ng
SF- Weigh
PF- Simpson
C- Johnson

Plus the rest and bring in an experienced Aussie big who can annoy on D (think David Cooper type)

I've written a long blog here

http://36reasons.blogspot.com/2011/12/where-to-now.html

Jack Toft, are you thinking of Rashad Tucker?

Squid might have a point. Atleast with 2 less players in the squad, the rotation options tighten as well. If Clarke's rotations are bad, this could be an improvement.

-'Williamson' (Perth), this must be the most stupid suggestion ever posted on this site, hands down. Have you seen his stats for this season!

Just a thought..were done for this seaon really..so lets build on next year.

Put Daly in the deep end and see what he can do, depending on his form we look at him for being the backup to Crosswell next year and go with 2 Aussie pg's
This would free up 1 import spot to bring back Williamson and keep Simpson as well for next year IF Daly shows he can handle it.

Dont know where this leaves us with Ballinger, reduced salary if he will take it and rotating with Simpson, DJ still. Ditch Weigh and keep working on Creek.

Just a thought!

SG seems like a blackhole at the moment.
Not sure why Ng just doesn't start and has plays run to get him open. We have 2 dominate offensive bigs so surely Ng can get open on some good passes. Some decent/illegal screens would help as well.

But if the coaches don't have confidence in Ng and Herbert then look for the best aussie SG available and see if they are good enough for next season.

Play Daly at backup PG, 5-10 mins each game. See if he is good enough or not. He has been in the system for a while, should be showing improvement by now.

This season is toast so start looking at next season.

poach Daniel Dillon off Melbourne

Comments from Marty on the search for replacements.

No mention of European players though Boti does mention Dickel and Horvath.

I remembered Brad Williamson, though I seriously dislike that guy and think there were reasons the Crocs cut him loose. Drew Williamson started well but I'm not sure all Cats fans have appreciated him this year.

Looking through the NZ NBL stats:

Phill Jones - retired, flaky?
Craig Bradshaw - not much of a fan, but he's big
Nick Horvath - had a good NZ season
Lindsay Tait - unreliable? fearless though
Hayden Allen - don't need another bench guard
Jeremiah Trueman not showing on Cats' boxscores - not in the ten? Injured?
Everard Bartlett - probably contracted by Cats, also more of a shooter?
Mark Dickel - pass-first PG, on-floor coach
Casey Frank - probably more or less retired
Chris Daniel - no point given we have Creek
Mike Fitchett - does he work for the Breakers?
Jarrod Kenny - might as well promote Daly instead

The Australian options would include Ben Knight (underrated, but a year slower), Greg Vanderjagt (not convinced), Pero Vasiljevic (would be rolling dice with him), etc.

If the Euro guys are no chance and the better college players don't want to leave, Dickel and Horvath wouldn't break the bank. We need a pass-first guy and on-floor leadership, so Dickel fits that. In the paint though, we'd want someone defensively oriented to complement Simpson and Johnson, and I don't think Horvath fits that bill.

Pero or Horvath would be decent options considering the season is half over.
Both can play next to Simpson or Johnson.

Get Bartlett he showed some good signs in the Perth games I watched on OneHD.
Plus he may be an option for next season if he plays well.

I'm toey to get to the game Friday to see our team sans Ballinger and Crosswell.
Perhaps plenty of options forward , but Warren's gonna need a lotta help, now.

The best options would be dickel and pero.
Interesting but unlikely situation if khazzouh somehow makes NBA the kings probably will/should cut ratzsch and get an import center.
so ratszch might be an option.
also im not a sixers fan but get the right replacements, get a few wins and the seasons not over, theres still 16 odd rounds left

EC, putting it out there!

Rewind about 6 months, everyone was going bunta about "The Rash" saying how he was naturalised and should be playing, and now when there is an opportunity to push his barrow, we don't hear nothing from anyone!

Ok i'm going to be the devil's advocate here and say the season is far from over. We lost Ballinger who wasn't giving us much at all and we lost Crosswell who was a very steady influence but wasn't a big points contributor.
We still have 17 games in a 28 game season left, that's plenty of time to re evaluate what we have and what we need.
If i'm Marty and i'm confident the Sixers will owner my contract next season then i'm not going to recruit and just run with what we have.
But I think Marty know the target on his back is getting bigger and may think it's make or break.
Our standouts are Simpson, DJ (on one end) and Warren. We have two 3 men in Weigh and Creek so no need for another 3 man. What we need is the best possible PG we can get no matter the cost. Then we can rotate Warren through the SG spot. I don't mind Weigh covering the 2 spot a bit and chuck Creek at 3.
The biggest issue is there is not a lot out there.
Recruit Dickel on 2 conditions...we buy him white shoes and he's given shorter socks.
I think Marty has to pull a rabbit out of his hat from somewhere on this one as there is not a lot of quality out there. Would he have the balls to cut Warren for someone like Ervin to sure up the PG spot? Then go after someone like Jawai (if available) to split minutes with DJ and Simpson.

Ben Knight was at the Sydney game on Thursday night (as a spectator) and looked in good shape, when Ballinger got injured during the game I thought Knight would be a good pick up.

Panther32: Re Dickels socks, they hold his legs together.
Isaac: Jarrod Kenny has been training with the Breakers all season, think he came in short term as injury cover for Henry at the beginning of the season

Mystro, I just don't know what he brings (besides a vertical) that Daly doesn't.

I would be taking Ballinger's salary allocation and putting an offer to Dellavedova to try and coax him out of college early. He and Warren start, then one spells the other at PG while Ng or Herbert come on.

What's done with the remainder is less crucial but I wouldn't want them taking minutes off Creek whatever happened.

Isaac, I like your thinking but don't think it would be possible.
I think the best options would be Knight and Bartlett both can provide a spark off the bench, which is what we have been missing

I assume that the insurance will cover injury payments - after all that is what you take it out for.

Assuming no internationals are available:
To replace Crosswell: Bartlett, Tait or Dickel.
To replace Ballinger: Knight, Mottram or Vanderjagt.

Or we could just continue with this management's idea of a team and bring in Horvath and Kendall! Just what this team needs is more 99% offensively minded players who don't play defence.

Big Sexy, why not? Might not be an easy process, but Ballinger is not a bargain basement player. At some point, Dellavedova would be tempted to go pro and we'd be a reasonable shot to make it happen. Only thing he'd be giving up would be prime visibility for an NBA draft, but other players have still had their chance approaching it from the NBL (Newley, Ingles, Jawai, even Majok). Have to put the question to him, IMO.

For the club, surely it'd be worth paying good money to secure a player like that and lock in our PG combo for next year? If Warren plays out the season really well, he is a handy SG next year. If not, SG isn't an impossible import spot to fill. Or start with one import and keep the other spot spare as insurance.

Warren's young (quiet,shy) . He's gonna have to lead us now , I know. I saw another young American Guard
lose it here ,when Maher and Davidson were out injured.
Pretty sure Croswell will be missed and Warren will need some help. While forward there's plenty here , with Creek spending a lotta time on the bench and Simpson can do a few more minutes. A little bitta Helliwell , some Weigh and Johnson etc.

I think this is another good example of why there should be a more formalised trading option in the NBL.

It has the possibility of offering "unlucky' teams a chance to alter their roster during the season without having to search too hard for players.

I was tempted, dont worry! But Lindsay is a bad fit for this club (I think he would be good for Melbourne), Adelaide need an experienced, smart veteran like Dickel, or if they could somehow get a young star like Delly back that would be worthwhile too.

Isaac, no reason, I hope it happens but even the sixers contacting him could put his scholarship at risk.

Save cash - tank the season.

We weren't planning on playoff action anyway.

Did not know that - what are the rules?

All I know is NBA teams can't speak to any college players (I assume it would be all professional leagues). There are some exeptions Brett Brown is allowed to speak to Australian players in is role as Coach of Australia but that is it and also when players nominate for the draft. I could be wrong but read it somewhere

With the season history, give Daly and Creek as many minutes as possible.

Isaac, Don't worry just found out that I am wrong. According the NCAA a player or a guardian can find out the players worth from a professional team without losing eligiblity.

Isn't it more to do with once they nominate for the draft?
Because I know Jordan got fined not long ago for having a chat with a player in the draft or something.

All I remeber is that Brown had to get permission to talk to the Australian players but might have been to do with something else.

Loco, what a terrible thing to say. With more than half of the season remaining, who said we weren't planning playoff action. This season is not over yet and I agree that replacements need to be found. For those who say we won't miss Ballinger because he hasn't brought that much to the team anyway, the answer to that is our season so far has been poor without him and improvements were expected when he came back fully fit. For this reason, he does need to be replaced. Crosswell was making a good enough contribution that his absence will be felt. Bring in the right replacements now and the playoff situation could very well change.

I don't think we should completely give up on the season. With the right replacements for Balls and Crosswell, I could see us making a late season run. In DJ, Simpson and Warren, we finally have the core of a good team. What we need is more from our bench, which regularly puts us in a big hole.

There probably aren't too many options, but a mobile big who can play some good defence would really improve the Sixers fortunes I think. Mottram sounds like the best of a poor bunch really. I liked Ben Knight's efforts for Sydney last season, but he'd be exposed as badly as Helliwell on D with his lack of footspeed now.

Dickel is sounding like one of the few realistic guard options. Might be worth it if he can play like he did last season for Sydney. Wouldn't expect too much though.

I hear Chris Paul wants out of Nola. Maybe he'd like a 3 month holiday from Stern and the NBA?

Dellavedova would be awesome, but can't see it happening this season.

Lets hope the Sixers are doing their due diligence and making the calls though. You never know who might say yes. Could we afford to pay Jordan for five minutes a game to close for us? ;-p

With the lack of a quality big available, I wouldn't be too against just replacing Crosswell. Johnson and Simpson should be spending the majority of the game on the court. Getting a Mottram or Knight could actually be harmful to our chances. Johnson and Simpson both are worthy of 30+ minutes. Use Helliwell for 5-10 minutes. Use Weigh for 5-10 minutes at the 4.
This could be to our advantage in 3 respects: Weigh still gets his obligatory 30+ minutes. Creek finally gets his 20 minutes. Marty has no choice but to use Simpson and Johnson for at least 30 minutes. This setup only falls down if they get into foul trouble.
Think it's important we replace Crosswell though. Warren isn't ready to play 35+ minutes imo. And we don't really have anyone who can play the point (Daly isn't a viable option if we want to be competitive).
Here's a breakdown of minutes I would to go with:
Warren (20) Dickel/equivalent (20)
Warren (10) Herbert (15) Ng (10) Creek (5)
Weigh (25) Creek (15)
Simpson (30) Weigh (10)
Johnson (30) Helliwell (10)

All the bases are covered here imo. And everyone gets roughly the minutes they deserve/have earnt.

Hendo, I think we do need the extra big, simply because 10 mins of Helliwell every game will just kill us. It was depressing watching Wilkinson, Jackson and Vukona carve us up time after time by exploiting his lack of speed.

I think about 30 mins for each of DJ and Diamon is about right though. Just need a guy who can move his feet on D for about 10 mins and not cause us to leak so many points while our starting bigs are off the floor.

Someone please remind me why we got Helliwell. What was the reasoning behind that?

Clarke wanted him to make Weigh look good!

Maybe they were gonna move last seasons starting Centre to Power Forward and play a bitta Johnson and Helliwell at Centre.
Seems they were gonna put Helliwell on every time Perth put Nevill on , one game and Neville didn't trouble the scorers . Some think Nevills pretty good.

I saw Helliwell pre-season and his rebounding was rock solid, and his defence was not too bad either,
but he seemed to have dropped off a bit since.

Reckon they do need another big, if only for training numbers.

EC, they had absolutely peanuts left to spend and Helliwell still had contractual pay-outs due from the Tigers meaning that Adelaide would've got him for around the minimum.

On immediate changes after losing both captains, Boti's article today says that Creek will start at shooting guard. When Warren shifts to off-guard, presumably Daly will be on. It also mentions Weigh spending some time at PF leaving opportunities at SF for Creek, Herbert, etc.

Helliwell as #10 off the bench is a great signing. Problem is he isn't being used that way because of Ballinger's injury.

Jeremy Kench for Crosswell

Knight or Pero for Ballinger