as much I'd like the Sixers to get the win I think Cairns will bounce back and win this one.

If getting something out of helliwell is a requirement of winning, you may aswell go to the pub now

You might be right Alexkrad. Here's hoping though..........

I picked the wrong time , wrong place to give up drinking . To quote a phrase.
You've known it all the time . I'm learning it , these days.
I'm gonna have to watch him now , I know . Never been so easy or so slow . It always has hit me from below.
I been shooting in the dark , too long . When somethings not right , its wrong.
He made it to the Worlds , somehow. He's too small to play, now.
It's a price I have to pay . Wade Helliwell , all the way.

worried about feeling lonesome Camel?

36ers are erratic as fuk. I'm not laying down any money on this game but if i was i'd put money down on Cairns to win.

To lose to the bottom 2 in a weekend where they should have consolidated a top 4 spot would be devastating for Cairns. If they can't beat the injury struck worst coached team in the comp then they dont deserve finals!

They will grind out a hard fought win!!

Cns by 7

Cairns by 9, with my girlfriend's four year old daughter having more impact in the low post than Wade Helliwell.

Very amusing Mutley but don't sell her short!

have faith you doubters
Sixers to win - cairns to flop badly
Johnson simpson weigh warren to to step up - this team is too talented to fall by the wayside.
Clarke is building a group thats info the long haul and needs doubters to get off his case.Creek simpson johnson are very solid base with which club can move forward with. been lapses which is more inexperience for short burst when you look at the season- small team beatenup by NZ but to own perth says this group can play.
Consistency is the ingredient, only experience provides.

All Clarke is building up is a case of wind this team could not win a fight with its own shadow. so lets be honest enjoy the game because nothing else is on .

Creek & johnson will be great players at other clubs in a few years like Holmes & Hill. Someone needs to remind Clarke that it's not the AIS now where he develops them & sends them into the big wide world. Keep your talent dickhead!

Just hope that it's a better game to watch than last time. That was one of the slowest, ugliest games I've seen in ages! Cairns by 12 for mine

http://theusagetv.org/broadcast/14/170/357068/watch-adelaide-36ers-cairns-taipans.html

For those who can't make the game

I have a feeling the Sixers will get the win by 8pts. Daniel Johnson to top score with 22 and 7 rebounds.

Is this on radio ?

I think we has Daly Bartlett Helliwell on together in the first . But , they did OK , especially Wade Helliwell.

Nice technical Marty , 9 point swing

At the game, cannot believe how Simpson sat out most of last quater when we needed inside presence and rebounding...... Johnson had a stinker but it all went downhill after Clarke's tech.

all I an say it - it was tactically briliant to have diamon siting on the bench until the 2.00 minute mark of the last Q . - we will now win !

Adelaide, blame your coach yet again, I mean a clear foul on the 3 point shooter game in balance, he complains about the call and gives away a tech foul, and the rest is history.

Adelaide now almost a decade without winning a playoff serious, and no games in Perth where they seem to play well, hard to see them winning a game for the rest of the year. You had a 10 day break, Cairns had a tough home loss Friday night, yet couldnt get the job done.

What are your excuses now??

Clarke is a dumbass. Swung the game with his tech and kept Simpson on his butt until it was too late. Pathetic coaching. Make the change now. An interim coach would do better than Clarke

Actually I've now decided that the only objective remaining in this season for me ( and only for me ) is to keep an eye out for the best located "members" seats that will be relinquished/un renewed for next season ( and the next few seasons after that).

I figure that I've got about 15 more years of watching NBL basketball in me, and if I have to spend ( waste) money on season tickets for the next few years, it will hopefully pay off some time in the early 2020's.

Heard tech was on the bench? Weigh only real shining light.

Aw well , Myron Allen's pretty good to watch , anyways.

Thankyou Marty Clarke

wildcats80, nobody on here is making excuses for the 36ers. They suck, and we know it.

from a neutral observer I can feel for the frustration 36ers fans feel while watching Clarke coach. Is it not bleedingly obvious that Simpson is their best and most consistent player. He is underutilised both in minutes played and touches he receives.

To not play Simpson when it mattered was an absolute joke. If Simpson was injured then fine but other then that there was no excuse for that sort of coaching.

The players that were on got some momentum going and all credit to them for doing that however that is the best moment to put Simpson back in. Instead he shows no forward thinking and acted like a scared coach hoping we could just crawl across the line for a win.

If we put Simpson on in that situation and we lose then we can accept that but to not put him on and instead go with a low percentage coaching idea is not acceptable.

Congratulations to Weigh who finally decided to earn his pay. He finally continued to drive to the basket instead of settling for weak shots.

fstos part of Diamon Simpson's problem is that he's not as fit as he should be. As good a player as he is after 5 minutes on court he's huffing and puffing. But its still no excuse for Clarke to continually have the teams best rebounder on the bench for either all or most of the last period which including the game against Sydney has happened for our past 4 games.

Well, unless we find any sort of form Adelaide are definitely going to finish 8th or 9th this season.

Adelaide is now 14-32 under Marty Clarke. But it can't be ALL his fault...most but not all.

Can we sack him now? Pretty please. Chocolate, sugar, cherries whatever the hell you want on top.

What lost us the game:
Simpson played 18.5 minutes. Seriously WTF? Get us a coach who will use him. That isn't Marty, never will be Marty. We were in a winning position most of the night, he was our best.
That 9 point play. Just shut up on the bench Marty, scores were tied, they would have scored 4 there, not 9.
What's with fouling with 1 minute to go and 12 points down. You're not going to win with shots there, only chance you have is by getting some stops and knocking in some big shots.
Warren and Johnson just couldn't buy a goal. Johnson had them rimming out, Warren wasn't even close most of the time.

Over it. We aren't this shit. He's the big reason why we are playing this shit.

SACK HIM NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ubaka 2 the Gong - 36ers wooden spoon!

100% fault of coach & he's an asst. to Brett Brown at the Olympics...

I was there and that was gutting. Marty's tech cost us the game. Warren's "And 1" was killer but Marty gave them 5 free points right after we'd just equalled the game. There has to be some action from this. I've done a full review here

http://www.36reasons.net/2012/01/jamar-wilson-andrew-warren-marty-clarke.html

Simpson might not be up to NBL fitness levels but he doesnt need 8 minutes on the bench to get his breath, surely?! Even put him in for three and then give him a minute off etc.

I am hoping there was a reason for his bench time because otherwise it is just near-incompetent coaching.

After watching countless games, that was the most disappointing game for a while.
In the game after being as much as 10 down with 8 to go, then with 4 to go, level on 66 a piece until somehow, we get a technical foul that kills the game.

I dont blame anyone however that person who gave away a technical foul needs to come forward, and explain to its members why this happened and why that finished the game cos it was a 9 point turn around with 4 mins to go.

Fail to do this, then that person isnt accountable nor do they deserve a job where WE the members pay this persons wage.

PS: keep diamon simpson. but we all know we will give him away so we can keep players like helliwell cos he is a specialist basketballer and has the knowledge for the youngsters. pffft!

I'm pretty sure that the tech was actually called on Radford, not on Clarke. Either way it was the momentum swing which cost us the game.

I apologise if the tech wasn't on Clarke but if it was from one of his assistants or players he needs to cop it for allowing it

The game report on NBL.com attributed the tech to Clarke..............

This rabble is not giving any excitement at all to its long suffering supporters. Waste of everyone's time and money.

forcey - That was my fault, Journo sat mrxt to me and asked what the tech was for and I said I thought it was on Marty. I was told later that it was actually Radford that caused it.

God they are sooooooo bad its laughbale. Shame shame shame on those who have the ability to make a difference.

Radford was warned then opened his mouth ,after that we lost the plot.Time to get rid of Warren,he has done nothing in last 4 weeks in points,assists and fg %.......I be chasing ubaka now if we want to make a shot at finals or do nothing til season end where we will finish 2nd bottom AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Every week we go unless it's on a friday night (as our kids play distict)Every week you see players do a good /great play, then next thing you know they are on the bench. Others stay on after numerous turn overs. Warren had a shocker 2 points until the last few mins and 3 fouls, and others came on did well but as usual back on the bench, Change the coach now, or risk loosing good players and members. Its been going on for so long but today it was so bad, members neeed to be heard. numbers are getting less each week.

I've made my opinion on Warren known and this sums it up

Jamar Wilson- 25pts on 8-16 shooting, 4 assists, 4 turnovers
Chris Warren- 4pts on 1-8 shooting, 2 assists, 5 turnovers

Wilson plays smart, makes the offense tick, takes good shots, is a leader......all the things we need. Ubaka is not he answer.

Eddie Gill and Jamar Wilson are 2 of the league's best point guards. Veteran leaders who have been around. You don't develop point guard imports, they've gotta be ready to roll and run your team (think DMac). Imagine if we had Wilson today and they had Warren. Would the game have been different? These guys are out there. Even the Tigers new import (Allen) looked pretty good in his first-up game playing the day he flew in.

For all those who stick up for the coach and say he deserves another year, another year of what? We've already had nearly 2 years of the same rubbish, what indication could you possibly have that will change in the next year? If you think he is on a winning formula and just needs a bit more time, you are delusional. If you think its not his fault but the players, well guess who picked them? He is either a bad coach or a bad recruiter, either way he loses.

Why would an NBL ref give a Tech at the end of the game instead of letting the players decide the game ?

The tech foul cost us late in the game on whoever it was Clarke, Radford or other.

Why was Diamond benched for so long in the final quarter. This hurt and cost us? There is no excuse for it. Diamond doesn't look injured and he wasn't in any foul trouble.

Diamond was thrown into the game far too late.

The Coach is a failed Chief who gave up on the team and fans tonight. He is weak. Sack him and give us someone else.

I'm steaming angry tonight mainly with our coach whom I hope isn't coach for much longer.

I don't want to put up with his crap next season.

Im no Clarke fan, but im not sure leaving Simpson on as terrible as it seemed. the group we had on the floor got us back into the match and until the warren three and subsequent tech, i thought we looked like we might win.

What I found disappointing was Chris Warren's shooting, the last couple of games ive seen, it has been dreadful. What has happened to his shot? I think there was an airball in his repertoire this afternoon

How many like my group had or have season tickets since moved to Findon stadium have already or cannot endure the frustrations any more.
With this coach and group even if get opportunity to win you know will blow it
He simply has team that does not understand or too scared to just use their skills or more to my thinking that he has a game plan that doesn't work as too stagnent and no flair with no idea to combat any tactics used by opposition.
I have not been a long time critic but how Isaac and others can defend coaching structure where it gets worse week in week out. and understand clearly how bad a position the SOS group are in.

Bad and over used players

Warren -- Not been wrapped in this PG from day 1 and is getting worse
--- No penetration --- no D --- No shot --- No forward vision
---- turnover king
As previous poster stated if wilson at Sixers would have won easy.

Bartlett --- How in the hell did he get so many minutes and apart from his helter skelter PG movements and with multiple turnovers some of comical nature and was left guarding P F etc on many occasions.
Daly is a much better choice as PG back up
Herbert -- Boy has he lost it and not even good on D anymore
Bad
Dj had a stinker it what been a great year for him
Diamon not a great game but how badly was he used when lacking height badly
as previous posted his non use in last qtr until fat lady singing was bl---y unbelievable.
Why wasn't Creek used more it seemed like did something right onto bench you go.

In closing

SOS you have to do something and as don't know financials-contracts etc and options but to do nothing is rubbing our noses in it and it don't smell good.

The Refs are fair when calling tech fouls in our NBL. They cop a bit and then clearly warn you to keep quiet and when the chatter is enough.

Too much chatter tonight and tech foul we received.

In the NBA some Refs don't take crap and issue them real quick.

Coaches should have shut up when told. Instead they contributed to a lost game @ home.

Can we stop using the "Simpson is unfit" excuse for Marty. If Simpson is still unfit after over half the season then WTF are they doing during training sessions with him. He should be doing cardio work every week. If he is still unfit then its STILL the coaching staffs fault.

bretts, not defending anything outright, just critical of the blanket "x is categorically to blame" trash. There are a load of factors. Never have I said that what the club are putting on court this year is so perfect that it couldn't be improved.

Yes, it might not always be the best path, but I'll defend the club for trying to take a careful approach to spending so we don't see the club fall over again. Yes, I'll defend a coach from outright slamming because he hasn't been able to replace a crucial player or a player had a stinker, but that doesn't mean that I'm suggesting he gets a contract extension. And yes, I've always said that any customer can always vote with their wallet, so I defend that right too.

Correct me if I am wrong but for several minutes through the third, weigh was playing on Crosswhite and then again in last quarter. How is that good coaching? It does my head in thinking about it!

It took 3 and a half quarters for us members and supporters to get value and suddenly, within 48 seconds of being in front, we went almost 10 behind. What a way to lose when it could have been an overtime period coming up.

So what shall we do next game when they call out Clarke's name? Groan? Moan? I will stop short of booing only cos it isnt warranted

Two of our main runs we're with Simpson on the bench. Weigh was playing PF at one of those points. I think the run to 66-66?

This is one of the main reasons Simpson played the minutes he did. We won the first 5ish minutes by 4, then he got his second early foul and was subbed out. With him off, we won the rest of the quarter by 8, taking us to 12 up. He came back on and played however many minutes in the second; we lost the period he was off and the one he was on as Cairns fought back. The run to bring it back to 66-66 was when he was off which explains the reluctance to mess with a working formula - we had pulled back an 8-10 point disadvantage. Then the four point play, tech and Grabau (?) threes. Not sure if it was first sub after, but he came on from there but the game was pretty much done in that flurry.

---

Thought Weigh played a very good game. Took it inside, got to the line a bit. Daly was fine (as usual) - quiet and reliable for an 11th man. Few other genuine highlights. Unless Warren can pull out some big games, I think he's playing himself out of consideration for next year. I liked him initially, but there are too many other performing point guards this season for us to add to his contract - we all saw the output from Wilson last night, Jackson is doing well in NZ, Gill up in QLD is putting up numbers. Plus newbie Allen started well. The Australian PGs like Martin and Gibson are strong too. Warren is/was a great shooter and I like his on-court demeanour, but it's hard to be convinced that he can contain his opposite number.

How can Simpson only play 18 mins and get 10/7 and not be used more??

Surely we need to organise the team witt Simpson playing more.....if we want to keep him surely we need to play him more!

To quote an infamous man:

"I really like winning in Adelaide.. I'm not used to it.."

The problem at the moment is not how the Sixers are winning games, is how they are loosing games. The losses have come from the Sixers being in winnable positions. The first quarter was something special, then the 2nd quarter killed the Sixers

2 pointers: 5 from 11 vs 8 from 10
3 pointers: 0 from 3 vs 2 from 7
FT: 1 from 2 vs 5 from 6
Shots: 7 from 16 vs 15 from 23
Offensive rebounds: 3 vs 2
Turnovers: 5 (4 bad passes) vs 2

Minutes Played in 2nd Qtr:
3: 6 mins 15s
4: 5 mins 29s
6: 0 mins
8: 3m 45s
11: 3 m 45s
12: 10 mins
21: 5 mins
23: 3 m 46 s
32: 8 mins
34: 5 mins

If you look at the possessions for the Sixers: (possession #: end result)
1: Missed 3PA
2: 2PA
3: 2PM
4: 2PM
5: 2PA
6: 2PA
7: 2PA, 2PA
8: TO - Badpass
9: 2PM
10: TO - Badpass
11: 2PA
12: 2PM
13: 3PA
14: FTA, FTM
15: TO - Badpass
16: 2PM
17: TO - Out of bounds
18: 2PA, TO - Badpass

If efficiency is any score from a possession, then 6/18 (33%)

And for Cairns
1: TO - Ball handling
2: 3PM
3: 2PM
4: TO - Badpass
5: 2PA, 2PM
6: 2PM
7: 3PA, FTM, FTM
8: 2PM
9: FTA, FTM
10: FTM, FTM
11: 3PA
12: 2PM
13: 3PA
14: 3PM
15: 2PA
16: 2PM
17: 3PA
18: 3PA, 2PM
19: 2PM

Efficiency = 12/19 (63%)

Keep the coach so he can get a perfect record of bad play. This will ensure he will never get another job anywhere. Hang on offer him to Breakers or Perth, then we will with a good coach watch one of the above teams crash and 36ers rise
I watched wasted heart beats, electricity, a drink or two watching a coach dig his own grave. Bravo.
And as said above they must be not NBL fit having to put a player on the side line.
Maybe fitness and allied therapies must be reviewed.
Thank god I'm not a sponsor of a luckless coaching fitness group

My better half has decided she no longer wants to go to the basketball. It is not the fact that we are losing, but that, as she points out, watching the Sixers play is like going out and watching junior amateur league.

I watched the game on Sunday with that in mind. Unfortunately, I must say I agree. There is certainly no excitement or flashiness in the way the Sixers play. There is not even anything that you could point to and say "good play" or "well set up". The Sixers do not create open looks. They do not drive and dish. They do not get to the rim. They do not even play good "college ball" with good ball movement. We don't go to player's strengths (think Loughton and his baseline pops). I am not sure that we even know what those strengths are, and how we can exploit them.

No, instead you get lots of movement of people, with the ball generally remaining in areas where, if I was a defender, I would be very happy for the Sixers to have the ball (essentially two metres inside the half way line). Then we set a high pick and roll that never rolls, which apparenly never results in the ball handler getting free. If they do get off their man, they then just run into help defence, which amazingly, never seems to open up a free man. Instead, the Sixers manage to put up a low percentage shot usually with a hand in the face (hence our woeful shooting percentage on the season).

If we have any other type of offence, I am not sure what it is. We do occasionally try to feed a low post, which yesterday resulted in about five steals alone.

On defence we constantly get beaten off the dribble with little or no help defence, give up open looks, rotate poorly, or get stuck with defensive mismatches. All of which we fail to achieve with our offensive sets at the other end.

And that makes me realise that my better half is right. The Sixers play like somewhat skillful amateurs. And it just isn't fun to watch. I always think it is too easy to blame the coaching, and I agree with Isaac that it is probably a range of factors, but something needs to change.

That is very true. There is no silky player. Sanders from last year, Farley had it, Brooks back in the day, Hodge, Homicide. None of them play with confidence but I suspect a lot of this comes from their age and a fear that the crowd will rip them for failure.

Maybe they could find a new head coach willing to work with the current coaches and offer Clarke and Radford assistant and second assistant positions to save paying them out. Not sure how many people love not being able to pick their assistants though.

The coaching is one thing that needs to change in some capacity though.

As one example of working to strengths, the Hawks run an effective alley-oop play for Oscar that the Sixers could trivially rip off and use with Weigh (passer, taller than Warren) and DJ (finisher).

XY what a exceptional analysing of the Sixers game.
New group this year playing the same tells me Xy not the players way.

Got my +/- script running again - here's the info from Sunday's game. Interesting to see Crosswhite lower than some might expect. No surprise to see Wilson up there. Would be interesting to see the game up until that tech foul.

Adelaide

• Tom Daly (4)
• Darren Ng (0)
• Nathan Herbert (-1)
• Wade Helliwell (-2)
• Stephen Weigh (-7)
• Diamon Simpson (-7)
• Mitchell Creek (-8)
• Daniel Johnson (-8)
• Everard Bartlett (-14)
• Chris Warren (-17)

• Alex Loughton (19)
• Jamar Wilson (15)
• Dean Brebner (13)
• Aaron Grabau (12)
• Andrew Warren (9)
• Kerry Williams (2)
• Ian Crosswhite (1)
• Brad Hill (-2)
• Jeff Dowdell (-9)

Having watched Marty Clarke walk the sidelines and continually berate the refs for the past two seasons it is no surprise he was caught up with last night.

Clearly he didnt get the message from how the Crocs Coach Woolpert was dealt with last week.

It was only a matter of time.

Time for Clarke (& Radford) to start respecting the officials.

Isaac, now you've got the +/- script going, could you see what Simpson and Warren's +/- has been for the last 5 games?

If you've also got the ability to run +/- for each 36ers lineup that would be interesting too.

Working on it now. Simpson has been negative in each of the last five games. Warren 0 in one and positive in another. DJ positive in two. Weigh positive in two. Will post full info in a bit.

Here they are, though not summed. Games listed most recent to oldest. I can do a season aggregate for every team in the league pretty easily. Have got the whole league as a list as well (Lisch at the top, Weigh at the bottom).

Darren Ng (0)
Darren Ng (-7)
Darren Ng (-4)
Darren Ng (0)
Darren Ng (-5)

Nathan Herbert (-1)
Nathan Herbert (-10)
Nathan Herbert (-5)
Nathan Herbert (23)
Nathan Herbert (-15)

Wade Helliwell (-2)
Wade Helliwell (0)
Wade Helliwell (-7)
Wade Helliwell (21)
Wade Helliwell (3)

Stephen Weigh (-7)
Stephen Weigh (-14)
Stephen Weigh (2)
Stephen Weigh (13)
Stephen Weigh (-30)

Diamon Simpson (-7)
Diamon Simpson (-17)
Diamon Simpson (-1)
Diamon Simpson (-3)
Diamon Simpson (-14)

Chris Warren (-17)
Chris Warren (-23)
Chris Warren (0)
Chris Warren (9)
Chris Warren (-19)

Daniel Johnson (-8)
Daniel Johnson (-11)
Daniel Johnson (2)
Daniel Johnson (9)
Daniel Johnson (-16)

Mitchell Creek (-8)
Mitchell Creek (0)
Mitchell Creek (-3)
Mitchell Creek (6)
Mitchell Creek (-2)

Everard Bartlett (-14)
Everard Bartlett (-3)
Everard Bartlett (-9)
Everard Bartlett (14)
Everard Bartlett (-1)

Tom Daly (4)
Tom Daly (3)
Tom Daly (4)

Looks like my mate Wade Helliwell is the best on that list.

And , Clarke told us that Weigh is the silky player that fans will pay to come n watch .

For the most part, big minute players belie the success or failure of their teams but here are a couple of interesting ones.

Crawford and Gill for the Crocs:

Elvin Mims (+56)
Luke Schenscher (+47)
Chris Cedar (+11)
Jacob Holmes (+9)
Todd Blanchfield (+8)
Michael Cedar (-4)
Ben Allen (-8)
Peter Crawford (-9)
Eddie Gill (-10)
Greg Vanderjagt (-46)

Dann, plus Khazzouh compared to Grant:

Graeme Dann (+47)
Julian Khazzouh (+16)
Aaron Bruce (-24)
Martin Iti (-24)
Alex Gynes (-35)
Kevin Ratzsch (-38)
Anatoly Bose (-40)
Luke Martin (-41)
Ben Madgen (-60)
Jerai Grant (-105)
Luke Cooper (-116)

Wortho:

Adam Gibson (+44)
Stephen Hoare (+34)
Jason Cadee (+32)
Anthony Petrie (+31)
James Harvey (+25)
Adris Deleon (+24)
Chris Goulding (+1)
Brendan Teys (0)
Will Hudson (-7)
Mike English (-8)
Mark Worthington (-11)
Tom Garlepp (-26)

Herbert in Adelaide:

Jan Warbout (0)
Tom Daly (-1)
Nathan Herbert (-2)
Adam Ballinger (-12)
Wade Helliwell (-13)
Everard Bartlett (-13)
Diamon Simpson (-18)
Darren Ng (-25)
Nathan Crosswell (-30)
Mitchell Creek (-57)
Daniel Johnson (-81)
Chris Warren (-102)
Stephen Weigh (-126)

Sorry Isaac, not to be rude and I understand where you are coming from but this +/- theory is an utter load of garbage.

+/- is good over a large number of games. I've analysed Simpson's +/-in the wins and his stats, not enough of a sample size but brings up a few things of interest

http://www.36reasons.net/2012/01/wheres-diamon.html

Those Adelaide numbers are interesting. You'd expect Johnson, Weigh and Warren to be at the bottom as they've played the most minutes and we lose more often than not.

Those numbers tell me Simpson is a shining light and that Herbie is a key contributor. He's a good defender and is often brought in to slow up a hot guard and often gets involved doing the little things to keep the score ticking over. I'd like to see him and Creek spend some time together in the backcourt. They'd be our best defensive backcourt and should compliment each other nicely on offense.

Or some more Herbert at SF . Weigh ain't gonna be happy when Clarke goes and others will.

Forcey, what's the point of having Herbert and Creek in the backcourt if the backcourt tandem are useless at scoring. Basic theory, pointless playing defense if you cannot score. Its not like this team is full of offensive threats(not including Ballinger)

A, yeah, obviously a complete waste of time. Not like the NBA displays it or NBA teams use it or the advanced stats resources used by clubs pay attention to it at some level.

It really surprises me the number of people who assume that just posting it is making some great, ultimate claim. Like the stats we see in boxscores, it's just another piece of data.

All you need to do is get more points than your opposition. Problem is, the 36ers can't do that.

If you think that means that anyone thinks David Cooper was our best player, then I can't help you with this topic. It is one stat amongst many and there are a number of factors that a plain +/- doesn't take into account - anyone can see that.

I talked with Phil Smyth about it and specifically about David Cooper's rating and he said that Coops was absolutely underrated. Many fans in the stands did not appreciate what he brought to a team on court in terms of smart defence, chemistry, knowing his role, etc.

Three NBL clubs have contacted me and made use of the +/- numbers in some way.

A/KET/Anonymous

Creek and Herbert both average around 5 a game (as does Ng). I'm not saying to play 40, just for some stretches where we need to clamp down. Herbert can hit the 3, Creek can get to the basket. Or they could pass to our two best scorers. You don't always need 5 scorers on the court. With your theory the Bulls should never have played Longley and Rodman.

The 36ers up until recently were the highest scoring team in the league, but they gave up too many points. They need more emphasis on D, not on outscoring teams.

Stats are a key part of understanding winning and all pro leagues now do major analysis and have economists on senior staff eg Daryl Morey @ Houston. Stats often show a deeper story.

coops was a great player
i never under rated him

i under rate clarke tho

Before Cooper came to Adelaide I used to mock him openly. Then I watched him closely and saw how he really stopped opponents getting easy scores inside. Very limited offensively but he knew it and played to his strengths. A solid shot blocker and rebounder. Smyth used him well, hence his good +/- numbers.

Nice article on Simpson, Forcey. Would like to see that compared to fourth quarters in losses.

I'll see what I can do Paul.Thanks