Mel is spot on the money!

Tragardh may have been playing teams off against each other, but I don't think he was a priority for Adelaide. Word is that Cairns will likely get him in for Crosswhite?

I don't think Tiger Watcher ever locked it in, just said there were talks and interest shown.

It's true, Crossy has signed with the Kings. Obviously hasn't been announced yet but he's a King.

Given what he does on the defensive end of the floor, do the Kings lose much replacing Khazzouh with Crosswhite? They will definitely need better scorers in other positions, but the improvement in their D at the centre position will be worth a lot of points at the other end.

Perhaps it's a downgrade over Khazzouh from the first half of last season, and an upgrade on post-Warriors Khazzouh.

I think he's a large upgrade over post warrior Khazzouh, and he suits Shane Heal's system well. Considering what big man are out there, i think the Kings done well with this pick up!

Anon, you are welcome to ignore any rumour they put forward from this point. I will still pay them reasonable heed.

So is Khazzouh Europe bound?

Trig will be in Adelaide next year...a few time to play againt the 36ers

Yea i said it and i still stand by it...contract about to be finalised but as per every year most new signings are announced just yet.

But if Cairns pull a rabbit out of the hat (Which they can't afford) I'll happily eat humble pie.

Also ^Anonymous just so you know how things tend to work deals get done and they hold on announcements to ensure the biggest bang for your buck in terms of media coverage (which normally is during a ebb in the AFL or key announcement of new sponsor etc)

It will be interesting if this comes true... I agree he's an upgrade on the post-Warriors JK and a certain upgrade at the defensive end...

Do we even know if Crosswhite has been given permission to talk to other clubs since it's sill the two week lock out period?

They certainly have Nat, I think Crossy is one of the most underrated players in the comp, and I think it is a massive, massive loss for Cairns.

I was told there should be a really exciting announcement coming up there reasonably soon, so let's hope that comes to fruition for their sake.

Now Sydney just need to sign Nielsen (should be easy, right??) and theyll have the best defensive frontcourt on the comp.

Why would an Adelaide team coming off a wooden spoon with irate fans, go and sign a player like Trigger, who has so much negative talk surrounding him right now about his attitude etc, not to mention when he gets the ball, it aint coming back out! Too risky for a 6ers team that is desperate to simply improve. Im not buying Trigger as a viable option, and will be very disheartened if it goes from rumour to reality.

Wookie, I think this "non-speak" period is the exact opposite. Players and their agents use it to suss out other clubs and decide whether theyll re-sign at their existing club or test the waters properly once free agency starts.

For someone like Crosswhite, who might want to head back to Sydney after a few years away, it could just be a case of getting a decent offer from the Kings and he is happy.

Of course, it's not confirmed yet.

Wookie it is my understanding that Ian wanted to test the market as he did last year and asked to be given permission to speak to clubs early. It was a question I asked my source. It was granted hence the reason Cairns may not be too disappointed as they were expecting it.

paul - yeah, I thought that it would be the case as well, but with the history of players being granted permission to talk to teams early would suggest that it's not? At least when it's all above board as to suggest that there isn't talk with "other options" during this period would be pretty naive, and as I mentioned when the Kings were returning, it REALLY hinders new teams coming in when existing teams can re-sign their current players without the option for new teams to even really officially express interest...

I certainly hope it comes to fruition, he's a tough player that has a nice shot and won't take any guff from anyone... Plus he dropped a point down to an 8 rating, which is an extra bonus :)

Kings have signed three players, of which Crossy is defintely one. Khazzouh gone for sure, but word around the traps is that Bose may not be gone yet.

When you consider that Rhys Carter and Ater Majok are (reasonably succesful) imports in Europe this season, I would say plenty would sign Bose. After all, he was one of the top scorers in the NCAA a season ago, and that's where a lot of imports come from.

I think we can cover for Jules better (especially if the Crosswhite rumour is true) than we can for Toly... and if Jules is gone, that opens up a lot more scoring opportunities and responsibility for him too...

I think we're all agreed that having another stand out season (or two) in the NBL can't hurt his chances of getting a better gig in Europe, especially if he gets a Boomers gig soon (if not London, the next campaign), but as paul says, there are plenty of leagues overseas that he could get a gig at, it all depends on where he wants to set his sights... for a lower league where he might not get much more if at all than he would get over here (since he was rumoured to having a pretty decent salary his first season) or is it worth staying at home for another ocuple of seasons, still making some good coin, becing able to showcase his talent better and still get himself on the radar of OS scouts, which as we've seen in the past, isn't unheard of down under...

A starting five of the below would stack up pretty well, all things considered...

Import PG
Madgen
Bose
Import PF?
Crosswhite

I wonder how Grant would go playing with someone like Crosswhite who is a decent passer and doesn't need to have a lot of the ball a lot of the time?

Rhys Carter was an import in Sweden too, I think along with Rush few seasons ago. People think Europe and they immediately think Barcelona and tax free $$$... Europe's of a big place!

Hmmm, Trigger is a good player, but he just duplicates what DJ already does. He just doesn't seem like a good fit on the Sixers to me. I'm a bit worried about this since Tiger Watcher is sticking to his guns.

If Crossy has gone to the Kings, they've bounced back about as well as they can from losing Khazzouh. Still, Crossy has had some injury problems the past two seasons, so that has to be a concern for the Kings.

Even with Luke leaving Trigger will NOT get an offer from the Crocs... Guaranteed!!

Crosswhite is a good pick up, but are you seriously saying he is an up grade on khazoo. He was equal 4 in scoring on maybe 12 shots a game, 1st by a country mile in rebounding and first by a mile is block shots. doing this while getting doubled and tripled teamed every game
plus to have the respect of the team by winning players player.
Its a huge loss.


Crosswhite is a good pick up as a non scoring big man, who can help people around him, has his body got 2 years in it? only time will tell

People are talking about Khazzouh after his NBA visit when his numbers dropped away.

Anon #360539 can you elaborate on the BIGGER plans the 36ers have if you are in the know?

After the NBA visit he averaged 15.1 points, 10.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks
think thats pretty good

Am i wrong?

Crosswhite is coming off a 7 point 7 rebound season 0.9 blocks
i just dont understand how you say its an up grade???

surly we need size, nevill or schner

Jules was still pretty easy to score on, Main Man, s I think we're talking grand scheme of things as well, and while the numbers don't really stack up, being able to prevent some points at the other end would surely even things up a bit...

Hopefully with a bit more responsibility, he'll be able to lift his scoring numbers, but that could also free up other players to be able to score more, imagine Grant's output when Jules wasn't around, as well as freeing up a bit of salary cap space to hopefully tempt others to either stay or join...

Hopefully this could be a complimentary signing that would allow the team to get stronger overall, just just at that position...

i hear what ur saying, i guess only time will tell
make good of a bad situation

good role player yes! franchise centre, not a chance!!

That's right. But he is a very good glue guy, he will make his teammates better. With Khazzouh, you basically got what showed up on the stat sheet and little more, and often a negative at the defensive end that wasnt obvious on the stat sheet.

Great potential, but hasnt tapped it yet.

Oh no, please don't use "glue guy", paul, that was used WAY too much to describe Ratzsch! lol...

I agree that Crossy gives a lot more than what shows up, so let's hope it all works out, seeing as how Cairns seem to be rumoured to be moving on nicely!

Ratzsch was never a glue guy.

Oh he wasn't, but that's the terminology that was thrown about whenever Moose tried to justify his signing and it just makes me cringe whenever I hear it now lol...

Fair enough!! The thing that surprised me with Ratzsch was talking to him he was convinced he should be a scorer. I felt like saying 'mate, just defend and rebound, youre lucky to have a job!'

all this talk about tragardh schenscher and crosswhite. I would easily take nevill over all 3 of them. pretty sure he's younger than them all too (tragardh??) and has more potential.

hope shane heal picks him up

Paul: lol, yeah, I got that feeling too... I mean, he was always a lovely guy to talk to, but I don't think he ever got that role player mentality in his head as whenever he got the ball on the court it was something akin to a Trigger-like black hole, it would never come back out again... He'd force all sorts of crap when you'd think that he if worked hard and hustled, with his 7pt rating this season, he'd be more likely to get a job as a Gruber-like role player and then be able to get more shots, but now, he's very unlikely to be seen on the NBL stage again...

boss: I hear what you're saying and I'd be really happy with Nevill, (Big Red, not so much, but it's hard to argue with your team signing a legit 7 footer) but let's weigh up the pros and cons of Nevill vs Crosswhite... Both have fairly similar numbers for similar reasons... Nevill got less opportunity being on a more stacked team, Crosswhite was on a more lower scoring team with less focus as a scorer...

Nevill:
Pros: Younger, bigger, healthier? harder to contain around the basket?
Cons: Still being a youngster, he's still got overseas aspirations, so you'd always be wondering when he would leave you in the lurch to go OS (like with the Tigers, although that was understandable), follower, not leader?

Crosswhite:
Pros: More experienced, can take on leadership role tough defender, good passer, doesn't need to be the focus of the offense, more likely to stick around for multiple seasons,
Cons: Injury worries? (although looking at his stats, he only missed Round 1 this season?)

So I guess with Nevill providing a bit more potential early on, Crosswhite wouldn't be a bad pick up either...

And yet Crosswhite isn't listed as a Free agent on nbl.com.au's list?

Crossie was a great player for the 'Pans but he's knacked and was unplayable for large parts of last season. One of the main reasons he's moving back to Sydney is for personal/family reasons and he won't want to play as hard as he has done for the Taipans for the last few seasons. Fearney flogged him this season and I don't think he was happy about it.

Howard's twitter post makes more sense...just wasn't aware Crossy had already been given permission to sign deals. Leaves a pretty huge gap defensively for Cairns, given how D oriented they are, will be interesting to see how Trigger fits into that, given that he's almost exclusively an offensive player now.