Sorry to say, but if think Perth will be the team to watch......again. Unless Sixers announce some real studs to finalise their lineup, they will be lucky to make finals.

But yes, Townsville look to have improved this year, on paper anyway.

Well really they haven't changed that much from last year except the additions of Steindl and Gladness. I think Shawn Dennis is a good coach and he has a much better picture of the NBL this year. As usually the NBL will be close so I think any team can make the playoffs. People saw Sydney last year as a weak team but look how they went. It is just so hard to predict.

I think the Crocs have a good chance of making the 4.

They have a good backcourt with Markovic, Norton and will it be Steindl or Blacnhfield @ SG?

Then they have a very formidable front court of Blanchfield, Holmes, Conklin and then Gladness.

If Gladness is the keyway stopper as advertised then they are even more dangerous, especially with Dennis as coach.

Townsville look good enough to make playoffs. Dennis is a great coach and if Gladness can dominate they will be dangerous

They were playing quite well towards the end of last season and have improved their roster and got rid of PC who seemed to be turning into a bit of a cancer for the club, so I'd say they're looking good for top 4.

Not likely IMO

I mean they could, but unlikely. Perth are still tough as hell and look to have two home-run imports again. Jermaine Beal is gonna be even greater this year.

For the Crocs to live up to their potential:

- Dennis reckons Markovic has lost weight and is looking good. Hopefully it's not just lip service as he looked to be about 10kg overweight last year. That's a lot of weight for a PG.

- Norton and Blanchfield need to keep taking strides (they have both improved every single season so a big leap from either or both would be great...they both have the potential to be the best in the league at their positions one day, I think the Crocs go as far as these two young guys improve).

- Gladness needs to be a hit. I've got a feeling shortsighted NBL refs will keep him shackled in foul trouble for the first 3/4 of the season, as is what they tend to do to debutant import bigs.

- Conklin needs to take another step forward (he's only young remember). Would be good to see him really look to put guys through the ringer and take every matchup personally. I like that nasty streak he has, and I wanna see it every game.

- Holmes needs to realise that he can't take more than 3 or 5 shots a game - not once, not ever, and not stop the ball to look for his own shot, ever. Rebound the ball, play D, and hit the open man Jake. You are more important to this campaign than you think. You are not a scorer: please stop shooting contested long twos.

- Blanchfield needs to look for his own shot more; especially look to put the ball on the floor and attack, attack, attack. Steindl as well (at present he is a less effective, less aggressive, more one dimensional version of Todd Blanchfield, so the same applies: attack young fellas). Not too worried about Steindl though: as long as he camps in the corner stretching the floor and hitting threes I don't really care. These guys need to WANT to be putting guys on posters EVERY SINGLE PLAY. They need that nasty.

- Blanchfield and Conklin need to be our go-to guys. I'm just not sure if Todd has the head for it. We'll see.


Having said all of that: at this stage, with other teams still to complete rosters, I'd say it'd be a huge disappointment if Townsville didn't make the playoffs, and at present they look to be the second best team in the league behind Perth (a lot can change once the rest of the league complete their rosters and we see if any teams flop or over achieve early)

I really didn't like the way Shawn Dennis was having his bigs blitz pick and rolls up way too high last season, and he curbed that tendency in the last few rounds which was good. That's gonna be key again because giving up open corner threes is pretty much the easiest way to lose basketball games. He'd have a big immobile lug like Greg Vanderjagt or Russell Hinder trying to send PGs towards the halfway line: they'd throw a hesitation at them, then turn on the after burners and jet into the lane for a nice little floater or open layup (because the big is at halfway there is no help at the cup), or suck in the help from the sides and dish for an open corner three. Opposing PGs all seemed to have career nights against us last season for this reason. It's gotta not even be an option. You want bigs like Gladness or Vanderjagt glued to the no-charge circle more often than not. I wanna see conservative pick and roll coverages unless we are going really small: have the bigs drop back to the lane to cover the diving screener and let the point guard handle the rest.

The other big question mark: who starts at the two? My instinct says neither Blanchfield or Steindl can start there because they are both horrible ballhandlers...but what did Dennis and Co. promise Steindl's agent?

I'd much rather see Norton and Markovic start in a high octane, high IQ backcourt, with Blanchfield, Conklin and Gladness in the frontcourt, and Steindl as the first guy off the bench.

I think when the two big wings are on together Holmes needs to be at PF because he can then handle the ball if the PG gets trapped. Steindl, Blanchfield, Conklin and Gladness on together could make them vulnerable to fullcourt D.

There's lots of lineups Dennis can roll out.

You can play Blanchfield at the 4 as well in lineups like:

Norton
Markovic
Steindl
Blanchfield
Gladness

Loads of speed, ballhandling and shooting without giving up too much size at all. Blanchfield is 6'7" or so which is the size of most NBL fours anyway.

I agree Paul - Steindl and Blanchfield need to work on their ballhandling.
Think this Townsville line up has potential they need Gladness to be good too. Lots of versatility in there.

I agree with all but I'm most intrigued by the affect that the new home court plays in their season!

If they can build it to a tremendously loud and packed out stadium every match then that could make a huge difference