Never mind - worked out he had until July 1 to opt-out.

Jermaine Beal is a great import, and I dare say underrated in this league.

He had a buy-out clause. Meaning he (or more likely a team in a more lucrative league) could buy his contract.

If he is agressive and attacks the basket, then he is a quality import but if he relies solely on his jump shot then he can be an average import!

Play aggressive Dolla and stay as long as you like mate... Heck you can even naturalise in a season or two

I guess with Beal's position being confirmed we should expect to see Lisch signing with another club becoming official shortly.

@Proud - He was more effective in his first year because of the attention Ennis needed. Because DeAndre wasn't as much a threat times double teamed Beal.

Neal's success will depend on how good our other import is.

That said. he is still a quality import and I'd take him over Lisch.

Lish is hands down better than Beal, wildcats would be much better off to cut Beal.

Lish is hands down better than Beal, wildcats would be much better off to cut Beal.

Beal doesn't and didn't get doubled RMQ. He isn't that good in any aspects of his game to draw a double. Knight last year probably the only Cats player to have that attention at times when he backed weaker players or poor defenders down.

Yeah, must have got that GF-MVP award from a Wheaties pack.

And produced no where close to that form last season, which was what we were discussing.

Still think that GF form was an outlier at the right time than a true indication of his ability if you want to go there.

And produced no where close to that form last season,

Still think that GF form was an outlier at the right time than a true indication of his ability

Dazz, pretty sure he said didn't produce anywhere near his GF MVP form (ie form in the grand final), so I think the theory's back in play.

Beal's best performances came when he was not the focus of the defence. IMO Ennis didn't get enough credit for how much attention he drew even when he was not scoring directly.

Beal's efficiency dropped noticeably last season as he had to create and at times force things himself a lot more than the previous season.
His points per game may have been marginally up last season but I would bet you his shooting percentage was significantly down.

Here we go:
2014: 15.6 PPG @ 42.0% (43.3 3P%), 3.4 ast, 0.5 stl, 2.0 t/o
2015: 16.4 PPG @ 37.3% (33.5 3P%), 2.6 ast, 0.6 stl, 1.6 t/o

I know which version I prefer.

Absolutely. Not blaming Beal for being less efficient with the much bigger role to play, and yes Lisch also struggled at times to be 'the man' in a stagnant offence. (I'd love to have seen what Lisch could have done as Ennis's sidekick)

I don't know that Martin was in a scoring slump last season. To me he has never been good around the rim and I'd be generous in describing his outside shooting as streaky. He has shot > 33% from 3 point range in only 2 seasons. (it sticks out dramatically that one of those seasons he went 49%. That's just bizarre). His 31% last season doesn't look that slumpy next to his career 32%.

I watched virtually every NBL game last year. No doubt teams may have trapped Beal when he used the high ball screen. Plenty of teams do that on a regular basis. There could be two or more reasons for them doing so on Beal.

1) He is a great player who will destroy you off the pick and roll

or

2) His ball handling and decision making are not so good so you can stagnate the offence by trapping him.

IMO option 2 is the more likely.

I have watched NBL for many years and base my opinion more on the eye test than anything.

I don't think he is a bad import but at best on last years form rate him in the middle of the road. I just think Perth with their resources could and indeed need to do better at that spot.

Time will tell.