I agree that we're not making the most of him. If he's going to be out there on the court we might as well make the best of it and find him early and often in the offence. His touch around the hoop is not the best atm but it's not like he's a shot hog. He's a very good passer from the post.
Too often we take ages to get into the offence and we're forced into some perimeter shot without the ball ever going inside. That's not the strength of our players. The few players we've got who can hit the 3 are all far more efficient on the catch-and-shoot compared to creating their own shots.

Perth are doing a good job of utilising him and Matt Knight most of the time. They run patient offence, get the ball inside and then create open looks for others.

If you doubt that, I ask who expected this line-up to be shooting 37% from three?

A lot of the talk pre-season was the Wildcats would struggle because they were unbalanced with no shooters, but they are shooting a high clip because they're exploiting their size mismatches well.

Further to that, Jawai is number one in assists amongst big men, with Knight number six. That doesn't happen if they're not being used well.

"Loved" the one against NZ when Jackson ran straight into Nate on the baseline, at a fair rate of knots, causing the ball to pop out of bounds. No whistle. Breakers ball. What the?

I am really enjoying this season. We're winning most of our home games, and you can't ask for much more.

As for Jawai's "condition," men tend to get stockier as they age, and he was never a weed. He's an Islander, not Sudanese.
In the NBL, yeah I reckon he could stand to lose 10~20kg. He'd have less weight to throw around, but hopefully more mobility and elevation.

Don't get me wrong Paul, I think the way the Cats have adapted to using him is fine, but that adaptation has come at a cost. Fortunately Prather is now getting some serious minutes, and he's balancing it out, like Ying & Yang.

The problem I have is that Nate is very limited in some respects, and whilst he has the size to balance that out, he hasn't really been able to.
For example, he's too slow on D to go 1 on 1, so he play's more like a one-man match-up zone. He guards the paint and takes the big guys when they come inside. Now he should be able to present an "immovable wall," but the NBL doesn't like that, especially against smaller players.

He seemed frustrated on Friday night and made a couple of silly fouls, including that bizarre cuff to Scobey's face. But usually we just see him get into foul trouble for trying to play what to him must be his normal game.

That could work if they posterised him and he didn't actually fit onto the poster.

Seriously though, I don't think he actually needs to wake up to anything. He is coming off a really tough couple of years and I'm sure is under no illusions about where his physique should be.

"I think the way the Cats have adapted to using him is fine, but that adaptation has come at a cost."

I wouldn't call being one game off top spot despite being without Martin for most of the season a cost.

I think the Cats are using him well enough. They are getting a lot of open looks from three, as a result of him being double teamed and as a result of his good passing skills from the post. He's one of the major reasons they’re sitting second on the ladder.

To the question though- are they getting "value" from him? I tend to think probably not. If you look at what the other “marquee” type local players are producing, some of them are doing a lot more than him for their teams. Think of Goulding, Ogilvy, Penney, or Webster. Jawai is only averaging 21 minutes a game, and that seems to be due to fitness, foul trouble and also because Jervis, Redhage and Wagstaff are more than capable of contributing off the bench and playing front court minutes.

On the foul trouble issue, I thought Jawai got some really *stupid* fouls on Friday night. 3 or 4 of them. I know that hasn’t been the case every game, but he can’t complain about the way he’s being reffed and then become frustrated and give away fouls like those. He needs to learn to play within the rules- whatever they are and however they’re being interpreted.

Everytime I see Jawai get the ball in the post, I think he's gonna lose it, or miss. He seems to bang away and chuck it up to the basket hoping it goes in.. but I agree the refs are giving him a hard time.

I wouldn't call being one game off top spot despite being without Martin for most of the season a cost.

And I think at this point they are getting exactly what they expected and paid for. If they were running a fantasy team maybe not, because his dream team scores aren't through the roof, but in terms of a real team he's been very valuable and with his best still to come.