I was hoping like hell Perth didn't make it to the GF. Not just because of their fans but now 8 years straight we've had to watch one of these two teams in the GF.

2010: Perth vs Woll

2011: NZ vs Cairns

2012: NZ vs Perth

2013: NZ vs Perth

2014: Perth vs Adel

2015: NZ vs Cairns

2016: Perth vs NZ

2017: Perth vs Ill

I barely mustered up the courage to watch the game last night and even then tuned out in the second half.

Meh its the same in most codes, AFL Hawks, Sydney and Geelong have dominated the GFs, NRL Melbourne Storm, A league Western Sydney wanderers, move on and just enjoy the spectacle of great dynasties....

Know whats funny?
Its all a bit hypothetical, but if the NBL had not expanded internationally (or had neutered NZ by creating 2 teams)
The wildcats would be heading for their 10th.

I'm glad we made the finals, and I'm glad we beat Cairns because they did not deserve to be there
but I wish Adelaide had made it through.

Now I want the Wildcats to win, because I believe they are better than the Hawks and should win with HCA, but its not a good result for the league if they do.

How do the Wildcats keep doing it?
It's easy to say "money" but that didn't help Sydney or Melbourne make the playoffs.

It would be different if the NBL were like other sports like AFL where this might be your time in the sun and then you might not make another GF for 20 years due to the draft.
But what's to stop the Wildcats just rolling on?

In AFL there is some equity in spending i guess. I hate Perth and have since they knocked us off in 87. But I respect the organisation. I still think Gleeson is a dud coach but the stats say otherwise. Hopefully we see some other teams rise to the challenge. I see Melb Bris and NZ all challenging next seasons. Will be tough for 36ers to get far enough to contend for the title

NZ had some tough days at the start. Then there seemed to be two primary changes which yielded good results;

Firstly, the club focused on forming their core with Tall Blacks players (got Vukona, Boucher back from Australia teams, Penney back from Europe etc).

Secondly, they looked internally and put greater emphasis on their local academy and the youth coming through (Webster, Abercrombie etc.)

We are quite fortunate that we will generally always have the availability of a few Tall Blacks; therefore, we can keep consistency of roster over numerous years; with only renovation changes generally required by way of 2 imports and some local signings.

I've always hoped the Warriors could replicate the Breakers model in the NRL (form a core of NZ representatives and build around). Unfortunately, some of the best NZ NRL players actually decide to play for NZ clubs so it doesn't really work the same.

some of the best NZ NRL players actually decide to play for Australian* clubs so it doesn't really work the same.

NZ were also very savvy when it came to developing talent and signing them on long term contracts. Abercrombie and pledger were signed on long term contracts attracting only a 1 point player value. That certainly creates massive depth on your roster. Not saying NZ did anything unethical or outside of the rules but its one of the things i hated about the player points cap and im glad its gone.

@PH "I'm glad we made the finals, and I'm glad we beat Cairns because they did not deserve to be there"

I could take the easy way out and just say "screw you", but I won't. We were there because we finished second. Doesn't matter how we did it, at the end of the day we finished second and had as much right to be there as anyone - in fact more than most...

I'm pretty sure six is most of eight.

"Kaiju, Western Sydney Wanderers, whaaaaaat are you on?"
I was implying that the wanderers have played in 3 of the last 4 grand finals....

They did better in the semis than Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand.

"They did better in the semis than Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and New Zealand."

Precisely. We didn't turn up in game 1 (nor did Brisbane, Melbourne, New Zealand or Sydney), and game 2 could have gone a lot better than it did, but we never let on about the injuries we were carrying either - except for Wortho who didn't train for 8 weeks, that was pretty common knowledge. There were others

Only just ;-)

I don't agree with the comment that Cairns didn't deserve to be there though.

They won six of their last seven while playing home-away doubles every weekend to make the playoffs, that was an extraordinary effort (had they not been robbed by Tim Mills it would have been 8 of 9).

They also beat every other top five team in that run home, so they earned their spot even if they didn't produce in the SFs.

Brice Cotton got Perth in the finals. Now the team is starting to play well too.

Cotton didn't help them all that much while he was chucking a high volume of shots at a low percentage for 4-5 weeks, but once he got hot he certainly carried the offence.

Their last two games he has struggled (10/34) and they've still won, so it's hardly a one-man band, particularly given it's the defensive end that drives them and he isn't close to their best player there.

It's going to be interesting to see if Perth are able to maintain the level of dominance if things with the league continue (or grow) from their current level. Cotton played a role in getting them into the top 4 with some ridiculous shooting nights, but the Wildcats have more than a couple of real close calls at home during the season that could've (some would say "should've") gone the other way and probably would've resulted in no top 4 finish, in which case Perth are tearing this very same Finals roster apart this offseason.

The fact Perth made the playoffs with all the issues they had this year is a tribute to them.

Where their test will come is when their core moves on, particularly Knight and Martin. The Cats struggled badly when Matty was struggling after his injury mid-season, and are humming now he is back in form.

The reality is those two are super reliable and the league's best defenders at PG and C, and then there is Redhage, Wagstaff and Hire who have been huge parts of the success.

With all those guys over 29 now the run is coming to an end, can they find players who can replace everything those guys bring on and off the court?

Yeah, in a league that is driven so much by high scoring guards it's pretty nice to know Damo is there to keep a lid on your opponent's engine room. There's going to be a major shift in this team once we can no longer depend on that.

We're in a GF again, but we also just barely scraped into the playoffs, so even "era of dominance" is kind of arguable. It was a couple of random refereeing decisions away from already being over.

It hasn't been an era of dominance due to NZ being just as good, but six GFs in eight years is exceptional.

I think Sydney had five in six years, NZ five in six years and Perth four in six years in the 90s. Any others come close to that? The Magic and Titans combined had five in five years but only one title.