Glad CJ dragged Hannahs the guy destroys our offence with how selfish he is constantly driving into trouble because he refuses to give it up and jacking up bricks when he occasionally is able to get a shot off. Such a terrible import.

Have they given an update on the telecast about Delly?

Do the 36ers run any sets or is it whoever has it must shoot?

None from nine dusty, didn't JVG say he’d be the best shooter n the nbl or is my memory stewed.

I think both Santa and JVG hyped up Hannahs as the best shooter in the world outside the NBA.

Maybe he's the best shooter, just not the best maker.

Are DJ's legs gone or is it just this game?

It's easy sitting in my lounge room but dusty has been a major disappointment.

We're an absolute disgrace and should just forfeit the remaining games left this season.

Well done Adelaide...put in a solid 10min of competitive basketball.

Can it just be 36ers vs Cairns everyweek on Peach so we can just ignore them?

Would've been pretty dull having to sit through that last quarter live.

Probably not the impact a team expects from their imports. Withers sub-10mins for a turnover and nothing else. Hannahs 1/7. Four points between them.

As a 36er fan, all it can be about now is which players are improving and therefore who we would like to keep for next year.
According to the commentary, Mitch McCarron and Kai Sotto are signed for next season. They also said DJ is a club option and Dech is a mutual option, and I am much relieved that they are not both signed and done. I am not convinced that either have found their feet and landed comfortably in their roles this season.
There is still games to go and its obviously baby steps but the recent improvers for me have been Kai Sotto, Tad Duff, Mojave King, Mitch McCarron so if that keeps trending I would keep those four.
At the moment, my guards for next season are Mitch, import, Tad.
Others are I would want to keep are Cam Bairstow but no one else has really grabbed me.
As always really impressed by the United front office work. Getting Duke Devils captain Jack White albeit prior to this season, filling the end of their bench with Dion Prewster so late in the season being the most recent one.

I missed the game.

What is the injury concerns the commentators are speaking of for United?

I see Delly played 2 mins for a large chunk of the game but since he got more minutes (9) he must be OK?

Daniel Johnson's third season being a club option fills me with glee and fear at the same time.

Glee because we can have a clean start.

Fear because its the 36ers front office making the call.

I don't think Delly played the first half because of a late ankle injury. Goulding also subbed out 2 mins into the game as his hamstring issue flared up but he came back in in limited time. I think Delly only played the second half, mostly the third quarter.
Delly got them organised really well. Our scout obviously said to go under screens for him but he was only going to ever going to shoot threes with that injury, he was not going to do much else.
Delly played just under 10 minutes and Goulding played 25 minutes.

Play their Australian players, imports won't be back next season, Johnson certainly doesn’t look happy, still can offer a lot if he realises he going to come off the bench. Dufelmeir has improved as season gone on. Give the rest time and see who is worth keeping.

I can't be bothered with this team anymore. It's seriously just bad. A 26 point loss to United is bad enough, let alone it happening virtually without their starting guards. The situation for Adelaide is woeful, and I'd back any push to forfeit the rest of the season. It's depressing.

As for who to keep, it's pretty tough to even answer that. It's like fishing about through a toilet bowl for pieces of undigested carrot and beans. The question really is who isn't absolutely awful at everything at NBL level.

Hannahs had a couple of assists. They looked more like a team despite the bad loss. Great pass by Sotto to King. Does have game.

Can it just be 36ers vs Cairns everyweek on Peach so we can just ignore them?

Dusty and Withers remind me of those Clarke era imports. Actually, the team does too. Horrible team.

The Clarke era actual roster was talented - the coaching was the problem.

They'd beat a team like Perth because they’d do full court pressure, throw the 36ers completely out of whatever slow useless structure they were trying to do and make them play a completely improvised game based on talent and instinct.

When Joey came, they played less structured and more run & gun, got the import slot right and were a grand final side.

NBL is far too strong these days to probably assume you can do that again - there needs to be the right roster, the right balance, the right coaching, the right culture, the right chemistry, the right experience.

The team played as well as they could with:

* Two imports that offer nothing.
* CJ constantly rotating everyone
* CJ moving what was working with DJ on the post to back to the useless dribble hand off that they do
* CJ not getting on top of the refs earlier

Personally I was really happy with CJ's rotating subbing. If we were able to hold our own on the boards and defensively I am sure that there would have been less subs, but you need to address issues every way you can. CJ is trying every trick in the book to make the players accountable. Its what you need to do as a coach.

Agada and Barlow were also out injured i forgot to mention.

"Personally I was really happy with CJ's rotating subbing."

So King comes on for the last 1:25 of the first quarter scores 5 points and then gets subbed out for Hannahs to start the next quarter. The fact that everyone can see that Hannahs will just jack up shots, has no confidence and can't play defense but still gets 16 minutes. King doesn't come back on until late in the 4th. Dufelmeier who is in great form gets 21 minutes. DJ with 29 minutes needed another 5 or 6 minutes.

"CJ is trying every trick in the book to make the players accountable."

When did that happen?

Of course wantbto win but not disgraced by Melbourne.they are the ship.leaders because the are very gd..admit mixeed bags from sixers .. Nearing the point to putCB and DJ on ice for next seaso....get mega minutes in sootto as well. Tad Ann mitch run together to build chemistry... conced season is done it's about learning what's in the rosters... it's a bit like preseason ..

DJ on ice for next season? Hopefully he's up for a bench role and significantly less cash next season so we can get some decent imports.

Would love to ownership look into an import fresh out of college again, Perth picked up Mooney straight out of Norte Dame, and was the best centre in the league at age 22/23.

With capable front office leadership you'd hope we could find somebody who’s a late 2nd round draft pick, or plays a decent summer league.

Ideal players would be somebody like Drew Timme from Gonzaga, tough skilled big guy that doesn’t mind playing O and D in the post (unlike DJ and Sotto), or Hunter Dickinson from Michigan.

Could even look at wings like Matt Mayer (Baylor) who gives me Jack White vibes, or Nembhard (Gonzaga) could compliment Mitch as a score first guard, allowing him to play a more natural combo guard.

And somebody should definitely take a look a Brady Manek from North Carolina, he had a great ACC tournament and first couple of March Madness rounds so far.

CJ re Dusty:

"Sometimes ... throughout seasons, you make them and other times you don't, but he needs to keep being aggressive," Bruton said.

“I’d like for him to shoot the three ball a little more, as I’ve told him over and over again, but you’ve also got to take the shots available to you as the game presents.”

Why on earth is he not shooting from the perimeter enough? It’s precisely why he’s there, it’s what he is best at, it’s what he is told to do.

And yet he isn’t doing it…driving into traffic instead.

I’d love to know where Dusty’s mind is at. Doesn’t feel he’s open enough? Shot confidence? Not enough play designed for him? What’s the reason?

Hannahs has been terrible but those quotes reflect more poorly on CJ than him. CJ is the coach and should be running plays to get a 3pt specialist shots from behind the arc and if a player is not doing what a coach wants then you can decide take him out of the game or not.

Hannahs has been on a short leash, and he has given up open three point opportunities so I'm not sure we can chuck that onto CJ.

Especially when he has a dud balance of a roster he didn’t construct, bit rough to blame him if players he didn’t select don’t do what they’re asked to do?

Granted, I’d love to see more plays for him - see the kind of stuff Boomers do for Mills, those kind of shots Hannahs could actually nail despite the difficulty

"Why on earth is he not shooting from the perimeter enough?"

"CJ is the coach and should be running plays to get a 3pt specialist shots"

" I'd love to see more plays for him - see the kind of stuff Boomers do for Mills"

1. How many open 3's does Cotton get from a play? Most of his 3's are from coming off the PnR or step back 3's. Dusty isn't athletic enough to get either of those off.

2. It isn't under 12s running an elevator play, Dusty is not athletic or crafty enough (as Mills) to get open.

3. He needs to be completely open as his shot is relatively slow. Unfortunately now when he is completely open, usually from a offensive rebound, he can't hit it.

4. He has no confidence and not the type of player that hits a few points and then bounces back with confidence

"Dusty is not athletic or crafty enough (as Mills) to get open."

Agreed - that's one of the major criticisms identified early and precisely why someone like Withers wasn’t going to work, they needed an athletic wing to draw defence out to allow that import and MM to provide spacing, drives to shift the D and space to kick to a more open Hannahs.

“3. He needs to be completely open as his shot is relatively slow.”

I don’t think that’s a fair analysis, we have seen him nail tough shots - both tough threes and fade away mid-jumpers (which seems to be more of his bread and butter).

“Most of his 3's are from coming off the PnR or step back 3's.”

Seems odd to compare with Cotton as if the way Cotton hits shots is the only way :S

We have seen Hannahs run around and shoot above the screener before Mills style, we know it’s something he can do, he just doesn’t do it.

There’s only one way for a shooter to regain confidence, and that’s to shoot it until it goes in. No point languishing - I have no qualms if Dusty takes tough three point shots.

I do take issue with him driving into traffic and then going “oh crap”. It’s not helpful.

Hannahs struggles here for the same reason Broekhoff hasnt taken the league by storm - they can hit the open three but they cant create their own shot. If you haven't got a good shot creator on your team and that's your main skill set you might as well not even be in the game. Open 3s are harder to find in the NBL than the NBA. As for the G League... Hannahs is the poster child for why you shouldn't base an import spot on good G League performances. He plays against lazy D on a bigger court. He also cant defend for shit himself. It all looks nice in the glorified pick up games that are G League basketball but doesn't work over here.

^^Exactly!
Give me an import who has been through the cauldron of Europe over the G-League rubbish anyday.

The difference being imports from the G-League are usually a lot cheaper than those from Europe which goes back to the issue of us paying big overs on a few of our local players.

Jaylen Adams says hi as someone who has come from the NBA and G League no euro experience prior to the NBL

Its not a complete one or the other

Most of the top imports who have played NBL in the past 5-10 years have come via the G League and ideally a Euro stint along the way aswell.

In most cases the G League stats translate very well to the NBL, see Cotton, Adams, Prather, Sykes, Hopson, etc

For the ones who failed its probably a combination of them not being able to adjust to the NBL/FIBA style of play aswell, being in a messy team situation where they are not great fits, also where expectations are unrealistic as some are good players who are expected to be MVP/Cotton level players just because they are imports whilst having an inferior G League career to Cottons in the first place.

I think ideally you go for someone who has high level G League production with some NBA and Euro/International experience prior to coming to the NBL, such as Cotton who had NBA, Asia, Euro experience prior to the NBL, but as said above these guys would come at a higher initial price as are more proven on the international stage.

But getting a guy like Jaylen Adams with elite G League stats isnt a bad way to go. Just make sure they are actually elite and fit what your team needs.

Compare Adams and Hannahs G league careers to their NBL careers and you will notice their stats translate pretty well between both leagues and Adams was always the far superior player so its no surprise he is a top NBL import and Hannahs isnt.

Adams has played 40 plus nba games and is absolute quality, his wage packet would be one of the highest paid players as well, he replaced Casper who was supposedly on 750k. Comparing him to Hannah is like chalk and cheese. Deng Adel is a better comparison. Good players can play anywhere, a lot g league guys are not good.

Thats exactly my point though, there is some elite talent in the G League who will do well anywhere, its not as simple as G league players are not very good, as many are.

Its about identifying quality and to a large degree like most things in life you get what you pay for.

If you want Cotton/Adams types you need to be able to pay 600-800k

If you are spending say 300-400k like many of the other imports with some NBA experience would be on such as Hannahs then you are not likely to get someone anywhere near as good.

So for the 36ers to be able to compete with the top teams and have top imports they need to spend more on them and get the more proven elite guys such as Cotton or Adams, and that may mean spending less on Aussies such as McCarron, Humphries, Johnson to facilitate this.

But yea the issue isnt that they recruit players out of the G League, most clubs are doing that, its they are not spending enough on imports and therefore not getting the top level imports, or if they are somehow paying Hannahs the top money then they are just picking them badly. But to me it appears they are over spending on Aussies like McCarron, who are not able to perform upto the imports on the same price level and not investing enough on the imports.

A fair few of those aspects are existential - can't make space for himself, drives into traffic, spacing issues and balance with MM/lack of wing, lack of plays made for Dusty, lack of physical size etc etc.

Putting all those aspects aside, I do think there’s a genuine question to be asked about the sheer lack of threes shot by him and why he frequently didn’t shoot the open threes that he gave up?

Even discussing confidence, why drive for a tough shot instead of going for open shot that’s in your wheel house?

It feels like more than a few players have a frustrated or disengaged mindset this season - what’s the reason? Even when losing, have to be professional - is there something more?

I dare say with respect to Hannahs these guys know they're judged on their production which is usually points per game. If he's not getting plays run for him to get open 3's or has the yips whatever safer to go inside and try and score a few cheap 2's to keep his ppg ticking over.

Not great for us sure but better for him, he would've known what we were trying to do by bringing him off of the bench contract now guaranteed for the rest of the season that's done to frustrate the import by limiting his production in the hope he spits the dummy and leaves saving the Sixers a lot of money in the process.

I dare say with respect to Hannahs these guys know they're judged on their production which is usually points per game.

Hate to be an owner when the cost of a top shelf import is 3-4x what it was, but crowds are reduced.