McCarron being out might be a good test of how much the Sixers depend on him.

Sixers are under-performing. Bullets are obviously a weaker team but are playing with fire in their bellies.

On paper, it should be simple to predict; in reality, I can't pick a winner.

Some of the Adelaide supporters going to get their wish tonight with McCarron out.

Adelaide are done, put a fork in em

Just play Clark at the point and play all three imports big minutes. Ditch whatever they're trying to do that has them confused and stuck inside their head on offence, and just go out there and play instinctively.

Best three wins have been against Sydney, Perth and obviously Phonix Suns. In all games they looked unrecognisable to what you mostly see.

If they keep doing the same thing, I honestly think Brisbane can win by 1p points or more.

*10 points or more lol

"Big clash tonight between two of the NBL's top 9 teams"

Bravo old chap.

Lose and Adelaide is out of the playoff picture. Surely they'll play with commensurate urgency .... right?

I guess we have no choice but to place the imports big minutes.

Mathematically ( I know I am clutching) we can still make the play in.

SEM have a very hard draw, with Perth, Cairns (with Pinder back) and Sydney.

If Adelaide win all their games which includes MEL twice then they could sneak in.

But this is probably just pure fantasy and the Sixers are essentially doing try outs for next season (with McCarron being the first to get the 'memo').

It's comical to finish like 7th/8th again after spending more and talking Championship

Yeah its a freakin disaster to probably miss the playoffs AGAIN! There was finally enough talent on the team this season, but no point guard and no offensive or defensive cohesion = FAIL. To me, McCarron has to be bought out and replaced with an actual point guard. And hard questions have to be asked as to whether CJ is up to the job as head coach.

Did Bradley just get a foul for a hand on

Wrong thread

Why would you burn the challenge 3 mins into a game if you weren't 100% sure it was going to be overturned?

Yeah that was an odd decision Hendo. What happened to the first basket the Sixers scored? I thought Sotto got a put back off the miss, but they didn't record the 2 points? Not sure what Clark is doing, but his first 5 mins couldn’t have been worse!

They fixed it when Baynes was shooting his free throws

Clark has turned the ball over a fair bit since arriving. I just believe I'm sitting here watching what looks like another bad game. We just never seem to improve or learn from one game to the next.

Clark's handles and court awareness are realllly bad

So Sixers have yet another guy playing PG who isn't ...

Scorers must've been asleep to miss the first basket! Can’t blame em really. This is some of the worst NBL basketball I’ve ever seen!

From ONE team, anyway, Beantown - Bullets are playing with intensity, like this game matters.

This 'team' is so f'ing hard to watch sometimes

Bullets are still Baaad though Hoopie. Sixers are making them look good because they can't defend anyone!

Wtf is CJ doing? Why would you play Acuoth over Galloway? Galloway actually had some good minutes a few games back and hasn't been seen since! Where is Marshall in this game? He couldn’t possibly be worse than Clark so far.

You said it. To be fair, though, Sotto, Dech and Drmic do try on defence and deserve to be retained for next season.

As for the rest, where's the door ... even Cleveland is underwhelming these days.

Just started watching the game. Thought the Bullets were in white and Adelaide red. Brisbane in red is silly (yes I know it's their first ever strip).

You're right - give Galloway and Marshall another season, under a different coach though

That's what is so frustrating Hoopie - with Cleveland, Dech, Drmic, McCarron, Harris and even Sotto as he’s improved, this should be a decent defensive team at the very least! But we’re absolutely atrocious and have gotten worse as the season has progressed!! I’m not sure what CJ is doing, but its not working. I have to question if he’s the right coach to move forward with at this point.

If only they had time for an import guard to come in and get used to team and league, oh, that's right, they stuffed around for how many months with CJ looking at them on his desk.
And it's pointless pondering the substitution patterns, god wouldn't know himself.

Oh great, Cadee at Bunnings again.

Sobey single handedly keeping Adelaide's playoff hopes alive

At least we have a chance.

It's a bit sad that we have Sotto and Johnson on the roster and we look way better when we have Hyrum Harris playing Center

Sobey is absolute garbage lol

Only explanation for that being our ball is they saw it was an obvious foul and decided to not compound that mistake by giving Brisbane the ball too

But you can't do that Hendo

The nbl need to come out and explain that out of bounds stuff up

I've never seen a more rigged game in my life

I know you can't, but there's no way they came up with that being our ball without that explanation when the ball bounced a good 20cm in court then Harris literally threw the ball out of court

Refs are trying extremely hard to stop us throwing this game away

The refs tried their best, one of the best performances I've ever seen. But unfortunately even they can’t overcome the 36ers.

The bullet train is gathering speed!






It has almost reached walking pace now.

And folks wonder why refs cop abuse. Agree with others, CJ is just not up to it. He needs to go. How are 36s going to be have a true evaluation of the players when leadership so bad

BUST

Yeah that must be a karma win, or more likely we suck. That out of bounds really does need as explanation, they HAD to be looking at something else.

Adelaide just play with too much of a looseness that was never going to go anywhere.

I think coaching has failed badly but also think the team was a bit too revered from the start.

Adelaide were foolish in waiting so long for Clark on the basis they'd get the Sydney version. Needed to go earlier on a a guard who could break down the defence and bring variety. I think that was a huge mistake and also a bit arrogant to wait that long for a new import and only give him a handful of games to change things.

Things were never going to change anyway if you persist in doing the same thing over and over again. It doesn't matter how hard you try if you keep doing the wrong thing.

Massive dissapointmet but no surprise they lost tonight.

Adelaide just play with too much of a looseness that was never going to go anywhere.

I think coaching has failed badly but also think the team was a bit too revered from the start.

Adelaide were foolish in waiting so long for Clark on the basis they'd get the Sydney version. Needed to go earlier on a a guard who could break down the defence and bring variety. I think that was a huge mistake and also a bit arrogant to wait that long for a new import and only give him a handful of games to change things.

Things were never going to change anyway if you persist in doing the same thing over and over again. It doesn't matter how hard you try if you keep doing the wrong thing.

Massive dissapointmet but no surprise they lost tonight.

Well no McCarron - no difference. Turnovers were so costly, plus missed foul shots. Usual defensive issues. Same old, same old.

You wanted to be optimistic from the start of the season as a Sixers fan considering the frustration of the past few seasons, but we can see now this really was a poorly constructed, unbalanced and badly coached team. We would be very close to the wooden spoon had not been for Cleveland putting the team on his back in multiple games.

The lack of defensive intensity, the regular lapses of concentration, soft turnovers and poor free throw shooting that was on display in what was such an important game tonight was just unacceptable.

I would be keeping Cleveland, Sotto, Drimic, Dech, Marshall and Galloway and cleaning the rest out for next season including the coach. This has to be one of the most frustrating seasons to have watched as a Sixers fan.

Adelaide's major screw up was no trying to fix the interior D with an import.

Throwing an import PG has done nothing to fix their fatal issues, hence Adelaide are now dead, buried and cremated.

"Adelaide's major screw up was no trying to fix the interior D with an import.

Throwing an import PG has done nothing to fix their fatal issues, hence Adelaide are now dead, buried and cremated."

Agreed, if anything, Clark has been a negative as it has meant Marshall has gotten virtually no minutes recently after he was showing good signs when he was getting time before Clark arrived.

Knowall that out of bounds is squarely on the replay central. Crew on the floor do as they are instructed to via their earpiece

Tbh, Clark was a bad fit from the start
He is in no way a point guard
He doesn't play defence at all
His passing and handles are poor at best
He's a decent enough scorer and that's it
He plays like someone who is used to being a complementary piece on a team that already is full of stars. Ie Golden State in the NBA and Sydney in the NBL. He isn't good enough to be the guy on a team and we were far from good enough to be able to play to his strengths while hiding his flaws
And he's far from the biggest issue with the team. In fact he's probably the easiest issue to fix, there's way bigger issues here

First 2 things that need to happen are DJ needs to retire and CJ needs to go

As I predicted. Absolute disgrace.

Agreed, if anything, Clark has been a negative as it has meant Marshall has gotten virtually no minutes recently after he was showing good signs when he was getting time before Clark arrived.

Was never a huge fan of the Franks/Dj construction in the first place and this was always the concern, but I honestly don't think an import big would have changed things to the point of making the play in. Their defensive break downs are too systemic.

They should be a much better defensive team with Cleveland, McCarron and Dech anyway.

Cleveland is the guy you don't want to lose now. I think he can almost play as point forward and should be scoring aggressively each game.

KET, that would be true if they had actually brought in an import point guard! Clark has shown he is clearly not a point guard.

Defence is a big problem, but personally I think it was turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers that was the teams biggest weakness all season. Sixers would have another half dozen wins if they just took care of the ball!

If they can clean out some dead wood for next season though, it would be great to get both a good import point and a defensive import centre, hopefully along with Cleveland if he still wants to play here after this season!

Sebastian there were multiple (I'll be polite here) mistaken miss calls when Brisbane were on offense, while if it was like for like over calling at the other end. Consistency right across the league is missing. Some games players get away with tackles (thinking Bruce ) yet in others breathing on folks is called. Then there are the phantom calls more than two of them tonight.

Hendo8888,

I never got the hype on here about Clark. What I saw of him with the Kings last season he was clearly their third best import, not a ballhandler or defender in any way and was just an icing on the cake 3pt shooter.

Lets be honest here this roster was constructed poorly from the get go. We had no need for Randall/Clark. The third import should've been a defensive big. It was really odd. Made worse by the fact we never signed a back up PG. We had one last season in Dufelmeier, let him walk and just pushed Dech into his spot.

CJ might not be to blame for all this but he's proven over two seasons now he's not up to it as a HC at this level and has to go. Hopefully McCarron pisses right off with him.

Zodiac, spot on! And that's why I say it was foolish and mistaken.

It "He worked for Sydney and therefore he'll work for us" kind of thing.

It sounds like Adelaide really worked hard and waited a long time patiently for him to arrive? Why?

I am not even sure he was in great shape or anything.

Not bagging Clark as I think he's been good as can be in a short period.

It sounds like Adelaide really worked hard and waited a long time patiently for him to arrive? Why?

Zodiac, exactly! Got them no where!

Knowall I'm only discussing the out of bounds. The rest is swings and roundabouts. No professional code escapes referee/umpire criticism. Basketball is no different.

Despite Nathan Sobey's and the Referees best efforts to lift the Sixers, we still couldn't get it done. Very disappointing.

That last foul called on the AC drive is normally not called. God knows what happened in that inbounds, not even the commentators know.

I am not sure what direction the Sixers were heading at the start of the season, I suspect it was merely splash the cash and just get the best there is.

The thing with bringing Franks in meant that DJ fell down the pecking order for shots and becomes more disinterested (lets call it dis-spirited as a kinder word). Now you have 2 starters that are turnstyles on D. They probably thought AC (with Dech) would address the wing issues but the middle became too much of a hole for them to plug.

For those saying Sotto is the answer, did you see Baynes drive past him today? Not muscle him down low, drive past.

I think Clarke was a good idea albeit very late. I think Clarke can be the Sydney Clarke again provided the team uses him properly like Buford did. Clarke is not a PG, he is a scorer but you have to run some plays to get him open, not just give him the ball and spectate.

I don't know McCarron's contract status for next year but if he is gone, use that big money to get a good PG. WMW if possible (don't know his contract status either), Walton Jnr would be good.

I think the CJ experiment has now completed, the results are in, please someone ask / make him want to leave for 'family reasons'.

Dj Mitchell got some game, surprised with his agility and handle, needs polish, great prospect

Could Mitchell play some 3?

Did anyone else notice there were no fouls replayed last night, only scoring highlights. The commentators made sure they justified any close calls (except out of bounds at the end) aswell. I wonder if this was a league directive to take spotlight off refs?

They do this live at the game to not fire up the crowd, but that's the first time I noticed on coverage. Was a bit better at the end but definitely noticeable for the rest of the game.

Everyone in the replay centre should get lifetime bans from all of sport. It's either match-fixing or they're literally blind.

Saturday is do or die for the Sixers chances and Probably Brutons career in Adelaide

Greg hire

Nice

- CJ was not ready to be a head coach at this stage of his career.
- Synergy amongst the coaching group is off. Watch your back.
- Import point guard was/is biggest priority. Tyler Johnson would be a good fit.
- Defence is not a priority at trainings
- Player rotations are baffling and has lost the group partly because of this.
- Consistently going with Harris in crunch time is wrong.
- Piss off half the hangers on who are on the gravy train and provide nothing.
- SA for SA
- Team underachieving for its talent level.
- Championship or bust? Now what?

The SA for SA comment is why the 36ers will never succeed. It's professional sports. You need the best available, not the best local

I can see the advantage of having local players and it's only a positive, but who would be your SA starting 5 to make the sixers a great all SA team?

Isaac White
Brad Newley
Alex Mudronja?

I missed the game, but Franks plus , minus would be terrible for season, highly overrated or just didn't want be here. If it’s the later highly unprofessional. You have to play both ends.

If we had the best SA players plus 3 imports we would have something like

Import (Marcus Lee)/?
Majok Deng/Brad Newley
Sam McDaniel/Nick Marshall
Import (Antonius Cleveland)/Isaac White/Michael Harris
Import (Derrick Walton)/Alex Mudronja

I guess it could be argued that would be a better team than our current team espcially with a defensive big and propper PG, so yea no harm in bringing home atleast some of the SA talent imo

That's not a good team

Did anyone else notice there were no fouls replayed last night, only scoring highlights. The commentators made sure they justified any close calls (except out of bounds at the end) aswell. I wonder if this was a league directive to take spotlight off refs?

I noticed it too, and agree PW. LK seems very determined to protect the brand and keep it marketable.

Perthworld it is actually something FIBA do in venue at major events. Not so much on free to air coverage though

The NBL has traditionally been one of the few basketball leagues that replays fouls ad nauseum. At one stage it was almost all they replayed. Glad they've got better at showing highlights instead, a good step forward IMO. Only replay particularly controversial ones.

They didn't replay controversial ones either or even the coaches challenge from memory.

Just had commentators saying got the ball clean but contacted legs or something similar which didn't seem true on first watch, but then moved on, just showed players standing around with no replay to confirm either way.

Seemed a deliberate strategy to kill off any potential controversy.

Maybe the replays got filed in the same place as salary cap results, never to be seen again.

NBA rarely shows foul replays. Why would you except for really key ones? We have a strange obsessions with umpires/refs in Australia, and I don't exclude myself from that.

Just had commentators saying got the ball clean but contacted legs or something similar which didn't seem true on first watch, but then moved on, just showed players standing around with no replay to confirm either way.

Seemed a deliberate strategy to kill off any potential controversy.

Jonno, of that list of SA players, I would only want Marshall and either Harris or White (but not both). Newley and Deng too old now, no point bringing them home. McDaniel can't shoot and I think Marshall can be a better 2 way player than him in time.

Would be interesting if they could lure Ingles home to finish his career, but he may not feel any real connection with Adelaide these days.

I’m hoping Lachie Olbrich develops in college. He looked a very skilled big man in last years national championships.

LOL, Sixers fans and their fascination with local players when it is a professional league.

Leaving behind the replay discussion this is the main issue - commentators, by directive, are lying to the viewership now.

Agreed, thats not my ideal team, just what the team would look like if you filled it with SA guys

I would only seek to have some of them,

I wouldnt bother with Newley at this point,

Majok Deng only if a cheapish guy off the bench, could say replace DJ at a lower cost to help us get a legit PG

Marshall i would keep and is contracted

McDaniel can play a role defend and would bring some toughness, but wouldnt be desperate to bring him home, but not against it as a cheapish back up

Whit and Harris could be handy as cheaper shooters, but yea would probably only want one of them.

Mudronja, I probably wouldnt put him in the main 11 as he hasnt shown heaps and would try and find a more proven back up PG

My ideal scenario would be to keep Cleveland, use our other 2 import spots on a legit PG like Walton and a defensive big like Lee or Pardon, keep guys like Drmic, Harris who atleast compete hard and probably wont cost heaps, try and use the combined money of DJ and McCarron into trying to bring someone like Motum, Kay or Reath in (all potentially too expensive) and fill the rest out with hard working locals who fit in their natural position.

Something like

Lee*/Mathiang
Motum/H Harris
Cleveland*/Marshall
Drmic/Dech/M Harris
Walton*/Ayre


Obviously we probably wont get those exact imports but thats the style of player id be trying for and trying to be somewhat realistic with overall roster spend

https://nbl.com.au/news/nbl-statement-brisbane-vs-adelaide

Hmmmm...

Motum hasn't been at top level for a few seasons, he’s a shooter, defender not a strong point. Sixers got enough of those players already.

I dont think Motum is passed it,

Hes 32 years old,
Last year played for a French Euroleague team
This year is basically averaging the same stats as Nick Kay in the Japanese B League

I think he would be a good get and an upgrade at the PF spot,

But yes he isnt an elite defender but better than Franks and Johnson, its also why im surrounding him with a import C like Lee who defends and a SF like Cleveland who defends

Yes, he probably isnt as good as Kay overall, but thats what makes him more realistic as he is probably slightly cheaper, but yes if you can afford Kay instead go for it. I just dont think you will see Kay, Maker, Reath in the NBL next season, but sure if you can get them do it.

Yes he played at Monaco, I follow the euro league closely and the French league, his time was limited. Kay job in his Japanese team this season is to play team, not about stats, Buford is taking care of the scoring.
Motum would be a typical Adelaide signing.

Peter
A few hours ago

Did anyone else notice there were no fouls replayed last night, only scoring highlights. The commentators made sure they justified any close calls (except out of bounds at the end) aswell. I wonder if this was a league directive to take spotlight off refs?

Same happened with Breakers game. There were a couple of calls that baffled me and I know I'm not perfect and my age has me having to wear glasses, so was keen if the replay could show my initial reaction was wrong. Does appear commentators have been instructed not to question the calls. But hey a close competition is good for the league who cares if a couple of games are decided by refs decisions.

So you don't motum would be an upgrade on Franks ?

Who would be your target instead of motum?

Well I don't know who is out there totally, but a team first defensive big, they ain’t cheap as most top sides want those types of players, play D, can pass and score as required. Kay would be a good starting point.
Re Franks, his form last season looked good, maybe the system that Duncan had them playing covered up his defensive weaknesses. He was talked up as great signing, just didn’t pan out.
At Motum age he’s not on way up. At reasonable cost not bad, top dollar stay away.

Wow, hadn't even thought about Motum in years. Would he really be worth it at this stage of his career? Could turn into a Barlow type, good and dependable that could make defences honest. But how much cash would he be seeking? Can't even remember the last time he's been mentioned on here about being a boomers option.
Newley is absolutely a ridiculous thought. And similar chance of LeBron signing here as Ingles. Probably still has bitter taste after the way they treated him as a youngster.
Would take White and McDaniels as some bench options, both seem low maintenance, have had a lot worse signings. If Mudjonja can't get big minutes at the Hawks, why would we recycle him. And one of another CJ puzzlers was why didn't Marshall get more minutes when he could play. Has definitely shown he can play in the NBL, can see him going somewhere like Tassie in a couple of years and being a very good part of a rotation.
Would really like to see them go hard after Wetzell, not sure how much he would cost and has a habit of leaving midway through contracts to go overseas though. Cheap plan B would be Pinau, but what is he like physically. Was really good as a rebounder and hustle guy a couple of years ago. Might be a high reward if he can stay on court.
It all comes down to who's going to coach though and the system they bring in. Not a fan of bringing in old NBA guys. Cairns have brought in young guys with a good pedigree, maybe Adelaide can follow that formula. Even if they only stay for a year it's better than a Casper Ware or the like that are chuck and duck.

Casper is still doing very well in Moscow, obviously they are not in euros anymore but he's still doing well. He gets a bit of an unfair rap around here but he’s a been a very good player, his game in Moscow has developed into more of a passer, he’s always been an excellent defender. Now unless he’s at a reasonable dollar cost I would not take him but he’s still a better point than Mccaron. Point guard in three GF teams for one win, good team guy as well.

Marshall has shown he can play when given the chance, eg when he replaced Randall.

He is aggressive and in control most of the time, worth investing in.

Marshall's been invested in, he re-signed to a 2 year deal in the off-season one more year as a DP and then comes onto the roster next season. So assuming there isn't any parting over the off-season we will see what he can do on the roster next season probably at the expense of Harris' spot I would've thought.

Fair call dunkman, I also want a defensive big , that's what I was suggesting we use the import spot on suggesting Marcus Lee or Derek pardon, I think Lee is probably the easier to get as Melbourne bringing back hukporti and rumours of JLA returning next season

I personally think motum would be a top notch Aussie starting pf in the NBL, only behind creek and cooks , and would also age nicely into a really efficient stretch 4 like Barlow did in Melbourne and imo would be better than Franks next season

I would also prefer Kay, but thinking he would be out of NBL price range, hence suggesting motum as likely a slightly cheaper next best alternative (also assuming Reath and maker are out of our price range)

Sure motum wasnt a star in the euroleague a year ago, but the fact he was there at all would suggest he would still be better than most NBL Aussies

Frisbee - motum was in the 15 man squad for the most recent Olympics and world cup, was one of the 3 last cuts with giddey and cooks at the Olympics, he's 32 and only 1 year removed from euroleague so I doubt he is completely washed

It's all about spend, now you can spend a million and still end up like Sixers, but spend is halfway there. The other half is recruitment. Kings did major searches for coaches, Weaver was great but left early, Forde as assistant wasn’t ready but has shown he’s now up to the task. Kings then got Buford, probably back to back, Smith and Pondgrass have contacts, they get good players and good coaches. Gleeson had contacts, for all Perth fans complaining on new owners, Rille looks the goods and should have contacts in US. Cairns get regular quality imports. Forde bought in Kuol. Roth picks his type of player and transforms players of average talent into quality. It all starts at the top. Adelaide and Brisbane just spend, you need thought, but then again someone has to be at bottom end.