Yes losing style.

Defence wins championships.

You've gotta be good at both ends to win a title.

At minimum, very very good at one end and average/median at the other. I'm not sure many titles have been won by teams who were in the worse half of the league at one end.

You don't have to be the 2004 Detroit Pistons, and play like that, but you do need a solid defensive base to work from even if being a great offensive team.

Week in week out last couple seasons running offensive 'plays' that left the majority of the team dangling around the 3 point line for rebounds worked a treat... Last game against Sydney no different, hard to watch. Rillie putting it down solely to 'desire to rebound' in pressers is getting tiresome but oh well, on to the next game

New style - Dont play any defence and dont rebound. Get Websters to throw up shots that prevent your best scorer from taking any.

Great new style

Get Websters to throw up shots that prevent your best scorer from taking any.

Unfortunately it is Cotton who our worse culprit. He needs to shoot closer to 40 percent, taking less shots but making better shots. Rillie not having a clue doesnt help, with Cotton playing so bad he would be better sitting on the bench.

With this sort of form, I wouldnt assume we see 11 next year unless there is some massive improvement either through cotton starting to hit his shots, mix up his game a bit to find different ways to score.

Over at JJ's you have guys like Doyle and Crawford on much less money showing how it is done. Maybe age is catching up with our 11, 31 is for some players close to retirement.

Usher is also a problem, he is shooting so many shots without really having earnt the right to do it. Needs to also get less shots but more quality.

Rillie of course has no idea on how to pull anyone in line and actually coach.

Surely Cotton turns his form around? He's been amazingly consistent over the journey. I feel he has been mismanaged the last few season, expected to play far too many minutes each game with tough defenders hanging off of him - he was probably averaging 35 minutes a gane across this period. It was always going to have an impact. He does look a bit sore at times. I do feel that the Usher addition has "cramped" his game somewhat. I’ve noticed a few times he’s been waving his arms at Usher to clear out a wing - no movement so he gives up. Looks frustrated, but I’ll back him in to turn it around.

Cotton is in the top five players to ever play in the nbl, It doesn't help him to have low iq players around him and what looks like not much system. Play fast is fantastic but you still need to play D and have systems in place, certainly for players that only no iso.

Cotton's thoughts when looking over at Usher:

"♫ This is what you do, this is what you do. You make me, you make me. You make me wanna leave... ♫"

Our lack of defence and rebounding is the most obvious factor, lack of transition offence due to lack of rebounding and defensive stops has limited us to mostly half court offence with limited ball movement and a lot of iso ball.

Defence has been the backbone of the Cats for a long time and while the new coach may have a new style, as others have said, defence wins championships.

It can also help you win any game. Without it you get the results they been getting.

Gleeson on the dribble podcast great insight. Sorry about the link...

Link