Probably a very good summary MaxM, cats should get this but Riley has to be careful overplaying turnover merchants or Sixers will pounce. Pinder could give Humphries trouble but Wiley could play a lot five. Cats to deep you would think by 8.

There's a reason why Cats are 2nd & the 36ers are last on the ladder.
36ers are a mess from the top down to the players.
I know Perth have been on the road but seriously if a professional athlete can’t play 40 mins of basketball, get a rest & play again too me that’s unbelievable.
Cats played 15/12, an overtime win on the 23rd, Boxing Day & now tonight. Yep, granted on the road & not a lot of rest but Cats should be smashing the worst team in the league.
Cats by 10+

Yep. If a professional athlete can't carry their team for 45 mins, get a rest & carry their team again for 38 mins, in pretty physical contests in both cases, and then back it up to carry their team again in a 3rd game then are they even worthy of being designated as Plan A, Plan B, and also Plan C in their team's expansive book of varied and well-crafted offensive sets?

This one is 50/50 for me. Perth the better team atm, and starting to show enough grit to fight through some bad patches, but being at home and against a fatigued opponent gives Adelaide a much bigger margin for error than usual. If Humphries stays out of foul trouble then we could be in for some pain.

Adelaide by 6 and Kell/Humphries to have a big night on the Perth lack of defense outside of Dr Doolittle.

I just want Adelaide to be competitive for the sake of the crowd

Perth are clearly the second best team in the league but on the backend of a road trip.

If Adelaide are going to cause an upset will be this game.

I don't know who Adelaide have who can give Cotton any problems. Sunday Dech is solid but doesn't play much, Trey Kell probs gets the assignment and he's average.

Doolittle vs Wiley will be a great watch.

Humphries got ahold of Pinder earlier in the season, Adelaide need to make a focus of him early for them to have any chance.

MaxM

Dech is not a solid player, He is only a good nbl1 player. There's a big myth about him being an elite defender, McCarron is a better defender then dech.

Yep. If a professional athlete can't carry their team for 45 mins, get a rest & carry their team again for 38 mins, in pretty physical contests in both cases, and then back it up to carry their team again in a 3rd game then are they even worthy of being designated as Plan A, Plan B, and also Plan C in their team's expansive book of varied and well-crafted offensive sets?

I'm with KET. Just want to see a competitive game so the Adelaide crowd don't leave the venue with a foul taste in their mouths.

A Sixer upset would be rad. But highly highly unlikely.

Just with the extra height and length the Wildcats have I suspect they'll get more than enough 2nd chance opportunities to still come away with a win, even if they are tired.

John Casey in the pre-show; Adelaide really hit rock bottom with that 59 point score 26 days ago but are on the way up.

The ladder would say otherwise but whatever you do dont let reality get in the way of your script!

If Ninnis's plan to stop Cotton was to give him wide open shots he may need to rethink that.

Love these logos

Thank god that Humphries/Starling/Dech/Marshall/McCarron lineup lasted exactly 1 shot on offense.

Both sides flowing nicely in offence, who starts to play D will get the money. I must say though sixers certainly look better than a month ago.

Defence looks to be optional in this one.

Well that was short lived. Riley listening to his assistants coaches a fair bit.

Start of the 2nd. Two and a half minutes of the worst basketball you will ever see from Adelaide. Just garbage. 40+ years as a season ticket holder. Never again.

For someone with a defensive reputation Wiley sure is bad at it.

Kudos to Adl for the super-tight baskets. Sneaky smart.

More commentary about Corton minutes.
Yep he's played every game & he’s played most minutes but it’s 40 minutes at worst every 2 days.
Away from home, travel, hotel rooms but he’s not playing hours a day & well rested away from matches.

It was only a few years ago when there was such parity in the league that only a couple of wins seperated 1-7 from memory at the end of the season. And that was because teams were good, literally nearly every game was competitive. These days the league overall really doesn't look good. It's really the case of what team isn't the worst on the day instead of which team is better.

36ers hopefully keep it close for the fans. They deserve it. Been tough for them but they keep turning up every game

Bottom placed team still managing a sellout is cool

I think Adelaide are doing good, while DJV should be a must for next season they need some quality defenders around him, Wiley has been good this season but not that great tonight, Humphries has so far won the battle over Pinder, imo Pinder gets away with a lot travels under the basket. Cats been solid and should win it from here, Sarr been impressive.

DJV is plain embarrassing. It was a stupid signing from the outset but now looking horrendous. Marquee player though apparently!

Who's this Riley guy that keeps coming up in Wildcats threads?

9,468 at the game.

Should put Flowers back on Cotton. At least have someone who has a bit of enthusiasm to play D try and stop him.

It was only a few years ago when there was such parity in the league that only a couple of wins seperated 1-7 from memory at the end of the season. And that was because teams were good, literally nearly every game was competitive. These days the league overall really doesn't look good. It's really the case of what team isn't the worst on the day instead of which team is better.

DJV was great at Kings when 4 other blokes could cover him defensively, here you might as well give him an orange vest and call him the human traffic cone.

One teams 3s are falling while the other teams is not.
Guess who is winning?
Thats all this garbage sport has become.

Sixers gone iso again. Clean out needed.

@Jacket - except one team is taking contested 3s while the other isn't.

They should seriously stop playing the game.
All they to do is like what they do at the all star weekend.
Have the 3 point contest.
Thats all the sport has become. If your 3s are falling, you are UNBEATABLE.
If they are NOT falling there is absolutely NOTHING you can do.
At least it will save time and injuries

36ers are also shooting 47% from the FT line, so even just missing the freebies is enough to kill you.

Sixers played a dumber quarter than I could possibly have hoped for.

The only entertaining thing about this that fool GK, he'll have to sell the team for a $1 at the rate he is going rather than the premium he had his heart set on. Sucked in.

So much hope for Sixers disappears so quickly, has Ninnis coaching next season ended tonight?

Ninnis coaching next year should have never been on to even have a chance to be ended.

Imagine having a team like the 36ers in your league and claiming it is the 2nd best league in the world LFMAO
LOL Dejan Vasiljevic is a marquee signing? No wonder why he got kicked out of the NBA even before the season began.

Just rubbing it in with Okwera nailing that 3.

All valid points Jacket.

Never thought I'd say those words but that is how cast the league is right now.

Lets see the Wildcats fans next game when there 3s do not fall.

Talk that talk, Flowers. You just got your team up to ... 28 points down

Crowd so fed up with this they're trying to get a Mexican wave going.

How does Flowers get drafted, just not smart, the othe side coin, Sarr is a top ten pick.

I don't understand how you don't reward the defence from Harris then, massive charge!!

Flowers still needs to learn to control his speed. He's just running flat out on the break with the ball and just hoping he can get a clear path to the basket by the end of it.

Singapore based owner buy the 36ers. Can't connect with the community. Doesn't know basketball

On court product is trash.

Melbourne based property developer buys the building and lightning. Wnbl team has never been in a worse place.

On court product is trash.

A group of non basketball power hungry people try to run the peak body by committee. Employ nice people with no skills to do their jobs.

BSA on court product trash.

Interest in the sport in SA is booming. Participation is bigger than ever. Unfortunately the sports leaders haven't got a clue.

Yep letting Adelaide get away with murder, blatant offensive foul on starling and a perth injury...

How can you let Starling take out cottons legs and its not a foul???? What the actual nbl

Bryce still being out there is ridiculous

Well there you go the so called fatigued 2nd place team playing the worst team in the league.
Was close for a while & kept the crowd interested but in the end different game, same story.
Adelaide are just bad from the Head office down to the floor.
100-82. Easy.
Perhaps now we can stop the rubbish talk about players being tired.

I'm not certain why Galloway gets garbage time compared to Starling, Humphries should be a boomer, his play suit fiba rules.

They played a Ninnis-coached Sixers outfit, the perfect opponent.

Cotton 35mins... yeah, okay Rillie.

@PW, not certain you can fairly criticise cats at present, unlucky not to win three away games in six days all over the country. At present they are the only team that could trouble united.
Adelaide, got start again, owners though don't grow on trees, smiths kings brought in Pongrass and it worked wonders, they need a similar ceo, need basketball knowledge and contacts. I’d be going flat out for Weaver as coach, but it’s probably impossible.

Was sat 2nd row. The abuse from Cotton and Doolittle to the crowd that went unregistered by the refs was something else. Extremely unprofessional, juvenile and abusive.

So this plan to play youngsters with a view to the future, is it working? Marshall and Flowers have gotten more minutes, but bizarrely Starling seems to be the other winner.
Unless something very weird happens, Flowers is definitely gone. Marshall showed fantastic promise a couple of seasons ago, but in a chicken or the egg situation, was he benched for not progressing or did he not progress because he was benched?
Unless Rasmussen hits the court what young players do we have to put minutes into after wasting another season? H Harris had a story about how he wanted to stay in Adelaide but Perth showed more interest. Why not give Galloway more run unless it's definitely been decided he's gone, in which his next team will probably reap the rewards.
Only real positive for the season is Humphries play and not getting injured, something I was sure he would. But knowing Adelaide he'll get a big extension in the future and fall off the map.

Humphries is looking very fit, less weight, let's hope he gets a good run with it from here.

Didn't Humphries sign with the 36ers partly because Nik Popovic signed as the S&C coach who was at United the first year Humphries was there?

Flowers was walking out of time outs breathing very heavily, as were a couple others. I know one of the senior club members has complained about fitness and general intensity, particularly from imports.

Same guy said Flowers keeps letting people know he's too good for the league / is going to get drafted etc. Prevailing theory for him starting is that the season is already FUBAR and all they can try and salvage is a transfer fee from him.

Scotty was pissed at inheritting McCarron's sizeable contract.

I'll never hate GK for buying into the club. People forget we nearly went bankrupt a few times and nearly didn't have a club at all.

~10k inthe stadium is a blessing and a curse. Why change anything from a financial point off view with that many bums consistently in seats?

If that was a sell out there was a substantial amount of seats empty. Magic beans being used to count the attendance.

Ninnis has sadly confirmed he isn't up to it.

DJV is fools gold. If he isn't hitting his shots he offers nothing else. His 3 year extension is McCarron 2.0

Wiley is a complimentary import and not the main guy

Kel is also a complimentary import that can have a big game every now and then when the 36ers need a flat out stud in that spot.

Flowers is misguided and has done his NBA hopes plenty of damage. The crap talking when down 28 is a window into his maturity.

Dech did a great job on Cotton but was in and out the game way too much to have a lasting impact.

Starling showed some great hustle but what the point? He has missed his career in the NBL and Id rather see Galloway getting those minutes.

Humphries was solid without being remarkable. 5 rebounds from your centre isn't good enough.

36ers looking for a coach and 8 players for a team that will now finish bottom - disaster!

@AusLoco Scott had nothing to do with McCarron's contract and indeed is fan of Mitch. His contract has nothing to do with the way Scott inherited the team

I'll agree that I've heard many of the same things about the SC coach. Not many happy at all on that front. Perth ran Adelaide off the floor on the 3rd leg of a road trip but as long as the guys can lifts more weights every thing is good in SC land.

My point was that my intel was SN inherrited a contract for Mitch and thought it was too large in terms of $$$s. Not that it changes anything unless they were going into recruiting mode. Didn't realise he's a fan - explains the minutes.

That aside, can't argue the rest, Q Anon.

Cotton was abusing people in the crowd??

Pretty disappointed in Scotty this game. Sunday is our best option against Cotton and was hardly given a chance, and when he got on a roll we went with Mitch. Doolittle constantly getting switched onto DJ in the first killed us as well. One consistent issue we have is closing out quarters, giving away cheap points that compound over. We have upped the scoring which is positive and we have to hold onto Humphries somehow going forward.

What is the thinking behind playing Flowers so many minutes? Even if it's to lure him back next year, do we really want him? I don't. He's really not that good at all. Rubs salt in the wounds seeing what a real Next Star looks like in Alex Sarr too.

And as someone said above, it's embarrassing trash talking your opponents when you're down 30. Why do we have to watch a kid learn on the job too - that's insulting to the fans. He's very "fumbly" with the ball, rushes, loses his assignments on D, doesn't have a great jumper, has a very poor bball IQ and has a very limited array of offensive moves. Add to the fact, I have a fundamental problem with players just being handed minutes, you have to deserve them and he's shown very little evidence that he deserves to be playing more than 5-10 minutes per game, if that.

6ers just locked in wooden spoon. Joke of a Club. Culture starts at top.

I loved seeing cotton feeding it back to ppl in the crowd after hitting back to back 3s, I bet they loved it too. Perpetually offended pearl clutching Karen wasnt happy online tho, tut tut tut.

Perth too good, with many players in form. Adelaide can turn it around. Take the Hawks as an example. They were terrible at the beginning of the year. Got the right coach in, turned it around immediately into a respectable team!

Per Rat10, could anyone shed further light on the 36ers desire to play Flowers more than he is (arguably) deserving of.

My guess is that it's purely a virtue signal to possible future NS candidates - eg 'come to Adelaide, our track record shows that you'll receive ample on-court opportunity'.

Do clubs receive a financial benefit paid by the league to take on NS?

The NBL pays their salaries.

@PW, not certain you can fairly criticise cats at present, unlucky not to win three away games in six days all over the country. At present they are the only team that could trouble united.

Any reason Cotton was on for the last few mins of the 4th up 25 on their 3rd game in 6 days? So desperate to stat pad for his mvp resume he was going solo on 3 on 1 breaks and missing badly.
Generational talent but surely doesnt need to be proving anything at that point of the game?

I don't think anyone could quite believe that cotton was the only starter still on the floor at that stage of the game and still hustling for 50/50 contests. JR even admitted in the presser that percentage never crossed his mind. I dont understand the lack of common sense with some of his rotations and if there is any player in the league that you'd want to manage when you have the opportunity its Bryce

@the big duke probably more to do with percentage for team, they are behind the Jackies, than any stat padding for individuals.

Some Adelaide crowd (side line seats) really need to stop sledging players, especially the elite...have a go at Cotton, next 3 shots all 3's, and he had a chat to the bloke!

36ers, the Starling experiment has to end, Flowers, nope for starting, not sure overall to be honest, a tad selfish for mine. They just looked lost in offence, completely lost. Not thinking the issue was the coach as nothing has really changed. We will shorten rotations and go with youth, next minute all but two get game time and youngest stays on bench??

Wildcats, all players with game time only Zunic didn't score and he was only on in junk time. A couple of their plays with ball movement was sensational and had Adelaide running in circles.

Agree benchballer...there are a few Adelaide supports who need to eat humble pie on their undying love and support for Starling. NBL1 Central performances mean nothing when your a one trick pony and the best athlete at a lower lever. Everyone in the NBL by enlarge is an athlete. Therefore Starling has no X factor.

The only thing I will say that has slightly improved is the 36ers ability to adjust after timeouts. The problem is that intensity only seems to last a couple of minutes, so they go from a 12-14 deficit, come out of the timeout and tighten up, get it back to 4-6 and then it gets blown back out again.

On Flowers, I suspect there may be a mix of things at play there. Maybe there's a bit of "niceness" in that since the season is shot they've decided they may as well give him minutes so he can showcase himself to get drafted. He also seems willing to not be part of the offense for the most part, so maybe there's an ego thing at play with other players that have been benched. He does seem to try on D, though because he's skinny he gets bullied around a bit, but that effort is why Starling is getting minutes.

Starling over Galloway is a weird one to me, I really like Starling as a person, he's a great dude, all the kids love him and he always tries at 100%, but that jump from 1 to L is a big one for him and he's not at the level to be getting 15-20 minutes a game if you want to be a good team.

Positive- Humphries, excellent most of the season, looking fit.
Half positive - Wiley, been good to average, needs more consistency.
Half positive - DJV, needs defenders around him, can win you games, he's a bit like a young Goulding.
Little bit light - smith Milner has been ok, better than the bagging he gets and could be useful cheap back up 4/5.

Negatives - really need a top quality coach, who can put team together as well.
Negatives - everyone else, no day light at all, get the broom out, probably keep Marshal, Galloway who might do well under good coaching.

Thoughts - would Lemanis be an option, bullets never really gave him a reasonable budget, Sixers do spend.

This thread had me at "by enlarge".

Re: Flowers, as I wrote above, the only theory I've heard that makes sense is trying to secure the NBA transfer fee.

Re: Cotton and the crowd, yes, they were giving it to the Wildcats for their JFK style flops and Cotton / Doolittle gave it back.

Will say though, three Wildcats supporters behind us were really going off. I had my wife and 5yo daughter with me and left at three quarter time. Young fellas were really obnoxious.

Perth supporters are a strange bunch, protected species they like to think lol!

Next star contracts are with the NBL. Transfer fees are paid to the league, not to the clubs

@benchballer That would make some sense, didn't think of that angle. Thankyou!

Sixers had no one able to defend Cotton, he was able to come off the screen and find open player when defender came to help. This caused the Sixers to scramble as Perth were able to move the ball around to open players for good shot.
Don't see the fuss of Cotton staying on the court. I thought he would've come off early in last quarter but considering he gets a good rest between games now, there was no reason to rest him in the game.

Nobody is stopping Cotton ATM, can only hope to make him work as much as possible to get his points. Just concede he's getting 30 plus but make sure no one else has a big night.
The dysfunction of the coaching has held Flowers back. Has there been a crazier pre season statement like CJ's saying he was going to start at the point. A) he's definitely not a point guard and B) even if he'd shown some aptitude in high school he's now playing against professional grown men. The Breakers seem to have the best system where their young guys are brought along slowly and play to their strengths. Adelaide just seem to have gone to Flowers, ok here's more minutes just do something.
Starling did have NBL athleticism when he first arrived, unfortunately that was around 8 years ago. He gets by in the local league now mainly on experience and standard athleticism. But relying on his connection with Ninnes to buck the trend of "playing the young guys".
And if a team is relying on DJ to be the main option of offence you know you're in trouble. At best he should be the 3/4th option, an undersized shooting guard who never met a shot he didn't like. Is he even remotely close to being in an all NBL team? He's good when he's on a team where there's a PG that can create or a defence collapses on a good big. But constantly having the green light to heave a 3 whenever he feels like it shows how bad the offence is. At least he's a threat to get going unlike the McCarron years.
At least we've got Detroit to feel better.

Don't see the fuss of Cotton staying on the court. I thought he would've come off early in last quarter but considering he gets a good rest between games now, there was no reason to rest him in the game.

"Magic beans being used to count the attendance."

A bit harsh tbh. For both games when they said sellout, I expected that to translate to 9,400-9,500 in a 10,100 capacity situation because we always know some don't rockup. It felt to me about the right number physically being there both games.

“DJV is fools gold. If he isn't hitting his shots he offers nothing else. His 3 year extension is McCarron 2.0”

Always depends on the dollars but I don’t think so. DJV has done more in a small amount of games than MM has in almost 3 seasons IMO. DJV driving and dishing to Humphries has been fantastic. I get that he’s a streaky shooter type and you have to take your lumps with that.

I’d expect his X factor shooting becomes more beneficial/valuable if the 36ers have more talent to help - that includes a PG plus a wing plus Humphries/Wiley/decent backup or a better bigs situation. If they don’t do that, well then it’s probably as bad a team as this year anyway.

“Wiley is a complimentary import and not the main guy”

Agreed and to be honest it felt like they relied on him to be their best guy and alarm bells were ringing. I still think that’s the case but I’m more supportive of him given his effort and attitude which we value more highly now having seen the shit show lately.

I’d love to see him back with Humphries and DJV, but we would still need an elite PG and have a decent backup big.

“36ers looking for a coach and 8 players for a team that will now finish bottom - disaster!”

I’m hoping Humphries actually wants to return plus negotiate with Wiley and perhaps a new coach comes with some decent pieces to work around.

My fear is Humphries goes elsewhere, DJV goes elsewhere, Wiley probably goes to Asia or something and limited talent available means no coach worth their salt wants to join a poisoned chalice situation.

Whilst I totally get the concept of a clean slate for a coach, 36ers need to do their work early here to give a coach an opportunity to have good pieces to build around and a semblance of continuity.

Agree with everything you've said there The Phantom

The club should be making decisions now on who is available and interested in coaching, do they go a assistant coach with pedigree or try chase well established coach, ie Forde, and then start chasing uncontracted players early, WMW type.

AusLoco...what did Cotton and Dolittle say?

How do we get keep getting such amazing crowds?

Fair play to the people of Adelaide to keep turning up.

It seems that the 36ers AEC move is to provide a night out for the kids/family and also put Adelaide's C grade celebrities on show. Sadly this hasn’t provided anything close to success.

5/6K knowledgeable fans rocking Titanium was the place to be as a true basketball lover. Sadly those days are long gone.

They are counting tickets sold not attendance.

Every corporate box counts as 12-16 tickets sold yet only about 1/3 of the boxes are being used. Read into that what you will