Christmas Presents!

With Christmas fast approaching, children and children at heart are gearing up for the silly season.  Ask any kid what Christmas is about and they will unanimously answer, “Presents!”  So I’m going to be jolly old Saint Nick and dole out some goodies to the people who need it most, the NBL teams.

Adelaide – A redo

The 36ers started woefully, losing their first three games quite convincingly. After that start they have gone 3-5, not ground breaking but heading in the right direction.  The quartet of Daniel Johnson, Diamon Simpson, Stephen Weigh and Chris Warren have been good, but if they can be good together they might just be able to string some wins together and sneak into the playoffs as they are only three games behind Cairns for fourth spot.

Cairns – Consistency

Brad Hill started out like a house on fire then has fizzled ever since; Alex Loughton has been hit and miss while Andrew Warren has been notoriously absent in games.  Jamar Wilson has been a rock but they need some help from their other players.  The addition of Ian Crosswhite will help ease Wilson’s burden but the loss of work-horse Dusty Rychart puts pressure on the rest of the squad to stand up and be counted.

Gold Coast – A Shooting Boot Camp

On the surface you would think that 45% shooting from the field would be a pass for any team, but when you take into account that Will Hudson is shooting 57.6% and Anthony Petrie is hitting at 52.3% the rest of the team doesn’t look too flash.  Top scorer Adris Deleon is an anaemic 38.8%, second top scorer Mark Worthington is even worse at 37.7% and three other rotation players are below 42%.  The leaders need to lead from the front which means that Deleon, Worthington and Adam Gibson will have to swap Christmas pudding and bon-bons for a mild case of leather poisoning from shooting many, many practice shots.

Melbourne – A Good Union

I hope the team pays overtime as Ayinde Ubaka and Cameron Tragardh are playing long minutes, both averaging over 30 minutes a game. This could come back and bite them because Tragardh will likely become fatigued come playoff season from playing against centres every week.  Luckily Tommy Greer has stepped up his rebounding numbers to take some load off Trigger but they need Matthew Burston back and to play Lucas Walker more at the PF so he can give Cam a breather.

New Zealand – Socks

The best team in the league even without CJ Bruton, the Breakers can take the Christmas break a little easier than other teams.  Replacing Kirk Penney with Cedric Jackson and Daryl Corletto has been a genius move, and with the increasing maturity of Thomas Abercrombie this team is again the squad to beat this season.

Perth – Some wake up drugs

What happened to Kevin Lisch and Shawn Redhage?  Looking back to round three’s Menga Award leader board these two players were numbers one and two respectively.  Fast forward to round ten and Lisch is down to seven while Redhage has fallen off the board completely.  The team may be in second place on the ladder, mostly due to Matthew Knight’s stellar play, but if they want to make some noise come playoff time these two champions will need to step up and be at the forefront of the battle.

Sydney – A prayer

Just when the team started clicking with Anatoly Bose coming back from injury, Aaron Bruce showing signs of being a competent point guard and Julian Khazzouh rebounding everything in sight, the captain got called up to the big leagues.  Anything other than a catastrophic collapse of form by Khazzouh he would have romped in this year’s MVP and Menga Award so that kind of player is sorely missed from a team.  Don’t think that I am angry that he left for the NBA; because that is the dream of all basketball players I’m just worried that the Kings will implode and not win another game for the rest of the season.  Jerai Grant and especially Kevin Ratzsch need to show why they were brought into this team and take their game to the next level.

Townsville – Lots of holiday cheer for Luke Schenscher

The team is sitting in third place at the moment with great performances by Jacob Holmes and Eddie Gill but the biggest X-Factor is how Schenscher comes back from injury.  His first two games have been average, probably a bit tentative but if he can become a dominant big man like many people think he can this team is dangerous.  The league’s stock of big men took a giant hit with Khazzouh leaving so now is the time for Big Red to take over.

Wollongong – Anything

The Hawks need anyone and everyone to help out this season because it is looking grim.  Showron Glover is only playing 13 minutes a game which needs to increase while the rest of the team needs some ‘get better quickly’ serum.  Their leading Efficiency rating player is Rhys Martin with a paltry 11 per game which is the lowest by far (Gold Coast is the next lowest as Mark Worthington tops the Blaze with 15.8/game).  I’m not sure what Wollongong can do but with the league so close if they can gel together as a team and put some wins together quickly then maybe they can sneak into the playoffs.  The way they are playing that is a long way off.