NBL: The Couch Edition

  Jack McVeigh Jack McVeigh is averaging a healthy 18 points per 36 minutes on an outstanding 43% clip from behind the arc. This hot shooting bolsters his True Shooting percentage to an impressive 60.3%. This combination of excellent shooting and scoring lifts Adelaide's offensive rating to a well above league average Offensive rating of 120 when he is on the court.  McVeigh however only plays 18 minutes per game, leading many fans asking "why?" Using the highly useful and excellent services of  Spatial Jams luck adjusted ON/OFF metrics  it doesn't take long to discover that 1. McVeigh's individual statistics compared to his on/off statistics tell a vastly different story. 2. McVeigh's production once adjusted to remove garbage time and luck adjusted becomes a not so outstanding batch of evidence worthy of more minutes. Some examples include a -2.7 Net Rating while forcing 2.5% less turnovers. The surprising statistic being that the athletic, long and hyper ac...

In the midst of season fatigue, crowd size negativity and blowout victories we finally are gifted with a 1 plays 2 matchup. The Perth Wildcats will travel down to take on Melbourne United at John Cain Arena.   Firstly, there is absolutely no guarantee both these teams will come out at 100%, a common theme of the last few weeks has seen multiple players and teams "going through the motions" on both ends.  However, Bryce Cotton loves Melbourne and Melbourne haven't proven anything against the reigning champs. Cotton was hand crafted in a basketball lab for these sorts of moments, to come out and pour points onto the number one team in the country.  This game will serve as an excellent primer to get you through this difficult stretch of the season leading into what is sure to be an electric 2021 finals.  If you wanted an indication that this game means something to Melbourne, look no further. Jock Landale looks poised to return to the...

Three rounds in to NBL21 and there are already a few teams licking their wounds. The Cairns Taipans and the New Zealand Breakers are two of these teams. They will be both be undergoing a prompt and rapid root-cause analysis of their individual short comings.   This will be heavily focused on getting their squads back on track. The Cairns Taipans on again/off again defence will be front and centre, for New Zealand maybe a sneaky conditioning session for Lamar Patterson is in order? Why are these two teams in particular struggling?  New Zealand Breakers Record 0-2 Ranked 9th on Offense Ranked 5th on Defence per SpatialJam Favourites, Stacked, Unstoppable... Just a few words that were used to describe the Breakers as they were on a tangent of big player signings this last off season. Oh how a few games can change things... It's going to be a tough season for the Breakers as they have been presented with a less than beneficial schedule. Essentially they've be...

Melbourne United have officially begun their journey towards the NBL21 Championship.  With a strong win over an interestingly constructed Adelaide 36ers squad.  Melbourne won the game 89-65 after blowing Adelaide out in the second half, however that implies that Adelaide had kept up with them in the first two quarters, which scoreboard wise is technically correct, but in terms of rhythem and ability to get into what they want to do, Adelaide were way behind. The First Quarter To start the game it was instantly noticeable that Melbourne United had been training together and had built a lot more cohesion then their South Australian opponents.  The Melbourne starters got straight into their flow offense and appeared to be happy letting plays develop and making the right reads. On defence is was much the same, not trying to hard to early, but slowly building into a consistent and flowing rhythem.  Adelaide on the other hand looked quite rusty. Slo...

Young, exciting and challenging would be my best description of what I expect from this squad. A team "lead" by NBA draft hopeful Josh Giddey with a sprinkle of veteran guidance from Ex-NBA point guard Donald Sloan and EuroLeague journeyman Tony Crocker.  What an interesting team they've put together down in South Australia as we see a nice blend of talented distributers mixed in with some handy scorers and versatile offensive bigs.  Let's start by talking about this teams offensive playmaking which will be a strength this season no doubt.  Donald Sloan and Josh Giddey. If you indulge in any Adelaide 36ers content throughout this season there is a strong chance it'll be focused around these two.  Watching Giddey early on, then watching Sloan join in the other night has given me optimism that the 6ers aren't going to be the easy beats a lot of people thought they might be. These guys have NBA levels skills and IQs, hence why one had a "semi dec...

There is no denying that Melbourne United have put together a formidable offensive unit, adding Scotty Hopson looks like a theoretical master stroke from the United front office.  Rumours are currently circulating that they may not be done this week in terms of big free agent signings, Well known local talent Jock Landale and Melbourne have been linked heavily as Landale has been training with the Melbourne squad. McCarron, Goulding, Hopson and Landale. That's a scary lineup, assuming McCarron brings the ball up, you'd struggle to believe teams could consistently guard Hopson and Goulding rising up from either side off of Barlow/Landale pin downs, with the threat of McCarron also looming large.  However, Landale hasn't signed anything despite there being a lot of smoke to this fire.  The theory however remains the same, you can interchange the lead ball handler between Illi, McCarron, Hopson and Goulding all you like, but the concept of dynamic playmaking peri...