2015/16 NBL Season/Off-season news/Boomers

[king neptune]

Exam did injured himself with the Boomers

Remember when Simmons wasn't selected he was only 16 years old. Gets pushed around a bit now so would have been worse then, don't think he enjoys the physicality too much

Boti Nagy alluded the other day that AJ wasn't selected because of his attitude/ego

Simmons was 18 when not selected for the FIBA World Cup. You only get a very limited amount of opportunities to see guys of his caliber represent the country. He would've acquitted himself just fine in limited minutes.

[Gozu]

No doubt the Jazz won't let Exum play. He did his knee with the Boomers last year so the Jazz lost his services for all of this season.

The belief is Simmons will probably pull out anyway. He's got the NBA draft to think about and supposedly he's still miffed having been left off the 2014 WC team.

With Ogilvy the talk is Lemanis doesn't rate him so that's why he was left out of the 26 man squad. Massive insult though when bigs like Lucas Walker are picked ahead of him. No Matt Knight in the squad either.

[Gozu]

The NBL have announced they've pushed back the start of free agency until the 1st of April due to ongoing negotiations with the players union.

http://www.nbl.com.au/nbl-press-release-archive/31122/

It's believed that the reason is because the NBL wants to bring in a 3 imports rule from next season allowing each team to sign up to 3 imports each rather than the current 2 imports with rosters set to expand from 10 to 11 per team but the players union aren't happy about that because it could lead to more of a team's salary cap geared towards imports at the expense of local talent.

[Gozu]

Big announcement by the Illawarra Hawks tonight they've re-signed coach Rob Beveridge to a 4 year contract.

http://www.hawks.com.au/featured-news/c ... ith-hawks/

[Gozu]

Overnight the draw for the men's tournament of the Olympic Games took place and the Boomers have ended up with a near perfect result. Landing in the same group as the USA and thus avoiding running into them in the playoff rounds and almost certain wins against China & Venezuela. There are still some very strong countries yet to emerge from the Olympic Qualifying Tournament so it remains to be seen who else will be joining our group but Spain, Argentina, Lithuania and even host nation Brazil being in the other group looks good to me.

Group A
Qualifier 1
USA
Venezuela
Qualifier 2
China
Australia

Group B
Argentina
Spain
Brazil
Lithuania
Qualifier 3
Nigeria

[Gozu]

This news came out of nowhere the ownership of the Sydney Kings has been taken over by AEG Ogden the Australian arm of international company AEG which part owns the LA Lakers. AEG Ogden manages Allphones Arena in Sydney so the Kings will be moving back there from their brief move to the State Sports Centre. Occasional home games will be played at the ICC Sydney too.

AEG Ogden Chairman, Mr Harvey Lister, said it makes sense for the Sydney Kings to secure a long-term home at Allphones Arena, where stability and financial synergies can enable the team to reach its full potential.

“As part of the world’s largest owner of sporting franchises, US-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which has major ownership stakes in the LA Lakers, LA Kings and LA Galaxy, AEG Ogden’s acquisition of the Sydney Kings is a perfect fit in a worldwide family of leading sports brands,” he said.

“In addition to its busy program as Sydney’s major concert and family event venue, Allphones Arena, is also focusing on marquee sports that inspire fans and ultimately drive increased attendances and revenues.

“We are impressed with the direction of the new NBL competition, and are already experienced in operating home venues for NBL franchises in Perth, Cairns and, Brisbane, and are pleased to now include Australia’s largest market, Sydney”. “We also look forward to partnering with the NSW Government to introduce some unique experiences for fans from throughout New South Wales and drive visitation to Sydney for Sydney Kings games and to other marquee sports events at Allphones Arena.”

AEG Ogden also announced that experienced NBL franchise administrator, Mr Jeff Van Groningen, will be Managing Director of the new Sydney Kings.

http://www.nbl.com.au/featured-news/31131/

[Gozu]

NBL MVP and Illawarra Hawks star guard Kevin Lisch today officially became an Australian citizen.

Pencil him in for the Boomers in Rio

[Gozu]

Unfortunately former Crocs import and NBL MVP Brian Conklin up to his usual stuff taking out former NBA player Renaldo Balkman in a game in Puerto Rico. Conklin's elbow to Balkman's face saw him lose consciousness and all he got was a $1,500 fine.

https://twitter.com/LaGuerradelBSN/stat ... 9420989440

Damian Martin, Mitch Creek and now Renaldo Balkman all in what 6 months?

[Spargo]

Unfortunately former Crocs import and NBL MVP Brian Conklin up to his usual stuff taking out former NBA player Renaldo Balkman in a game in Puerto Rico. Conklin's elbow to Balkman's face saw him lose consciousness and all he got was a $1,500 fine.

https://twitter.com/LaGuerradelBSN/stat ... 9420989440

Damian Martin, Mitch Creek and now Renaldo Balkman all in what 6 months?

The bloke's a grub.

[Gozu]

The NBL have announced a list of changes starting next season that will apply to rosters and the salary cap, as expected the 3 import rule is coming in.

Key highlights of the changes are listed below:

•Rosters increased to 11 contracted players.

•Existing ‘hard cap’ of $1m to be replaced by a ‘soft cap’ of $1.1m, exceeding which will result in a team having to make a salary equalization subsidy contribution.

•Salary cap in future years determined by averaging all teams’ salary payments for the prior season.

•Development players now permitted to play in all home and away games and age limit rises from 24 to 25.

•One player per team from a FIBA Asia or Oceania country other than Australia or NZ may be contracted as a non-restricted player.

•Marquee Player System to apply to non-restricted players only.

•Up to 4 marquee players permitted per team, and only a specified component of their salaries will be counted toward the salary cap.

•Up to 3 Restricted (Import) Players on each roster

•Aggregate salaries of at least 5 players on each team must not exceed $400,000 in 2016/17.

•Salary Floor implemented – Clubs must spend at least 90% of the Salary Cap.

•Salaries publicly disclosed.

•Player Points System removed.

•Player Values for Salary Cap purposes to be assigned by Contract Review Committee – their values will override the salary submitted on paperwork to the NBL as a measure to police the Salary Cap and ensure Players are appropriately valued.

•$1.1m Salary Cap is a Soft Cap, with teams able to spend over and above this figure however they will be required to contribute to the Salary Equalisation Subsidy Account. Funds accrued in this account will be able to be distributed to Clubs who are struggling to meet the Salary Floor.

http://www.nbl.com.au/featured-news/nbl ... ary-rules/

[Gozu]

The 36ers have just started a short tour of China and played their first game overnight against Shandong Hi-Speed with the 36ers winning 87-79.

After the game Mitch Creek appeared to be a hit with the local Shandong cheerleaders!

[Gozu]

Doesn't sound like an April Fools joke so a bit of unfortunate news for the Illawarra Hawks with the club announcing league MVP and freshly naturalised Aussie Kevin Lisch has declined re-signing with the club to sign with another NBL team believed to be the Sydney Kings.

http://www.hawks.com.au/featured-news/kevin-lisch/

[Gozu]

A very big day for the Sydney Kings under their new ownership group with the announcement they've not only signed league MVP Kevin Lisch to a 3 year deal but have signed the greatest player in NBL history Andrew Gaze as their new head coach. It will be strange seeing that name attached to anything other than the Melbourne Tigers who Gaze currently coaches in the SEABL league.

http://www.sydneykings.com/uncategorise ... r-signing/

Also overnight the 36ers lost the second game of their series against Shandong in China with Hi-Speed winning 76-74 at Binzhou Olympic Gym.

[Grenville]

Noone could ever doubt his pedigree and qualifications but does Andrew Gaze have enough shit in him to be a head coach?

[Gozu]

Noone could ever doubt his pedigree and qualifications but does Andrew Gaze have enough shit in him to be a head coach?

My thoughts exactly. Does Gaze have enough 'arsehole' in him to be a good coach? I doubt it but Jeff Van Groningen is running the Kings now and he has a close relationship with the Gaze family from when he became CEO of the Melb Tigers when Lindsay & Andrew were there and is a pretty canny guy so no doubt Gaze will bounce a lot off of him and I wouldn't be surprised if he gives him an experienced coaching staff to help too.

I know Gaze was pretty bitter about the Melb Tigers owners changing their name to Melb Utd and them then insisting they still own the rights to the Melb Tigers name so a 'new' Melb Tigers team could never be formed in the NBL which led to Gaze establishing a Melb Tigers team in the SEABL but I never would've thought he would get involved with another NBL team entirely.

I've also never heard Gaze talking about really wanting to be a full-time coach either which also makes this a very interesting decision for the Kings when I would've thought after their last few efforts a veteran coach would've been what they needed.

[Grenville]

He's a traditional,down to earth guy so the Tiges changing would've gutted him. You reckon he could be the window dressing while others do the hard yakka?

[Gozu]

He's a traditional,down to earth guy so the Tiges changing would've gutted him. You reckon he could be the window dressing while others do the hard yakka?

Well the Kings were supposedly looking at experienced championship winning coaches like Gordie McLeod & Dean Vickerman before the ownership change and JVG coming in so I would think there is a certain amount of PR involved with getting a name like Andrew Gaze on board but maybe adding one of those two as an assistant to act as his right-hand man.

The thinking might be you have a McLeod/Vickerman type essentially coaching the team with Gaze as the 'face' to sell to the fans/sponsors and work the media.

[Gozu]

The 36ers won their third game against Shandong Hi-Speed in China winning 104-89. Nathan Sobey top scored with 28 points.

Sydney Kings TV interview with new coach Andrew Gaze

[Gozu]

Today the Sydney Kings have announced Dean Vickerman & Lanard Copeland will be Andrew Gaze's assistant coaches.

http://www.nbl.com.au/featured-news/vic ... ney-kings/

Also the 36ers won the fourth and final game of their series against Shandong Hi-Speed in China. Mitch Creek top scored with 25 as the 36ers won the series 3-1

[Brodlach]

Boti Nagy mentioned this morning that Dereck Kickett, centre for Melbourne United is likely to sign with Brisbane for next season