Want to know how utterly batshit the coaching market is right now? Found a Brazilian guy I liked. He wanted 729 euros. I bid almost double that at 1,400 euros. Winning bid? 3,000 euros! Yeah, good coaches are so scarce it's an overpay market for anyone decent.
@ Liverpool (International League Match
Like us, they have a SF they rely heavily on - 6'9 Lithuanian
Sigutis Kluonius of a whopping 182 current rating! He's an 8/5/5/5 Athleticism, Accuracy, Defense, Offense, so the 25 year old who plays for the Taiwanese club relies on his physical ability to overpower opponents. The rest of their roster is... not great. Typical beginner team stuff with the 17 year old raw wunderkind PG we have (though I'm mad he's 6'5 compared to our 6'0). Even weirder?
They only have 8 players on their roster.
Unfortunately, the game does not start well for us. They do an excellent job in the first quarter of drawing fouls and hitting timely 3 pointers, and it's only a buzzer-beating 3 pointer by
Dante Griffin that keeps it reasonably close at 18-23.
Second quarter sees us turning the ball over like CRAZY and they're hitting enough of their shots (esp. from 3 point range) to expand their lead at half to double digits: 33-44, with only
Francis Damsell's back-to-back bucket and buzzer block stopping bleeding from even worse.
We march our way to the lead midway through the third quarter thanks to
Dante Griffin and
Jules Veldeman tag-teaming hot hands and becoming my new favorite duo. Then we get cold and they go back in the lead. A bunch of free throws get traded.
I'm seeing a lot of opponent screwups due to their players being exhausted. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RIDE YOUR STARTING LINEUP TOO HARD, SON! End of the third, we're all tied up, and I'm feeling confident because this horribly mismanaged team is wiped.
Here's a sample from the beginning of the fourth quarter:
Quote:
4Q 9:44 Liv Player is in good situation due to tiredness of the defending player: s. Mo
59:61 4Q 9:43 WIDS logotipas Mid-range 2PT shot: T. Arcadia ( Good situation)
Players skills' ratio: -1; Shot quality ratio: 1 Defender: s. Mo
4Q 9:37 Liv logotipas Turnover. Tiredness is disturbing player's performance: T. Liu
4Q 9:36 Liv The ball went out from the player: T. Liu
4Q 9:18 Liv Player is in good situation due to tiredness of the defending player: C. Kang
4Q 9:17 WIDS Missed 3PT shot: D. Griffin ( Good situation)
Players skills' ratio: 4; Shot quality ratio: -4 Defender: C. Kang
4Q 9:15 Liv Defensive rebound: J. Feng (Nearest opponent: J. Veldeman)
4Q 9:13 Liv Proper chance for fast break but player is tired and starts positional attack: S. Kluonius
4Q 9:05 Liv Because of tiredness player didn't catch the ball and missed a good chance to attack: J. Feng
4Q 9:01 Liv logotipas Turnover. Tiredness is disturbing player's performance: s. Mo
4Q 9:01 WIDS Steal: D. Griffin
4Q 8:44 WIDS Missed 3PT shot: F. Walton ( Average situation)
Players skills' ratio: 2; Shot quality ratio: -2 Defender: T. Liu
4Q 8:43 Liv Defensive rebound: C. Kang (Nearest opponent: D. Griffin)
4Q 8:41 Liv Proper chance for fast break but player is tired and starts positional attack: s. Mo
4Q 8:32 Liv Missed close range shot. Tiredness is disturbing player's performance: J. Feng ( Good situation)
Players skills' ratio: -1; Shot quality ratio: 2 Defender: J. Veldeman
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The closest they can get once
Dante Griffin rips off 5 point on B2B possessions is 3, and we close out an ugly 79-69 win:
Note: I did *not* name the default coach Bray. But I'm delighted every time I see the Ice Donkeys being coached by Bray. Anyway, as you can see
Dante Griffin Show yet again. And yeah, see the Tiredness level of our opponents? These guys were EXHAUSTED. And how is SK not taking over the offense? If I were them, I'd be running Isolation offense (Note: Our own offense is set to On Guards, despite what the box score looks like. Might not be the most efficient setup, but oh well!)
We also add our second foreign player
PF Guillermo Martinelli (26 - Uruguayan) - 138 current/153 peak, 5 years, 1,763 euros/year
Our new highest-paid player is a 7-6-5 Jumping/Speed/Toughness, a fascinating 4-4-8 Close/Mid/3 Point, 4-6-4 Rebounding/Contesting Shots/Defensive IQ, and 5-5-6 Dribbling/Passing/Offensive IQ. Major upgrades in the jumping and shot contesting areas, and he's very much a stretch 4. The last two seasons, he was with Hungarian squad Újszentiván Bikák in World 6.18 and 5.5, showing increasing statistical improvement despite the jump up. I'm kinda excited to have him, as my first signing,
Francisco Walton, was not very good, and so I'm quite happy to move him to the bench.
We don't have the horses to switch to a 3 point offense, but a 7-8 combo of Griffin and Martinelli is something I'm loving to see at this level, with Veldeman just good enough inside to keep opposing defenses honest. Might even think about switching to On Big Men. Not sure yet.
I'm still not in love with our defense