Studs and Duds: Round 15

At the conclusion of each round, NBL Media’s Liam Santamaria lets us know who made the grade and who deserves a little shade.

STUDS

 

Sydney Kings

You’ve got to tip your hat to the Kings.

Dealt a brutal hand of injuries and departures, the Kings have responded the last two weeks by knuckling down and winning important games.

In Round 14 Adam Forde’s men protected home court and this week they got it done on the road; smacking the Phoenix and outlasting the Hawks.

Both were excellent performances but that win over the arch rivals in overtime was particularly impressive. The Kings showing all kinds of guts to get that dub.

“That is what you take into, hopefully, finals basketball,” Forde said.

“These are the things you can relate to when you’re in a hostile environment, your backs are against the wall, the crowd’s against you and the momentum is in the opposition’s favour. 

“Alright, how do you knuckle down now and get the result? We can reference back to that from what we did tonight.”

That’s now four wins on the trot for Sydney who are being led superbly by their rookie head coach as well as star guard Casper Ware.

Jarell Martin’s minutes are on the rise, Craig Moller’s playing well and, of course, there’s also the outstanding form of…

Jordan Hunter (Sydney Kings)

This guy is a BIG reason why the Kings are currently in the four.

Hunter has taken a massive leap in his second pro year and was big-time across Sydney’s two wins this round.

The 24-year-old recorded back-to-back double-doubles in Round 15, putting 19 and 11 on the Phoenix and 16 and 11 on the Hawks. 

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">(POINT) HUNTER (REBOUND) GATHERER.<a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> BIG man, <a href="https://twitter.com/jordihunter1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jordihunter1</a> continued his breakout campaign by putting some BIG numbers on the board in Round 15.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> By the Numbers powered by <a href="https://twitter.com/LaTrobeFin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LaTrobeFin</a> ?</p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1386863024246444036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

He’s doing it all so comfortably too; just keeping it simple by out-working, out-smarting and out-positioning his opponents.

“[Hunter] did a great job of sealing, stepping in and rolling out and offensive rebounding,” Hawks coach Brian Goorjian said.

“He’s been playing much better and improving over the course of the season.”

He sure has. And, given how sparingly he played as a rookie, Hunter’s impressive play has him front and centre in conversations around this year’s Most Improved Player Award. 

Of course, he’s not the only man in that race. Which brings us to…

Sam Froling (Illawarra Hawks)

The battle between Hunter and Froling was fun to watch on Saturday as the breakout bigs went head-to-head throughout the night.

The Kings took the choccies but Froling was valiant in defeat as he made plays out of short rolls and kept the Hawks within striking distance.

Playing a game-high 41 minutes, the 21-year-old scored 5 of his career-high 22 points in overtime and grabbed 12 boards.

“We gave Sam more opportunity and more ball in the second half and I thought he was brilliant,” Goorjian said.

“We needed him tonight, big-time… I don’t think we could’ve asked for any more from him than what we got tonight.”

It’s worth noting that there are others who are also in the MIP conversation. Guys like Nathan Sobey, Finn Delany, Kyle Adnam and Jack McVeigh all deserve to be in that mix. For me, though, Hunter and Froling are currently the front-runners.

So, for the sake of comparison, here are their (per game) numbers from the past two seasons:

 

Froling 2019/20: 13 mins, 6.0 pts, 3.4 rebs, 0.1 blks, 46.1 FG%, 72.7 FT%

Froling 2020/21: 27 mins, 10.8 pts, 7.1 rebs, 1.5 blks, 50.8 FG%, 49.1 FT%

 

Hunter 2019/20: 3 mins, 0.8 pts, 1.0 rebs, 0.1 blks, 72.7 FG%, 38.5 FT%

Hunter 2020/21: 20 mins, 8.2 pts, 6.2 rebs, 0.9 blks, 58.0 FG%, 64.4 FT%

 

Who has taken the bigger leap? Well, Hunter probably has his schnozz slightly in front at this stage. But man… just like their match-up over the weekend, this is gonna be a close one.

Cairns Taipans

The Snakes were thoroughly out-played by South East Melbourne on Saturday but forget that… let’s focus on the incredible win they snatched in Tassie!

Stepping out for the first time this season without Cam Oliver, the Taipans really had no business winning that game. None. Nada. Zilch. I mean, they rolled in with way less talent than the Breakers (who had just beaten Perth in Perth!) and were seriously undersized whenever Nate Jawai wasn’t on the floor.

And yet, thanks to some great execution of a really intelligent game plan, the Taipans pulled off the upset.

One thing Mike Kelly’s men did brilliantly was control the tempo. Scott Machado was super-important in that regard and with the savvy PG dictating terms, the Taipans built a lead and then did enough late to secure the win.

Down the stretch it was newcomer Venky Jois who came up with the game-saving block and the man who hit the go-ahead basket was…

Tad Dufelmeier Jr (Cairns Taipans)

This kid is the real deal.

Making his first career start after a trio of solid games, TDJ was terrific against the Breakers, posting 14 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals with zero turnovers.

And in a moment that came as no surprise to anyone who has watched him over the journey, the 25-year-old came up big down the stretch.

 

<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/COAcXnZjX1g/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/COAcXnZjX1g/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; 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John Mooney (Perth Wildcats)

The Wildcats jumped back on the winner’s list this week, thanks largely to yet another stat-sheet stuffing performance from the Moon Dogg.

Growing more and more comfortable in Trevor Gleeson’s system with each passing game, Mooney posted 16 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in his team’s win over Brisbane.

“He’s been great all year on the glass… he’s like a seasoned vet and he’s the third-youngest guy on the team,” Gleeson laughed postgame.

It’s actually a great point. After all, it’s easy to forget that Mooney is only 23. Jack White, Dejan Vasiljevic, Yanni Wetzell, Tanner Krebs, Izayah Le’afa, Dufelmeier… Mooney’s younger than all of those dudes. And yet he’s just so consistently excellent – performing at an all-league level game after game.

When all is said and done, Mooney’s almost certain to get some NBA looks and he’ll also get offers this off-season from some really good teams in Europe. If they can, the ‘Cats would be wise to extend that one-year contract as soon as humanly possible.

Melbourne United

Speaking of consistent excellence, these guys just continue to get it done.

United put the squeeze on Adelaide in the final term in Round 15 to claim their ninth straight victory.

Get this: across their winning streak, no team has outscored Melbourne in more than one quarter of a game. In other words, they’ve ‘lost’ just 8 quarters in their past 36 played. Yep, they’re rolling.

Against the Sixers, Landale had his sixth straight double-double while Jo Lual-Acuil balled out with 13 points, 10 boards and 5 blocked shots.

The man who really stood out, however, was Mitch McCarron. The new dad was in attack mode right from the opening tip and was having fun out there, finishing with a season-high 21 points, 5 dimes and 5 steals. 

“His aggression early on to put his feet in the paint and attack the rim… (I love) when he’s playing basketball like that,” Dean Vickerman said.

“We want him to get other people shots but if he continues to find that really good balance of making great decisions and scoring, he’s a pretty tough cover.”

Josh Giddey (Adelaide 36ers)

It came in a loss but way to stuff that stat-sheet young fella! Record-breaking stuff from the future NBA Lottery pick.

 

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DUDS

 

South East Melbourne Phoenix

My goodness these guys were bad against the Kings.

Yes they bounced back with a win over Cairns but their effort at home last Thursday night was… well…. really, really poor.

“That was an awful performance. Really disappointing,” head coach Simon Mitchell said.

“Every team’s going to face some difficulties during the course of the year and right now we’re having ours.”

The Kings grabbed 50 percent of available rebounds off their own misses against the Phoenix and got whatever they wanted offensively, scoring 101 points at over 50 percent shooting and on a season-high 29 free-throw attempts.

“The first thing you’ve got to assess yourself on is your physicality and tonight we got absolutely manhandled out there,” Mitchell added.

“We gave up way too many o-boards. 26 second-chance points? I mean, that’s a disaster. Defensively we’ve got to be accountable one-on-one. Can we stay in front of the ball? We weren’t very good tonight. Our pick-and-roll defence was pretty poor.”

All of that was much better against the Taipans but the Phoenix need to bring that kind of energy EVERY SINGLE GAME. After all, a playoff berth is well within reach – an achievement that would be a terrific accomplishment for a club in only its second season of existence. The question is: are they ready to grab that opportunity?

New Zealand Breakers

Speaking of letdowns, the Breakers had one of their own in Round 15 in the form of a disappointing loss to Cairns.

We spoke about it earlier but while the Taipans meticulously executed their game plan, the Breakers strangely just allowed it to happen. 

I mean, of course the Snakes wanted to slow it down! With no Oliver, Noi or Deng in the line-up a half-court grind is like Obi-Wan Kenobi to the Taipans right now: it’s their only hope. 

And yet, somehow the Breakers just allowed them to do it. It was like Mike Kelly pulled a Jedi mind trick on Dan Shamir and his team did exactly what Cairns wanted; walking the ball up the floor and further slowing the tempo. The result was the lowest scoring quarter for the season an ugly 25-point first half from the Breakers.

Luckily for New Zealand, the Force had no effect on the strong-minded Finn Delany and he was able to put some heat on the rim. Things then improved collectively after the break and the Breakers made a game of it… only for the Taipans to get over the line.

That’s precisely the kind of slip-up the Breakers cannot afford right now. Hopefully a bounce-back win over Adelaide will have steadied their ship.

Jason Cadee (Brisbane Bullets)

To finish up, it’s time for Brisbane’s recent milestone man, Jason Cadee, to snap out of his mini shooting-slump.

The Bullets are on a three-game skid right now and could really use some of Cadee’s renowned shot-making as they try to turn things around.

The 300-game veteran dished up a donut in Round 15 as he went 0-for-6 from the field including 0-for-4 from long range (taking his tally to 5-of-24 from the field over these past three games including an ugly 1-of-12 from beyond the arc).

Of course, it’s not all about scoring points and Cadee has been averaging 4 assists per game across that stretch. Nonetheless, the Bullets are clearly at their best when he’s also knocking down shots. Look for Cadee to drill a few tomorrow night against the Phoenix.

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