Shoot Out The Lights
NZRL Pull Out of Word Cup, Steven Adams Trade Watch & Recent NZ Footy Debutants
Podcast
Almost Daily Olympics Podcast: Patreon Preview
The Niche Cast: Be The Sky (Basketball & Rugby League)
Reading Menu
Footy Ferns at Tokyo 2020: Defeat Against Australia (Football/Olympics)
2021 City Kickboxing UFC (/PFL) Tracker: The Mid-Year Basics (MMA)
Monday Morning Dummy Half: Junior Pauga/Tukimihia Simpkins Kiwi-NRL Debuts (NRL)
Flying Kiwis – July 20 (Football)
The Quotable Steven Adams – 2020-21 Edition (Basketball)
Almost Daily Olympics Blog: Ride The Wave (Olympics)
Scotty’s Word
NZRL Exit 2021 Rugby League World Cup…
Last week I explored the NZ Warriors curse and this has now been followed up with NZRL and ARLC pulling out of the World Cup that was due to be played later this year. I’m not certain of an Aotearoa Kiwis curse that could exist in relation to the NZ Warriors curse, although two things about this feel rather curse-y…
Aotearoa Kiwis haven’t played since 2019.
Aotearoa Kiwis had a shocking 2017 RLWC on home soil.
Slide back to that 2019 marker and rugby league had momentum. At some point I had highlighted how very few Aotearoa Kiwis had played a game in Aotearoa and the disconnect between the footy community and Kiwis players as we rarely get to see the Kiwis play at home. That 2017 RLWC was horrible and while in was in Aotearoa, the taste left was yucky. Then we Aotearoa Kiwis defeating Tonga and Australia at Mt Smart stadium in the next few years, as well as Aotearoa smoking a touring Great Britain team.
Now all of that is on pause and it’s just a weird scenario. Everything in sport at the moment is about cramming as much in as possible to try and re-coup profits lost during 2020. Sending Australia and Aotearoa to the United Kingdom after an NRL season, in this current climate definitely felt like a stretch. That is to say that I think both national bodies are wise in making this move, although it is obviously hurting international rugby league.
My buzz around the RLWC came from seeing what the Aotearoa Kiwis leaders and squad contenders do in the NRL every week. You read much of this through the emails and we are dealing in monster Kiwi-NRL debut numbers while the likes of Joseph Manu, Brandon Smith, James Fisher-Harris, Jahrome Hughes, Bromwich bros, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Tapine, Isaac Liu etc etc are all among the NRL’s elite.
With no Aotearoa Kiwis, it’s tricky to put a bow on that. I can whip up possible teams and squads, but until these players are consistently playing together for Aotearoa it doesn’t really mean anything. In this current climate, one can’t be mad at events not going ahead as planned and the flexibility to roll on is mandatory. It’s easy to see how we got to this RLWC point for Aotearoa and Australia, yet Aotearoa rugby league needs something … anything.
This reminds me of the All Whites. When were the last All Whites games? November 2019 - a week or two after the last Kiwis Test.
Anyone with a smidge of football know-how is excited about the Olly Whites at the Olympics as this is a supremely talented group of Aotearoa footballers. The Niche Cache is broadcasting all these pockets of Aotearoa golden generations and it started with men’s football, which is why we are all fizzing to see these lads come together and paly. These golden generations vibes are in basketball, cricket, MMA and rugby league let alone any others.
That excitement at seeing the football lads is at the root of this RLWC thing. I just want to see the Kiwis play, spend more time together under coach Michael Maguire and turn this Kiwi-NRL energy into genuinely representing Aotearoa rugby league. That’s what rugby league in Aotearoa needs and perhaps instead of a RLWC we will get Aotearoa Kiwis Tests in Aotearoa to finish this year.
Wildcard’s Notebook
Steven Adams Trade Watch
Haven’t heard much of a buzz about Steven Adams lately, he’s doing his offseason yarns or whatever and the New Orleans Pelicans may have a heap of work to do to get that roster ready for next season but like everybody else they’ve been chilling and watching the NBA Finals. Not only as fans either. The Finals were a professional scouting mission for them because their leading head coaching candidate was Willie Green, an assistant for the Phoenix Suns (after three years on the Golden State Warriors coaching staff). Sure enough the Finals ended and within a couple days Willie Green has been announced as the man to replace Stan Van Gundy. The man who this franchise believes can put Zion Williamson in the best place to succeed. The man who can supposedly convince Williamson and Brandon Ingram to actually commit to playing some defence.
What does he reckon about Steven Adams though? Don’t reckon it even matters. I’ve been on the wagon for trading Adams since the last season ended, this hasn’t been a great fit for him and because of that he’s not even being given credit for the things he’s done well. I was reading one of those ‘sources say’ articles lately, it was an offseason preview from The Athletic and once again it included a variation on the repeated idea that Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams were veteran trade pieces that didn’t work and the expectation is that the team will trade one if not both of them soon.
The thing that bugs me about that is that Bledsoe was way worse. Bledsoe was a defensive-minded guard who didn’t play good defence last season, whose three-point shot was all over the show, and who the coach relied far too much upon. Bledsoe was bad. Adams was merely adequate, and a slightly rough fit besides Zion. But they both get tarred with the same brush because of how they were acquired. That’s why I mention that article because I was relieved to finally – finally – see a rebuttal to that idea. Sam Vecenie writing:
“Adams, I thought, was pretty good at his end of the defensive scheme that Stan Van Gundy wanted to run. But the problem is, if I was moving one of Adams or Bledsoe, I think it would be Adams because his deal is for the extra year and I really do not like the long-term fit of he and Zion. They need to find a center who can protect the rim and space the floor a bit. Adams has no chance to do the latter. There are real choices to be made on that front by the Pelicans this summer. For instance, if the team really wanted to move Adams, I would bet the Hornets might have some real interest in taking him into their cap space given their hole at the center position.”
It moved me so much to read someone sticking up for Kiwi Steve that I had to share it. Having said that, I still agree that a trade is the best outcome and that Adams is clearly the more tradeable dude out of he and Bledsoe. There are teams that could use a player of his skill set a whole lot more effectively than the Pels are going to considering that the Pels already have one of the most efficient rim scorers in the history of the game, statistically speaking. Adams and Williamson step on each other’s toes. Free Steve!
By the way...
Now that there’s a head coach in place, and with the NBA Draft happening next Thursday, I expect we’ll see a solution to this dilemma rather soon. Free agency begins on August 2 and with the moratorium no trades can be completed until August 6... but that doesn’t mean they won’t happen behind closed doors or be leaked or rumoured. The time is nigh.
NBL22 Takeover
How good. NZ NBL MVP Dion Prewster off the back of a superb season with the Wellington Saints and he’s linking up with old mate Shea Ili at defending champs Melbourne United to form an all-kiwi second unit backcourt for all the wins. Plus he worked with coach Dean Vickerman when Vix was an assistant at the Sydney Kings. Prewster’s been a couple years away from this level, has heavily improved his game in that time, and now here he is back again. It’s not only the young development lads cracking the Aussie NBL, mate.
Meanwhile player movement abounds as team rosters get closer to finality. On the New Zealand front, Max Darling has been released by the Illawarra Hawks after not really breaking through in year one of what had been a three year deal. Sounds like he’ll end up back in the league elsewhere in a fit that works. Darling’s still young and raw, he has two more years before he’s too old for the NBA Draft. He’s in development mode and he’s taken a few alternative pathways to get here. Dodging the USA college system to play in Croatia. Returning to the NBL. Popping up for the Canterbury Rams when he can. He’s ambitious. Just need that right situation for him to flourish. And elsewhere Corey Webster’s likely to be released by the Breakers to fix their guard-heavy roster and clear up room for that final import. Half the league are interested in picking him up. Brisbane would be the one I’d most like to see, followed closely by Perth.
NZers Signed For NBL22 (as it stands)...
NZ Breakers – Tai Webster, Finn Delany, Tom Abercrombie, Corey Webster (for now), Yanni Wetzell, Rob Loe, Isaac Davidson (DP), Sam Timmins (DP)
Adelaide 36ers – Nada
Brisbane Bullets – Tyrell Harrison & Jack Salt
Cairns Taipans – Jordan Ngatai
Illawarra Hawks – Nada
Melbourne United – Shea Ili & Dion Prewster
Perth Wildcats – Nada
SEM Phoenix – Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa & Reuben Te Rangi
Sydney Kings – Tom Vodanovich
Tasmania JackJumpers – Nada
That’s 16 players already signed, eight for the Breakers and eight elsewhere. Soon to be seven and nine by reports. Jarrod Kenny is still a good bet to be re-signed by the Taipans. Max Darling is looking around (he’s been linked with Tassie, Perth & Brisbane specifically). Hyrum Harris and Mike Karena were injury replacements last season, currently free agents. Taylor Britt and Jordan Hunt have been DPs. Countless other prospects in the NZ league to pick from. There were twenty NZers played NBL last season, only need four more signings to catch up with that tally. Crazy times.
Footy Debuts
In an otherwise demoralising defeat to Australia in the Football Ferns’ first Olympic match, an expected result but still you always kinda believe in a miracle until the moment it’s no longer possible, Gabi Rennie’s debut goal off the bench with basically her first touch of the ball was a rare thing to savour. She was the bolter in the main squad. She’d only just come on. Great cross by Wilkie, lovely nod back by Percy, top little glance of a header from Rennie. Get in there.
Rennie’s a player I’ve got big hopes for, a genuinely good finisher who’s quick and strong and has impressed at age grade and National League level already and is fast heading in that same direction at collegiate level in the States. And a proper attacking player too, the likes of which we’re really desperate for. She’s also a younger player cracking what’s been a very stable, very consistent group of players in the Footy Ferns which hasn’t always had an abundance of competition for places. Not sure if this thought experiment has a lesson to it or not but here’s an XI of the most recent Footy Ferns debutants (which goes all the way back four years ago)...
Nadia Olla | Nicole Stratford, Claudia Bunge, Liz Anton, Sarah Morton | Malia Steinmentz, Grace Jale, Jana Radosavljevic | Maggie Jenkins, Emma Rolston, Gabi Rennie
Now for an All Whites version...
Michael Woud | Noah Billingsley, Nando Pijnaker, Nikko Boxall, Liberato Cacace | Joe Bell, Eli Just, Callum McCowatt | James McGarry, Max Mata, Elliot Collier
Bit of a contrast between the state of the two sides, the All Whites finding themselves in a position where there’s a wave of young dudes breaking through whereas the Ferns do blood plenty of new players but there aren’t the open spots in the starting team that was the case with the men’s time. Danny Hay’s made a point of going all in on the next generation... you only have to go back five games to find those eleven debutants (thirteen actually, there’s also a second goalie in Nik Tzanev and a bonus defender in Justin Gulley). Meanwhile Rennie is the lone debutant for the Ferns across their last five games and to get to eleven (again, twelve including Vic Esson as a second goalie) you have to traverse 26 matches.
Different situations, not claiming one to be better than the other. Just thought it was an interesting tangent. Have a lovely Olympic weekend. I, myself, am feeling particularly Olympic today.