SuperCoach NBL: Coaches Court (Round 7, NBL25)

SuperCoach NBL is back for its second year, and this time around it’s bigger than ever!

With a fresh new look, improved game navigation and app experience, registrations are now open for NBL25.

This year, we've teamed up with our friends at The Basketball Blokes to provide you all the information you need to know to pick your team, navigate the schedule and maximise your scoring. 

Each week in the coaches court the Basketball Blokes use their best judgment to answer your SuperCoach NBL questions for the week ahead. But first, here are all the relevant facts you need to know before making your trades this week. 

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Prior round premos

Xavier Cooks: 95
Jack White: 89
Will Hickey: 78
Matt Mooney: 77
Montrezl Harrell: 71

Super Coaches

Round 6 scores
Dunny's Dunkerz: 576
Bears: 569
Big germs: 568

Overall rankings
Sixer Sam: 2,452
The Wellephants: 2,452
The Devonators: 2,438
King Legends: 2,430

Scheduled selections

Perth is the flavour of the week as it begins a stretch of five double-game rounds in a row.

To explain how valuable that is - Melbourne and New Zealand have three doubles during that same timeframe and no other club has any more than two.

Adelaide and Cairns have four straight singles. Brisbane plays just the one double over the next four weeks.

You can hold your Melbourne, SEM and JackJumpers with back-to-back double-game rounds across Rounds 7 and 8.

It will be interesting how owners of the Breakers will play the upcoming schedule. They are on the double this week before a couple of singles. After that the good schedule continues, but there are a lot of high ranking teams rolling with both PJC and Mooney, and it would be a tough hold, so plan accordingly.

Trade targets

Kristian Doolittle (FWD) PER $364,100
Although he had a bit of a down game SuperCoach points wise, with 23 last round, his game wasn’t as average as it seems, he had 9 points, 14 rebounds and a couple of assists and shot just 26 per cent from the field, 4-15! If just one more shot went down, he would have got the 2 points plus the all-important double-double 5 SuperCoach bonus. Perth starts a run of 5 double game rounds this round. DooALot and bring Kristian into your SuperCoach side.

Keanu Pinder (FWD/CTR) PER $304,500
With Bryce Cotton out last round, Pinder saw a much bigger focus on the offensive side and saluted with 47 SuperCoach points in 31 minutes v Sydney. Now is this a 1 game wonder? Or a start of a run of form for Keanu? We hope the latter with the schedule getting juicy for Perth.

Tai Webster (GRD) PER $198,200
Now this one is a bit of what we call a ‘risky bisky’ pick at the Basketball Blokes, but the options at guard are a little sparse at the moment due to the number of injuries and the schedule. This has us considering Tai, should he return from his adductor strain which kept him out last round. Prior to the injury, he had a season high of 39 SuperCoach points v NZ in Round 5 and we liked what we saw from Tai in this game with Cotton going down injured in the first few minutes of the first quarter. If you need a guard and can risk waiting until the last game Friday night to see if Tai starts, then Webster could be a good reasonably priced option.

Ben Henshall (GRD/FWD) PER $122,300
Another to make the most of Bryce Cotton being out last round and for the next few rounds more than likely, is Ben Henshall. He got the start and 23 SuperCoach points in 25 minutes. Nice cheap option if you need one! But could you take a risk and start Henshall with Perth on a double this round and so many injured options at guard?

Milton Doyle (GRD) TAS $310,900
While a 0 SuperCoach point game in Round 4 scares some, Doyle has hit some form with 27, 38 and 28 in his games, since the 0 score. With the JJ’s starting a run of two double-round games in a row, Milton just might be the option to bring in at starting guard position for your SuperCoach team. Plus Doyle is one of those smooth moving players you love to watch whether he is in or out of your SuperCoach team.

Matt Hurt (FWD/CTR) SEM $363,300
A couple of double-game rounds coming up for SEM and their SuperCoach standout so far this season has been Matt Hurt. He is averaging 34.5 SuperCoach points per game to date, so you would think is looking at 65-80 SuperCoach points per round over the next couple if he continues this form. The one red flag is new SEM coach, Josh King, who takes the reins this round. Will Hurt’s focus in the offence remain?

Will Magnay (FWD/CTR) TAS $314,600
Big Will is averaging 30.4 SuperCoach points per game in a bit of an up and down season so far, but with a ceiling of 56 SuperCoach points in his Round 2 game v Melbourne United, we think he is a good option for your side, despite being one of the most traded out players in recent weeks due to Tassie’s schedule.

Benny’s Breakevens

Here are some of the breakevens of interest heading into Round 7:
Jackson Makoi: -16 (1 game)
William Hickey: -12 (1 game)
Montrezl Harrell: -10 (1 game)
Flynn Cameron: -9 (2 games)
Taran Armstong: -3 (1 game)
Max Darling: 3 (2 games)
Ben Henshall: 2 (2 games)
Tai Webster: 15 (2 games)
Matt Hurt: 68 (2 games)
Kristian Doolittle: 77 (2 games)

Banksy’s captain options

Banksy’s Captains podcast is exclusive to subscribers at basketballblokes.com for Round 3 onwards. In no particular order, here is the pool of captains candidates under consideration.

Xavier Cooks
Parker Jackson-Cartwright
Matt Mooney
Jack White
Kristian Doolittle
Keanu Pinder
Xavier Cooks
Milton Doyle

Boydie’s questions and answers

Question: Who is the better cash cow/trade target? Karim Lopez or Izan Almansa?
Answer: Whilst Lopez appears to have the better short term cash generation, we feel that Almansa remains the slightly better trade target. With injuries to Max Darling, Mojave King and Mitch McCarron for the Breakers, there were a lot of extra minutes to go around last round for Lopez. Lopez is a viable trade target regardless of our preference for Almansa, but don’t expect last round's production to be a regular occurrence. Almansa’s increase in minutes last game were to the detriment of Hyrum Harris and Jesse Wagstaff; and noting Rillie’s short leash, this could be a sign of things to come for Almansa. With the benefit of dual positioning and the league's best schedule upcoming, take the discount that Izan gives you when compared to Karim.    

Question: Should I trade out Sam Mennenga?
Answer: Possibly ... so long as Mennenga is on your bench, you may have higher priorities elsewhere. However, if you are looking solid elsewhere, you can certainly trade Sam. He has been given every opportunity as the starter for the Breakers, but has certainly ceded playing time to the other Breakers bigs. The defensive scheme the Breakers use against the pick and roll often sees Mennenga with his hand up defending a guard on the three-point line rather than being in position to get rebounds and blocks that we need him to get as a SuperCoach prospect. Is Mennenga a pretender? When it comes to discussing his SuperCoach viability, it’s certainly getting harder to be a defender.      

Question: Who do you trade out first out of Rob Edwards, Rob Loe, Sam Mennenga, Alex Toohey and Jordan Hunter?Answer: Following on from our answer about Mennenga and having other priorities, this question is an example of a scenario that some people may be in. Of the players listed, Rob Edwards is the unanimous first trade out. The remaining players listed have decent short to medium term schedules to consider. For us, the decision to trade out either Loe, Hunter or Mennenga out would be dependent on what you could get on the other side of the trade. For this reason, we think we would trade out Loe or Hunter as you can do more with the cash that you have available on your starting court, or you can have more cash available from your downgrade.