SuperCoach NBL: Coaches Court (Round 9, NBL25)

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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

Chris Goulding: 82
Nathan Sobey: 67
Rob Loe: 67
Jack White: 62
Kristian Doolittle: 60

Super Coaches

Round 8 scores:
Yeah Buddy: 476
Tassiehawks: 470
RiverBall: 470

Overall rankings:
Josh Griddy: 3,303
Sixer Sam: 3,268
The Wellephants: 3,265

Scheduled selections

It’s time to bite the bullet! Brisbane has their first double-game round for the season; and start a run of nine doubles over the next 10 weeks.

However, they do have a single-game round next week which makes trading tricky. How many, if any, is too many? Perth is the other team on the double this week and have another three doubles-game rounds in a row.

PJC and the Breakers have a single game this week, but can be held as they have another four weeks’ worth of doubles tipping, off from Round 10.

However, it is time to jump off South East Melbourne and avoid the Hurt. The Phoenix have only one double-game round over the next six rounds.

Considering the injury of Jack White, is it time to put your United stocks on ice? After their busy schedule they now have back-to-back singles, who will stand up in White’s absence? 

Trade targets

Tyrell Harrison (CTR) BRIS $327,600
With Brisbane’s schedule now starting to open up with nine double-game rounds in 10 rounds, including eight straight doubles from Round 11 onwards, it’s time to have a look at those until now Bullets players. Your number one target is big Tyrell. He is only averaging 30 SuperCoach points so far this season, but he is the Bullet with the highest ceiling with scores of 43, 42 and 37. Harrison starts the double round with a game against a possibly Magnay-less JackJumpers team, should he not return from his shoulder injury prior to the FIBA break. That sounds juicy to us, but the JJ’s being Magnay-less didn’t help Keanu.

Keanu Pinder (FWD/CTR) PER $289,700
Was Pinder being a trade target the right call last week? It didn’t look so only 22 SuperCoach points in their first game of the round, and then with the news of him losing his starting position to Almansa for Perth’s second game of the round. However, Pinder somewhat repaid the faith with a score of 34 in the Wildcats' second game, for a total of 56 for the round. This was approximately four SuperCoach points per game over his average for the year, prior to last round. With three double-game rounds in a row to come for Perth still, we think Keanu is still a trade in option, especially with just Brisbane and Perth on a double this week

Josh Bannan (FWD) BRIS $278,000
Bannan hasn’t set the world on fire this season since returning from injury in Round 3, but he hasn’t exactly been terrible either. He has highs of 32 and 30 for the year and an average of 25.8 SuperCoach points for the season. The Bullets' schedule means Bannan could be a set and forget option at FWD for the foreseeable future. He’s not too expensive to park on the bench here and there if you have other premium options for certain rounds.

Kristian Doolittle (FWD) PER $325,800
60 SuperCoach for last round double but what could have been? Six turnovers (-12 SuperCoach points) cost Doolittle a much better score v Melbourne United in Perth’s second game. Doolittle double-doubled in both of Perth’s games last round and is still picking up points, rebounds and assists in every game. We are sticking with Doolittle as a trade target this week to take advantage of the Perth schedule.

Keandre Cook (GRD) BRIS $277,600
Out of nowhere, Cook is our third trade target for this Brisbane schedule run. He is averaging almost 28 SuperCoach points a game, with a season-high 41 SuperCoach points v Melbourne last round for the Bullets. Cook has been getting stats across the board, achieving at least 1 steal per game except for 1 game, at least 1 block in 5 of Brisbane’s eight games and at least 2 assists in seven out of eight games also. That’s what we call padding the stats!

Benny’s Breakevens 

Here are some of the Breakevens of interest heading into round 9: 
Angus Glover: -12 (1 game)
Robert Loe: -11 (1 game)
Jackson Makoi: -11 (1 game)
Chris Goulding: -10 (1 game)
Alex Higgins-Titsha: -6 (1 game)
Karim Lopez: -3 (1 game)
Sam Mennenga: 1 (1 game)
James Batemon: 52 (2 games)
Kristian Doolittle: 59 (2 games)
Tyrell Harrison: 72 (2 games)
Bryce Cotton: 94 (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.

Tyrell Harrison
Josh Bannan
Keandre Cook
Keanu Pinder
Kristian Doolittle

Boydie’s questions and answers

Question: Do I bring in Pinder or Harrison at the center position?
Answer: The arguments for Pinder are his discount relative to Harrison and his dual-position eligibility; but all other signs point to biting the bullet and paying up for Harrison. The set and forget nature for the vast majority of the season make Harrison an excellent selection. Pick Harrison and spend a few weeks improving your team elsewhere.  

Question: Do I bring in Pinder or Bannan at the forward position?
Answer: This decision is a little tougher than the prior scenario. In this case we would actually opt for Pinder and his dual-position status in most cases. But your decision will likely be based on what sort of SuperCoach personality you have. Something in Bannan’s favour is his current low ownership (which is likely to change), and you can be assured that Bannan will score somewhere between 20 and 30 SC points each game. This consistency is very different to what Keanu Pinder can provide. So essentially, you can opt for a lowly owned consistency machine, or hop on board the Pinder roller coaster with a large group. We do note that there is every chance that you will be able to trade Pinder for Bannan in a few weeks’ time, so maybe that will give you the best of both worlds.

Question: Which two players do I start out of Henshall, PJC, Webster, Pepper and Prather? 
Answer: We typically opt for players on the double-game round in these scenarios; and PJC is arguably one of the top players you would opt to play on a single game. Pepper was disappointing last round, but did have 60+ the round before in the exact same role. If he is named in the starting lineup on Friday night, you can back him in again. 
Our order is: Prather, Henshall, Webster, Pepper, PJC.