This the weed stuff again?

Drug sanction... 2 months

Yeah that just came and went. Maybe we are sloppy and did not get the FIBA clearance, which I would not put it past them. Always some kind of drama with us.

How many weeks did Cooks get ?

Cooks got a couple of months.

So quick thinking to bring in a big then with no Trez and no Griscti

Classic Sixers.

Time to move on from Trez.

Well at least early it gets rid of the issues with the starting 5

Knew something was brewing.

Two months for smoking weed???

I don't smoke, but that's a ridiculously harsh penalty for something as relatively benign, and not performance enhancing

Dirty tricksters doing 36er things before they have even played a game. It's OK Montrez, we’ll just wait for you cause your such a great roll model.

Damn the Trez downunder reality show could be over before season 2 kicks off who woulda thought. Looking forward to an incoherent x post from him soon letting peeps know whats poppin.

I don't believe it restricts him in domestic basketball, potentially only in FIBA games? I think?

Unless something has changed the NBL has always been FIBA affiliated.

7 News ticker Trez may miss start of season unless doping ruling isn't made.

Not sure what that means exactly.

The issue is we wait this late to hit the panic button. We should have got this resolved or knew the implications early so we can have a temp solution in place.

What a terrible rule

Who cares what he does in China, why does it transfer to NBL.

China have too much influence in the West.

Hopefully it's backdated and he can play ASAP.

If Gristci is out for the season, I wonder if VB is affordable enough to be the backup stretch big?

C Humphries/Trez
F Cheatham/VB
F Cameron/Kenyon
G DJV
G Cotton/White

+ Harris and Rasmussen outside the main rotation

"China have too much influence in the West."

Rubbish. It's FIBA.

It's a world sport, the rules are same everywhere. Cooks suspension has FA to do with China and there are others.

So why is this issue still lingering? His last game in China was 5 months ago (18th April) then he played 8 games in Puerto Rico in May/June?

Or was this only discovered recently due to test results coming back, even though he finished playing months earlier?

The story about him failing the test came out at the end of June and the test he failed was from April, but they were waiting for the Chinese Anti-Doping Authority to give a penalty.

So I guess the question from there is how/why penalties from a Chinese authority impact his ability to play in Australia.

If Harrell has to miss some time, then what if they treat it similar to last season where Harrell was the one who replaced Martin, but then stayed for the season with an import spot available once Martin Returned. So bring in the import they plan to sign later now, and then hopefully this player works out well enough to keep. Harrell becomes the mid-season inclusion instead of another import. There would obviously be financial factors to consider, but this is one way around this issue if Harrell is missing some time. Can they even release Harrell without paying him out? So basically, treat it like an injury, bring in someone now, keep the replacement import now Cotton is naturalised. If they planned for adding a new import anyway, then they can just invert the scenario.

That's what I think they're doing with VB.

Trez played in the NBL last season which means any contract after that (this season) is fully guaranteed.

Have to wait until the facts come out I suppose, but I also get the feeling he might be done...
Absolute disaster!

But if it were due to a drug suspension incurred in another country there may be provisions in the contract to void it without needing to pay him out in full.

It sounds like the Anti-doping Authority in China haven't actually made a ruling yet. The understanding is that the punishment would be backdated, meaning that he should be free to play now, but they just haven't divulged the sanction yet so he's in limbo.

The fact that this has no doubt been known to the 36ers since they signed him but they've just kept it quiet until we've got to the point where people will notice his absence is 100% on-brand.

He's doing his shoe drops and captioned "doing a few more before I'm out" so you could certainly take that as he's not coming back or he's been cut cause he can't play

"I don't smoke, but that's a ridiculously harsh penalty for something as relatively benign, and not performance enhancing"

There are a lot of non performance enhancing drugs that are on the banned list for athletes for other reasons (masking use of other drugs etc). They're banned, athletes know this and know they'll get punished if caught.

I think LaPark maybe on the money.

To be fair to the 36ers, could they have anticipated how long this messy situation would take to resolve?

But wasn't this issue raised months ago? That Harrell is facing a suspension? We never heard anything more about it. Someone must have known what was coming.

"No lie this honestly gone mess up a lot of fans!"

^ Trez on Twitter. Sounds like he's gone IMO.

My prediction is that Harrell will have to miss some time. The club may or may not have been complicit in failure to resolve or confront this issue. Harrell will blame everyone but himself for the outcome. Harrell has decided to leave for good instead of working with the club to serve the time and come back later depending on how long a suspension would be. Harrell might leave the club and be signed again later in the year and all is forgiven.

I'm cool with it dude is just too much drama.

Cheatham has been doing a quite reasonable imitation of Trez lately anyway. He seems to be giving us the 9 rpg Trez provided but around half his scoring. Aside from the fact I think Zylan could get a few more looks but we now have Cotton and others to pick up the scoring slack.

Keep VB on the team, Trez or not, and lets go with that to start the season. We could always add another import down the track, or two more if VB doesn't work out.

Big name, bigger liability vibes

Trez and Adelaide are preparing to part ways according Olgun.