"Will BC continue to be our Kryptonite now that he's changed jerseys?"

BC will continue to be everyone's Kryptonite, his jersey certainly won't stop him.

The more things change, the more they stay the same! BC will always be BC!

Couple of tantalizing match-ups in store in this one. McVeigh v Cheatham at the PF and how will Andrews cope with Cotton?

Adelaide's new signing, big man Nick Rakocevic, will be a TBC on whether he plays tonight or not. Can't see that his absence would be greatly missed with Waardenburg still out, but would have been a good game to get him acclimatised to the NBL.

This will be a tough match for adelaide whilst they still
Get the chemistry worked out , which shouldn't take very long

Can see this being close real close 4pts either way decides this match my heart says sixers but heads saying cairns as they will be on a high after getting past sydney in s game where the refs and Kendrick Flopper tried there hardest to influence the result


Cairns by 1-2 pts but Adelaide by 1-2pts wouldn't shock me either

Both teams obviously have offensive firepower, defence might decide this one.. but also remember cotton also loves playing in Cairns.. will be an interesting watch

Should be an absolute beauty, I'll leave the tipping alone and hopefully watch a great game. I’ll the I hope the the way the refs have started this season may continue, let them play.

Not sold on our form on Sunday but hopefully Rakocevic plays tonight.

Forde has had plenty of chances to come up with a plan for BC and fallen short. Can't see any different here. 36s 8+

36ers score their their nickname (36) in first q

36 points in a quarter, no D Cairns. Sixers led by Cotton are outstanding, early days but oh boy.

This Snakes start with two wins on the board, not earth-shattering, not dominant, but after last year's trainwreck, you’ll take it. It’s like when a team goes from a three-win NFL season to opening 2-1—the fanbase is already putting playoff scenarios into the group chat. And look, Million Dollar McVeigh—he’s at least playing like the bag wasn’t a total overpay. But—and this is the big caveat—those other new faces need to back him up. Otherwise, we’re just heading toward the same "McVeigh plus random chaos" script.

The Matchups That Matter
Lee’s whole night is basically going to hinge on foul trouble. You need him to battle Humphries and Cheatham. And good luck with that because Humphries + a distributor who actually looks for him (hi, Cameron) suddenly makes him look like 2019 USA Team Select beefed up by a Euro stint. Then you have Reyne Man and The Admiral—those guys have to hit threes or you’re living in Cottonland... and Cottonland is a cold, cruel place. Just pencil him for 40. That’s what he does. But the hack with Cotton is always the same—let him get his numbers, keep the rest of the team grounded.

The DJ Problem
This is the subplot I can’t shake. What does DJ actually want to be? Does he want to be the Robin to Cotton’s Batman? Or is he going full Nick Young “why not me” energy and just gunning himself into oblivion? That last game—ugly. He had the chuck-it DJ performance down to a science: seven bad shots, two makes, zero awareness. And here’s the scary part: he might be the early-season barometer. If he buys in, this works. If he keeps hijacking possessions, Wells is going to be forced to roll with the Cotton/Cameron backcourt. And that lineup, man, it just breathes. Humphries was literally smiling out there. That might’ve been the first time in five years he smiled on a basketball court.

The White Conundrum
White’s supposed to be this smart, versatile piece, right? Instead, he looks like DJ’s stunt double. If DJ is chucking, he’s chucking. If DJ makes a bad cut, he makes that same bad cut two minutes later. And for someone that allegedly has “basketball IQ,” this is getting into “maybe he’s not the genius everyone hyped” territory. The Naismith Mensa might not be sending him an invite anytime soon.

Sidelines and Storylines
From the sideline stuff—Forde finally has some real toys this year. Last season he was basically coaching with duct tape and prayer beads. And while it sucks not having Waardenberg in the mix (man, that would tie everything together), you at least see the shape of what this could be. On the other side, Wells—there’s real pressure. New import incoming, whispers of a bigger name down the pipeline. If this thing doesn’t click fast, there’s a world where it gets sideways for him quickly.

At the end of the day, this feels like a guard series game. McVeigh can do his million-dollar thing, Humphries can be engaged, but the deciding factor is Cotton’s supporting cast versus DJ’s decision-making. If you’re betting on drama: always bet on DJ’s ego to make it fun.

Real bucket of slop from Cairns so far brick central

Harris and Kenyon good additions to Sixers bench. Hooley and Copeland talk absolute for case of it, most rubbish, Adriana is good though. Galloway isn't great, Cairns just got concentrate on trying to play D. Cotton got cork, might help though.

The commentary left the mics on at the half ,Hooley just said they can go home this is over, lol.

Cairns home fans deserve better than this, the whole team isn't playing D, none of them, it’s rubbish. Should have been a great game, hopefully the next one lives up to the hype.

Enjoying Rakosvic's energy, great on the boards, great disrupter

Protecting the ball is so overrated. Built Forde tough

Well this is boring.

How the hell did this Taipans team beat Sydney less than a week ago?

Looks like they'd struggle against the 88 Supercats right now

Blue collar players are so valuable, tiapans don't have any. Where to from here, at least it can’t be worse.

Sixers are a machine, bench a lot better than expected. Wells doing well at present as well, good ball movement, good D. Very early days but looking good.

Taipans looked up for it early, but then Lee got in early foul trouble and the lead blew out to 13 by the end of the 1st and never recovered from there.

Cheatham hasn't even gotten going offensively yet and may not even need to if Humphries can keep up that level of play (and only needed 19 minutes to do it too). One of the best offensive rebound games from him and Rakocevic got involved there too with 5 in his 16 minutes. Rebounding was a huge issue for the 36ers last year, even with Harrell there, especially giving up offensive rebounds, so hopefully that's fixed with Cheatham and Rako in the lineup.

DJV is probably happy cause he got his shots tonight, overall can't fault much of anything out of that from the 36ers.

Say what you like about Cairns, but Adelaide was fantastic tonight. They had 8 scorers, half of whom scored 19 or more pts, BC with 28 pts and 7 asts. Great to see the whole team involved and the spread of scorers. New signing, Nick Rakocevic seems like a positive for Adel with 8 pts and 8 rbds in 16 mins for a solid, NBL debut.

For Cairns, Schofield contributed 19 pts, Lee had 18 and Andrews with 10 (and 7 assists) were their only significant scorers in a one-sided game that Adelaide led from start to finish.

Great game from the Sixers, only complaint really would be is that I feel like playing Cotton 36:59 tonight was simply unnecessary especially as the 4th quarter continued. Perth have slowed down in years prior imo due to Cotton starting to lose his legs from playing super heavy minutes all year, just don't want the Sixers to repeat that.

Schofield was defensively very average.

Terrible D by Cairns combined with Adelaide being bang-on across the court and this is the result. Bryce killed it and barely looked like he got out of second gear. And we are really missing Waardenburg.

Adelaide looking pretty good so far this season - I think the new Serbian guy is a great fit.

4 games in for the Taipans with two close wins against teams that shot less than 20% from 3 point range combined and 2 Plus 30 point losses . the team looks like the Taipans of last year and anyone who thought they were playing defense last night should have another look at the game .
the debacle at the end of the 3rd quarter was a disgrace and the basketball gods quite rightly awarded the Taipans with exactly the result they were fouling to avoid .
Could be a long season for us Taipans supporters .

Cairns were cooked when Marcus Lee was off the court. He's been doing well, but without Waardenburg they're in trouble.

Lee gets exposed because his guards play crap D in front of him and he's isolated, sometimes two players to guard, reaching in bingo foul trouble. Cairns D been woeful, plus no team D, no point bringing in McVeigh and not putting the right cattle around him. Yes I know Waardenburg got injured but to be fair that’s been his bad luck for a few seasons. They are just to inexperienced on the bench.

Big worry for Cairns is two 30+ point losses in only 4 games. Not a good sign.
DJV adjusting to the new players. Last game didn't read back cut and Cheatham threw ball out of bounds. Last night DJV takes the back cut and the ball handler looking for something else. DJV also not in sync with Cotton on spacing or setting screens. If Sixers go 4-0 after games next week, teams will really start to put work into Cotton which will free up DJV.

DJV isn't the only one having issues playing Cotton. Not necessarily in a bad way, just that they haven't gotten in sync where he moves on court.

Derek Rucker said it best.

"When you bring Bryce Cotton into your program, it is not a corporate partnership; he is the owner, and everyone else is an employee.

"That's the way it's going down, and everyone else needs to fall in line quickly."

https://nbl.com.au/news/adelaide-36ers-adjust-to-bryce-cotton-nbl26

yes sure there is signs they are a bit out of sync in attack
but they have been scoring plenty and they only had what six turnovers
for mine, the area that they don't seem to have worked on at all yet is rebounding.

my eye test says that they have not really implemented any sort of system yet,
they seem to be giving up a lot of long rebounds because they are really only putting one or two studs on the boards, while most modern teams have are now using coverage systems.

Melbourne [though its hard for them tonight] appear to have implemented the modern trendy Euro tagging but I would be happy if the 36ers just put some hands and feet at the elbows.