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Grats and GG

Losing by 12 against Australia was a tough loss as it means we almost lost the opportunity to make it to the next round. Our next game will be against Taiwan who is out of our reach. Players with the best game shape will play but I don't expect anything from that game. After that, we will play against Singapore, a game we may be able to win. In any case, that won't be an easy one. Finally, we will play our last game against Lebanon. Playing at home, they seem to be better than us and I sincerely believe they are on their way to get their first medal ever!

Last edited by Nico4nicolas at 8/19/2024 3:35:03 PM

As expected, we loss against Taiwan. With Lebanon winning against Iran and Singapore winning against Australia, Taiwan and Lebanon are almost qualified for the semifinals.

We will play against Singapore as they just won Australia, they are not to underestimate. I believe they are sight favorite but we will try to get that win. Singapore still have a chance to qualify if they win against us as they will play their last game against Iran.

Last game will be against Lebanon, we have very little chance to win that one but you never know, it will be their last group game before the semifinals... we will see.

Congratulations for the great job you've done for the past years. This season is history in the making for Lebanon, I saw it sine the first games this season. That being said, we (Malaysia) won't make it any easy for you... but we will also try to beat Singapore which would be very good news for you.

Despite giving it all against Lebanon, we couldn't get the win so Lebanon will get their first medal ever. A well deserved award for a team which will stay high in the NT ranking during the next seasons.
Other results were surprising as Australia managed to get a final win against Taiwan as they were almost certain to keep their place. More surprising, Singapore got blown away by Iran. One might wonder if this was done on purpose but the fact remain: we finished last. We played a series of close games (+2 against Iran, -12 against Australia, -6 against Singapore and -7 against Lebanon). In the end, the final result isn't a good one.

Next season will be transition as 6 of the current players are 33 or 34yo. I will try to start next season without the 'old' players (33 and above) but I will most probably need to call back a few of them as our youngsters aren't ready yet (and there aren't many of them).

I almost forgot: many thanks to all the managers who kept their players in good GS, this is something we really need in order to have a competitive team. This was my first season as NT manager and I hope that I will do what needs to be done to get your trust for the seasons to come.

First scrimmage game of the off season will be against Indonesia. The younger players will play. Francis Jalius (23), Ray Michael (24) and Rafael Salvado (25) are the future of our NT. They will be in the starting 5 with Somboon Thanarat (27) and Peter Joseph (28). On the other hand, Mark Bugak (23) and Isaac Gatut (24) will have a taste of the NT but shouldn't stay with the team next season.

I didn't select Simon Edwin Edin (22), Scott Eames (24) as my team is playing the MBBA finals against Chosen 5 and knowing their skills would be like cheating. I may select one of them after the MBBA finals.

Edit: due to a mediocre GS, Peter Joseph won't be playing this game. Chosen 5's manager have a few players in the NT and have always kept them in good GS but I want to emphasis that GS is crucial. It will be a rule of thumbs with me as manager, no players with a GS below 7 will step foot on the court even for a scrimmage.

Last edited by Nico4nicolas at 9/13/2024 4:43:49 AM

We started the new season against Saudi Arabia, it allowed us to play with the young core and to notice that it won't be enough to be competitive. The win wasn't an easy one. Two players (Charlie Wong and Rafael Salvado) had GS below 7 so we played with a 10-man roster.

For our next game we will face the strong Latvia team. I don't expect much for this next game but if our current players don't have a good enough GS, I will call back the older guys.

Edit: if someone wants me to try something for our next game, we can try out new things.

Last edited by Nico4nicolas at 9/30/2024 2:31:10 PM

It's been a long time since I last wrote something here. I've been very busy in real life but spent time to prepare the NT lineups. One could say I didn't do a good job and I can't argue otherwise.

We lost by 13 against Latvia which is stronger team than yours. It was an expected result, nothing wrong here especially because they put more enthusiasm than us. Then came the most disappointing result of the season so far, we lost against by 2 Scotland after overtime. I don't mean to be disrespectful but we should have won even though they also put more enthusiasm than us. Gladly, we managed to Iran by 26. Today, we lost against Estonia by 16. The last quarter was a killer for us (-11) with only 7 points scored. Our defense was good but we lacked players to put the ball in the basket.

For the 3 remaining games, we will face Luxembourg, South Africa and Armenia. The goal is to collect 3 wins. After a long injury (13 days), Charlie Wong will be back and should help us.

Time to conclude S66

This is the end of the season, we had a below average season ending with a 4-4 record. It pushed us back to #33, the best team not to be qualified for the tournament bracket. Losing against Scotland by 2 points after overtime was the game which we should have won to have a decent season.

Playing with a younger core

My decision at the beginning of the season was to get rid of all the older players and keep only the young core. The oldest player was Ge Jingwen at 32yo while Francis Jalius (24), Ray Michael (25), Scott Eames (25) and Rafael Salvado (26) were supposed to bring their talents to the team. After only one official game, I realized that we wouldn't be able to do well without a few of the older guys so I recalled Aanandaprakash Srivastava (34), Rob Abraham (34) and Michael Johney (34). These players were even more needed as Charlie Wong was injured for a long duration.

What will come (next season)

There will be an election and there might be a new NT manager so here are some general predictions about the near future.

I don't think it would be a good idea to keep those older players one more season so the roster will be very similar. There is one young player who may join the team, Simon Edwin Edin (23) has the potential to help the team despite his young age. Some of the young players keep improving and Ray Michael finished best scorer for the last official game of the season. Chris Londoh also finished strong after not playing at the beginning of the season. I ended up finding ways to use him.

Last words

As NT manager, I feel I could have done a little bit better but I also see the limited potential of our NT so I find it difficult to have high ambitions.