How do you make people forget that your team isn’t going to bring back the reigning League Most Valuable Player?
That’s the quandary that faced the Townsville Crocodiles this off-season after they decided that they wouldn’t re-sign Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams. The ebullient American was not just the Crocs’ (and league’s) best player last season, but also a fan favourite to boot. It was therefore going to take a pretty special player to make the faithful at ‘The Swamp’ forget all about Homicide.
Townsville CEO Ian Smythe thinks he has found just such a player however in newly signed import forward Gabe ‘G-Force’ Freeman.
Apart from the fact he has a cool nickname which brings back memories (for this writer at least) of watching that classic Japanese anime TV series in the ‘80s, Freeman also appears to have some serious game too.
By all accounts a super athlete, Freeman has been a scorer wherever he has been as well as a rebounding moose. In the current PBA season in the Philippines, he has been averaging 20.8 points and 16.3 rebounds for the San Miguel Beermen (which coincidentally is quite possibly the greatest team name in professional sports).
Admittedly, the PBA is a smaller league than ours and Freeman’s stats would likely be slightly inflated as a result. Even accounting for that he looks like he could be a major find for the Crocs.
If you compare his stats with the 21.7 points and 8.3 rebounds former Crocs import Rosell Ellis averaged during his 2008 stint in the PBA, it indicates that he should still easily average a good double-double in the NBL.
In 2009 he played for the Albany Patroons in the American CBA and averaged an impressive 14.3ppg and 9.7rpg against much tougher and taller opposition, so he isn’t just someone who dominates against smaller opponents.
Freeman seems to be somewhat of a specialist offensive rebounder, as he has always performed well in that category. He clearly has a nose for the ball on the offensive glass and a knack for being in the right place at the right time as he uses his impressive vertical leap and long arms to keep the ball alive.
He isn’t just an offensive player either. He was named the CBA Defensive Player of The Year in 2009, which means that Crocs’ coach Trevor Gleeson will have some additional grunt on D to throw at opposition teams this season.
On paper Freeman looks to be just what the Crocs need. A talented forward who can score, rebound and defend and isn’t afraid to play in the paint.
His height could however his shortcoming, if you’ll pardon the pun. The Crocs list him at 200cm but he has also been listed previously at just 198cm or six-foot-five in the old scale (Pacific shrinkage anyone?) on other websites. Yes, he’s an athlete, but even with uber-hops that could put him at a disadvantage in the power forward position in the NBL.
If he plays predominantly at the three-spot, as appears most likely, he should be able to use his quicks to get past defenders who get in his face and go to the basket. Expect defenders to sag off instead and dare him to shoot from the perimeter, as nothing in his stats indicates that he has a consistent three-ball in his arsenal. Whether he can then still work his way to the hoop remains to be seen.
What is certain is that this season fans will likely see more games played above the rim, with players like Freeman and Bennett Davison (Gold Coast) running the lanes.
The Crocs were always on a hiding to nothing once the decision was made to release Williams. To their credit however they have found a genuinely exciting proposition as a replacement in Freeman.
