Cam Oliver is in Brian Goorjian's doghouse and looks set to stay there but what Jaylen Adams' 41 points only served to emphasise for the Sydney Kings coach is that he needs a back court running partner.
The fact that Goorjian turned to development player centre Jason Spurgin in the second half on Monday night, rather than go back to Oliver, said it all about what he feels his gun import big man is delivering.
The first half numbers spoke for themselves with Oliver playing 10 minutes without scoring, missing all four of his shots and having two turnovers. The Kings were outscored by 14 points with him out there.
That was after Oliver played just 15 minutes on Christmas night where he had just four points with Sydney again outscored, by 11 by the Illawarra Hawks, with him out there.
Oliver did not play at all in the second half of the 15-point loss at home to Adelaide and his role looks set to be diminished with how Goorjian is feeling, even with a hamstring injury likely to sideline rookie powerhouse Keli Leaulepe.
"I couldn’t wait any more once we were 20 down and that's what I meant about D-Day, if it wasn’t happening then it was time to move and obviously I'm just not pressing the right buttons," Goorjian said.
"I think he's a much better basketball player than what's going on right now but so many things took place that you say wow, and then the plus-minus was just going in such a bad direction every time we go with him."
Former MVP Adams was again brilliant for the Kings with a career-best 41 points, but what it showed again to Goorjian is how badly he needs a high-quality back court partner.
It is believed the Kings are on the verge of adding a new import guard but with just nine games of the season remaining, it has to happen quick.
"I want to take Jaylen off the ball, I want to get him off the ball and I have no cure for that," Goorjian said.
"I thought Jaylen scored the ball in a big way tonight because really we were 20 down at the end of the first quarter so it was just caution to the wind, and forget offence and just pick the ball and let's play off him.
"To win big, he's going to have to get off the ball some and we're going to have to have another guy carry it and protect him, and then there'll be periods of time when he has it.
"That guy has been missing for the whole year and it was missing when we assembled the team, and now you have the Cam situation on top of it on steroids."
