When you look at all that has transpired for the St. John’s Edge the last couple of months and consider the tumult of the second half of their season, you might find it surprising the Edge are in the position they are today, still having a shot at first place in the Central Division of the National Basketball League of Canada.
St. John’s remained in contention for top spot despite a middling record of late, in part because nobody in the division has been dominant.
Mind you, the Edge’s first-place hopes will disappear if the Sudbury Five beat the K-W Titans in Sudbury Ont., tonight. But however their playoffs set up, and even if they do become the division’s top seed, you have to suspect the Edge will simply be glad to move on the next stage.
It’s a chance at a fresh start — or at least a fresh restart — after what was often a dizzying regular season.
Consider this:
- St. John’s dressed two dozen different players — or two rosters worth — for games in 2018-19. No other team in the league has used more. And the majority of the changeover, which mostly involved forwards, came in the second half of the schedule. The Edge’s current 11-man active roster includes six players who weren’t here at the start of the season, five of whom didn’t play their first game with St. John’s until last month.
- Among players who have appeared in at least half of St. John’s contests this season, the leaders in rebounds per game, assists per game and accuracy in three-point accuracy are, respectively, Obinna Oleka, Maurice Jones and Diego Kapelan, none of whom are still with the team. Oleka and Kapelan left late in the schedule for other leagues, while Jones was traded away in a mid-season deal that brought Russell Byrd to St. John’s.
- After going 12-8 through their first 20 games (11-3 after losing five of their first six), the Edge were 9-11 in their second 20. That’s not a huge discrepancy, but what is telling was overall scoring. In the first half of the season, St. John’s was plus-83 when it came to points for and against. In the second half, they were minus-41. That’s a swing of more than six points per contest.
- While St. John’s played the last of its 40 regular-season games Sunday at Mile One Centre, the rest of the league won’t clew up until this coming weekend. The Edge should be glad for the week off after a compressed second-half schedule. St. John’s played its first 20 games in a 74-day span. It played its last 20 within 53 days. In other words, the Edge had three fewer weeks in which to play the same number of games.
- And then there were the two biggest happenings of the second-half of the season: the thumb injury and resulting ligament surgery that sidelined reigning NBL Canada MVP Carl English for the last 18 games of the schedule, and last week’s announcement that, as phrased on the league’s official transactions section, “The St. John's Edge have parted ways with head coach Doug Plumb, effective March 18, 2019.”
The team is now in the hands of Steve Marcus, who got his first win as an NBLC head coach Sunday, a result that clinched a playoff spot for the Edge.
But while Plumb is gone, there is hope English might be back for the post-season.
The cast came off his left hand last week and, while the 38-year-old guard has not part of full practices with his teammates, he has been working out alongside them. The repaired thumb will be evaluated by doctors later this week, and those findings will help determine how the Edge will proceed with regard to English’s roster status.
They could use their open roster spot and reactivate him, with the plan to have him participate in the playoffs from the get-go. They could reactivate English even if he’s not deemed ready to play yet, with hopes of his being available later in the post-season. Or they could keep him on the injury list and fill the roster spot with a so-called “injury designate.”
Whatever the case, the decision has to be made before the Edge begin the playoffs.
That date for St. John’s post-season start-up won’t be known until it finds out its first-round opponent.
If Sudbury wins tonight, then the Edge know they will face the defending champion London Lightning in the first round, although which team will have home-court advantage in such a series wouldn’t be determined until London, which has two games left, finishes its schedule this coming weekend.
If the Five lose to the Titans tonight, St. John’s will gain home-court advantage in the first-round, but will have to wait until the weekend to find out if it will finish first or second in division and who it will be up against to open the playoffs.
Twitter: @telybrendan
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