The Otago Nuggets have a useful bench.
Now they just need a starting five.
And they are not just the bitter words of a cynical scribe who had to sit through a winless season.
Nuggets coach Alf Arlidge is on record as saying the franchise needs to sign a couple of forwards, two imports and a guard.
And if the Nuggets want to be more competitive next season, it stands to reason they would have to be better than the current crop.
Not that that would be hard.
Unlike in some previous seasons, though, the Nuggets' bumbling performances were not matched by their off-court shenanigans.
No-one was suspended for drugs, no hotel rooms were trashed, there were no disputes over money and no-one walked out on the franchise partway through the season.
The Nuggets did not put a foot wrong from that perspective.
But then again they never wrong-footed an opponent, either.
Right until the very end there was a sense of ambivalence about the season.
The team seemed resigned to defeat and bowed out in its trademark unspectacular fashion - with a 114-83 drubbing by the Hawkes Bay Hawks in Dunedin on Saturday.
That miserable defeat completed a clean sweep.
The Nuggets lost all 18 games and joined the 2009 Taranaki Dynamos and the 1998 Northland Suns as the only teams in the history of the tournament to go through the season without recording a win.
Over the years there have been some dreadful Nuggets teams, and the franchise has won just nine of its past 90 games.
But the class of 2010 is the undisputed dunce.
Some allowances have to be made, though.
It is a moot point whether it was budget or philosophy which dictated terms.
But the Nuggets entered the season with a green and largely amateur playing roster, and there was a general acceptance within the franchise that it was going to be a rebuilding year.
Two or three wins would have been nice, but development was the main focus.
And after a year out of the league, just fielding a competitive team was a bonus.
And therein lies the problem.
The Nuggets were not competitive, and it is hard to imagine that the programme gained any traction.
The offence was about as potent as a 90-year-old and an empty bottle of Viagra, and the defence folded faster than a plastic chair under generation super-size-me.
The Nuggets scored an average of 73.5 points a game while coughing up 96.4 points at the other end - a difference of 22.9 points.
In football terms it would be like losing 4-0 each week.
What went wrong? Everything.
But losing American Antoine Tisby to a foot injury six games into the season certainly damaged the Nuggets' chances of being more competitive.
Without the 2.03m centre, the Nuggets had no inside presence or rebounding power.
A major illness but fatal when combined with an inability to drop the ball through the hoop.
Tisby's replacement, John Barber jun, was disappointing, to put it mildly.
The 1.98m forward looked out of position at centre but was forced to fill the hole with the Nuggets out of other options.
He was not as strong on the boards as the franchise would have hoped and he did not take the ball to the hoop and generate any offensive pressure.
That left fellow American Tyler Amaya carrying the bulk of the scoring responsibilities.
On a good night, Amaya could be very damaging.
Against the Wellington Saints he almost single-handedly caused a huge upset with 38 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
And he was good for 20-odd points most nights and finished the season strongly.
But on a healthier roster with better players around him, Amaya might not have made much impact on the league.
He looked like he went through the motions at times but played like a demon the night his girlfriend was in the crowd.
Thank heavens for the captain, Sam To'omata.
While not as talented as Amaya, he played with more heart.
To'omata started all 18 games for the Nuggets and got better in each one.
He was one of the few players prepared to lose some skin on the court and did not wave the white flag when his side was trailing by plenty.
But he has been quoted as saying he would love to play for the Southland Sharks if he got the opportunity.
The Nuggets can ill afford to lose players of his calibre.
Junior Tall Blacks Tom Rowe and Riki Buckrell took a giant step up this season and will be better for it in the years to come.
Lively guard James Ross is raw and indiscriminate on defence, but adds pace and enthusiasm whenever he is on court.
And Matt Trueman and Matt Gillan are useful role players.
But that is it.
The rest of the roster is very weak.
The Nuggets need to do a better job recruiting.
Plain and simple.
The Southland Sharks started from scratch this season and demonstrated what is possible.
They are still in play-off contention with eight wins from 16 games and their budget is not as huge as imagined.
The players they have signed are not world-beaters.
Their imports are in the useful, rather than impressive, bracket, as are the likes of Luke Martin, Gareth Dawson and Arthur Trousdell.
But what they have that the Nuggets do not is experience.
For this season to be considered anything other than an unmitigated failure, the Nuggets need to hold on to their young talent and put some experienced players around them next season.
