Whilst you're talking about pie in the sky tweets, you should perhaps include Kyrie Irving's tweet to Bogut about giving the Boomers the one-two punch in London.

only exciting if you can get a season out of them, if you spend all that cash and only get 4-5 games, was it really worth it especially with the disruption to your team

I doubt Melbourne are paying a season worth at once. More likely to be a monthly thing, as happens with most imports AFAIK.

Fans (and even local players) will mostly talk about season-long salaries but if you listen to clubs/GMs talk about imports, they will usually be quoting monthly figures.

I agree Isaac. Agents tend to advertise their (international) players on a per month basis. Locals tend to be signed to yearly deals given their higher job security.

Mystro, the way I look at it, even if you DON'T get value for money because they only play a handful of games, its worth finding out isn't it? I'd love to see Bogut play in the NBL for any team. It'd be awesome to see him live and much closer than you'd ever be likely to in the NBA.

Wes Matthews would be good to see as well - he would put up some serious numbers in the NBL!

If bogut and mills only play a handful of games it will still be a great thing for the NBL.

Alot of people will go to games purely because of bogut and mills playing but surely a percentage of these people will return after they leave because they liked what they saw!

Beantown, a handful of games would be good to compare where some guys are at compared to the Nba guys, apart from that I think the Nbl is a good strong competitive league anyway.

One of the best things that could ever happen for the NBL would be to have some NBA guys play and play well but not dominate, to show the basketball cynics that this league is pretty good. That would win some of the NBA-only fans over.

If Mills absolutely tears the league up with ease (which I dont think will happen but at least we should find out) and then goes back to playing 12mpg for Portland, those fans will continue to disrespect the NBL and little will have been gained long term.

I saw a snippet advertising a Mills interview on ABC24's 'Contact Sport' tonight, where the interviewer's final question was to the effect:

'So how many points per game do expect to be putting up in the NBL?'

Mills was reasonably circumspect saying something like:

'I don't know, I've never played in the NBL before' (although it looked like he was thinking about saying something less modest).

Bogut is iching to play Wednesday.
Bendat's insurance should cover that.

I can't see Mills doing much more than Ervin.

No, but that's quite a bit, Ervin was one of the best players in the competition. I think Mills will be a slightly better (and quicker) version of Bruton in his first year in Wollongong.

As for Bogut, he will dominate, I wouldnt be surprised if he averaged over 30p and 15-20r. The Wildcat shooters should be practising because theyll get plenty of looks if the Bogey Man comes to town!

The problem is Paul they don't have too many shooters

That's true, that's why I said they should be practising!!

Paul, last time I saw Bogut play the Tallblacks, his numbers weren't anything like 30/15-20 from memory (I tried to find a box score but failed) and as the Breakers are pretty much the same team plus CJ and 2 Imports (1 decent and one untested) what ever team he plays for will be playing against much the same team minus Penney. So I'm at a loss as to why people think he is going to absolutely dominate the league for scoring when Penney who is a great scorer averaged just over 20 a game? I'm sure he'll have a few big scoring games against some weaker opposition but to say he is going to average 10 points more than Penney and Ervin per game I find a bit amusing.

about the same, a couple less or a couple more would be believable but 10 is wee stretch. If I'm wrong I'll gladly apologize but in a 40 minute game I don't think I'll have to ;)

Memory tells me that the last time Bogut played NZ was in 2006? He is a completely different player now. He is probably the third best centre in the NBA with strength, athleticism and versatility on a 7 foot frame. I love and respect the level of the NBL as much as almost anyone, but if Bogut isnt a dominant force I'd be very surprised.

Penney is a superstar, no question, but the league is filled with very good players at the 1,2 and 3 who could compete on the world stage, making his job in the NBL tough. We have some good 4/5s too, but few genuine 5s who can match Bogut’s overall package. Most NBA teams struggle to negate him, so 30 and 15 in the NBL isnt really that much of a stretch.

My guess. He'll be a 20 and 12rebs and 4ast man. Guys will double down forcing the ball out.

I can't argue with that Paul, well said.

I'm picking around what Flinders80 has estimated.

Let's just hope he plays, would be great! I would estimate 27p, 15r, 5a and 3b. I think he would be like Shaq was in his prime, though obviously with a different type of game.

One thing that could affect his numbers if at Perth is they wouldnt run everything through him, they would run their normal stuff so they arent completely dependent on him and then the lockout ends and he is gone.

Teams like the Breakers have strong smaller guys that can shoot the 3 or mid range J and will try to create mismatches on him defensively. Offensively he will cause some teams big problems but defensively he would be used to guarding NBA sized Centres not so much our PF's playing Centre so a few guys may have a better run against him.
I hope we get a chance to see Julian Khazzouh Vs Bogut so we can see where Khazzouh is at, as he was fairly dominant last season.