Id say the new crop is going to be better. Wilbekin and Gladness wouldve been good to see again, but besides that all were pretty much replaceable...

Side note very curious to know what the hold off on Ebe is, I heard about this weeks and weeks ago. Perhaps they are after someone better after all. But I dont want to digress from this thread, interesting topic!

Everyone keeps saying Ere is coming to Sixers despite nothing yet announced. Any chance it's somebody else?

The new crop always looks better before the season starts. You're comparing actual footage against a highlights package.
There's no new imports that I'm massively excited about yet. So I'm going to back in last year's group.
There weren't any of the usual major potato imports last year. Carson wasn't a good fit, but had talent. Wilbekin was a jet, Childress, Ibekwe, Conklin and Beal were all quality, who are staying, Wilson had a good year, Ervin was a proven import, McRae was pretty successful, Gladness was very good at what he was recruited for, Daniels was trying to follow Ennis, so was doomed to fail, but as far as an import goes, he played well enough.
Perry and Dennis were a bit below the level and Carson's issues were the only real negatives from that crop (Montreal didn't last long either, but we got Motum for him). Last year was a good group.

There is some nice imports there, but not too impressed with Jett or the prospect of the Adelaide imports.

Gained
Thornton
Lisch
Prather
Starks
Holt
Jackson
Ere
Jett

Lost
Wilbekin
McRae
Wilson
Gladness
Ervin
Daniels
Carson
Perry
Dennis

Think will be better than last year as think all will be better than Perry and Dennis.

GWB, have you read Jett's college resume? Player of the year in a solid conference (same school as Lisch and Conklin) and three-time all-defensive team. He can obviously play.

I followed St Louis as Rob Loe went there and Jett's numbers were generally very good. Cody Ellis had some horrible shooting nights as a Billiken and he was considered a decent pickup for the Hawks yet the guy who was probably St Louis best player isn't ?

Main question with Jett is his jumper and how he handles being a first year pro on a young team like Townsville.

Yep, the question is whether he fits the other players. Certainly he appears to fit Dennis' defensive approach.

Jett doesn't have a great stroke from the three, so will be easy to scout and take away his drives.Does that make sense, Anonymous?

Plenty of players have succeeded without a great jumper, the two best players in the NBL at the moment (and probably two of the greatest of all time) don't have a reliable jumper.

Not saying Jett is that good but he could be effective if the team system supports him. The lack of shooters could make that difficult though.

Jett will be fine in TSV along as he has some game. That team isn't expected to much of anything so its a actually a perfect fit for a first year pro like him to lead the team. Still so impressed with his name, wonder if there is a stat for that haha

Yes, he is untouchable in the name stakes in this league at the moment.

"That team isn't expected to much of anything so its a actually a perfect fit for a first year pro like him to lead the team."

That's a good point. A chance to make some mistakes and improve without expectations of leading a championship team etc.

I came into this with thoughts of yeah this year's crop are so much better than last year as with the exception of Gladness who legitimately excited me and I couldn't get to the stadium early enough to see him play in Perth those two times... He is a loss to the league...

But as a whole I feel the excitement around this year is the return of Ogilvy, Khazzouh, Penney, Goulding etc for the loss of Brock.

Jett looked a little out of shape but his blocking ability is something I hope doesn't go unnoticed this season.

I think last year's crop was a very good one and hard to beat and the fact that we had first and 2nd year imports stick around for another season speaks volumes.

I'm looking forward to seeing Prather but if I'm honest I think if Ennis comes available that we could get rid of Dolla for him... Providing that he's hit his jump shot in training and games

Jett looks like he has a bit of Ricky Grace about him. He can go left or right, fast and great at getting to the basket.

I wouldn't be getting rid of Jermaine Beal for Ennis, I would get rid of Prather for Ennis. Jermaine is great at what he does and has shown loyalty to the club. Prather looks good enough, but Ennis is a megastar in this league.

"Jett looks like he has a bit of Ricky Grace about him. He can go left or right, fast and great at getting to the basket."

Seriously. Grace never went right in his life. He was that good that even when you took away his left hand he just went by you lefter.

Beal is only a great player when he is active and agressive, if he is stagnant and taking bad shots then he is a liability, if his shot isn't dropping then he needs to find other ways to get involved in the game whether through penetration or finding an open man and sadly some games he chooses not to do that.

I think he is a highly successful foil for a better player but he is no main man... I'm yet to see Prather be a main man but I'm calling it how I see it and maybe I'm a little bitter that Dolla won club MVP when Knight and Martin were better than him last year

Yep, Grace went left or straight!