A lot of teams already have a third import in the guise of a "naturalised" player. Certainly the quality this year of the four imports was inferior to Ballinger

We need to develop Australians.
Only 6 in toatal played in the NBL Final and Cj was born in the US.Fearne is wrong on this one.
He is New Zealande ras well.

I think two is sufficient.

It doesn't look like there's a restriction of having to play one under aged player in 10players anymore
which helps a lot in a professional league.
although we lost a few good players n brought in Daly or so.

** Molitor ** I meant to say. My mistake..

(Got Daly on the brain lately)

Fearne cant even keep the 2 he had last season

far out, let's keep it to 2 good quality ones- imagine the 6ers with 3 $hit imports!!!

the other thing is that if a 3rd import is bought in to each team, that will kill our ozzie talent.

2 imports is plenty

maybe 2 imports and an under 24 import just a thoght

2 Imports is plenty enough.

2 Imports is enough, we are already whinging about losing players to AFL, if we have more roster spots available we may be able to keep the Henderson's and Tippett's in the game.

2 imports but raise the salary cap would be much better than 3 imports.

But we dont want teams going bankrupt again do we.

Thats a stupid suggestion Aaron, if anything the NBL should allow teams that can afford it to recruit just 1 import outside of the cap.

It's not like there aren't enough naturalised Americans in the league already, essentially there could be times when it's 5on5 and all players were born in America in the Aussie league.

Should be no imports - Aussies and Kiwis only - how are juniors supposed to succeed when clubs keep taking reject Americans who only care about ballhogging and holidaying (not including Cairns' 2011 duo Ubaka and Dorsey)

a lot more needs to be done to fast track the development of our kids.

its terrible that players with promise like daly have to wait til they are well into their 20's to get even a little bit of gametime.

rather than a quickfix like a 3rd import we need to find a way to better develop these kids. what would be any suggestions?? do we have an ais program??

how is the talent in asia/ pacific islands??? can we do something there?? encourage the growth of the sport and talented kids to come play here like they do with afl?? can we target a 3rd import from a particular country ie, japan/ china, can our league be considered better than theirs and get some of their talent here??

some of these things may not be possible but we need to really do something if we want this sport to move forwards.

Phil, I genuinely believe there needs to be an AIS team for the best Aussie players under 23/24 playing in the league and once they are of age they can be recruited by other teams.

There are not players on the Pacific Islands who could play NBL. I there are a number of players who graduate from the AIS and would be snapped up by NBL clubs but choose college instead. A large number of these never make it onto NBL lists after college. That is the data we need - is it an advantage to go to college if there is already an NBL offer?

If you bozo's read the article Fearne says in 2012/2013 to look at 3 imports and only if a Bris and N'Castle team join....

I think it was pretty well accepted that in the younger years of the NBL the quality of imports helped improve the quality of Australia players.

Seems to be to some very clever points about developing Aussie talent been made.

But I think you need to look at the quality of the product the NBL is at the moment, I think three imports could improve that.

An AIS team for the kids sounds like a brilliant idea to me.

(Insert Marty Clarke joke here: )

ineedmore, very good point. All the economic/analytical study is that the greater the competition for spots, the greater the native players become (or better they need to be, obviously).

This has been applied to the major European soccer leagues, all that have a high contigent of foreign players. (People will argue that the English national team underachieve, but actually based on population and other factors it can be argued that they overachieve).

Watching that 1980s 36ers documentary really demonstrated, IMO, the impact that some good imports can have on the competition. At times the Sixers were operating with 3 imports + 1 naturalised player, IIRC.

ineedmore, very good point. All the economic/analytical study is that the greater the competition for spots, the greater the native players become (or better they need to be, obviously).

This has been applied to the major European soccer leagues, all that have a high contigent of foreign players. (People will argue that the English national team underachieve, but actually based on population and other factors it can be argued that they overachieve).

Watching that 1980s 36ers documentary really demonstrated, IMO, the impact that some good imports can have on the competition. At times the Sixers were operating with 3 imports + 1 naturalised player, IIRC.

This is a great topic but I believe it should stay at 2 imports with each club able to have one player signed out of the cap. This player can be a Aussie or import. It would imporve our leagues standard and also help promote the league when you get a genuiune superstar sign. Imagine if there was a lock out in the NBA and teams could compete with Europe to sign a player of real NBA talent not just a bench rider.

The overwhelming majority of European teams cant compete with the big teams over there for big name signings, so I doubt any team here can.

raising the level of competition would indeed help the progression of other players in the system. what it doesnt help is the players outside of the system on the fringes and the young up and coming guys.

afl has academys, ais, young players playing in their yr group or able to step up ie wafl sanfl, rookie spots etc.

our problem is you only get 10 onto a team and realistically only 7 or so get real minutes. these are usually the long time proven performers. god help you if you are a young kid trying to learn your craft and get better. look at afl players like cassisi, dane swan,mark jamar and nathan bock. if they had the same treatment in afl as nbl players got they never would have made it.

I think two is more than enough. Fact is that over the last 10 years or so, some teams have gone without an import and some have gone with just 1, with both options experiencing varied success.

I think that we need to keep options for both young up and coming players but also those Aussies on the periphery that just need a chance or even a second crack. Look at what such an opportunity did for Daniel Dillon this past season. And is was great to see a discarded player such as Graeme Dann reinvigorate his career at Sydney.

We also need to keep in mind NBL teams depth charts are far better than what they were 5 years ago. Most teams could easily go 9 if not 10 deep now. I would argue with the 40min scheduled, they probably don't need to barring injury.

Also, keep in mind the talent that is likley to head back to Australia over the coming 3 years from Division I college hoops. The following 6 players graduated this past season and are looking to hopefully secure their first professional gigs:

Anatoly Bose / G / Nicholls State / Sydney, NSW
Ben Dowdell / Sr / F / Santa Clara / North Nowra, NSW / AIS
Brad Kelleher / Sr / G / Hofstra / Hallam, VIC
Ben Louis / Sr / G / James Madison / Dandenong, VIC / AIS
Chris Clausen / Sr / G / North Dakota / Adelaide, SA
Graeme Radford / Sr / C / Stetson / Moe, VIC

Bose is likely to head to Europe as he has a Euro passport (born in Kazahkstan) but grew up in Sydney. If I were the Kings I would be pushing hard for his signature in any case...

Dowdell would be a great pickup to provide solid minutes as a role player off the bench. Maybe Adelaide to get him on board to play alongside his brother Jeff or Sydney can look at him as another (relatively) local player?

Kelleher and Lewis are worth a look at by teams. Kelleher got genuine starter minutes this past season at Hofstra. Clausen and Radford may be stretching it a bit at NBL level...

The following year, these are the Aussies at this point expecting to graduate from Division I schools:

Akinpetide, Femi / F / Sacred Heart / Northeast
Baldwin, Illiwa / C / Nevada / Western Athletic
Duinker, Josh / F / Richmond / Atlantic 10
Iliadis, Trian / G / Old Dominion / Colonial Athletic
Massey, Matt / C / Southern Utah / Summit League
Steindl, Clint / G / Saint Mary's / West Coast
Tomlinson, Nate / G / Colorado / Big 12
Witt, Cameron / F / Valparaiso / Horizon League

Steindl and Tomlinson are class acts and have already been starters at solid Division I schools. They would be viewed as potential starters in the NBL and could contribute in some shape and form immediately. Iliadis has been getting genuine backup minutes on a very good NCAA tournament team, whilst Massey and maybe even Duinker are worth a look at for NBL level given their size and scoring ability.

And don't forget guys like Dellavedova, Young, Page, Motum and Brokehoff for example will be looking at returning just 1 year later...there is some serious talent to come back at some point in time.

Maybe David Andersen will come back and play a season or two in the NBL before finally retiring? Matt Nielsen may do the same too.