Anonymous
Years ago
Young NBL Players
Just been having a think about which NBL team has the best young players.
For the purpose of the exercise I defined 'young' as 25 or under at the end of 2013 so born in 1988, 89, 90 etc.
I also didn't include development players, just contracted players in each teams 10 or 11.
I also didn't include imports.
Adelaide: BJ Anthony, Jason Cadee, Mitch Creek, Daniel Johnson, Brendan Teys.
Cairns: Shaun Bruce, Cam Gliddon, Clint Steindl, Mitch Young.
Melbourne: Chris Goulding, Owen Odigie, Nate Tomlinson.
New Zealand: Reuben Te Rangi, Corey Webster.
Perth: Drake U'U.
Sydney: Cody Ellis.
Townsville: Todd Blanchfield, Mirko Djeric, Scott Kenny, Mitch Norton.
Wollongong: Dom Cooks, Tyson Demos, Shane Harris Tunks.
Things I found interesting:
1. Despite having the largest number of young guys, Adelaide are sitting pretty in the top two. Saying that, Teys is the only one who isn't in his third or more season in the league.
2. Cairns having four young guys, two are rookies and two are second year guys, with Young the only one who hasn't started any games this season. May explain why they are not consistent as a team.
3. Perth and Sydney with one each. Do they prefer to let other teams develop the youngsters then take them with the lure of the big city?
I would have to say top three right now would be Adelaide, then Melbourne (just due to Goulding) then Cairns.
Anything that anyone else finds interesting about this?
(Apologies if I missed a player or two, NBL's player list for each team doesn't denote whether players are DP's or not so may have missed a couple).
