Moneyballer
Years ago
Was listening to that NBL podcast and Fraser Neill was talking about a marquee player rule. This season we have Ennis as our college star and he has been great and then we've had Sam Young and he hasn't really lived up to the hype IMO. And when we get these players we need to find a way to keep them longterm. Post your thoughts.
Young is averaging 21.3ppg at 49.5%. What more do you expect from him.
Moneyballer
Years ago
Take it easy anon. No doubt he is playing good. But people were calling him "the best player to step foot on an Aussie court". In my opinion I think Ennis is the better player.
No one said that. People were saying he is one of the highest profile players.
Wildcat Fan
Years ago
Young has put up good numbers and is finally helping Sydney win games, but I dont think his impact on the league has been as good as it should have been. Hes not really captivating the league as well as Ennis has.
I would take an up and coming NBA hopeful/draftee over a washed up former star for sure. Though Young isnt exactly washed up either, the argument is valid.
Max Power
Years ago
I feel the league needs some guys who the common basketball fan has heard of. Jonny Flynn bought that last year, and look at the success of Del Piero in the A League. This league needs either athletic imports who can sky and entertain the crowd (Ennis) or be someone the basketball community has heard of (Flynn).
Sam Young was never a household NBA name, with so many NBA fans who show little interest in the NBL we need something to draw those fans to games and TV. Even the washed up NBA guys draw fans who want autographs, pics ect, surely considering so many NBL imports have played to almost 40 a washed up NBA player can be successful here.
Wilson Sting
Years ago
Young isn't washed up but he was hardly an nba star. I would love to see a washed up nba star like Tracey mcgrady or Allen iverson in the nbl.
Watching the D-League all star game, am thinking some of these guys would be worth trying to get to the NBL.
Someone like Pierre Jackson would be worth a marquee spot i reckon, is exciting, athletic, likely score around 30ppg and given he is on D-League cash at the moment something like 200-250k may look attractive to him, the difficulty with someone like him is many may want to stay in the Dleague and under the nose of the NBA scouts/GMs, etc, but yea i reckon thats the type of player we should also be looking at aswell, there are quite a few legit fringe NBAers who i think would do really well, DJ Kennedy who was part of the championship team last season, would be someone id also target.
could also look at Seth Curry if you want some legit NBA name recognition, with his bro and dads nba careers, plus he is also doing really well in the d-league and has a strong college career at Duke.
as cool as it would be to get a McGrady type out here, which i doubt would be possible anyway as we wont have the big $$$, id rather go for the hungry young guys dominating college/dleague/various other good leagues around the world, who would be excited to earn $250k and play hard to prove themselves at the next level, not view it as chump change like a McGrady type may as it is very small compared to the salary they were used to.
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