Handy to be able to take the safe option with Lisch and just slot in Blake to cover him!

Brisbane by 20.

Throw Cadee, Maric and JK onto that list also!

I wonder if Newley is playing with extra motivation tonight against a Lemanis led Brisbane team? I'm sure it's no secret that Newley felt unlucky or snubbed from the final Rio squad.

King"s quickness on defence deciding factor for me. Powell is automatic from 16-17 feet and gets it at will.
Brisbane really having to work hard to get a good shot off. Kings have easier scoring options. Brisbane will have to find ways to score more regularly to stay in it.

Live on SBS and FOX Sports 3

Yes- I'm saying on paper- this is the most stacked team in history of Nbl... Can anyone post a more stacked team? It's actually insane

Lisch is off with a calf injury I think.

Adam Gibson should not be a starter. His best days are well and truly gone.

Adam Gibson to me, is a now a state league player.

Brad Newley is a beast

Best I've seen Newley play. Brisbane doing the job on defines, it's just they can't score easily.

Kickert is a little bitch, just saying

Sydney then daylight.

Can we say that yet, or is it still too early?

Start making the rings. No one gonna get anywhere near this team

The cats defense lol

Sydney's D is as good as Perth's. Diff is, Sydney have a much, much better offense and loads more talented scorers. Sydney have talented scorers in every position. Sydney vs Perth will look a lot like Sydney vs Bris IMO and we saw how that worked out. Bris never looked a hope of winning and that was without Lisch even playing. If Bris get a Blake type or a Harris type it could change. But for now Sydney is a class above

Prather is Cats only hope but Newley and Whittington will stop him from dominating.

1986 36ers were stacked. The Bullets in that championship year also.

With this Sydney team, worth remembering that Khazzouh was considered a franchise player not long ago too.

I didn't expect Newley to be this good in the NBL. Thought he might've dropped away a bit in the last year or so, but he's doing very well.

Steve Blake in a single game has done more for the Sydney Kings than Michael Bryson in 5 games plus a pre-season. Dropping Bryson for Blake is already paying dividends.

As for the Kings, I think it's great that Sydney now has a great team. It is the best possible outcome for the league if Australia's most populous city has a successful team. It also means that filling Qudos Arena is a possibility in the future.

The Sydney Kings deserve to be title favorites right now; they're the best and most entertaining team in the league by a fair margin, and they are coached surprisingly well by Gaze and Co.

Melbourne have some of the talent, but none of the cohesion and coaching. Perth have the defense, and little else. Sydney is the complete package. I am an Adelaide 36er fan through and through, but the Sydney Kings are the best team in the competition hands down.

Call it now: They're a championship team. And I don't care how much money they threw at the issue to make that happen, I say bloody good on them. This is great for the league.

I expected Newley to have a serious impact, on the basis that he's been playing in Spain for the last few years and everyone who returns from Spain does so. Penney, Goulding, Lisch being three recent examples. All of those guys put up only modest numbers in Spain.

Where they've excelled is Whittington. He was the X Factor in my mind because you never know with imports. He's turned out to be great.

Past experience shows that having a successful team in Sydney really doesn't mean a whole lot in the bigger picture as far as the league is concerned.

Good on Sydney for putting together a great roster. My hope is that it doesn't take us back to the bad old days of teams spending beyond their means trying to keep up with the Joneses.

"All of those guys put up only modest numbers in Spain."

Pretty much everyone in the ACB puts up modest numbers, it's the nature of how that league is played. Newley is having an impact, just as he did for Gran Canaria, because he's a bloody good player!

I think before we start engraving their trophy, lets see how the Kings go against a full strength Wildcats in Perth twice. The way they blew out the game versus the Breakers in NZ was ominous though. If they blow Wildcats out in Perth, I'll have to agree with lawsy its Kings then daylight.

The signs are there though. IMHO offensively, the Kings played pretty mediocre the last two games and got carried at times by Newley. Their defense hands down one of the best in the league. No Lisch today but players like Maric came up with crucial stops and Blake's defense while not at Lisch's level was not shabby either, taking into account its his debut.

Watching him play, chances are he's going to be at or close to Lisch level once he settles down. His veteran NBA instincts were evident though, his passes in the first quarter showed incredible vision just a pity the shots didn't go down. It was ridiculous the amount of easy shots the Kings missed from range.

"As for the Kings, I think it's great that Sydney now has a great team. It is the best possible outcome for the league if Australia's most populous city has a successful team."

I don't think you have been following the NBL for very long. Sydney won 3 championships in a row and that didn't change the poor crowds compared to their population. People in Sydney just don't care that much for NBL. They have also had various X NBA players and still no huge crowd change.

Is it time to lock Sydney in for the flag?

Well there has been a fairly reasonable increase in crowds. Today they got 6'500.

I'd like to see us play Perth and (to a lesser degree Melbourne) before I get too carried away. When Newley is on the bench we really turn one-dimensional on offense with everything turning into 3s, and rely on our D to get us easy baskets (which has worked so far). But yeah, it's encouraging right now.

Craig was a beast tonight, but they really need something to come out of their backcourt. Beal tried to turn it on late, but I don't know if he even attempted a shot in the first half.

I think we can lock in Sydney for serious championship contenders, maybe even favourites. The whole "Sydney then daylight" things is a bit premature. They have had wins against a struggling Carins, Illawarra and NZ and gone 1-1 with Brisbane.

Lets see how they are after round 6 - 8 where they play Brib, Melb and Perth all away. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't a great team but way too early to be saying they are miles ahead of the pack.

Lots of butthurt Sydney haters - boo hoo.

I've watched every Melbourne game, and I've watched (at least) bits and pieces of every Perth game, and I'm telling you, neither Melbourne or Perth will even get close to Sydney unless one or more of the following happens:

For Melbourne:

- Replace their coach (Who knows)
- David Andersen becomes the Andersen we saw in Rio (Who knows)
- Cedric Jackson dominates the comp like he did 3 or 4 years ago (Not likely)

For Perth:
- JJ becomes an absolute beast- challenging Prather for Perth's no.1 man level. (Possible).

If none of those things happen, ie: If Perth and Melbourne keep playing like they have so far, then Sydney will dispense of Perth and Melbourne just like they have dispensed of everybody else.

Paul re: Newley, Lisch, Goulding and Penney all put up modest numbers *by the standards of the Spanish league* as Newley did. Well Penney's were probably decent but certainly Goulding and Lisch played on the same team, and averaged 9.7ppg and 6.7ppg where as the leading scorer on their team averaged 13.8ppg.

Hmmm, Illawarra (4 pt losers), Brisbane (4 pt winners, 9 pt losers) and New Zealand (9 pt losers) have all gotten close to Sydney. It seems a bit premature to assume teams like Perth or Melbourne "will even get close to Sydney".

Every year, teams go on winning streaks in the NBL and are immediately proclaimed as unbeatable for the Championship. At different points last year, Melbourne were unbackable favourites; then Perth won a few in sytyle and were proclaimed unbeatable; then Illawarra were untouchable for a few games and were guaranteed the John Raschke Trophy; then NZ came along and raced intot he GF series with a wet sail. But Perth was teh team that won it all.

Form in October doesn't win finals in March. There are a lot of games, injuries, possible overseas offers and scouting reports between now and then.

Yes, but those of us who were paying close attention to Melbourne United early last season knew that the favouritism was not warranted.

Melbourne were winning against weak or undermanned teams using one game style, one that is suspect in finals basketball.

As I keep saying, Sydney are the only team who don't actually appear to have a weakness. Where as I would not have said that about Melbourne when they were 9-0 last season. In fact, I remember posting here to that effect, and noting how they had been playing undermanned teams at home.

There could yet be personnel changes. Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane in particular, have talent and/or systems that with some tweaks and perhaps one player change, could see them challenge Sydney.

I think LV's getting a little too excited so far look how good Melb looked at the start of last season and fell apart late. In saying that the Kings certainly look the best so far but it's early coaching staffs will start to find weaknesses in them and then set about exploiting them.

Steve Blake was very impressive in his debut the shot wasn't dropping but you could see he was a step above NBL level with his passing and court vision and it's almost scary how good this team will be once Lisch gets back.

I'm very surprised Blake isn't still in the NBA though at 36 I was expecting to see obvious decline but he looked surprisingly spry and agile enough and taking into account his decent numbers in the NBA last season I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a call up to the NBA this season at some point.

Again, I'm talking purely about current NBL line ups.

For example: Sydney could lose Blake to the NBA and replace him with another Bryson. If that happens, they're no longer streets ahead.

I've seen a lot of Melbourne and Perth, and watched a lot of

watched a lot of* games this season. It's fairly clear that Sydney have easily been the best team. And actually having Lisch, Cadee and Blake all playing on the same night will only make them better than they already have been.

Also, they have smart guys who are veterans that read the game well and can create on the fly. So, teams figuring out Gaze's offensive schemes won't go a long way towards shutting them down.

Oh, and of course there's the small issue of needing to score against the Kings B at the other end.

D*

Like I said earlier, lets have this conversation after round 8 when they have played more teams in the top 4. Beating up on a bunch of out of form teams outside the top 4 doesn't make it "Sydney then daylight". Lets not forget United went 9-0 to start the season last year.

"Paul re: Newley, Lisch, Goulding and Penney all put up modest numbers *by the standards of the Spanish league* as Newley did."

Have you followed the Spanish league much to understand it or is this another one that comes from a google search and your 20 years playing and reffing local basketball?

You can't lump those four players' performances in the ACB together because they were so different, and what their teams wanted from them was so different.

Penney was the sixth leading scorer in the comp in his only full season. Newley was a key role player for a good team who had some big nights and others where he just did his job.

Goulding had some big scoring stretches and some cold stretches and was used accordingly, while Lisch was a set-the-table point guard alongside Pedro Llompart, with neither of them required to be scorers.

Loving watching the Kings play. They push the limits defensively and then push the hell out of the ball in transition, but are smart enough to know when to execute. They've certainly set the standard so far, but a long way to go yet.

Sydney still have Kazzouh to come back.

We have a new beast in the NBL

AngusH - is the H for hopeless?

*yawn*

Sorry Paul, I have no idea what your point is, in relation to my original comments? What are you going on about Google searching? What?

My point is that the Spanish league is superior to the NBL, and *generally, most of the time* returning players will play a more significant role here and put up better numbers than they did there.

Your comments re Those players support my point.

Yeah, it's unusual for him to make snide remarks whilst replying to comments that were never made, though.

Shouldn't be too harsh- perhaps he's had a few quite bevies on cup eve eve. (Tuesday is Melbourne cup holiday here in Vic)

have a look at all the predictions prior to season start. Everyone had the Kings well down the list with Melb the hot favourite.

I think the ability of Gaze has been under estimated!

"Sorry Paul, I have no idea what your point is"

I wasn't saying you were wrong, just adding the point that lots of high-quality players put up modest numbers in the ACB, as that's the way that league works (for some reason you decided to argue that rather obvious point).

For example, if you look at the ACB averages of those four guys over the past few years, they rank from Lisch (6ppg) to Goulding (9ppg) to Newley (10ppg) to Penney (13ppg). Here's some players who averaged in that range in the past two seasons:

Andres Nocioni, Juan Carlos Navarro, Gustavo Ayon, Isaac Fotu, Carlos Arroyo, Mirza Begic, Ante Tomic, Sergio Rodriguez, Facundo Campazzo, Nemanja Nedovic, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Sergio Llull, Felipe Reyes, Rudy Fernandez, Raul Neto and Marcelinho Huertas.

Those are some fairly big names in European and international basketball (not to mention Diamon Simpson, Stephen Holt and Nate Jawai ;-)).

I guess the point is players who can be genuine contributors for a good ACB team are usually very good players in the NBL, especially if they're better suited to the more open style of our league. I'm sure we can agree on that!

Absolutely. And I think Newley's game fits in the NBL too.

Yep, especially the way the Kings are playing. He's so good with his aggressive D and open court/broken plays, which is why I was shocked he didn't go to Rio.

Put him in Cairns team this year and he probably isn't as effective, but a perfect fit for Sydney.