Do you factor in the coaches?
Sydney looked the best, and Drewie has coached them into the ground.
With everyone healthy, MU should a force to be reckoned with, especially now with Ware. But again, DD has failed to maximise their potential.

@Dazz - I guess that adds a whole new element to the discussion. If the Kings had a more experienced coach and didn't run the shuffle - where would they be right now?

I should add also that I'm talking about current rosters without injuries - excluding departed players ie Beal, Johnson, Blake.

This year they all are.

I originally thought Perth also, but its hard to determine if I'm be objective or not lol
Taking off my Cats goggles though, I think United could have the biggest potential.

Personally, I reckon its United.

Ware, Goulding and Moore would have been the best scoring backcourt hands down. Majok and Boone are as good as any defensive/rebounding center tandem this season and offensively well complimented by Andersen, Wesley, Barlow and Blanchfield. Unsurprisingly, they are probably the most expensive unit in the NBL, owned by the league boss who is yet to reveal how much he paid them...

But then again, what is "potential"?
If all the Cats played the equivalent of their best game of the year, that would be one awesome team.
But to some extent the same is true of most teams, and besides the problem with a few of these guys is inconsistency, so saying "potential" is wishful thinking.

With coaching, depth, D, chemistry, weapons the criteria. Runaway winners 36ers. Distant 2nd Hawks.
Every team is so reliant on the three to be the difference.
Melbourne has the most potential, so many weapons offensively. But their main man after Ware is Goulding who symbolises every teams path to success. He is so erratic (4/13 last night) and by their very nature the shots they take are always high risk and usually low %. Take last nights game as an example Sydney guards go 7/33. If they hit just 5 of those 26 shots Sydney win the game.
You have to back up that brilliance with "bread and butter". The real hero for Melbourne last night, Anderson's ridiculous (some outrageous shots) efforts aside was Josh Boone's 16 rebounds and 12 points.
How many teams have got Boone's, Hodson's, Pledger's, Jawai's, Ogilvy's, Wesley's to allow the brilliant types, Ware, Randal, Goulding, Dillard, Penney, Cotton, Craig to showcase their talents without hurting their teams.
Melbourne look like they have more pieces to the puzzle than most, but like all sport it doesn't always work out. Look at what happened to United in 2nd quarter last night.

If united actually found a way to get Ware and Goulding catch and shoot open threes it would be them, however their best option on offence is almost a Ware pull up from the other side of the country, not a good formula for "sustained" success.

If Perth move the ball like they did vs Brisbane and generate good looks their potential soars, but they just haven't shown enough consistency anywhere this season.

36ers are having a bad run, if they drop another one on the approach to the finals who knows where their heads will be at. Obviously they have played at the highest level the longest but doubt is a sportsmen's worst enemy.

Hawks live by their shooting, bevo's let it fly offence is great when people are hitting shots, not so great when rotnei (how was he mvp over ennis?) is building a house with step back threes.

Sydney is cooked. Literally, don;t those post game songs look stupid now? It really should have stayed in the locker room.

NZ is a scary proposition, a bit like Perth they have shown flashes of what they can do, without ever doing enough of it. The game vs Perth where they copied a classic dockers tactic, almost snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Cairns has not found a way to use Nate as well as Perth did, Travis Trice in his second year as a pro will be something to behold though.

Bullets....

Don't think the flow offence is very good for Nate who has a limited set of offensive options.
Also heard fearne and Trice had a verbal stoush during the game tonight.

Skull - i'm about 3m away from the bench, there was no stoush.

36ers are having a bad run, if they drop another one on the approach to the finals who knows where their heads will be at. Obviously they have played at the highest level the longest but doubt is a sportsmen's worst enemy.

I think at this point of the season we've seen what every team's potential is, with the possible exception of Cairns with Mitchell fully-integrated into the line-up.

Adelaide, Illawarra and Melbourne are the teams that have looked the most dangerous at their best, while Perth is always a chance because of their D and rebounding. The same would be true of NZ if they ever stop turning the ball over.