The honestly thought Cotton would be naturalised tbh covid may have had a role. The wildcats wanted him as an import to not take that risk of a sem or mu picking him up or even Brisbane

The honestly thought Cotton would be naturalised tbh covid may have had a role.

"If Perth had nominated John Mooney as a next star he'd have to pass on each club that had a next star spot"

Yep. We needed another next stars thread

"If Perth had nominated John Mooney as a next star he'd have to pass on each club that had a next star spot"

No, that simply isn't how it works.

Whether we agree with the concept, the idea behind "Next Star" is to promote the League. It's not just an excuse to get another player.
ie: There must be some basis for considering the player a future NBA star.

The criteria was that they be eligible for the NEXT NBA draft. It has never been expressly stated, but I think is reasonable to suspect that the league applies some quality control. eg they make sure the player is actually a reasonable prospect, and clubs can't simply sign any kid they like.

The criteria was expanded to include "Stashed" NBA draftees. Whilst it stunk that Sydney was again the First team to get an advantage, it is within the aims of the program. ie: They are a future NBA star.

Players who went in the draft but were not drafted are not eligible, for the obvious reason. (The League might in future allow a genuine 19yr old prospect who nominated a year too early)???
So no, Mooney was not eligible.
Neither was, say, Wani Swaka, because even though he might have been technically eligible for the Draft, his chances were zip. The League knocked back another young Aussie that had a couple of clubs interested.

Giddey was highly rated and considered a genuine chance, hence why he qualifies.

^Good Point, but I don't know how highly rated he was beforehand??
It may also have been a slight concession to SEM.

I suppose the other point may be, that when a Young American star makes the call to turn pro immediately, there is an assumption that he agents have positive indications.

It could also be somewhat of a gamble by the NBL.
For the NBL, the "dream" scenario is to take a lowly rated player and turn him into a Top Ten Draftee

What? Any delay in citizenship has nothing to do with COVID.

The newspaper article KR is referring to......

Perth Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson has admitted the club's recruiting tactics for the 2021 season were based on the belief that superstar Bryce Cotton would be naturalised, and revealed those delays have now cost them former NBA centre Miles Plumlee’s signature.

The Wildcats’ season will start on Sunday when they play South East Melbourne Phoenix at RAC Arena. Numerous NBL pundits have tipped the Wildcats will miss the play-offs for the first time since 1986 and questioned the structure of their roster.

Perth have been eagerly waiting for updates on Cotton’s citizenship application given Plumlee agreed to return as their second import once that occurred. Last season’s championship centre spent 2020 living in Queensland with his Australian girlfriend, but is no longer willing to keep his life on hold.

"The last time I talked to Miles was just after Christmas and he’s going travelling for a year," Gleeson explained.

“He’s going to take a year off, put the backpack on and get going. Obviously we can’t guarantee him anything until we have a position open. We can’t do that at the moment.

“I was confident it was going to get done before the start of the season. We’re talking about a year ago. Bryce applied for it in July 2019 so you would hope it wouldn’t take two years to get through.

“Obviously with COVID, everything shut down and the approvals went down. Our hands are really tied by those decisions. There’s not much we can do about it. It’s just be patient and wait and hope it comes through.”

Perth were so confident that Cotton would be an Australian that they didn’t utilise the NBL’s Next Stars program.

NBA draftees LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton headed last season’s Next Star crop and multiple clubs have signed exciting youngsters under the rule for 2021. “In hindsight and if we could take it back, we probably would have pushed harder for that Next Star position,” Gleeson said.

Gleeson remains bullish they will challenge for the championship. Cotton could still be naturalised mid-season, allowing Perth to recruit another import for the remaining games.

But Gleeson admitted that wouldn’t guarantee they’d sign another player.

“It’s not like in the old days where you just jump on the plane and get out here,” he said.

“I guess the blessing part is we still don’t know when the end of the season is. So, if the season keeps on getting pushed back until May, it gives us a better chance of bringing another player in.”

Thanks for that.

" Obviously with COVID, everything shut down and the approvals went down."

“Obviously, Government, everything is slow and inefficient”

Corrected, Gleeson

Well said.

If everything is always slow and inefficient, that's reflected in the average time from application to citizenship already. It's been significantly longer than that with no approval.

It's been business as usual from what I've seen. The processing offices are in Adelaide and Hobart, not Melbourne. Gleeson would be guessing at what the delay is.

Everyone's guessing, but it's not an unreasonable guess and it's now six months over the average wait time so something seems to be holding it up.

Serious response to obvious humour post, classic KR

There obviously is a reason for the delay but it wouldn't be COVID. The processing of applications is done by paper pushers in Adelaide and Hobart where it has been business as usual throughout the pandemic.

In fact I know someone who has their citizenship ceremony on Tuesday and the application was lodged in August, with confirmation received in December.

It's all speculation, but you could find that Covid has caused other delays that impact the process. If it takes 2 years to process some, I imagine there must be more to it, simply a one desk process.
It could also be that Covid has increased the number of applicants.
Or created a surge in more urgent applications such as visa, which has pulled staff away from other duties.

The other issue is that the government now uses a lot of non-permanent contract roles, to make their workforce more flexible and adaptable.
And I can tell you that during Covid the federal government did stop renewing contracts, in order to save money, including in departments experiencing increased demand.
My daughter is a former AFP Intelligence Officer, and had a contract doing Intelligence work for DHS. At the peak of covid, they decided that was nolonger a priority.