Whoops and NZ 10th

1 - SEM
2- Brisbane
3 - Kings
4 - Perth
5 - Adelaide
6 - Melbourne
7 - New Zealand
8 - Illawarra
9 - Cairns
10- Tasmania

Kings
United
Cats
Sixers
SEM
NZ
JJs
Hawks
Bullets
Taipans
Very confident on first three, gets tough after that.

1. Perth - Heard Cotton will be naturalise soon.
2. Adelaide.
3. S.E. Melbourne.
4. Melbourne.
5. Sydney.
6. Tasmania.
7. Brisbane.
8. Cairns.
9. New Zealand.
10. Illawarra.

I reckon by the end of the season I'll be way off because who knows with injuries, player subtractions, and Delly may come back to United since his Sacramento contract isn’t guaranteed.

Is Hugo Besson coming back to the NBL or confirmed he's gone?

Breakers roster rounds out nicely with him at SG instead of Gliddon

I heard Hugo Besson will head back to France and play in their top league. Liam Santa mentioned it on free agency market watch.

Sydney
Adelaide
Melbourne
Perth
Brisbane
Tasmania

SE Melbourne
Cairns
New Zealand
Illawarra

and Delly may come back to United since his Sacramento contract isn't guaranteed.

Ah yeah, cheers Tigers.
He'd make that roster a contender

Melb
Se Melb
Perth
Adelaide
Sydney

Nz
Illawarra
Tasmania
Brisbane
Cairns

Top 5 in that order,bottom 5 not necessarily in that order.
Anyones championship
Form of teams depends on imports ,lot of quality players from summer league,but NBL is different,if these players can perform,then will see bumper crowds and high standard competition.

Can't wait for the first ball up of 22/23 season

Sydney
United
Perth
SEM
Adelaide
Brisbane

Tasmania
NZ
Illawarra
Cairns

Besson is with Metro 72 with Victor, the projected number 1 out of France. The Race to the number 1 pick will be more exciting than the championship

Perth
Melbourne
Sydney
Brisbane
Adelaide
South East Melbourne
Tasmania
Illawarra
New Zealand
Cairns

Melbourne
Brisbane
Adelaide
Perf
Sydney
SE Melbourne
Illawarra
Tasmania
Cairns
New Zealand

1. Perth
2. Melbourne
3. Brisbane
4. Adelaide
5. New Zealand
6. Sydney
7. Se Melb
8. Illawara
9. Tasmania
10. Cairns

Curious to hear why everyone think Sydney will be so good?

Manu: Word is Barry Brown Jnr is the Breakers 3rd import and is with the team but NZ are waiting on the official announcement on Besson out of France before confirming his replacement.
He's a 6.3" SG who's recently been playing in China.

NZ look way more balanced than previous guard heavy squads and Rupert looks to be a talent.

People think Sydney will be good because of the title, but I think we'll be closer to 6 than 1 just with who we lost.

Ah good, Mystro. I was worried they had a full squad and would start Gliddon.

Surely Rupert starts at 3 over Abercrombie?

Frankly, Brantley is one of my top MVP contenders. I think they'll go really well.

Sydney?

Strong import group- Walton Jr has serious credentials. Simon was DPOY NBL then DPOY German BBL. Soares should be serviceable.

Cooks and DJ, Hunter's back. Noi, Glover, Bruce, Bayles- strong group. Hunter adds something they lacked last year, possibly the only thing they were missing

After losing Clark and Adams and with Walton jr being more of a distributor, they'll be reliant on DJ stepping up his scoring but he looks capable of that

I think Rupert will get plenty of minutes even if he doesn't start and having Abercrombie fit this season along with Rupert will give them 2x long strong defensive SF's capable of putting the clamps on the oppositions best perimeter players.


I'm excited to see what this team can do.

"After losing Clark and Adams and with Walton jr being more of a distributor, they'll be reliant on DJ stepping up his scoring but he looks capable of that "

Yeah a lot hinges on DJ scoring-wise. If he is in the 16-20PPG territory we should be good. Still, we lost one of the greatest imports of all time. Simon is solid and Walton should be good/great, but it's hard to tell how well a player will adjust to the NBL despite his creds. I mean, most (myself included) expected Chasson Randle to be a gun in the NBL.

I think the Kings deserve to be title favourites, their core is returning and I've said before I think Cooks was their best player last season what Adams provided can be found in another import but not what Cooks provides.

I'm not as bullish on Vasiljevic as NBL commentators seem to be he's not a gun by any stretch, a good NBL player no more no less and Hunter & Soares shouldn't have much problem replicating what Martin offered. Clark too was severely overrated from what I saw of him a nice top up piece to seal the title if there were any doubts the Kings weren't going to win it last year but I doubt he would shine if required to do more heavy lifting.

Simon is elite defensively he's just won back to back DPOTY awards here and in Germany so perhaps the Kings are going to shut down everyone this season rather than blow them out of the water but the question mark will be Walton if he's up to it but still I think they deserve title favouritism. The Sixers might have the most talented team on paper but they've done nothing yet so just can't put them above the Kings.

True, but same can be said of most teams. With 3 imports per team and most of them being new to the NBL, and most teams relying on imports to be their main go-to guy, obviously teams prospects rely on those imports.

So yeah Sydney needs Walton Jr to be a gun point guard.

But by the same token, United really needs Tucker to be a big time scorer (like he was in G League) but that's not guaranteed.

Even Adelaide despite Cleveland and Franks being stars last year, how many imports have struggled with a 2nd team (Hopson, Patterson, Demetrius Conger, Cedric Jackson, etc etc). And Randall II had one good G League year following a moderate college career.

I guess there's lots of uncertainties everywhere.

^My comment was replying to AngusH

AngusH, i do agree with you on that. Sydney probably also found themselves in that tricky position of having local players like DJ and Cooks, they have to make sure they prioritise around. I dare say the overall team went up in value so tricky to keep everyone. Maybe had to go a bit backwards to go forwards? Return of Hunter is also a factor in roster construction.

LV, I think that's also a really good point that possibly isn't raised enough. Although most point to the advantage of signing known imports, I can't really think (loosely) of any historical evidence that really supports this. The first thing that comes to mind is actually the opposite. Lots of factors like age, motivation etc, but I would certainly agree that there is lots of examples of known imports underwhelming at a new club in comparison to a debut season with the original club. In saying that, obviously the standard of imports has gone up as has the capacity to pay a little bit more to keep guys who would have likely disappeared anyway.

Zodiac I think Cooks will be exposed offensively this year without the spacing Adams/Martin created for him. Watched him play for Wellington and teams that zoned them had a lot of success and it wasn't until they literally played 4 shooters around him he was able to do much offensively. Having Simon and another big out there who don't stretch the floor will hurt. Thats not to say he won't still impact the game in other ways, he is a solid local and provides a great deal through defense/rebounding/energy but his production will drop from last year substantially IMO. Also wondering how the other locals will go without Adams drawing so much attention.

The Big Duke,

Fair enough it remains to be seen I suppose as I think last season was the first full injury free season we've seen from Cooks but his defense and rebounding are elite and he can score in a variety of ways. I wouldn't put too much into his NZ NBL from good or otherwise he's way beyond that league in terms of talent and was likely just going up and down using it to keep him in shape during the off-season. A bit like how plenty use the Puerto Rican league.

Cooks defence away from the basket isn't great, offensively he’s fantastic around the basket, won the mvp in the nznbl but not the title. Needs tho improve three point shooting and free throws, does that and he’ll be great. Sydney clearly will be top two, three again.

If Cotton gets his citizenship and Cats add another I
Import they will vault to the top but right now not sure what to make of their other import. Brady is a stud but the other big guy is an unknown

On paper Brisbane has put together a good squad. Baynes if returns to 70 of what he used to be will dominate this league . Tear it apart and Johnson not to long ago was an starter on the NBA.

I don't believe Bogut dominated the league, yes carried injuries, and I don’t see Baynes being better than Bogut. Brisbane always promise a lot but never get there.

Apparently Devondrick Walker is training with Perth in expectation of Cotton citizenship.

Decent player but injury concerns.

Bogut was certainly a dominant force at the defensive end.

He didn't dominate the league though, which was said what Baynes was going to do, I don’t see it certainly after a year off.

He was one of the most dominant players in the comp. Maybe 2nd after Cotton. But agree he didn't toy with the league, was just one of the very good players.

Bogut dipped significantly his final year where he was hobbled most/all season, but he was definitely a dominant defensive force season #1. Stat line of just under 12-12-4 with nearly 3 blocks per game, and some monster games in there.