Adelaide and Brisbane are the enigmas this season

Brisbane are 3-5, being 5 losses followed by 3 wins, but they gave up double figure leads in several of those losses. Sobey starting to find his feet. With the right new import they'll be in the mix.

Adelaide have shown flashes of brilliance and flashes of dysfunctionality. 3-4 isn’t an adequate reflection of their talent but whether that turns around, who knows.

The only team you would say categorically will not win the title is Illawarra. The other 9 teams, you could imagine a path forward where they win the title. One new import here, or a slight improvement there.

It’s a great place for the NBL to be.

1-9 still in the race, always a good sign that we don't see a clear top half already.

*Expect to see some roster changes though.


Sydney 7-2
NZ 6-3
Cairns 5-3
SEM 5-4
Tasmania 5-5
Melbourne 5-5*
Perth 4-5*
Adelaide 3-4
Brisbane 3-5*
Illawarra 1-8*

On paper it probably looks closer than it really has been so far. Syd, NZ and Cairns have pretty clearly looked like the best 3 teams.

NZ, apart from the big loss to SEM haven't done much wrong. Lost in OT on a night when XRM and CG43 both went off.

Cairns has lost 3 games. Smashed by Perth, but the other two were the buzzer beater in Sydney, and the 4 point loss to NZ where they'd kept NZ to 5 points in the first quarter

Tas are 5-5 but lost 3 in a row, and got destroyed over in NZ and also destroyed at home by Cairns in a hot shooting performance

SEM and United have both had the best of their close games, so 5-4 and 5-5 flatter them a little.

Although to be fair, those 3- TAS, SEM and United have been hit hard by injuries.

Sydney- daylight,
possibly Cairns if they stay injury free to main players.
United need a 4-5
Perth need Cotton naturalised to either get another 4-5 or Adams at the point.
SEM not that good on D, Broekhoff is crucial, seems injured a lot.
Bullets if they get the right import, could improve
NZ, like Cairns
Sixers, late charge, will they get team chemistry right
Poor old hawks, certainly last and punters want them gone.

Sydney- daylight

Quite helpfully for Sydney, their schedule is sparse in December but busier in January

They've only got 9 games in the next 8 weeks. Before New year.

That's the equal least in the comp. Most have more, eg Adelaide has 12 and United has 11.

Will minimise the impact of Cooks' injury, if it's a medium term thing.

"Sydney- daylight,
possibly Cairns if they stay injury free to main players.
United need a 4-5
Perth need Cotton naturalised to either get another 4-5 or Adams at the point.
SEM not that good on D, Broekhoff is crucial, seems injured a lot.
Bullets if they get the right import, could improve
NZ, like Cairns
Sixers, late charge, will they get team chemistry right
Poor old hawks, certainly last and punters want them gone. "


And the one team that was forgotten will just keep going about their business again ;-)

Yes how could I, and I'm a fan. Yes again the JJs will just keep going about it, finals for certain, not convinced it’ll be as good as last season though, unless Magnay come back like a Bogut reincarnation.

If they can get Magnay and Steindl back to their best without rocking the boat, they will certainly challenge, but will be interesting to see how that changes their balance.

Seasons been underwhelming, more teams underperforming than over performing, lots of blow outs, poor import choices and plenty of teams in no man's land...