Locke, if Randle and Lisch is the starting back court that rates as a "B", who do you think is an "A"?

I have to rate the Kings backcourt an 'A'. Any backcourt with two recent league MVPs backed up by two promising livewires with talent has to be an A.

When you include the fact that Newley can slide to the two when you want to go big and that the final piece to the roster will possibly be someone the likes of Kendall Stephens (or dare I say it, an Anatoly Bose if there was mutual desire), It's an EXTREMELY strong backcourt.

As previously mentioned, Childress is not coming.

The biggest question actually comes in the frontcourt - not as a question of talent - but rather of getting the mix to work together. There is a mix of experienced talent and youth - Gaze just needs to work out how they fit together nicely in lineup combos and to best use their skills (and cover weaknesses).

In theory the spacing of Wear and Kickert meshes well with Bogut... biggest question mark is health (across the board really, but especially the frontcourt).

I think the backcourt is probably better than the frontcourt. Two very capable MVP-level guards with exceptional ball-handling skills, both can score. Then Wilson coming off a strong SEABL season and Adnam is fine - knows what he's doing, can't question his effort, doesn't wreck team structure. Plus Newley/whoever can come across to SG a bit. I think that's an A.

Two former MVP's as your starting back court : B

seems legit

The back court is pretty good offensively, but I think there are some question marks defensively. Both Randle and Lisch are small guards and if Lisch has lost a step then his defence may fall away. I can't see Newley playing much time at guard either unless they sign a starting quality small forward. I like Adnam off the bench - wish Joey had been able to keep him instead of Doyle!

I think Sydney have the talent to compete for a championship but as we all know talent alone gets you nowhere. The big questions will be cohesion and chemistry. They have some pretty strong characters (Bogut, Randle, Kickert) and if they can all co-exist peacefully and work together as a team then they should be up there at the pointy end of the season.

Firstly, I think in the modern game, backcourt would include your 3's, or at least 2/3's.
So you've got Randle, Lisch, and Newley. easily the most stacked backcourt in the league.

Only thing that drags it down from an AAA++ is the age/injury factor.
Which coincidentally also drags the frontcourt down.

And yes, you do need to factor in Gaze, who scores an F-.

inb4 multiple old man injuries. Reporting this whole thread for spam.

Sydney seem to be lacking back-up guards who can defend, which I think is really important, and apart from Pineau they lack bigs who can actively defend the on-ball, which limits what they can do defensively.

That said, offensively they have some very good pieces so oppo should be taking the ball out of the net a lot, and they have veterans who know how to defend in a team setting, so that should cover some of the weaknesses.

I don't think they're head and shoulders above, but they should certainly be one of the contenders. Having an import spot up their sleeves is important with the number of veterans they have.