Cooper?

Schenscher? Oh sorry, I thought it said dormant centre.

Matt Neilsen?

It's a pretty risky plan I reckon. Dominant centres, especially imports are rare commodities and as such are very expensive.

The NBL is not a beat-em down, throw it into the low-post type of league, it's more free-flowing and therefore guards tend to flourish more. Anyway, I'm interested to see how this plays out if they do in fact get "dominant" centre.

Reminds me of the story when they got Acie Earl a while back. I'd be going after Jawai.

Ben Allen from St Marys?

Sam Harris!

I'm thinking it must be Jawai but it's not as though he'd have specific ties to Sydney. Could put them in a bit of a bidding war as almost any team would like to get him.

Would you call Nielsen a "dominant centre" or refer to him as a "big" instead? Might be something in the choice of words.

Dominant centres have been few and far between. Bradtke, Rogers and Anstey were all legitimately dominant at various stages, and just very good at others.

Ben Pepper had flashes of dominance when in NZ, as did Schenscher in 09, while Jawai showed he had the potential to dominate in his rookie year. Burgess was mentioned by I dont think he dominated against the better teams from memory.

The biggest thing you want from a centre is to dominate the boards and be an intimidating presence defensively. The guys who could fit that bill are Nevill, Jawai and Baynes as far as Aussies go.

Ben (rhymes with Pelmeth) if it doesn't clash with his NBA commitments.

Isaac - why is his name still out of bounds?

Because Thomas Schmidt is still a griefer.

Schmidt - rhymes with... ;)

It would good to see Baynes, Nevill and Jawai all playing in the NBL next season.

It would boost the profile of the NBL.

These are currently the better australians who have failed in getting a NBA spot.

Rather then loosing them to Europe.

Hopoefully Joe Ingles will return to the NBL as well

JAWAI isa Project in the NBA there are plenty of teams keen on signing him for a 1 year extension he wont be back in australia if he don't make the NBA it will be D-League or Europe, why would he want to come play here for 50k a year seriously

depends how big the brown paper bag is

Well if Basketball Australia wants this league to be taken seriously by the basketball community then they need to find a way to convince these type of players to return to Australia.

maybe amare stoudamire if he opts out of his contract this summer?

Shaq is out of contract also

From what i hear that if worst comes to worst in the nba and doesnt pick up another contract he wouldnt mind coming back playing in the nbl..... doesnt wanna go back home though,,

AJ Ogilvy has 1 more season of college ahead of him.

I would think the Australian centre's being considered would be:

- Nathan Jawai
- Luke Nevill
- Aron Baynes
- Luke Schenscher

Maybe a potential import is also a chance?

Nate Jawai would be an excellent signing......Ater Majok.... you must be joking......a bench player at best

Jawai's mother and much of his family lives in Sydney.

Wang Zhi Zhi...... seriously

Jawai has been getting interest from Italy Milan, partizan, maccabi tel av viv. And a couple teams in Spain. Are they small euro clubs lol.

Baynes may be many things but a stiff is certainly not one of them. In 41 games for Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius this season he averages 10.1 pts at an efficient 62.5%, 4.1 rbds and 0.9 blocks. Most remarkably, he achieves these numbers in a brief 14.7 minutes per game. This speaks of an exceptionally visceral player able to make a quick impact on the game.

The downside to this is his inability to stay out of foul trouble. Baynes averages 3.5 fouls per game. By way of comparison, Aleks Maric averages 3.1 fouls but plays almost 10 minutes per game more than Baynes. In 41 games Baynes has fouled out 12 times. Four of those times incredibly were within 4 minutes of play.

So until he works out his defensive woes he can hardly be considered an option as a franchise player as he can't stay on the floor long enough and puts you in the penalty situation too quickly. But as a high impact sixth man perhaps, you could do far worse.

not a big but just wonder what's the chance of Barlow going to Sydney. I don't think he enjoys Spain, but don't think he can get back to the Tigers. So any chance with Sydney?

His club, CAI Zaragosa are two games clear and looking likely to be promoted to the ACB, and Barlow is in talks with them about a contract for next year. A big honour to be wanted as an import for an ACB team.

I dont think Barlow will be a real long termer in Europe but I dont think we'll see him back just yet.

There is a good interview with Barlow on the Basketball Australia website where he talks in depth about it, and gives the NBL a great pump up too.

I see Wade Helliwell is ranked 8 in new NBL player rankings now for this season.

I actually know him personally, and heard he don't really enjoy it. he's a very big 'home' person. that's why he left Sydney.

Barlow doesnt really enjoy the city he is in, but he said if he doesnt re-sign with Zaragosa (and they are a very rich club who could make it well worth his while)he will look for another club in Spain.

He also said he really, really misses Melbourne and cant wait to get back at the end of April, so you are spot on there.

No ones mentioned Matt Burston whose a free agent now. Not exactly a defensive force, but if he can stay healthy i would rate him as the best center in the league offensively.

chris mihm

Befor Khazzouh left for Europe he averaged almost 16 points 11 rebounds and 2.5 blocks for Sydney. Is that not dominate??

Dont think they could get him though heard he is earning good money in Europe and is set to head to Spain next season