Wow!!! both news huge for both clubs

Good to see Penney back in NZ, but can Webster play point?

Illawarra being left with some serious holes to fill

They are but might not be in the worst position, if they can keep the 6th man level guys like Martin, Coenraad, Ellis and Forman. Any of these can start or have an impact off the bench.

They have three import spots to use in replacing Lisch and Penney, so the situation could be worse. e.g.,

Martin/White
SG-PG Import/Weeks
SF-SG Import/Coenraad
Ellis/Forman
Ogilvy/Import

getting a trojan warning from the link

Aussiehoopla has a bit of a reputation for posting things as fact when they don't turn out that way, don't they? More hit than miss from memory, but would certainly be interesting if true...

ATF says Penney to NZ for three years.

Hawks:

We regret to announce that Kirk Penney will not be returning to the club for the 2016/17 @NBL season.

Not sure if signing Penney for 3 years at big money is the right move at his age.

Illawarra might be able to get similar production for less with players new to the league.

It's not so much that you're replacing players with imports, it's that you're replacing a solid MVP and an MVP candidate/proven scorer. How many recent imports have been at those levels?

And every viable recruiting target is also going to be pursued by the other teams, including the core you'd be wanting to add imports to.

All that versus trying to lock in Lisch far earlier, look to keep what you can from the older core, and THEN adding imports.

Lisch is relocating largely based on his wifes preference i'm assuming (of course the money helped though).

Penney is leaving based on family concerns. You can hardly hold the Hawks accountable for that, if anything its a blessing because you may have got stuck with two guys in an unhappy situation off the court which ultimately may have affected their on court performance some what.

Who's to say Hawks didn't try and lock in Lisch during the season? Lisch would've been the crazy one to lock in a deal at that point.

Replacing Penney or Lisch would be a big task. Replacing both.... not something I would envy having to do, especially with a lower budget than other sides. At the same time I can see some quality players potentially 'slipping through the cracks' with the sums of $$$ being thrown around at some of the big names, so the Hawks might well end up with a pretty solid core before it's time to start looking at imports - one of whom would need to be a dynamite scorer you would think.

I could imagine that free agency would have been difficult for clubs as guys would have been most unenthusiastic about locking in deals mid-way through last season with these new salary changes coming in (I assume they at least had an inkling/broad awareness that some changes were coming in and that these could be favourable to them).

But it also could have been the clubs not wanting to lock players up mid-season because of the new changes. That's the opposite presumption though - assuming they knew nothing about what those changes were.

In essence, a difficult position for clubs both ways.

The other problem is last year clubs signed guys for 3 years to get players points ranking lowered which is now defunct and to combat Bris signing players.
Now all the rules are finally explained but the contracts are still valid.

I think the Hawks will be fine, they have the 2 time All NBL first team Centre and as long as he stays away from Perth he is fine.

Plus it's hard to argue that the Hawks weren't the happiest team in the league last season so free agents should remember that and they'd do a lot worse than go to a happy team with good core values.

I still expect Martin and/or Coenraad to leave for Brisbane and maybe even Cody Ellis to try and sign for the Wildcats but they may get a Matty Knight and this team will solve a lot of rebounding issues.

As for Penney, I think if they tried to get Anatoly Bose back into the league they could certainly do worse.

Thinking of a team like this!

Ogilvy/lazza
Knight/Foreman
Import/Bose
Import/White
Import/Weeks

That is atleast competitive

Lisch's wife's family lives in between Wollongong and Sydney so I imagine it was largely financial. I'd say $200k would've been a big payrise for Lisch and locked him in earlier in the season. Doubt he would've dreamt of $300k when it came up. Too much to refuse. If they'd been trying to lock in their players during the season, don't you think they'd have a single one to show for it before the free agency list went out? Like Cody Ellis at least?

Penney wouldn't have been miserable in Wollongong. Vibe was good, player's coach, great place to live. But if offered more money or even the same, of course he'd go home - that's always the risk. So you lock him down before that happens. Sure, he's not irreplaceable, but he was pretty handy...

Could've had Lisch, Ogilvy, be locking in other pieces and then adding imports. Instead Bevo is going to have to find multiple rabbits in one hat IMO. Not beyond him, but a weaker position to be in. What was the hold up in their front office?

Lisch is a massive loss. Good team man, plays both ends, plays hard, resilient, etc. Ticks pretty much every NBL box, I'd say.

Not many homeruns on the free agency list that wouldn't need to be overpaid. Nick Kay maybe. Not sure what Madgen would want.

From what I've read over the years, I'd be surprised if Bose came back down to AU to play ball, especially with his Euro passport.

People just connecting Knight-Bevo dots. Can't see why he'd leave Perth or why they'd let him go. Better to swap out Jawai for someone else.

If I was Perth I wouldn't let Knight go.

It would have to be a pretty good offer for Knight to be enticed out of Perth and leave a chance for back to back titles. Had it not been for a extraordinary run of bad injuries in 2015 the Cats might be a team on a 3 peat .

Why would anyone unless they are not offerd a contract would want to leave that situation od sustained success?

Lisch is obviously a HUGE loss for the Hawks, can't understand those suggesting otherwise.
Obviously he can be "replaced" but they won't get anywhere near the calibre of player for what he was paid last season. Big win for Sydney.

Interesting to see Penney going home to NZ. Understandable move, just curious as to where he will slide into their lineup?

I would think Penney will lead the bench and add firepower with Webster and Abercrombie starting.
Apparently TeRangi has been approached by Brisbane.

Would've thought Penney was still easily starting calibre for this next season. Maybe they're not hopeful of retaining Webster?

I don't really see how Webster and Penney are going to operate together. Don't know why you'd run Webster at PG, except for minor spot minutes here and there.

Penney actually played really high minutes last season and his stats were actually insane so he should be a 30+ minute player.

Is it possible that Brisbane or Wollongong are chasing Webster quite hard?

Going to be an odd mix. Webster at the PG is probably the best thing for his development, but going to be interesting to see if he can create for others off the dribble when that's never really been his game.

Webster is getting some assists over in Greece which I guess is a good sign (...not so much the 5/21 and 2/12 shooting nights though...).

Yeah, those suggesting that a significant factor in Lisch moving to Sydney is happy wife reasons, if her folks are still where they were, they're only 25-30mins from the Gong, so much closer to get there than to drive through to wherever the Kings will be training next season... Would be happy to carpool though :)

Webster, Abercrombie, Pledger and Vukona are all under contract for NZ.
Why try and get Webster and Penney to coexist when one of them can come off the bench for instant offence, Penney can back up the SG and SF positions.
If Jackson goes they will no doubt try to sign a pass first import PG with Ili backing him up.
I'd really like to see Tai Wesley back, great asset off the bench when healthy.

The Breakers have confirmed Penney has signed for three years.

Vukona spends a bit of time on the bench these days due to foul trouble. A smaller line up of:

Import PG
Webster
Penny
Abercrombie
Pledger

could cause issue for other teams?

Abercrombie has the height for it, but not really the game... It would probably work on offense, but I think they would really miss the things Vukona gives them inside.

I expect Ili to be signed and to come off the bench for an Import PG, weather that is Ced Jackson or a new recruit but going by the rumors it's more than likely a new import.
Webster to start at SG and Penney to possibly come off the bench is one scenario or Penney may back up Abercrombie depending on if TeRangi comes back or heads to Brisbane or Penney may start? Bartlett could play SG if Penney plays SF or if Penney plays SG Duane Bailey could make a return.

Tai Wesley getting re-signed to play behind Vukona at PF would be great but if not NZ could look at Rob Loe at PF and an Import 5 like Charles Jackson to come off the bench like last season or if Wesley does come back stick with the Import 4/5 or Loe if he can be lured out of Europe.

There are lot of options for the Breakers squad and getting Penney back will take away some of the sting of losing Ced Jackson.