Stephon
Years ago
NBL Predictions
About 3 weeks until the start of the season so time for some predictions.
1. Sydney (Same group as last season plus great pick up in Worthington.)
2. Melbourne (New coach, lost most of their old slow guys, and Anstey/Stiff/Hoard/Mottram/DT front court is best in the league if healthy. D-Mac/Tucker/Corletto backcourt isn't too shabby either.)
3. Townsville (Same core as last year and if Abney can add defence and rebounding they will be tough.)
4. Adelaide (Assuming Maher/Farley/Rychart continue their best impersonation of last season's Washington Wizard's trio of 20ppg players in Arenas/Hughes/Jamison, we will be top four material. Will need Holmes to have a break out year and Forman/Hill to regularly contribute if we are to improve on last season's result.)
5. Brisbane (They could end up winning the championship but will start off slow with so many new key players. Last season it seemed as though they had 4x 3 point specialists on the court at all times so while they are bigger this season, they will not have nights like our ill-fated final. Rucker will need to be healthy and have a great year for them to be top 4.)
6. Wollongong (Darnell will prove a big loss despite Groves being a big time scorer. Picking up Castle and Rampton were decent budget additions and once again they will be tough defensively and pick up their fair share of regular season wins.)
7. Perth (Could move higher if they pick up an All Star type import point guard. Burston/Rogers is a decent centre combination but I wouldn't put 5c on that combo staying injury free.)
8. Hunter (Have better size than any other team but they have lost Kavossy/Wethers import duo that was probably only combination to rival Farley/Rychart. Their new imports have big shoes to fill.)
9. Cairns (This is assuming that Burgess is out for most of the season and his import replacement is a dud as rumoured. Cattalini's run of luck of playing on donut teams appears to be continuing.)
10. New Zealand (Not much improvement from last season. In fact their roster looks weaker.)
11. West Sydney (Have now lost their entire starting 5 from Grand Final team in Trahair, Rillie, Mackinnon, Dwight and Hinder. Harvey might lead the league in scoring and Horvath is quality but little else unless Markovic translates his junior international form into big NBL numbers.)
Some good teams in the NBL this season and you can pretty much roll a dice on those top 6 teams. Going to be some woeful rounds in the tipping as most teams are competitive.
