Bit early to take an educated punt before seeing any solid game time from any team....

However, last time we got tipped for the spoon we made the grand final. So I'm considering it a great omen for the Taipans.

If you want a good laugh, head over to the Tattsbet site and look at the MVP betting line

Rotnei Clarke could set you up for life at $67

Sportsbet have Taipans at $34!!

$17 for the Hawks? They will make the playoffs for sure.

I'd nearly put a bet on that if gambling wasn't a voluntary tax on stupidity ;)

I'm trying to remember what my very early ladder prediction was.

Melbourne
Perth
Illawarra
New Zealand

Sydney
Brisbane
Cairns
Adelaide

Podge, I think you can get a jump on the bookies without knowing a full roster. Said it a million times, but I got the Dragons at $9 in their championship year. They had an elite coach and a very good local contingent capable of playing D. Could easily see they had the foundation to be decent that year.

I can't see why, looking at the 36ers roster, people would be betting up on them. Just seems too ad-hoc to me.

With the Kings, I think Khazzouh is a bit overrated and Maric hasn't looked like much in the pre-season, has he? Unless their imports fire, Lisch might not be enough in a strong league.

My thinking with Illawarra is:

- good coach and chemistry
- kept enough of the core
- upgraded bench with Kay and Norton
- replaced scorer Penney with scorer Rotnei who already knows the league and is proven
- addressed rebounding with Holyfield and Kay
- added a scoring import who can get to the line

Maybe not favourites, but would be surprised if they were bottom 2-3.

I think Zodiac's ladder is a reasonable guess, but I disagree on the assessment about gambling, at least when you figure you have better domain knowledge than the bookies. I am comfortably up all time on my basketball betting, even accounting for silly jinx bets.

Isaac, I put 100 on the Sixers when betting opened because they were at 15 bucks. I put the bet on with the thought that the odds would change and i could cash out, which I just did. Made about 50 bucks, can't complain.

Please explain.

If the please explain is in relation to me, on sportsbet, basically you can get paid out on bets depending on how the odds move. When i put the money on, the sixers were 15 bucks to win the title. they are now 8ish. They offered $148 cash out on the $100 bet so i cashed out before they teams start playing and the odds go back down.

if you bet on odds that you thing are too long you can make some money, obviously much smaller than if they actually paid off. ie i took $148 but if sixers won it would have been $1,500.

Got it, thanks Dave.

Pretty good deal you got yourself.

I am comfortably up all time on my basketball betting, even accounting for silly jinx bets.

Bookies are smart. They limited my bet to $1 on Rotnei Clarke to win the mvp @ $67 before moving the price to $51

FWIW, I made that Kings prediction before they had played a pre-season game.

A rookie coach although I think Gaze is more 'the face' yet Vickerman is probably the real coach, Khazzouh no ticker, Newley had dropped off considerably in Spain with age and didn't make the Boomers team even though I disagreed with that a very real possibly Lemanis knew something we didn't e.g. struggling in camp, Maric having been nothing but a big lummox for a while now, Cadee not having the greatest shot selection and two inexperienced imports, one playing pro-ball for the first time.

I said too when he signed with the Kings the 36ers might've dodged a bullet missing out on Newley's signature given the money he no doubt would've wanted.

I think it's ridiculous that Adelaide are at $8.50 with Cairns all the way down at $34.00 (Sportsbet).

Having said that, I don't see any crazy value like there was last year when Illawarra started at around $15.00.

If I was putting a bet on right now I'd go Illawarra at $14.00 or Cairns at $34.00.

But I'm still very jaded after those shitful refs took the Bronze off the Boomers (and hence my $$$), so I'm not gonna place any bets right now!

Yes, although Adelaide have done well to find a way to remain competitive against big spending, i can't see them going beyond that. I think they'll tread water for most of the season. Although in saying that, i'm still actually pretty excited about their roster.They'll try hard, but it does seem like an ad-hoc solution.

Also, i can't work out this logic behind Cairns being so underrated. They've done pretty well. Certainly ahead of Adelaide.

I think Perth are the logical favorites until Melbourne truly start to impose their talent during the season.

And i agree with the Sydney concerns.How Gaze goes is the other big ?

Brisbane & NZ are the clear standouts for me to make up the early top 4 prediction. Cairns are the best of the rest in my view.

Yeah, more than a little surprising to me to see Cairns ranked 8th. I think Brisbane could really tank given how poorly they look assembled to me on paper, unless Bairstow is a real dominant force. Hawks are a steal at those odds, even if Rotnei isn't as big of an impact player in a stronger NBL - all of their imports look pretty good at this stage.

AngusH, what do you mean by tanking exactly ? What would Brisbane being tanking for ? There's no silver lining to finishing at the bottom end in the NBL.

You think they're poorly assembled ?

Gibson-Bruce
Beal-Kenyon
Craig- Terangi
Kickert-Petrie
Bairstow-Jervis

Hardly a dud roster to me. Plus, Bairstow doesn't have to be a force for this team to be decent. In any case, he isn't likely to be. But he's certainly a quality player and i think we'll see why when he finally gets some playing time.

Look for Gibson to go well now that he's back running the point where he ought to be.

I could go on but when you couple that with a decent coach, the Bullets should be hovering among the 4-6 positional range at worst.

AngusH, excuse the flippancy of my 'tanking' interpretation. I'm guessing you obviously didn't mean that. I was a bit silly.

The Bullets have also signed Mitch Young but I suspect that acquisition probably won't effect their overall ladder position.

If Cairns stays healthy for the season(its a big if) they will not get the wooden spoon.

My bottom half of ladder prediction
Cairns
Hawks
Kings
36ers

Zodiac, forgot Young. He's a promising player also. So they're even deeper.

BTW, Kenyon looked good in the match they streamed recently. Lucas Walker suited up for that also.

I'd be very surprised to see Cairns get the wooden spoon this year. They have a very solid line-up and a coach who has a strong system in play. They'll push for a finals berth, a lot of which will depend on how healthy Fearne can get Jawai to be.

My understanding is he has lost about 15kg since arriving in Cairns, and weighs about 140kg! Not a great sign, given that the NBL had him listed at 143kg at the start of last year. That may put a lot more pressure on Nnanna Egwu, and also on Alex Loughton as a back-up. Egwu looks pretty good from the video I've seen of him, it remains to be seen how that translates to the NBL, of course.

It's sheer folly to put money on Brisbane or Adelaide to win. Adelaide won't make the finals, and I'd be surprised if Brisbane do. Sydney will be a stretch, too.

Perth
Melbourne
New Zealand
Illawarra

Cairns
Brisbane
Sydney
Adelaide

I think Adelaide will be a fairly distant last, with Illawarra, Cairns, Brisbane, and Sydney in the hunt for the 4th spot.

He's no where near 140 Freethrows, much much much lower.

Now I'm not saying he'll be in bikini shape come the start of the season, but........

I've stated on here that it seems Cairns or Illawarra always make the playoffs, just never both of them and I feel it will be the same this season but I can't work out which yet but I think it would be worth putting $10 on Cairns

Adelaide for the spoon

@Kingpodge, I'm very glad to hear it. I've been getting very different reports. That last one was from someone who will definitely have reason to know come the season proper, and may have been speculating.

Long time since I've seen Nate looking this fit (or more pissed off at being injured). The only people who need to worry about him will be those trying to guard him - and Nnanna is taller :)