Definitely going to be tuning in to that Illawarra vs Melbourne clash tonight. Anyone know if United's other starters will be in for the game (ie Goulding, Andersen, Barlow)?

Probably in the minority here but I'm not sold on United at all. They barely managed to beat the 36ers who ran 5 out for a fair bit of the game while Randle had the worst game I've ever seen him play. Dude's confidence is shot for some reason (might have something to do with Joey calling him out in a preseason game?!)

Meanwhile for United - Barlow is a glue guy with little real talent, Andersen is old and the new (read: old) Redhage) and CG43 is hot and cold. His biggest problem will be backing up that ego. I stand to be corrected.

Andersen and Goulding are game time decisions AFAIK.

I am loving the pace and intensity of these games so far. If this is what we have to look forward to this season, it might be the greatest ever.

Whittington does look like a find but surely the Kings have to be concerned with the play of Bryson?

Nice win by perth just before...adelaide game just starting...Any thoughts on the last game on the card today? Im leaning the Hawks myself...Some input would be solid people. Thanks :)

Bryson reminds me a bit of Bennett Davison

36ers chaotic defence strikes again, leaving Abercrombie and Tueta wide open for six threes in the quarter. It's going to be a long season if the Sixers defensive consistency doesn't improve.

Lol @ the Jesse Wagstaff comments. He's one of te guys that would be so annoying to play against (Childress agrees).

Adelaide should rightly blow by NZ. As bad as the Sixers D and execution are, NZ are simply running a second-grade team out there.

I'm a tad concerned about Brisbane beating Cairns however I think Cairns are due for a regression here. They're a good team and well-coached but they don't have the squad to compete with Brisbane for 4 quarters, esp. in front of a home crowd.

Why doesn't Teys play like he did in that quarter more often?! If he just knocks down those open shots, I'd have him starting because of his smarter defence.

I have seen some of Illawarra's two opening matches. They look very good to me. They have a bit of everything, they go very deep and are well suited to Bevo's high pressure, high octane style.

You obviously need premium elite talent though- if Harris can be at all NBL first team level, or if Clarke can repeat his MVP effort from 2014 (or come close) then they are a nice sneaky chance at the championship. Outside of Melbourne, they're the one team I'd love to see get it done.

Oh and PeroV, saying you're not sold on United because they struggled in a pre season game while missing Andersen and Goulding? That has got to be the definition of "jumping the gun".

Oh and Barlow won't be starting- Blanchfield will.

LV - nah mate, it's not just one preseason game. With that squad they had last year they should have gone all the way. Instead they got smoked by the Breakers every which way at the back end of the season and the playoffs.

I just don't trust an aging David Andersen in what is looking like a very young, athletic league, nor do I trust Demopolous' coaching strategy of saying "aightttt" a lot during timeouts. Added to that, CG43 is imo overly enamoured with being the face of the franchise but hasn't done sh*t yet. Unless you count winning a championship while sitting on the bench in Brisbane. GL to them.

Agree with you re Hawks though. Massive odds too ($17 or so last I checked)

Disagree on last year- they were unlucky in the sense that they had to play the one team they had a bad record against. They got minor premiership- just, on the back of several tight wins- and there were 5 teams with the talent to take out the title, so losing a semi final wasn't a huge under achievement.

Andersen's age- and the lack of athleticism and rim protection in the frontcourt- are legitimate concerns. But you would have to agree on three things 1. The rotation at point guard and Wing (Jackson, Tomlinson, Goulding, Moore, Blanchfield, Barlow) could be one of the best ever in the NBL and 2. United has proven talent, unlike many other contenders who have so many players aged 22/23 who are unproven in professional basketball. 3. Andersen and Jackson bring mental toughness, pedigree, and incredibly successful resumes to town.

I think those threes are probably the reasons why Melbourne is favourite.

I take your point that they are faves for a reason and that they are stacked. But my personal view is that they won't go all the way. I did gain a newfound level of respect for Jackson last season. If anyone remembers, he started the season shockingly bad. Literally couldn't even dribble the ball properly. Then, part of the way through he suddenly exploded and started looking like himself again. Very dangerous, winning player.

As an aside, I used to play with Nate T - honestly I'm surprised he has taken such a back seat in the NBL. Reckon he could have been a more prolific player but he seems content being an even-keeled backup floor general.

Feel for Blanchfield too - he could be so much more than a catch and shoot player in this league but not with this stacked lineup.

PeroV, you've mentioned you've played a few of these players.
Where did you play?
Only one Pero V comes to my mind......

Pero Vasiljevic I assume is the one that comes to mind Ricky? Former Forestville Eagle/Razorback/36er/Titan(?)

Correct.
The (only) man that wound Andrew Gaze up to the point of explosion!

Haha the name is just a homage to Pero Vasiljevic. What a stud.

I grew up playing NSW reps and other, local comps in the same age bracket(ish) as Barlow, AJ Ogilvy, Weeks, Cadee, Tomlinson.

Still remember turning up to an under-14s game I believe, against AJ's team. Guy was throwing it down for fun and we were dumbfounded. Best that I don't reveal how much got trounced by.

Special mention to Weeks also - if any of you knew him earlier in his career up to youth league (but particularly juniors) you would never have guessed he would become 'good' let alone a professional player. Truly a testament to self-belief and hard work. Good on him.

That's interesting, there are nicknames that pay homage to LeBron James....Kobe Byrant...and Pero

Beal's stat line is very low.
Is he still out there?

Yeah Ricky, still out there. He hasn't been able to catch and shoot this game so he's been doing some pointless lateral dribbling before passing it up :/

Horrible outing from Brisbane. Cairns may just be the least expected, best performing team of the preseason. Wonder if they continue this form into the regular season.

One game left on the card....any thoughts? United or the Hawks?.....

Really poor result from for the Bullets.
Still, a promising pre-season over all. Probably not such a bad thing to get a late reality check before Week 1.

Melb v Illawarra is almost a final (depending on Cairns' points).
Melbourne seem to be taking this tournament pretty easily so far. Unless that changes, I'm tipping the Hawks

lets go Hawks. Give me that 3-1 for the day. On another note, great to see Adnam doing more than projectile vomiting out there.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Beal is just a chucker who gets lucky every now and then. He got even luckier because one of those occasions happened to be a grand final series.

A mediocre import at best.

I can see why someone would think that fstos, but Beal does tend to step up in big games. Wouldn't necessarily call that lucky

What is this Adnam's fourth straight year as a development player?

36ers
Hawks
United
United (again)

Adnam playing like White Chocolate.....WTF

He deserves a full roster spot.

ME. Adnam probably would have a full spot if the game was only played at one end. Rhys Martin showing at the other end why he hasn't.

Gotta say Nnanna Egwu is an absolute treat. What a find. His court smarts have improved ten-fold over the weekend alone. Cannot remember the last time Cairns has had a guy who crashes the board and gets himself in position for almost every rebound.

Fuquan Edwin is a baller as well. So many good imports this year.

Hawks won the ABC. United barely played Goulding and didn't play Andersen.

Gliddon MVP for the tournament.

Who are NZ's imports this year? Only seems like Mitchell playing for them so far?

Must be time to change the format for the ABC/Blitz winner. Taipans undefeated for 3 straight years yet haven't 'won' any of them. Maybe a media vote would get the correct result.

Ripped off this year especially as they were the only team to beat 3 NBL teams, each of which was by 10 or more, and ILL had the gimme vs ZHE.

I'm guessing there's some prize-money to the winner, the Taipans could really use that cash. At the very least it should have been split between the two undefeated teams.

The rules were clear. They had a chance to win a quarter and didn't take it, so they obviously don't care all that much.

Final win:loss results for all NBL teams playing other NBL teams (I've taken the games against the Chinese clubs out, because they were a gimme, as stated by @Wilson Sting.

CNS 3:0
ILL 2:0
BRI 1:1
MEL 1:1
PER 1:1
ADE 1:2
SYD 1:2
NZB 0:3

Listed alphabetically where the win:loss record was the same, because I couldn't be bothered going through the results to work out the quarter by quarter wins.

If I understand the rules correctly, Illawarra and Melbourne won more quarters in their games than Cairns, so they ended up with more points, which is how they ended up in the finals.

Hendo8888, Woodside is the other. Played at least one game I think, then rested along with Penney and Webster.