That team most definitely wouldn't be a competitive team. Unless the 3 imports were all Randle level.

Yes, definitely enough. There are half-decent players scrounging for minutes on most teams.

11 players and three imports are redundant and lead to stats and brand recognition spread across too many players. If they don't add a team next season, I think they should seriously consider cutting both of these changes.

I'm expecting 10. At least another NZ one out of the two and create a rivalry there while at it.

There are players overseas like Madgen and Bose who could be lured back. Carter, Bartlett, Burston, Traghard, Henry, Hill all could play apart on any expansion team.

Mitch McCain is a great talent

McCain or McCaron?

Adding teams really comes down more to the viability of the team. Reality is, that like Brisbane, they would chase a balance of players to field a competitive team, they wouldn't need to be content with everyone else's leftovers.

I was sorry to see the Crocs go. I would love to see the return of the Falcons, a 2nd NZ team, a 2nd Melbourne team, maybe even a Tassie team. All it really requires is MONEY.

The problem is people keep equating better players with a better league, and the money being spent by the big budget clubs, including bringing guys back from Europe, follows that trend. Unfortunately that means that some of the semi-decent locals are nolonger up to the quality. The 5 under $400k rule was supposed to address that, but I'm not sure its working at some teams.

Personally, I would like to see a return to the days when you had a 12 player roster, but could only suit up 10 for the game. That has been somewhat replaced with the formalised DP program, but that IMHO is too restricted and favours teams who can afford to keep players outside the cap.
It would also mean that teams weren't scrabbling for injury replacements, and make it easier for fringe guys like Walker to get a full-time role.

I also think that if they're going to continue with the big budget clubs luring back Aussies from Europe, then they need to tighten up the interplay between that and the import rules.

Here's a suggested expansion lineup which wouldn't affect the current teams

Drew Petrie also does not have a contract in the NBL ;)

Sorry what I meant was not materially affect the current teams. By that I mean the players are either playing very little minutes or their team already has good depth.

Illawarra has Norton and Clarke who are starting calibre point guards do they really need another in Rhys Martin?

Not a bad idea for a thread. It's a shame the OP has no idea who the players he's talking about actually are. Does nobody bother trying to spell things correctly, these days? It does make it a bit of an effort to work out who you're talking about if you're not going to get their name right.

G - Dexter drew - Dexter Kernich-Drew
G - Lucas Walker - is a forward, not a guard
F - Jeromie hill
F - majok Deng
C - Angus Brandt
F - Dion pester - Dion Prewster
G - Damon heier - Damon Heuir
G - Mitch McCain - Mitch McCarron
F - Mitchell young
G - Rhys Martin

Not really an NBL ready team.
Martin/Heuir
McCarron/Kernich-Drew
Deng/Prewster
Walker/Hill
Brandt/Young
You'd need import starters at 2, 3 and 4 or 5. Even then, they'd be hard pressed to be competitive.

Burston and Tragardh are retired. I don't know about Rhys Carter or Leon Henry, are either of them still going? Neither would really push any of the above out of the rotation, would they?

And some College seniors and some dudes in europe NBL could easily have 9 teams

LMAO at 'Dion Pester'

Seriously though expansion is a must once there is enough stability to bring in more teams. 10 is a good number.

I would favour a second international team and the return of a team that already have a strong identity and some inbuilt support. Either of Newcastle Falcons or Townsville Crocs coming back would be absolutely terrific.

I don't think Bose is good enough any more tbh. Madgen could probably still be an NBL starter and there are a few Aus players in college that will be NBL quality.

Expansion draft works/worked in the NBA because when you involuntarily find yourself in a new team several hundred or thousands of miles away from where you were,but with a 2-5 year contract of 2-10 million @ year - you don't have any real economic worries re finding a place to live , or taking the family car with you and not being able to afford a second car for the family that stayed behind.

You won't be sitting in a change room hearing from the chairman of the team license holder how he is wanting to close up shop because he's worried he wont be able to pay his kids private school fees ( big shout out there to Bernie )

The viabilty of NBL teams does not rest firstly on the depth of player talent pool, or even on your on-court competitiveness, its the quality of the management decisions and the stability of the revenue flow.

Drew Petrie also does not have a contract in the NBL ;)

If you took all those second-string players from the current teams they would be too weak. The strength of the league at the moment is the depth of the rosters, when a starter goes off or there is an injury they are being replaced by someone decent, instead of a token development player.

At the start of the season you would have included Sobey in that list. Imagine how bad ADL would be situated if they had let him go before they knew Creek was going to have a long term injury.

If you're judging that they wouldn't be good enough based on what they've shown so far, stuck down the end of a bench or past their peak, then think how much better they might become if given lots of playing time under a good coach.

Sobey is an obvious example of someone who really stepped up once he got more playing time. And some of the older players probably were in a rut and just need a change.