Will he be on the second unit behind Jawai?

Jawai's likely to miss the start of the season so he should get some good minutes..

Mm Cairns are better off with Egwu starting I think. Jawai would benefit playing against teams second bigs.

IN THE NBL Egwu is better suited to the 5 spot then Nate...in saying that !

Egwu only in his second or third pro season, he's only going to get better. He can actually shoot it a bit too, something I hope he gets to do a bit more next season.

How's he been going in NZ?

Quality 3rd import, but Cairns are going to need to knock it out of the park with their #1 import.

They'll pick up another college pg for sure.

I'm intrigued by the roster spot left by Wortho, will they put Weigh up to PF and give more minutes to McCarron at SF or are they going to go a PF import or share minutes between Weigh, Laughton, Jawai and Egwu in the post.

Can't wait to see Cairns hit with court again

With the NBL's desire to make entry into the Asian market, and the resulting allowance for teams to recruit Asian based players as non-restricted players, perhaps a new Taipans line-up could look like this (assuming Heuir will sign as the 11th man):

Import*1/Weeks/Heuir
Gliddon/McCarron/Heuir
Asian^/Weigh/McCarron
Import*2/Loughton/Weigh
Egwu*/Jawai/Loughton.

This gives us the option to go small, with Import*1, McCarron, Gliddon, Weigh, Import*2. It also allows a much bigger front court line up, Import*1, Gliddon, Weigh, Egwu, Jawai. It also assumes there's an Asian import of enough quality to take a starting spot.

Alternatively, Fearne could look at sliding Gliddon to 3, if he thinks McCarron is ready to start and Heuir is ready for some meaningful minutes off the bench:

Import*1/Weeks/Heuir
McCarron/Heuir/Gliddon
Gliddon/Weigh/McCarron
Import*2/Loughton/Weigh
Egwu*/Jawai/Loughton.

The starting 4 position is a big issue, though, if Fearne goes with a US import 3:

Import*1/Weeks/Heuir
Gliddon/McCarron/Heuir
Import*2/Weigh/McCarron
?????/Loughton/Weigh
Egwu*/Jawai/Loughton.

Are there decent quality Aussies returning from College ball who could fill a starting 4 role?

I'm in agreeance with the posters, above, who have suggested Nate would be better off the bench. My only concern is that the second unit chemistry from last season could be ruined by that. I'd rather have a better first unit than second, though.

You mention Asian players. What kind of Asian players are we likely to get who would come to us as well as enhance the NBL?

If they are already very good, then why would they want to move to Oz where they'd be small fish in a big pond?
If they're past it at home, then they might move to Oz but why would they when they'd get very few minutes?
If they're promising youngsters, then if we could offer them good development and a path to the NBA then they might come, but I can't see that happening.

I would love it to happen but just can't see how it can work.

@Hoopie, the simple answer is "I don't know." Perhaps the powers that be, in the NBL, know more about the scope of Asian basketballers out there - remember, this is where Tai Wesley comes from - and there could be a market for players to develop their games in a league that would get more light than what they would see in their home competitions.

I doubt there will be many starters coming from Asian leagues into the NBL in the near future, so I hope that's not the way the Taipans will go. I was just positing an idea.

I do think it's more likely we would see back-up guards coming out of Asian leagues; if Bo Liu represents the talls that are out there, there's not much to pick from! Asian populations tend to be large, so there will eventually be players at NBL level to come from there.

Hoopie, outside of having to overpay to make it happen, I'm also skeptical. There is good money in China and the Philippines which would be the stronger countries in the region.

Might be a better tactic to follow the CBA lead of getting NBA veterans in and hoping that China tunes in to watch them play NBL.

But the NBL is just too solid and competitive for veterans to come here assuming an easy ride. Sam Young or whoever he was, Josh Powell, etc - might get highlights, but didn't translate to championships.