Thats going to be a dangerous backcourt.

Leslie, Lisch, Cadee and Prewster?

Takes a load off Lisch and allows him to be his natural 2.

Even more dangerous if Cadee can find his stroke like the first half of last year.

Pretty good summary of his journey so far:

https://www.clipsnation.com/2016/8/15/12473594/where-are-they-now-travis-leslie

Nice! The rumours were a guard from the Indiana SL team but we weren't sure if it'd be Leslie since he looked likely to get a two-way contract at the very least. Was guessing it'd be McKinney-Jones.

Prewster is not contracted this season and unlikely to return. Cadee might come off the bench now as the main backup PG. The speculation is that if the second import is the guard talked about then its almost certain that they will sign Amritpal Singh with possibly Adam Thoseby taking the last spot.

Good scoop from the writer getting this info. Nothing yet from the Kings members email, and usually they beat the media outlets with signings.

Hopefully he can be what Bryson should have been a year ago - super athlete, but one who can score.

Many would disagree, but I'd love the 3rd slot to be the return of Josh Powell. Great in the community, time to adjust to the reffing, and would compliment what they already have. If Maric is indeed not coming back on a reworked deal, they d need one more big man.

"Many would disagree, but I'd love the 3rd slot to be the return of Josh Powell."

Powell obviously had the skills but seemed to me just cruising and not 100% interested.

Kings can do better.

@Chris, Aleks Maric already signed with Al Muharaqq in Bahrain Premier League some 6 weeks ago.

As for Sam Daly, you sure anon? I'm surprised they went for him over Thoseby based on the China performance.

I still have never seen any mention of Whittington from anyone with the Kings since last season. He must have done something off court that resulted in their total non interest in him. He was excellent for most of last season, and the fact he didn't need shots to be effective was all the better on that squad.

Chris,

You have got to be kidding. Powell = brainsnaps and foul outs that costed us the play offs. Most of the time looked disinterested and could not give a sh.t

Putting a real heavy reliance on a 19 year old in the middle, but I like the look of Leslie. We can roll out some interesting 4-guard(ish) lineups at times, but I can see us getting killed on the glass night in night out.

Played some very good games for the Pacers in Summer League this year. Should be a pretty solid signing.

lol... No essay from me today... at least, that's not my intention starting this post... we'll see how it ends up...

So the Kings signed an import guard, but not a PG... And they're selling him (at least in the members email) as an "athletic swingman" which is the last thing we need...

There's always a problem finding minutes for all the players, but when you go overboard in a couple of positions while neglecting others, that's just going to cause trouble...

He sounds like an exciting player, or at least he was a couple of seasons ago when he was actually playing, but it looks like this signing will force Lisch to at least start as the PG, and with no real facilitator, Kings fans will be in for another season of "pass it around until someone is open or the shot clock runs out and force up a shot and hope it drops".

And not joining the team until later this month... Like Perry, who was signed ages ago... When the benchmark for NBL teams already have both of their imports in town and training with the team... It's not a coincidence...

@Chris - sorry mate, but you've got rocks in your head... Powell was great off court, but you can't sign someone who was a, I stop short of calling him a cancer as that is reserved for someone like Sam Young, liability (being generous) on the court and 95% of the time didn't seem interested and had less effort than me at the salad bar at Sizzler...

As for Whittington, he started off well, but "most of the season" is way off... After the first third, he went really down hill and wasn't effective at all and had the sooks more than any other player in the league, which is saying something...

Takes a load off Lisch and allows him to be his natural 2.

LOL at "good scoop"

@Wookie - well written, and your concerns are valid.

Leslie looks legit, but his effectiveness will all be based on team chemistry.

I don't think the Kings can win it if Lisch primary role is PG

Hehe relax Wookiee, he may not be a PG but he has outstanding enough ballhandling skills where he will be very comfortable in a lot of PG situation. There's a clip of him doing Randle-esque hero ball move breaking down Jonathan Isaac in an iso. Isaac is one very long, athletic defender that is a nightmare to get past for a lot of smaller guys.

From the playing roster only Humphries, Garlepp and Pineau will suit up vs Oklahoma. The rest are invited players: Deng Acouth, Adam Thoseby, Sam Daly, Lachlan Baker and a few others I can't recall. Check the Kings website they have announced the invitational roster for sure.

"How does signing someone who isn't a PG and will be competing with him for SG minutes take the load off Lisch?"

The article had him as a playmaker so I took it he was a PG.

They're not going to sake Australia's Favourite NBL Golden Boy, which was always the danger in signing him. Well, one of them... Him not having any actual NBL level coaching experience was a huge one was well...

They'll scapegoat the imports and then find more excuses if and when things don't go to plan... Then if it was hugely bad, he will head back to Melbourne for "personal reasons" or new adventures... And we will start this mess all over again...

Sorry anon, can't say Gaze isn't part of the problem. Sure he is not the only cause of last season's disappointing finish, the recruiting certainly had issues, the imports' attitudes were questionable and little things like injuries here and there, but Gaze's inexperience certainly had an impact.

I'm not sure the shuffle will totally go this coming season. That squad has way too many scorers with a penchant for outside shooting with a risky reliance on young, inexperienced bigs as pointed out by the ever-distraught Wookiee :).

No question the Kings were unbalanced, especially when they didn't replace Blake with a PG, but that Kings offense last year was atrociously predictable.

"Pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-pass-jack up contested shot... sonofa!"
-- Ever Distraught Wookiee in 16-17

Agree that Gaze isn't in on the make up of players (although wasn't he keen on Ellis last season and now they've got him? Or is that just him towing the party line?) but a more experienced coach could have gotten better out of them...

Couple of brain fades and no-heart efforts aside and they could have been in the playoffs, but that still doesn't get them there...

Will see how they all click when the imports FINALLY get here, our AsiaPac Boomers get back and once three weeks into the season, they finally complete their side with whatever random is around and is teh exact opposite of what suits our needs...

Replacing Blake with Garrett Jackson was one of the most bizare decisions I've seen a contender team make.

Noting that at Blake's leaving the Kings were still firmly in the top 4.

Groves was bankrupted over Adelaide Dome actually, well after the 'purchase' of the Bullets' championship so plenty of moolah left over there.

Gaze and Copeland definitely knows a lot about X&Os but do they understand strategy? If you don't have the players to run your chosen tactic why didn't you pick one that was better suited to what you had? Opponents obviously picked up on what they run on both ends of the floor at the latter part of the season, where was the adjustment?

To be fair, they did make some adjustments but it was too little too late and that can be put down to inexperience. Well this season, he'll have a better idea and way better personnel to play with so you'd hope he will be prepared to run completely different tactics for different parts of the season.

SteveK2, I think you will find Groves was bankrupted after the catastrophic collapse of the ABC Learning Centres business in the US at the time of the subprime mortgage crisis.

His NBL interests were small fry collateral damage.

Contrary to popular belief XY, Groves wasn't declared bankrupt over the ABC saga. He sure had a massive bullseye on him but the Federal government used our hard-earned taxes to loan it to the company that bought most of ABC franchises over concerns with jobs and child care crisis. That allowed him to dodge the bullets (pun fully intended).

He was still wheeling and dealing in other businesses with more creditors closing in. Westpac tried to get him but failed over his helicopter business until Commonwealth Bank managed to get him over the loan to purchase that arena in an Adelaide court through a sequestrian order.

SteveK2, my point is that the Dome was to Groves financial woes as mail fraud was to Al Capone's criminal enterprises. Not disputing the order of events with you.

Fair enough XY, you're correct in that context. What he got done for and the way it was carried out was petty compared to the ABC collapse.

Sorry anon, its the off-season for both NBL and NBA. Will latch on to any topic that's mildly interesting.