Yes imo. I think its mostly due to the quality of the imports in recent years though

true, but some of the best aussies are in the NBA. 20yrs ago, Delly is not playing in the NBA.

thanks mate.

ive always been a massive bball fan. Whilst i took a hiatus from the NBA i continued to be a big follower of the NBA. i dont know exactly why i stopped properly following the NBL in the late90s and through the 2000s. i think once i got to Uni i just had other things to do and i cant remember if the nbl was on free to air tv? i didnt have foxtel back then.

this year ive purchased season tix to the 36ers and gone to every game. also, the new NBL Fantasy game is great and playing the game gets you up to speed with the rest of the league very quickly.

so yeh, ive been super impressed with the league. the officiating could be a bit better but whatever.

would you say that the league is going through a little surge in popularity since this Larry fella bought the NBL?

Yes.

Strongest it's ever been since I've been following reasonably closely (since 2001).

The recent changes have contributed:

- Marquee players. Now, multiple marquee players which means the salary cap is officially a soft cap.

- 3 imports.

- 11 contracted players.

I think it's gotten progressively stronger each year. In 2015 and 2016 we saw a lot of top Aussies/locals returning like Goulding, Penney, Lisch, Jawai, Ogilvy etc. And at the same time, we've had great imports like Cotton and Randle joining the league. And we've got a number of coaches who have been long time NBL coaches and won championships, all settled long term with their clubs (Bevo, Wright, Gleeson) and that contributes to the quality too.

Add Fearne too. Never won a championship but a great coach. And has been in Cairns forever.

Most things about the League have certainly improved. All bar the refs and Andrew Gaze's coaching

Loving the returning gun imports, definitely helps build it back to a star driven league, which builds excitement for certain matchups and games..

Goulding, Penney, Lisch, Jawai, Ogilvy

Can someone explain what the salary cap rules are?

so there is a cap but you can sign one guy that doesnt count towards the cap?

Question I'd like to put to the floor, is the quality of the league the highest its been since those early to mid 90s days?

Definitely one of the things I can agree with is that the standard of the league is very high. With only space for about 50 odd Aussies, the competition is clearly very tough. I don't know whether there is more talent now (we used to have the bulk of Boomers teams that were world class playing here, along with similar level imports) but it is definitely more concentrated, which gives you more common games at a higher level.
I'd still prefer to have more opportunities for Aussie players, but certainly can't argue against the current quality of the teams. They're the best that money can buy.

Overall quality of the league is the highest since I've watched NBL (10 or so years - too young to comment on what it was like in the 90s).

With that being said; I don't necessarily think the bench players are any better (or worse) than historically. With respect; NZB, though on fire at the moment, don't really have the deepest bench.

But certainly the overall jump in the quality of the league has been driven by the sheer quality of some of the starting 5's (and 6th men in some cases maybe more) teams can put out there.

"Question I'd like to put to the floor, is the quality of the league the highest its been since those early to mid 90s days?"

The standard of play in that late 80s-early 90s era was quite low, but the entertainment was high because a lot of teams didn't put a great emphasis on defence and the lack of depth of locals meant imports could dominate.

To me the periods where the standard has been highest were from 97-2002 and from 2014-now, with it improving slightly each year over the past few.

In terms of depth of teams and depth of talent, I don't think it's ever been as good as today, with having all the talent condensed into eight teams obviously helping that.

I absolutely hate the New Zealand Breakers but I'll give them their plaudits, you can't possibly talk about how much better the NBL has become without recognising that New Zealand as a basketballing country has developed some brilliant athletic players and the production line seems to be continuing and because of this no Australian team has settled with Their roster without risking being flogged by the Breakers.

80s refereeing? We've had some out our all time great refs come from then... I wish we could still have Billy Milldenhall and Eddie Crouch, they seemed to ref forever and now they are gone you can tell that most refs are scared

" but the entertainment was high because a lot of teams didn't put a great emphasis on defence and the lack of depth of locals meant imports could dominate."

I read this as 'the defense was not focused on getting away with playing outside ethe rules by psychologically pressuring referees and holding players when in "blind spots"

and this
"I wish we could still have Billy Milldenhall and Eddie Crouch, they seemed to ref forever and now they are gone you can tell that most refs are scared "

as
- they refused to be intimidated by 6 men in black sitting on the bench abusing them.