Mine before NBA games was
Sydney
Perth
Illawarra
Melbourne
NZ
Cairns
Adelaide
Brisbane
What the games taught me is that Abercrombie offensively is declining more each season and Webster will be the MVP this season (as much to do with Braswell as much as his team mates aren't that great). Long and Wesley is an awesome front court but will they be utilized their their fullest potential with their small ball mentality?
Sydney will be fun to watch but they have a horrible bench and if Gaze chooses to bench his whole starting 5 (or at least Randle, Lisch and Newley) then they invite everyone else back into the game. Bogut will be impossible to get around and his basketball IQ and passing will be involved in many highlights this season.
United, McCarron will be Blanchfield cirque II... by Christmas time we will forget how great a player he is as he gets wasted in United.
36ers impressed me against Utah but I still think they will miss the playoffs, you need one team to have issues with Injuries and 36ers could be that team. Sobey was fantastic against Jazz but he has proven himself to both go missing in big games and to be a hothead... only time will tell what he will do when he next needs to stand up again. Jack McVeigh hasn't impressed me as much as I thought he would have yet.
Perth, if they can get an aggressive Norton (penetrating and looking for his shot) and Steindl then they will be a much more formidable team. Kay is still finding his feet in Perth, in Illawarra he didn't have plays ran for him and still gave excellent production... he hasn't given that to Perth yet but I think it's only a matter of time before that happens. I like Perth's squad but I think that they are still missing a guard in this rotation and that will be felt more with Damo/Norton missing games this season. I'm not concerned about the play of Terrico White, I think he needs to crash the boards more and feel more involved that way as he almost feels like he's missing out on court on offense but I'm sure the Wildcats have a few contingency plans just in case.
Hopefully Brandt's injury isn't debilitating throughout the season and he isn't rushed back too early.
I'll stick with Sydney, Perth, Illawarra and Melbourne but if there is a change then Melbourne out for Corey Webster led NZ (they impressed me the most of all the NBL teams but that may be because that is the first game I've ever went for them!)
