Aren't both Fotu brothers in Japan, if so they will be very late on arrival. I also believe that Glover is going to Ludwigsburg if my information is correct plus isn’t he getting married as well.

Also there a lot good players not playing in nbl1 comps. Ludwigsburg also has at least two months of season left.

Possibly Dunkman, a lot of the good talent for NZNBL turns up a round or 2 into the season. This preseason tournament has mostly just been the locals and a few of the Americans

Interesting about the Indian team. Has an overseas team ever been based in another country entirely (I don't think the word is ironic, but Breakers in Australia during covid is only thing close I can think of and it's relatively close and play half their games here anyway).
Have no clue about their players, only remember Sim Bhullar, but will they be competitive or rely entirely on non Indian players. And would they have scoured nbl1 teams trying to find any players of Indian descent to join.
Huge market obviously, wonder if they'll get any tuning in and what the home crowd will be like in terms of numbers. One way to tap into Asian market.
I wonder in theory the NBL could put a Chinese or Japanese backed team into somewhere like Darwin that would struggle with crowds relative to other markets and rely on financial backing and tv revenue from overseas to make up the difference. Get the best 5 from that country and use them as the bench I guess with imports and a couple of premium Aussies as the main players. Surely their best could be on par with NBL benches, as 6th, 7th and 8th players at worst. Throw in a couple of home games overseas per year.
May be a ridiculous idea, but I'm a bit bored ATM. Can't be worse than an Indian team in New Zealand.

Yes Phantom, it's a real strange one. The best case scenario would be that the Indian guys ball out, the imports rock, the team goes to the playoffs and gets good crowds (they're basing themselves in Auckland, presumably the biggest Indian community in NZ).

Worst case is this disrupted preseason sets them off on the wrong foot, their roster isn't up to standard and they downright suck.

I could see them winning a few games but I don't know how the crowds and Indian attention will go.

They are eligible to sign Kiwis but right now they're roster is about half a dozen Indian guys and the American Alex Robinson

Update on the Taranaki situation- Glover seems like he'll be in Germany more or less the entire NZ season, so the Airs have replaced him (and this is obviously not a like for like replacement) with Harry Froling

Update on the Taranaki situation- Glover seems like he'll be in Germany more or less the entire NZ season, so the Airs have replaced him (and this is obviously not a like for like replacement) with Harry Froling

Can't see how the Panthers will be sustainable.

No coach announcement or player signings until last week
Tickets only start selling yesterday
Visa delay which means no blitz
Not a good start

Would say Panthers are entirely self funded, either by private enterprise or some government grant. The way the Indian economy is growing is they'll be on par with China, so even a tiny minority watch it streamed, it could open up further.
Home crowd would be non existent to begin with, but get word out in the community, free tickets with your curry, and they might grow. Can say a lot about Indians but they're always passionate about their sporting teams.
Teams budgets nowhere near NBL, so it's really just a step up from nbl1. But agree it seems a bit rushed and disorganised. Maybe they had a domestic league and it just finished? Presumably they have a coach organised but no clear details anywhere apart from the American and Indian players.

coach is Miles Pearce, 72 NBL games, NZ national team playing experience, and coached several of the NZ national junior teams

Good move for Nick Marshall signing with Wellington he needs to change things up. Putting up numbers with Mt Gambier every off-season and then struggling with the Sixers is getting him nowhere.

Needs to take a punt if he wants to keep having a pro career and this is likely a good option for him. Out of his comfort zone and as an import over there will have the pressure to produce and if he plays well who knows what other NBL doors that may open.

I'm interested in how the Indian Panthers will go. I had thought Everard Bartlett would be coaching them - he's currently coaching one of the Indian league teams, but Miles Pearce was an assistant over there. I hear they'll be signing NZ talent, and Taane Samuel and Elijah Puna would be sensible locals (plus resolve what looks to be a dearth of big men in their squad). Likely to go with players who just played in inBL, which includes the US players.

Availability is going to be critical. There's rumours Jordan Ngatai will play for the Saints, but his Austrian league won't be ready until later in the season. Jordan Hunt could be affected by this too. Then you have Shea Ili and Rob Loe playing the NBL finals.

Predictions are a Final 6 of the Rams, Giants, Saints, Tuatara, Airs and Jets.
Tuatara with all of Loe/Vodanovich/Fotu will be favourites in the Final 6.

Good predictions PyroCross, maybe swap the Jets for the Whai but otherwise I agree

The shit show of the Indian Panthers continues

The Indian Panthers preseason has not gone as smoothly as ownership of the newest Sal's NBL team would have liked, and now on the eve of their first ever game on Wednesday night an Indian national team camp has left the Panthers waiting a little longer for eight players.

Already hampered by a late finish to the Indian InBL Pro League, which meant the Panthers had to bypass last week's Westside Blitz due to visa issues, the latest hurdle will mean coach Miles Pearce is unlikely to have his full roster until later this month.

However, with a quick change of plans comes opportunity, and this Wednesday's season-opener will now see a mostly Kiwi team take the floor for the Panthers before the Indian national team players arrive in New Zealand.

Speaking in behalf of the League, Casey Frank, the Leagues Media, Fans & Brand Manager, said it was a hiccup, but one that has seen a number of Kiwi players pitch in to help the Panthers out.

"Similar to when the Tall Blacks call up players from the Sal's NBL for national team duty, the same applies for the Panthers and the Indian national team," said Frank.

"Ideally you would like it to occur out of season for us, but it happens and it's been great to see a number of Kiwi players step up to help out.

"What the Panthers and Basketball New Zealand are doing is to a size and scale we have never seen in a New Zealand sports competition before, so we'll roll with the punches and do all we can to support the Panthers until their national team players arrive."

This reason for the late decision to hold a camp is because the Indian Basketball Federation has called for an extended national team roster to attend camp as they prepare for the just announced FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifying tournament, for which the Indian National team is yet to book its place in.

With games having just been confirmed from March 21-23, the Indian National team preparations have quickly begun in earnest, which means most of the Panthers Indian roster has become unavailable.

To ensure the Sal's NBL season tips off on schedule the NBL Commission has granted a special dispensation to the Panthers that allows them to make a roster of Kiwi-players for the first few games of the 2025 season. While roster details are yet to be confirmed this course of action was seen as a necessary step to ensure that the 2025 season would be able to commence as scheduled.

The 2025 Sal's NBL season tips off this Wednesday when the Indian Panthers visit the Hawkes Bay Hawks - catch all the action like on Sky Sport from 6pm (NZT, on ESPN in the United States, and across the world on FIBA YouTube.

Thanks for the lead in word. Nicely done. Pumped for this season and there's some nice rosters amongst the league. Maybe talent spread more than previous seasons?? But it still appears a three horse race to me - rams clear favorites then tuatara and saints to challenge.

Would love anyone to knock those guys out of the running!

I reckon so Kolzee, big talent spread. At least a couple of Aus NBL quality players on just about every roster. I also think your top 3 will be bang on, with Nelson best of the rest, curious your thoughts on the so far disasterous Indian Panthers experiment?

Yeah it's an interesting one. Apparently most of their players are away on a national team camp for the first round or two which turns it into a farce. It's not fiba break so that shouldn't have been allowed.

I actually quite liked the idea in principle though. Just execution poor.

What do you reckon??

Well as your post said it's the first few games so not great.

Couldn't they have let the Panthers add the rest of the national squad for the first few games and used it for their camp?? Would have made the comp more interesting too

Agree on the good idea, poor execution, i just think all this preseason disruption means they're going to struggle on court, and they'll need big crowds and Indian viewerships to justify it all

Bulls sign Te Rangi, good signing for them to play with the Cameron bros

The bulls will be putting a lot of threes up with those guys together... I can tell you that much!

Looking forward to watching a few of the young stars get some time. Especially Jackson ball before he heads to Wisconsin. Sounds like he dominated the blitz

yes on one of the seemingly weaker rosters he could have a huge year

Tip off about to begin for the first game of the year, India playing with a roster full of temporary Kiwis, and Hawkes Bay without their Illawarra trio of Grida, Swaka Lo Buluk and Yates. Good chance for some young Kiwis though

Shoutout whoever talked Leon Henry out of retirement to play for the Panthers tonight!

Hawkes Bay easily get the job done 112-78 against a Panthers team full of Kiwis who only met each other this morning.

2 days after his 17th birthday Jackson Ball drops a ridiculous statline- 40/9/4/2 on 15/19 from the field.

All other Hawks starters in double digits, led by import Cowart with 19/12/7

When the Illawarra boys come in this Hawks Bay Team could become real good.

Highlight for the Panthers import Alex Robinson with 24/7/5/4/1

Henry was +2 on court, pretty good from the savvy vet. Fouled out on a couple very soft calls too!

Agree Jackson Ball future NBL talent

Henry was +2 on court, pretty good from the savvy vet. Fouled out on a couple very soft calls too!

Agree Jackson Ball future NBL talent

What is the nznbl paying at present, certainly seems to be pulling a few away from nbl1. Any idea?

Rams playing without the imports and Brown, but still did not expect them to cop the 70-86 loss to Tauranga.

Kruz P-H with a career high 27pts

Whai easy win as expected last night, think the Sharks will pants the Nuggets today. SEN pulling out means no Perth connection and on top of that they have only 1 import available yikes.

Good call on the Sharks W Duke, their imports look top tier

Watched some of the big guy with the wild look during his college days for the Huskers. Was all hustle and rebounding, showed a lot more today, be interesting how he goes versus some professional competition.

Jets and Bulls for me tomorrow, who are you liking?

Yes Josiah Allick, was great fun watching him out there.

I'm going for the Jets, the Hawks big win on Wednesday didn’t impress me that much considering the opposition. Looking forward to watching Jackson Ball again though.

As for the Auckland derby I’m leaning towards the Bulls also, especially if their latest signing Okwera is available

We'll see if we know what we're talking about after tomorrow then lol.

Jackson Ball definitely going to be top of the scouting report for the Jets, keen to see what he has to offer against Webster. Should be a good day of hoops!

Hawks win a thriller 103-100, 36 from Ball

time to reconsider the Hawks ceiling, especially seeing as the Illawarra boys are still to arrive

awful commentary though

Poor performance by the Jets. 0 point from the bench. Import Mitchell in foul trouble almost all game long.

Easy win for Franklin

all the stars come to play as Taranaki beat Wellington 115-110 in a Double OT classic.

=Wellington
Marshall- 25/7/4/1/1
Bruce- 28/7/3
Harris- 20/12/6
Muszynski- 18/14/3/3/6

=Taranaki
Davison- 36/4/4/5/1
Froling- 32/12/2/1/2
Foxwell- 15/9/7/1

Wellington certainly pissed that one down their leg today.

Nice to see big Harry making an impact after all his troubles.

2 weeks in and the Hawks and Bulls look the goods. Strong signs from the Rams, Jets and Whai too.

Slow starts from Auckland, Nelson and Wellington, still time for them to get into gear.

Panthers are absolutely nowhere right now.

Individually Corey Webster is balling, and Froling, Foxwell, Ball and Carey are among the others who have made a strong start to proceedings

Auckland should win today I think, they are desperate for Hickey to arrive to give them a back court punch.

Hawks very impressive this year still with their contingent of NBL guys to arrive they are my smokey at a playoff push

Whai survive and go 3-1, sending to the tuatara to something of a shocking 0-3 start.

Loe and Hickey can't arrive soon enough

Dont forget about Fotu aswell. Wonder what week of the season Tommy V will actually arrive, he was awful again tonight when he needed to step up. Big fan of his so been a hard watch the first 3 games.

Todd Withers is gonna have some fun this season

27/17/2/1/3 in the nuggets upset W against Manawatu

A Friday night double header sees Franklin beat Nelson 94-83 and Tauranga beat India 102-73

Bulls look good but did anyone predict Nelson starting 0-3??

Tauranga with a strong start to their campaign, Panthers still miles off being any good

Oh and the panthers crowd? 289.... yeah this experiment won't last

Taranaki rip apart Hawkes Bay and Carlin Davison puts up the triple double

15/11/10

Auckland finally get a win, sending Nelson to 0-4

Good to see the Panthers (finally) produce a full roster. I don't understand how they're going to market to India if their social media accounts have less than 100 followers (the majority of which are in NZ) and no website to speak of.

Based on inBL Pro stats and some Asian qualifier information - this looks to be their roster..

Princepal Singh (6'10') / Shengzhe Li* (6'11' - didn't play INBL but was a depth player in Japan B2)
Arvinder Singh (6'9') / Visakh Manoj (6'5') / Sejin Mathew (6'5')
Aaron Blessen (6'4') / Lokendra Singh (6'5') / Leon Henry (NZ)
Jaylen Gerrand (NZ, 6'0') / Riyanshu Negi (6'4') / Tushal Singh (5'11')
Alex Robinson Jr* (6'1') / Jaideep Rathore (6'1') / Gurbaz Sandhu (6'0')

I'm expecting to see an additional signing or two (Taane Samuel would make a ton of sense, given he played inBL last month and Lamar Patterson would enable the Panthers ownership to say they have three G-League+ players). Am particularly interested in how their 5's perform - they'll certainly have the height and exposure at other international competitions.

I like the Taane Samuel call, deserved more of an NBL chance

Nuggets send the hopeless Panthers to 0-5, Hickey drops 29/11/11/1/1 on debut to lead Auckland to the W over Southland

Bulls stake their championship claim with a big W against the Rams

Wellington by 25+ tonight. Thought the Rams lost a bit of their continuity last night adding the new import, Macdonald still to come in so no real worries.

Play of the game was the Bulls coach copping a tech, never looked like losing after that. Completely turned the game on its head!