Yuge signing

Well, he's saying all the right things about how he should be playing, he'll just need to put it into practice now. Was on the cards for a long time, so not surprising to see it.

What's the point of following this league anymore? Adding KD and Delly to this already expensive roster is just taking the piss.

Cooks biggest contract in NBL history, then they sign Delly who had a number of teams after him and now they sign Kendric Davis, the MVP runner up. On top of players like Kouat Noi and even Bul Kuol, who's contract is expensive enough the Kings chose to marquee his contract last season and only go with two imports.

I could understand say a Perth being able to afford KD as a replacement for Cotton but with their already expensive roster and making a big splash with Delly replacing Jaylen Adams under no cicrumstances should they be allowed to add KD too.

Too expensive for Adelaide to re-sign what's the bet we get the BS spiel from the NBL talking heads that KD took a pay cut for the honour to play in Sydney? This is sickening.

Kendric Davis has signed a one-year deal with the Sydney Kings, creating one of the NBL's most fascinating pairings: "If I do my end and win, do everything we need to do... they believe they can get me to the NBA," Davis told ESPN.

That's fked

Agreed, just a boring and predictable narrative and bad for league balance and identity.

As an Adelaide fan, Sydney fans could probably argue that Adelaide haven't exactly been deprived of talent themselves so some credit to Sydney for spending their money better I suppose. But again just from a narrative and balanced perspective, it’s just so boring to see these players end up in Sydney.

Do we remember the points cap? Is it time to consider something like it?

It’s important to remember though the previous two champions have been built of mostly culture and coaching, so we shouldn’t automatically assume Sydney is already in the box seat like we sometimes do when teams manage to seriously stack.

Did anyone actually want Davis back? My only argument for it was something like: "If Adelaide are going to be a circus anyway, they may as well be a talented and continuous circus." Other than that, I’m not too bothered he’s not playing in Adelaide anymore if he was indeed part of the problem.

watch them still not make the final 4

The big big difference between Adelaide last season and Sydney this season is KD was a nobody when he came to the NBL. Fresh out of the G-League, undersized at 5'11", undrafted, first stop outside the US, he would've come to the Sixers relatively cheap.

Since then KD has had an MVP runner up season in the NBL and has been playing very well in China, so his asking price now should be beyond the means of an NBL team. But he's signed with a team that just landed the biggest Aussie FA on the market (Delly) combined with already having the most expensive player in NBL history (Cooks).

For all the good LK has done the arms race is out of control now.

I imagine the narrative that will come out is Delly took unders to play with Goorj and allow "roster flexibility" and that's how they signed KD.

They're already spinning "the Kings will help me get to the NBA" crap, like KD has got any hope of ever making the NBA. It's so fucked up.

Yet Cairns still hasn't signed a coach (which makes it hard to sign players who aren't just looking for an opportunity). And the entire roster they sign will likely come in under the salary of 2 or 3 Kings.

I get it - you have to pay money to attract a certain quality of player, so a hard cap probably can't work.

That said, you can bleat on til the cows come home about luxury taxes etc. but whatever things the current system achieves, levelling the competition/talent isn't one of them.

Big-budget Goorjian strikes again!! What's the bet that he won’t see out the season?

But Bogut said that Sydney don't spend that much. Surely he wouldn't lie...

Never fear because apparently KD is such a cancer in the locker room that this will backfire!!

Gonna be fun watching him tear us apart just like all the other ex Sixer players we let go.

https://x.com/OlgunUluc/status/1912307755945476422

False narrative on hoops. What a surprise.

Olgun has no idea what teams are spending on their rosters, he admits that. There is the official Salary Cap which means virtually nothing given the myriad of loopholes to hide actual spend i.e. only about $150k of Cooks' $1.2M salary counts against the cap.

The 'Cash spend' chart he comes up with is his attempt to try and work out what the teams are actually spending on their rosters, info he's not privy to.

Perth are always very high spending, they have to pay overs to get talent to move there and it was rumoured that Trez contract at Adelaide was paid in full or in part by LK so does that count as Adelaide spending x on their roster?

Neither of those teams would've spent what the Kings spent on their roster last season and now they've added KD and Delly to it, obviously at the expense of Adams and maybe Oliver.

Its a conspiracy cause we all know Larry loves the Kings!

Sydney's the biggest market in the NBL.

"Perhaps" KD's partner got a highly paid office job at Sydney Kings while he is playing for a base rate?

I hear why nbl followers are dark on this but I'd rather he's in the league than not.

And it helps the passion in the league when everyone hates sydney stacking their team so badly (to make up for their flawed culture and poor coaching).

So let's embrace it and take pleasure in watching goorj botch it and claim he's a quality player short!!

I disagree, Zodiac.

Sydney isn't the biggest market, it’s just the flakiest. The NBL needs a Sydney team to succeed. If Kings aren’t doing well enough, their 'fans’ will quickly find other things to distract them, which is why the NBL will (seem to) bend over backwards to help the Kings succeed.

All that is true but it is also the biggest city and they play in the biggest stadium in the league with the most potential for growth.

As to Felix, wait and see what Melb United do this offseason, they'll sign one or two very big fish too and the arms race between the Big 2 will really kick off.

Adelaide top 3 in cap spend last 3 seasons.
1st in Coach spend too!

We are a rabble.

Re Kings: Its weak to claim a team just buy the best when they are not close to the biggest spenders every season.

Zodiac love kd great signing, but have they not learned anything from last season , basically just signing for talent rather than needs
they have dumped a heap of money on delly who is pretty much cooked as any type of offensive threat still pretty good defensively but why waste the money when they have kuol , should have spent the money on an elite 5 will get absolutely torched inside again

Kings now have 3 marquees and 1 import;

Delly;
Cooks;
Kuol; and
Davis.

That is the limit under NBL rules.

To get an import big, Kuol will need to be taken off as a marquee. Assume he is on the lowest contract. That would then surely take them into significant luxury tax territory but maybe they don't care and will just pay.

Otherwise, that is it and their front court deficiencies will need to solved with locals.

By my count they now have 9 locals

Robertson
Bruce
Delly
Noi
Kuol
Cooks
Galloway
Leaupepe
Maluach

That's the limit isn't it?

W14, with Davis that is 10 full roster spots filled. So still one to go to get to 11. The only NBL rules I am aware of in terms of roster construction are the bottom 5 spend floor and the marquee/import limit of 4. There is no limit on locals that I am aware of. In theory, I think a team could have no imports and 4 marquees meaning all 11 roster spots are locals.

cheers KL, would be interesting to see a team go down that route one day of loading up on high level locals, and no imports

Yeah I don't think there is a limit on locals, Melb Utd only went with one import Ian Clark two seasons ago.

On the Kings final spot on the last NBL Markeplace video thing they said the Kings are looking at a Marcus Lee-type for their 5 man, which probably means Marcus Lee.

MU have almost done it. They had JLA, Delly and Goulding all as marquees in 2024 and just Clark as an import

Also means they must have given up chasing Reyne Smith with Maluachs's signing so Baller’s mail he will be a JJ looking good.

Appears that the Kings are going with two imports, and its going to be a Marcus Lee type big (which they sorely needed given none of Cooks, Leaupepe or Oliver looked entirely comfortable at the 5).

Import (Lee?) / Leaupepe
Cooks (MP) / Noi
Kuol / Galloway / Maluach
Davis* / Robertson
Dellavedova (MP) / Bruce

They'll surely take Kuol off the MP status - surely between Leaupepe, Robertson and Maluach aren't on a bunch more than the minimum ($79k) which is helping the cause of both the salary cap and meeting the Five-Player Maximum rule.

The Kings may sign a new Next Star too as Toohey's deal has ended.

If the hawks and jack jumpers are smart they will now go out and find the absolute best back up 5 imports they can find go after what will be the kings biggest weakness

Firstly, Brian has no clue so he's bound to stuff it up. Unless they "mutually" part ways, in other words sack him and Bogut takes over.
And Davis believing Brian's crap about how he can get him to the NBA, if he believes Brian's ego trip he's in for a shock.

Secondly, Davis won't be able to pull his shit with Delly, Bogut, Cooks and even Brian. Will make his tantrums with Wells look miniscule. 100% there'll be punches thrown, add Kuol, Bruce and Leaupepe to that list.

Back to Brian, what offence is he going to pretend to run? Davis will want the ball all the time, Delly will just try and use old man at rec centre backing his player in to get his points. Cooks will just have to rely on offensive rebounds and transition, will definitely get a habit playing with Davis. And Noi saved them throughout last season, when's he going to get any opportunities.

Sydney just doing Sydney and Brian things, spend big and hope it works out. And will be absolutely killed inside.

Only interesting thing is who will get sacked first.

That's just it as KD has played in the NBL before the Kings will be stuck with him all season ala Cam Oliver last season.

Olgun says the Kings are probably going to spend about the same if not less on this roster than last season! Yeah, nah.

He also says Aussies are on a lot less than imports and that Delly would be on significantly less than Jaylen Adams! I doubt that. Cooks is the highest paid player ever.

Even the spin from these NBL Media guys is so low grade.

More Olgun spin KD was always on the periphery of the drama in Adelaide? He was the cause of most of it, he physically attacked the coach.

United only had 1 import in 2021 when they won the title

This is gonna be an interesting season. Davis will spend most of his time getting shots off the ball. Different role to Adelaide.

Goorjian is gonna get him to the NBA! Yeah sure. National bullshit association.

Watch previous Market Place episodes. Olgun was particularly scathing of KD's character to the point it seemed personal and has been the key person most negative about KD since he first got here.

So he went from saying no NBL team was interested in KD given his attitude (suggesting despite his talent, he would ruin club culture), to now pumping up his tyres and trying to be his best mate when he interviewed KD given he signed with Sydney.

I didn't realise how intertwined Olgun was in Sydney, being a yes man. This makes me sceptical about anything he reports now including the team spends

Olgun started out being quite reliable and interesting, then he sold out and went to being just the NBL mouthpiece.

I suppose he had to chase the money while he could, just like we expect players to.

What's the point of following this league anymore? Adding KD and Delly to this already expensive roster is just taking the piss.

I dont necessarily think you can blame Olgun, he can only tell us what he knows or is being told.

The league has no transparency, that is part of the LK package. If it suits the league/club narrative that KD is uncoachable or whatever then that is what we are going to hear.

Similarly with the rumour that Dech was asking too much. We dont really know if that was true, how can we check? if the 36ers wanted an excuse to get rid of him its an easy leak for them.

One thing we do know is that Goorg does not tollerate overdribbling, so how that plays out is going to be fascinating viewing. Maybe KD was told to dribble the air out of the ball at Adelaide? we just dont know, but KD at the Kings is going to be very enlightening for many reasons.

Perthworld- Violet Crumbles have more trophies this decade than my 36ers and your Wildcats....combined.

If Kings go after a Lee type that will help a lot with their interior D BUT they will will have worse spacing issues then last season.

Cooks needs to be teamed with a 5 that can stretch the floor surely.