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.

A Tanner Groves type would be ideal.

Delly/Bruce
Davis/Robertson
Kuol/Galloway/Maluach
Cooks/Noi
Import/Leaupepe/Spurgin

Haven't they filled all their local/import spots?

Was going to mention Spurgin is contracted in Sydney.
Their roster lacks any real 3 point threats other than Davis.
I can't see Davis being as effective this season with the ball in his hands less and no outside threats which will limit his driving ability.
Can see teams sagging off them, going under screens and clogging the paint (no real talls) until they start shooting 3's efficiently which they will have to do as wont be getting much inside.

They are not a lights out team from 3, but they are not as bad as you are selling Tornado.

Leuapepe 39%
Kuol 39%
Maluach 33%
Delly 33%
Davis 37.5%
Bruce 39%
Noi 39%
Galloway last full season in nbl 34%
Robertson was 28% but is a career mid
30's

For context DJV and CG43 shot 36% last season.

The real Q will be whether the Kings can rebound.

Don't discount Leaupepe having a huge season, was having a nice campaign before the injury

The problem with Adelaides game plan was there was no plan, offensively or defensively.
Can't even describe how bad they were on defence so will leave it at that.
Offensive wise it was Davis looking to score every time he had the ball. When he had no other option, if the ball went to DJ he shot it. If the centre stepped up, Humphries got a layup. Or when Harrell really wanted it in the post, it was just an isolation play and Trez forced it up.
There was no real ball movement, off ball screens, just individual plays.
So what's going to happen in Sydney. Delly will want the ball in his hands a lot, will be a lot of Davis/Cooks pick n roll with everyone else just spaced on the perimeter. It's ridiculous that the NBA plan is someone under 6 feet playing off the ball and being a shooter. And if he gets in Brian's dog house, which he will, it's hard to score off the bench.
They needed a true 2 guard to pair with Delly as well as plugging that big hole in the middle. But there'll be the usual Brian excuses when they start slow, nothing to do with him.
As for the titles comparison and saying Sydney have won more than Adelaide and Perth combined, that's like saying Collingwood had more flags than Gold Coast and Port combined.

My point being is take being a violet crumble if that gets us 2 trophies in last 5 years.

Us poor Adelaide fans havent had one since my son was born, finished uni and had kids.

Is no one going to give a ladder prediction for next year? Have you been burnt too many times?

1. Sydney

2. Daylight


There, I did it.

Sydney are just a nostril or 2 away from it all falling apart in reality

Despite the Kings obliteration of the salary cap this offseason, I don't see the signing of KD going well. In fact I think it could spell the end of Goorjian's coaching career.

Firstly the "This will help me make the NBA" nonsense from KD and the NBL Media clowns as justification for this and not the massive pay day he's getting is rank. 30 NBA teams saw KD in college and passed on him, he went undrafted. Then they all passed on him again in the G-League, no 10 dayer nothing. And then they all passed on him again this offseason. At 5'11" his only possible hope of getting there was as a PG. He's going to play SG at the Kings and no NBA team worth their salt is signing a sub-6 foot SG. So there goes that spin, from people who should frankly know better than to try that on.

Secondly, the reality of KD at the Kings. He's a ball dominant undersized PG without a reliable enough outside shot to play SG. That backcourt of he and Delly shouldn't be to tough to shut down from outside. KD is also a massive hot head as we experienced at the Sixers, physically attacking the coach. That's a low grade person with extreme emotional control issues. Imagine what's going to happen with an aging and stumbling Goorj? Will Bogut jump in or think better of it and let KD have his way with him?

I can't seeing it end well for all concerned and think the Kings will go backwards because of it. It won't be the first time the Kings have spent big on a name who blows up or fails to deliver. The more things change...

A Key piece for the kings will be to get rid of Goorjian as soon as possible. He has to be the most over rated coach in Australia. Shocked that the management team that included Bogut would have gone for him in the first place. Completely found wanting as Boomers coach. He is used to being presented with an unbeatable line up of players that don't need a coach but this is difficult to achieve in the NBL.

Any other decent coach would thrive with the locals on the Kings team along with Delly and KD as guards but Brian has no clue so no confidence there.

I reckon Bogut was brought in to be Goorj's bodyguard in case KD tries to get physical again. LOL

Despite Brian completely destroying the Boomers, could argue he was going against the world's best, so isn't up to international standard. But thought he'd be competent in NBL especially with another loaded roster.
But he turned into the Russell Coight of the NBL. Either he got out of touch overseas and arrogantly kept believing in his own hype, or he literally is going senile. One of the highlights last year in a timeout was designing a play for Cooks only to be told he wasn't in, wasn't even seated I think. Then the dithering afterwards about why he'd been subbed out before the timeout. Apparently assistants have more responsibilities in terms of tracking resting players, but the warning signs were there in boomers where assistants would often take the timeouts themselves.
But the adding of Tomlinsons Uncle Arthur to his Coight was just straight out weird and incompetent.
Maybe they're relying on Davis not punching senior citizens.

Phantom, with what you point out, it's strange that Bogut and Goorjian are in a very similar situation as at the Olympics, Goorj as HC and Bogut his AC.

At the Olympics he was with Boges right from the start, he was not as successful as we had all hoped/expected.

In his 1st season at the Kings, without Boges (as AC), he was even less successful. So he gets Boges back as his AC for his(Goorjian's) 2nd season (25/26) at the head.

Will their reunion turn out any better than their union, it will need to, or will Bogut show that after replacing Goorj at Sydney in 26/27, he should be(have been?) the Boomers' HC from now on?

Siri please translate the above post to English

I think I understand what you mean, but I'm pretty sure Brian didn't go and get Bogut to be AC for next season, Bogut would have wanted to be in the inner sanctum to make sure Brian doesn't mess it up again. And if Brian goes he will be obvious replacement over Uncle Bill to be HC.
Rare for an owner to be one of coaches in a major league. A few dabble in the front office normally to the detriment, Jordan, Jerry Jones and lately Microwave Matt Ishiba. But in the case of Bogut he always had a great basketball IQ on court and would have seen the best in the NBA and how they do things. Brian for the last decade or so has learnt from the likes of the Shanghai Sharks in China.
There's going to be a lot of strong personalities in Sydney next season and can't see them all being on the same page. And the cheapest and easiest one to be subtracted is Brian, which would be addition by subtraction.

Yeah Phantom, we're saying the same thing. As FVS pointed out, I am not always easy to understand as I actually do speak and write English (a lot better than Siri, I dare say!).

FelixVanSnort...none of them are volume 3 point shooters other than Noi and he comes off the bench. Other than that, Kuol is only making 1 x 3 per game on average and the rest on your list less than 1 per game - add volume and their %'s will reduce. Based on a wholistic view of their 3 point shooting/abilities, I stand by my comment.

You said shoot 3's efficiently.
They have efficient shooters.

SMH...proof will be in the pudding I guess.

Proof is in the reading...and writing

FVS...the view must be nice up there.

https://share.nbl.com.au/nbl/news/davis-slams-36ers-club-responds

Looks like the 36ers have their own Bryce Cotton situation. What it is probably showing is a bit of a disconnect between players and management where management are wanting to lock down these big contracts ASAP and the players wanting to have a bit more time to survey all their options and that's starting to create some friction between players and management.

I've got no interest in reading KD's crap everyone at the club seems to be happy he's gone. He seemed to be the source of most of the problems last season and if true he physically attacked the coach is fortunate he hasn't been rubbed out this season, Sprewell got 72 games in the NBA for doing it.

The 36ers significantly upgraded with Cotton, he's the Kings problem now.

I get the impression Adelaide were at conflict over signing Davis given his supposed difficulties. I would imagine he is the kind of guy Kelly would want but Wells wouldn't.

The article on this story by Michael Randall today suggests Adelaide offered Davis over 1 million per season. I am glad this didn't eventuate and the money was spent on Cotton. That is crazy considering how problematic he supposedly was.

I don't really think Adelaide really need to defend themselves over this considering it lead to securing Cotton.

Other articles have also suggested the relationship between Davis and Harrell was not great. This could explain the timeline of Harrell returning although Davis has been signed at Sydney for some time now.

"Davis is still battling the club over the return of some of his belongings. But CODE Sports has been told the Sixers spent hours compiling those belongings, boxing them and shipping them to the US - at a cost of over $3000 – but they were never collected and ended up being returned to the club."

LOL

Adelaide flew in his family over Christmas at their cost.

I find it difficult to believe that all at the club"ghosted” him, bit of poetic license.

Last game was Feb 8th, he seemed pretty happy at the MVP night at the end of Feb.

*16 of Feb

Maybe KD's management team didn’t tell him everything that had occurred

He is full of shit, he is getting less than what Adelaide offered so he is either a liar or his management are doing him a disservice.

Matthew, no shit here. He may very well be on less than other offers (including 36'ers) as he claims his aim is to get to the NBA. Sydney offered him that (how they can, I don't know?) and that's where he chose to go.

I didnt want kendric back, so however it happened was the right move by the 36ers, especially whwn his replacement is bryce cotton

Good luck to the kings......

This is nothing but June clickbait by the NBL to keep their traffic quota high in the off season. Move on.

See this would have been spicier if it was said before the Cotton signing.

If it was before, I'm guessing there would have been a group of people saying good riddance, culture etc, another group of people saying another 36ers management screw up and a group of unsure people that lean in to both.

Now it’s just we have Cotton so who cares, we are happy.

Surely it's the players responsibility to clean out his locker and housing at the end of the season?
And interesting to see so many jumping ship, towards end of season everyone was proclaiming him the real MVP over Cotton, that it was only because Perth had a better record, that the team needed to build around him. Even Casey was jumping up and down on that one. Now he's replaced by Cotton and suddenly he's terrible and was never wanted.

It would appear that 36ers management wanted Davis back as at 24 years of age, he was well worth investing in him long term. However, it appears that despite best efforts, depending on who you believe, Davis was reluctant to sign. Somewhat similar to the Cotton situation in that management had to move on with alternate plans as the #1 import signing impacts on which other imports are signed.

The 36ers made the call to move on and Davis then signed with Sydney. It would appear that Plan B was already in motion following Davis deciding not to sign and suddenly Plan C (Cotton) came into fruition. Obviously with Cotton signed, Harrell decided to come on board as well, so deal done. Will be most interesting to see who the third import is and how they will fit in with the players already signed.