Hoops

Round 1 take aways

Not wanting to take the wind out of the Taipan's and Loughton's sail but he's only as good as his 3pt %. He makes some pretty ordinary passing decisions in games and is not a strong rebounder.

Townsville - Was disappointed in them this weekend. Especially after their good blitz. Have a tough schedule coming up too.

Cairns - Good solid team with Wilbekin as the star. Played really well and have good chemistry. Need to take care of home court this year unlike last year.

Sydney - Will go as far as Childress takes them. Impressed with Garlepp too he has improved immensely since he's been in Sydney. They need more production out of their bench.

Wollongong - Played well both games just ran out of gas on the back to back. Nevill gives them size like they've never had. The best team on paper they've had.

New Zealand - Jackson and the depth inside is the difference from last year to this year. Looking forward to seeing them with Abercrombie and Wesley should be better soon.

Melbourne - Extremely disappointing performance for such a talented vs Cairns. Their zone offence is pathetic and they lack toughness inside. Dennis could help them though I think.

Adelaide - Disappointing first match better second. Good solid team however they lack the star power. I like the look of Wilson with Adelaide and Creek has improved.

Perth - Outside of Redhage and Hire they looked flat first match. This week could make them hungry though.

Perth really need to have more pre-season games included in their schedule. That was a deplorable way to turn up against a NZ team that doubtless wanted a touch of revenge for the 12/13 season opener.

Melbourne, sheesh, I would have thought they had the outside shooting to make Cairns pay but guess not.

Rhys Carter was a great pickup for NZ and while his outside shooting may fall away in future games, it was his passing game that most impressed me.

I agree that Cairns were great as a team, their bigs were getting great position inside and made Melbourne pay for failing to guard their pick & pop offence all night. Young Shaun Bruce didn't look at all out of place in the NBL running his team with the starters on the bench either.

Cairns looks legit!

I was pleasantly surprised with the Hawks, especially the control of the boards in both games. That is not something that you could have said in many many years.