Hoops

NBL ranked Number 10 league outside the NBA

Where would everyone rank the D League in comparison with the overseas leagues?

I don't watch the European leagues and have to say I don't really watch the NBA right now. But I'm not going to knock it if the NBL is ranked in the top 10.

Outside the NBA the only teams above NBL standard are the small number of European power clubs. Most of those come from the Spanish, Turkish and VTB United (former USSR) competitions, along with two power clubs from the lop-sided Greek league.

The advantage the NBL has over most European leagues is our talent is condensed into eight teams, which means more good clubs and less bad ones, even if we don't have the great ones (especially with NZ not at their usual level this season).

My top 10 league rankings would be:

NBA
Euroleague
Spain
Turkey
VTB United
Australia
Italy
France
Germany
Adriatic

Outside of the Euroleague and NBA there is precious little between the next lot of leagues though, with the Spanish ACB a little way ahead but the rest neck and neck.

I have watched some Adriatic League and some of the others and the NBL is a step ahead of those leagues. I'd say it is about 6th on the list. And I am puzzled by the CBA at 12th. Surely there are some smaller European leagues better than CBA?

Don't forget that was in 1995

This is why lk is trying to get the NBL to play against the NBA in the pre season. Improve the perception of the NBLs quality by association.

Don't forget the Perth wildcats breast real Madrid when they played at the McDonald's cup all those years ago. I don't think the NBL is too far away from the top leagues

I have watched all those leagues for years and would say Franchilla is pretty spot on. How many critics have actually watched those leagues and seen the quality of the a) players and b) play?

I don't think it's the imports necessarily, but the fact that the best teams can take the best Europeans (who don't count as 'imports'), as opposed to the best national players.

What makes those leagues better you guys think?? Is it the Spanish and Turkish locals for example are just better than our aussies, or is the ability for those leagues to attract better quality imports, which makes it a tougher league?

Euroleague - yes
Spain - yes
Turkey - yes
Russia - yes
Germany - no
Italy - no
France - maybe
Adriatic - no
Greece - maybe

I'd probably slip the French league in ahead of us standard wise so about 6th would be right.

NBL is really #4 on that list

Two things:

1. I think our league has more upside and is in a position to improve and increase in many areas, more so than most of these leagues above us, but they have more money than we do at the moment.

2. On the size of the players, maybe some teams can go deeper, but generally speaking we have some quality bigs in our league now, and some of them have come back after very successful European careers or with NBA experience, so I am not convinced we would not compete there either...

I think it's hard to judge as our leagues don't crossover like the Euro leagues do. I think top-to-bottom we are arguably better than a number of the leagues ranked ahead of us, but the powerhouse teams in these leagues would power through NBL competition more often than not... unless we had NBL refs who countered the size advantage most Euro teams have by calling fouls on all their bigs.

Should probably have included the link - here it is.

http://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/18470135/fran-fraschilla-rankings-world-top-12-basketball-leagues-nba

i was watching the nbl and players like redhage, rychart and ballinger and it occured to me that alot of the most successful imports in recent history have been bigger guys. is this a definate trend or am i wrong? i can think of plenty of guys here brought in to be scorers in the sg-sf position and lots dont seem to make it while the bigger guys have been very successful.

alot of talk here about the reasons why players like howard come here and struggle and one thing people agree on is here we play better team defence dont allow slashers easy access to lanes etc, maybe the big inside players can create their own shots better?

anyone agree or disagree? personally while im not sure of the figures regarding how many have failed/made it but if i was building a team ild definately try to recruit guys like wilkinson from nz over a sg.