Hoops

36ers Recruiting Model - Way of the future?

@proud, there are a number of imports who have (or have wanted to be) naturalised in recent years. Craig is doing it now. I do think it's a good thing. I'm not sure if I like the idea of second year pros being able to play as non-restricted agents (even if they had to be 1st year pros in their first NBL season to be eligible,) because it may cause more of a division between the haves and the have-nots.

With the NBL clearly showing its leadership by conveniently forgetting their statements at the start of last season about soft salary caps, taxes, and so forth, parity within the league is increasingly important. If one or two clubs fold from here, the league will become completely irrelevant, unless larger market teams come into the picture. Some would argue this is what Kestelman et al are looking for. It would turn me off the NBL completely, if it happened.

I think I kinda agree with the OP in that if you can retain a young import then they can blossom in future years like Prather and Craig and numerous times in the past with players that have become naturalised Australians (and New Zealanders).

Whilst I'm not sure NBL will ever enforce this, I'd like to see a 3rd import spot go to a first year professional (hopefully one with ties to NBA) and if that player sticks around another season then that rule should be ignored for that organisation.

I personally would love to get back to the days where imports wanted to naturalise and if there is some way to encourage that then I'd be all for it

Also remember that a "long term" contract in the NBL is rarely longer than three years (Joey's five year deal - as a coach - is very much the exception), so stashing young talent is a very dicey game to play, as pointed out by @koberulz and @Isaac, in terms of what happened to Townsville.

What Adelaide have done is nothing new, as kobe said. Perth and NZ especially have done it before, and both had the spending power to get them over the top.

I'm not sure that young imports are a way to go, or certainly not with all three spots. And Adelaide showed the limitations of a very young import. Generally a more experienced import is going to be more comfortable slotting into a team, living in a new place, etc. Some come over still expecting to spring into the NBA when they might not be outcompeting midrange local players.

Could we see other teams go this route of collecting and retaining young talent to build a strong foundation for the future?

What I mean is that imports are judged so harshly compared to Aussies. For example Blanchfield is hailed as a potential star while Fiquan Edwin was called a bust while puting up identical stats.

A young import could be developed here and turn into a superstar at NBL level

Can you explain your point here further:

"People view guys like Majok Deng and Mitch McCarron as potential NBL stars however there are Americans in the SEABL and smaller schools in the college system that would have equal or greater playing ability."

Majok was at a smaller school and absolutely dominated for them. Are you suggesting signing and and stashing imports to develop over locals like Deng?

Shame the Kings haven't made the finals because we'd be looking at some huge crowds if they had.

Tonight's Taipans-Crocs game has sold-out already - 5,345 is capacity there.

But in Sydney, 9,500 tickets have sold already meaning they are destined to break the season record of 8,533 set for the season-debut earlier in 2010.

They might be bottom of the ladder and playing a meaningless game against the Blaze, but you have to give Sydney fans credit for showing up!