NBL Blitz Preview – Week One

For any coach or player on an NBL team, pre-season training is all about establishment of roles, installing offensive and defensive systems and developing team chemistry, among other things.

All of that is important, of course. But nothing can replicate actual game time in building a group that can not only be competitive, but a legitimate championship contender.

Which is why the games played at the National Basketball League Blitz – a two-week hoops extravaganza getting underway this Saturday night in Melbourne – are a huge key for the Illawarra Hawks as they continue their preparation for the NBL22 regular season.

The Hawks will play two games in Melbourne before coming home for two highly anticipated games at the WIN Entertainment Centre the following week against New Zealand and Sydney.

But Illawarra has their focus squarely on their opening pair of opponents, both of which represent a significant challenge. Next Monday at 5:30pm the Hawks will do battle with the powerful South East Melbourne Phoenix and then take on defending NBL champions Melbourne United the following Saturday night.

And to those who may think pre-season games are meaningless, think again. Just ask Hawks’ supercoach Brian Goorjian how much meaning the four games his squad will play have for he and his team as they begin their quest for a second NBL championship.

“These games are really important,” said Coach Goorjian.

“Ideally, with all these weeks of training what you want is practice, then play games, make adjustments, practice, and then play games. We’ve had the practice; but we haven’t had the games.”

“We need these games to move forward as a group; what are we going to keep in there, what rotations look good and what don’t; what offensive schemes do you need to add or take out?”

“Plus, we’ve got a bunch of new players; we’ve got a new point guard and another new import, so we are looking forward to the competition and seeing what adjustments we need to make.”

For every coach, there are a number of points of emphasis once pre-season games tip off. For some, it’s their offensive structure. Others look to focus on their defensive systems. Or it might be just as simple as establishing team standards around hustle, desire and work ethic.

As far as Illawarra’s head coach is concerned, his mind is squarely on working through which combinations on the floor are going to give his team the best chance to win – given the tremendous talent that has come into this team in the form of Duop Reath, Antonius Cleveland, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Harry Froling, plus existing stars like All-NBL First Team selection Tyler Harvey and NBL21 Most Improved Player Sam Froling, ‘Goorj’ is going to be provided with a ton of different options this season.

“The biggest thing for us is going to be rotations,” Coach Goorjian affirmed.

“I’ll give everyone an opportunity over the four games. There’s a lot of different ways we can play- we can play the two guards together, we can play small and play Antonius Cleveland, Justinian Jessup or Tim Coenraad in the four spot; or we can play big and we’ve got a lot of bigs with Duop Reath, Harry Froling, Sam Froling, AJ Ogilvy and Akoldah Gak.”

“We’re going to have a look at how those rotations work over the course of the next couple of weeks, and then we’ve also got some players that we haven’t seen in this thing yet – we’ll find out how they play and what suits them. I’ll get a good look at Xavier, a good look at Cleveland, and even a better understanding of Duop.”

“We’re deeper than last season, as are most NBL teams, so for us a big part over these four games is how we rotate and finding out who plays well together.”

First-up pre-season opponent South East Melbourne, a semi-finalist last season in just their second season of existence, has recruited extremely well in the offseason despite losing talented point guard Keifer Sykes to the NBA. He’s been replaced by Xavier Mumford who comes with an impressive resume, but perhaps the biggest pickup was Chinese superstar Zhou Qi, a seven-footer with NBA experience and someone with whom Brian Goorjian is very familiar with during his time in China.

Qi is going to be a handful this season, as are the Phoenix, who will be a great test first-up against a Hawks unit that is also looking to go at least one step further in NBL22.

“Everybody is going to be really good, but I look at the Phoenix this year and I think they are one of the major teams in this thing,” Coach Goorjian said.

“Believe me, I’ve seen it first-hand – Zhou Qi is a tremendous talent and maybe the best player in all of Asia. He was the last guy in China to be drafted and play in the NBA. He was a very good G-League player, played a little bit for Houston, so that piece is going to be a very good challenge for us.”

“Then they are a team that have good shooters and Mitch Creek is probably one of the best four-men in the league, so I think of them as a real powerhouse.”

Illawarra’s second examination in Week One of the NBL Blitz will be against a Melbourne squad that has faced significant offseason changes, with three of their main contributors departing from their NBL21 championship team – Jock Landale, Scotty Hopson and Mitch McCarron.

Former NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova was a high-profile acquisition and Next Star Ariel Hukporti is considered a future NBA draft pick, but otherwise there are more than a few question marks surrounding the defending champs heading into NBL22 – another reason why this pre-season game will be so important to the Hawks as an intelligence-gathering mission if nothing else.

“They are the unknown,” Coach Goorjian says of Melbourne.

“I know that history says that United always has a good team, and they are going to be good. Last year they were title favourites the whole way through and won it.”

“Those two games against the Phoenix and United are going to be great for us.”

ILLAWARRA HAWKS NBL BLITZ SCHEDULE – WEEK ONE

Monday November 15

Illawarra Hawks v South East Melbourne Phoenix

Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre

Tipoff 5:30pm AEDT

Game televised LIVE on Kayo Sports Freebies

Saturday November 20

Melbourne United v Illawarra Hawks

Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre

Tipoff 7:30pm AEDT

Game televised LIVE on Kayo Sports Freebies