Ron Burgandy taught us that, "The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show!" And I can't wait to get mine. The 2007/08 NBL season is set to be the biggest gun show around, with teams stock piling weapons in the off season for an assault on the NBL title like never before!
Think Rosell Ellis, Neil Mottram, Chris Tarrant (wait, wrong sport.) Even Scott Fisher... The guns are out!
I can't remember being this excited for an upcoming season! More stars have "changed teams" than a even a British Tabloid could keep track of! The Cairns Taipans have turned their squad into a team of Champions, but as we know that doesn't always translate to a champion team! They look to continue the trend of the past two championships of stockpiling assets for one serious push to the title. Like the Tigers in 05, Brisbane in 06. Including key players on their roster that were part of both of those famous runs...
Think Rosell Ellis, Neil Mottram, Chris Tarrant (wait, wrong sport.) Even Scott Fisher... The guns are out!
I can't remember being this excited for an upcoming season! More stars have "changed teams" than a even a British Tabloid could keep track of! The Cairns Taipans have turned their squad into a team of Champions, but as we know that doesn't always translate to a champion team! They look to continue the trend of the past two championships of stockpiling assets for one serious push to the title. Like the Tigers in 05, Brisbane in 06. Including key players on their roster that were part of both of those famous runs...
People leave for different reasons, but stars in this league that can really be effective are as valuable as Jordan Rookie cards; if you are lucky enough to get one, DO NOT TRADE! This is about which team has improved the most in the offseason by being proactive and searching out the pieces to take the team to the next level! This a countdown of not necessarily the most dominant teams in the league but the ones who, before the first points have been scored for the 07/08 season, have given their chances at glory a real boost!
"This ain't a scene it's a god damn Arms Race!" Fall Out Boy anthem could well be the theme of the NBL this season.
So here it is from 13 to 1; the least active to the most;
13. Singapore Slingers - Lost - Brad Davidson, Ben Melmeth, Larry Davidson, Jeremy Kench
12. Brisbane Bullets - Lost - Mark Bradtke (retired), Stephen Black, Cameron Tragardh - Not much action but why mess with sucess?
11. West Sydney Razorbacks - Added - Anthony Petrie (Canberra ABA), Tony Rampton (Wollongong), Damian Martin (Loyola Marymount) Lost - Scott McGregor, James Harvey - Overall, just happy to still be in the league at this point!
10. Perth Wildcats - Added - Alex Loughton (Gandia Basquet - Spain) Lost - Tony Ronaldson
9. New Zealand Breakers - Added - Tony Ronaldson (Perth), Ryan Kersten (University of New Mexico & AIS) Lost - Carlos Powell*, Brian Wethers*, Ben Pepper, Adam Darragh, Aaron Olson (retiring)
8. Gold Coast Blaze - On paper, almost everyone except the Gold Coast Blaze has upgraded! (think of the splash the Dragons made last season, and although it didn't exactly turn out the way things first were planned), there couldn't be a much more medicre ordinary lead up to what was supposed to be an exciting new venture for the ever growing area of the Gold Coast... Who is getting excited by the Ben Knight Allstars Line Up (See article regarding the expansion team Gold Coast Blaze) they have assembled.
7. Townsville Crocs - Added - Brad Sheridan (Sydney), Ben Pepper (New Zealand), Galen Young* (San Miguel Beerman - Philippines) Lost - Brad Newley, Larry Abney*, EJ Rowland*
6. Wollongong Hawks - Added - Larry Davidson (Singapore), Kavossy Franklin* (South), Jeremy Kench (Singapore), Cameron Tragardh (Brisbane), Lindsay Tait (Auckland Stars - NZNBL) Lost - Glen Saville, Adam Ballinger*, Cortez Groves*, Tony Rampton, Casey Frank, Daniel Joyce
5. Melbourne Tigers - Added - David Barlow (Sydney) Lost - Axel Dench, Rashad Tucker
4. Sydney Kings - Added - Glen Saville (Wollongong) Lost - David Barlow, Brad Sheridan - Interesting to see the impact of Saville for Kings and Barlow for Tigers! So many subplots, I'm dizzy!
3. South Dragons - Added - Luke Martin (Cairns), Cortez Groves (Wollongong), Brad Hill (Adelaide), Nick Horvath (Adelaide), Simon Conn (Sandringham Sabres - ABA, Shannon Seebohm (AIS) Lost -Kavossy Franklin, Rosell Ellis, Frank Drmic, Matt Shanahan, Adam Quick - The Dragons got even more damaging after an almost complete overhall of a Playoff team last year!
2. Adelaide 36ers - Added - Brad Davidson (Singapore), Adam Ballinger (Wollongong), Brad Newley (Townsville), Axel Dench (Melbourne), Mike Chappell* (Sendai 89ers - Japan) Lost - Brad Hill, Willie Farley*, Nick Horvath*, Mark Nash - Adelaide picked up some great names, with Newley or not, Chappell and Ballinger should be amazing!
1. Cairns Taipans - Added - Nathan Jawai (AIS), Larry Abney* (Townsville), Stephen Black (Brisbane) Rashad Tucker (Melbourne) Lost - Kane Oakley, Anthony Stewart (retiring), Luke Martin, Rob Rose, Daniel George, Kevin Owens - Probably the least heralded recruit on this starstudded team, Jawai could prove to have an even bigger impact than past rookies Newley and Ingles!
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