Patty Mills talks about his rookie season in the NBL (courtesy of NBL.com.au). 

Here's a question: could Patty be eligible for Rookie of the Year honours? 

After a successful career at Augusta State University, Ben Madgen joined the reborn Sydney Kings in the NBL, going on to earn Rookie of the Year honours in unconventional circumstances. The shooting star was good enough to fill us in on the ups and downs of his first season in the league and on what to expect in season 2011/12.

How is the body treating you now?

It's 100% now which is good.

Tell us a bit about your transition last season from end of bench to go-to scorer in the starting lineup?

It was definitely a challenge at the start, coming from college it’s a different style of game. But then I got over here and the teammates were great, so it was easy to work hard. There were 11 guys, but I didn’t see myself as the 11^th man – I just thought if I can work my way into the 10, into the rotation, and I felt like if I could get some court time and show the coaching staff what I could do, then hopefully it would look up for me. And that’s what happened.

As previously rumoured here, the Melbourne Tigers have indeed signed Australian Boomers star and Portland Trail Blazers point guard Patty Mills to play in the National Basketball League for the 2011/12 season.

The signing of Mills is a huge coup for the Tigers and in fact the entire league, as it will increase both the standard and exposure of NBL basketball for as long as he stays put downunder. Mills' contract will keep him in Melbourne whilst the NBA lockout is in progress.

Rejecting more lucrative offers in Europe must have been a challenging decision for Mills, but clearly he is highly patriotic to Australia and values giving back to the local basketball community.

“Patty Mills is an NBA player in the prime of his career, and one of Australia’s best basketballers,” said Basketball Australia CEO Larry Sengstock.  “For him to turn his back on much larger contracts in Europe in order to play here in Australia is an amazing vote of confidence in the iiNet NBL Championship.

“This is one of the most significant signings in NBL history and one which I have no doubt will help us record our third successive year of attendance growth,” Sengstock added.  “For fans to be able to watch a player of Mills’ ilk at the peak of their powers is a rare opportunity and one which I am sure plenty of people will take up either in person on via our TV broadcasts.”

How the Tigers will structure their roster with the arrival of Mills will be interesting, but it certainly gives them an explosive backcourt pairing in Mills and Ayinde Ubaka -- perhaps one of the best in NBL history. 

Mills is already in Australia, preparing for the important Boomers series against the New Zealand Tall Blacks, to be played in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. The series will determine which Oceania team gets through to the 2012 London Olympics.

His first NBL game will be on October 7 in Melbourne, as the Tigers host the Sydney Kings.

According to this article in Melbourne's Herald Sun, the Melbourne Tigers are set to announce at 11am today that they have signed Patty Mills to play with the NBL club, until such time as the NBA lockout ends (and he can return to the Portland Trail Blazers). 

With an off-season free-agent feeding frenzy that had already netted Cairns Taipans trio Ayinde Ubaka, Ron Dorsey and Daniel Dillon, the addition of Mills would likely make for some changes to the existing Tigers roster. The previously penned roster included: 

Likely starters: Ayinde Ubaka (10) / Daniel Dillon (5) / Liam Rush (7) / Ron Dorsey (10) / Cam Tragardh (9)

Likely bench: Darryl Corletto (6) / Bennie Lewis (5) / Lucas Walker (4) / Tommy Greer (6) / Matt Burston (9)

That roster (with player points totals along side player names) comes to a total of 71 points, which already exceeds the NBL's maximum of 70 total player points. Assuming a loyalty discount for the likes of Corletto, that total will reduce, but it still keeps the Tigers close to the points cap. Notwithstanding the NBL Salary Cap of $1,000,000, some changes would need to be made to the roster to accomodate Mills. Would that mean the departure of an import, or the newly acquired Rush? 

The press conference at 11am hopefully will provide answers. The Tigers have never been short on methods of roster-building in the past though.

The Sydney Kings** visited Wollongong's old Snakepit on Sunday afternoon, and the Wollongong Hawks* were not the most hospitable of hosts. Before going any further, let's attach a couple of necessary asterisks to this report.

* Wollongong Hawks = six top notch NBL players plus three State League juniors and zero imports

** Sydney Kings = full squad less import Jerai Grant and injured forward Graeme Dann

Now, this will not be a full match report. For that read, you can check out the quality work of Matt McQuade at the official Kings site. What I will do is point out a few key observations I made from courtside, which will be notable to Kings and Hawks fans going into the season.

Game flow

The game started out with a free-flowing bang as Ben Madgen opened proceedings with a smooth mid-range jumper, followed by an Aaron Bruce three point bomb. Oscar Forman then opened the account for the Hawks with two consecutive baskets. At this stage, it looked like both teams were entering the game looking surprisingly well-oiled, given the early stage of the pre-season that we're in. Bruce hit two more three-pointers before the first quarter was out, whilst Mat Campbell managed 4/6 from range in the first period for the Hawks. At the end of one the score was 22-22 and we looked in store for a tight battle. 

However, as the second quarter began, the Hawks began to show who was boss in this region. Rhys Martin demonstrated what an off-season amongst Australian Boomers teammates and winning the QBL championship with the Mackay Meteors alongside Hawks teammate Tim Coenraad and former King Michael Kingma can do, as he pulled the Hawks ahead in the period. Martin accumulated 10 points, three assists and three steals during the second, as he showed strong penetration and team leadership. 

By half-time it was Hawks 41-36, with the home team looking the more well-organised outfit. Clearly years of melding as a team were paying off, despite the undermanned squad. The Kings then struggled through a disappointing 8-point third quarter, to go into the final break down 55-44. At this stage it was becoming apparent that this was still early pre-season and that team combinations were being tested by coach Ian "Moose" Robilliard. With the luxury of a deep roster, Moose was trying different playing groups to see what will work when the season arrives -- unfortunately for the Kings though, little was working tonight.

The fourth quarter, a 27-10 Hawks affair, was no more promising than the one before. The Hawks ran their three youngsters for stretches late in the match, with even this failing to be taken advantage of by the Kings, as the game ended 82-54. 

Alex Gynes

Versatile forward Alex Gynes made his Kings debut in this game, showing a tough-nosed, strong style. It was clear that he was not as familiar with the systems as some of his teammates who have had more time to learn plays (and game experience against Drake University last week), however the Summer Universiade 2011 Australian representative did contribute five points and one rebound in 12 minutes, whilst racking up four fouls. He played both the three and four spots, as the Kings went for large stretches with small lineups.

Lineups

The Kings started the game with Bruce, Madgen, Anatoly Bose, Kevin Ratzsch and Julian Khazzouh matched up against Martin, Campbell, Glen Saville, Forman and Larry Davidson. It became apparent quickly that the Hawks were doing a good job of camping Davidson (and his long-range shooting) on the perimeter on offence, drawing Khazzouh out, whilst allowing them to isolate the likes of Forman and Dave Gruber down low against the smaller Kings power forwards in Ratzsch, Gynes and Bose. Robilliard was clearly experimenting with these smaller fours, whilst Dann is injured and Grant is yet to arrive on Australian shores.

Before long, Martin Iti made an entrance in the first quarter to provide a "twin towers" presence alongside Khazzouh. This did do some to stem the tide and proved once again that Iti will be a welcome commodity during the NBL season, due to his size and excitement factor alone. He finished with a productive eight rebounds, one block and three points in ten minutes of court time.

The Hawks largely stayed with the same lineup most of the game, mixing it up between their starting five and Gruber off the bench. The three juniors played from two to five minues each. It will be very interesting to see how incoming imports Joevan Catron and Donavan Monroe slot into the familiar Hawks roster as the season gets under way. Both were unable to play in this game, due to immigration clearances, but were present for warmups. Coenraad (recovering from sinus surgery), Zac Delaney, Tyson Demos and Dan Jackson were not present either for the Hawks. The latter three were taking part in the Waratah League Grand Final, coming out victorious over the Sydney Comets. Word is that Jackson may come out of the victory with a new tattoo...

Positional battles

Whilst there was not much in the way of battles for minutes on the Hawks end of the floor, the Kings permutations are still coming together. The betting man would currently put his money on Bruce as the leader in the Kings' point guard battle. He finished the game with the best performance at the position, in what was a very poor night across the board for the Kings. Bruce's three treys to start the game were followed by 19 straight team misses from range for the Kings and an overall field goal percentage of 33%. Bruce's five assists led the Kings, with Madgen contributing four. On the other end of the floor, Rhys Martin had eight assists, to go along with a phenomenal eight steals and 21 points, in what was a very handy night.

Bose continues to show flashes of smooth brilliance at the three spot, whilst Ratzsch does all of the little things to help the team at both ends -- generally with little fanfare. Madgen had a solid all-round game, despite his quiet shooting night (3/9 FG), as he added eight rebounds to his assists tally.

How it was won

The Hawks simply looked like the team that had played together, whilst the Kings are in a state of "pre-cohesion". The size of the likes of Saville, Forman, Gruber and Davidson, coupled with their ability to mostly play on the perimeter, meant that the Kings defence was stretched at all times. Defending a team like this requires a defensive machinery that has been honed by many hours of playing together -- the Kings do not yet have that advantage. 

As I mentioned earlier, it will be very interesting to see how long it takes for the Hawks imports to fit into this well-established system. No doubt their talent will be appreciated, but much of what makes the Hawks so good is their teamwork, which they showed tonight in spades. 

Wollongong Hawks 82 (Davidson 26 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast / Martin 21 pts, 8 ast, 8 stl / Saville 6 pts, 10 reb, 7 ast)

Sydney Kings 54 (Khazzouh 11 pts, 9 reb, 1 blk / Bruce 9 pts, 5 ast, 4 TO / Bose 9 pts, 3 reb, 2 blk)