Kings building back to the future for NBL25 title tilt

The Sydney Kings’ quest for a third straight NBL title never truly got off the ground in NBL24. The addition of a new coach in Mahmoud Abdelfattah and departure of key local pair Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic meant they had to build their roster in a different fashion to those title-winning teams of the two seasons’ past. Now, with Brian Goorjian at the helm, the Kings have gone back to their roots.

The additions of proven NBL talents Bul Kuol and Izayah Le’Afa, collegiate stars Keli Leaupepe and Tyler Robertson, and the consistent reports of a Cooks return has the Kings building a local core that is set to be a behemoth that could rival any team in the history of the competition. Add in the re-signings of key role players Kouat Noi and Shaun Bruce and the likely continued improvement of Makuach Maluach, and it’s a team that is already striking fear across the competition.

There are airs of the Kings from 2019 and 2020 about this current roster build. On that occasion key collegiate talents Jordan Hunter (Saint Mary’s) and Vasiljevic (University of Miami) arrived at the club in 2019 and 2020 respectively, while established NBL talents Bruce and Glover both came in to strengthen the core.

There is also, of course, the initial addition of Cooks in 2019 when he came back to Australia after a season in Germany.

Shaun Bruce had represented Cairns, Brisbane and Adelaide prior to becoming a crucial member of two title-winning sides with the Kings.

Kings CEO Chris Pongrass started his tenure at the Kings in 2019, just prior to that initial roster build towards the NBL22 and NBL23 triumphs with Chase Buford, and he says there’s been a marked return to a local-first mentality ahead of next season at the club.

“What you’re starting to see in this league is the importance of local players. You can look at how we’ve structured our teams previously, it was trying to build around Andrew Bogut or Xavier Cooks, then you add other elite local players around them and complement that with imports,” Pongrass told NBL Media.

“We’ve had Jaylen Adams, Derrick Walton Jr and Jae’Sean Tate, and the Next Stars layer into that too. What’s important is you know eight roster spots at least are going to be committed to locals, and you need to get the best local talent in there first.

“We had that with Jordi Hunter, Shaun Bruce, DJ Vasiljevic for a time in there as well, and that level of comfort and continuity makes life a lot easier over the life of that playing group. When we looked at our roster from this most recent season, we were somewhat forced to build around our imports – and I’m really happy with how the team came together – but we lost Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic.

“When you lose two high-end locals, and there weren’t others that were available on the market in free agency, we had to build around our imports. I think it’s really important to focus on our local talent.

“You saw how Melbourne proceeded last year, their local contingent was so strong that they only signed one import. They had a Next Star in Ariel but that showed the importance of local talent and locking it in.”

While Will McDowell-White was the biggest name to hit NBL free agency this year, it could be argued in the future that Kuol was the most important. The defensive juggernaut, sharpshooting wing is set to call Sydney home for the next three years, as are most of his fellow signings and re-signings.

Kuol’s deal will run for two years with a mutual option for a third season. Le’Afa’s will run for NBL25 with a mutual option for NBL26, while Noi’s will also run for two seasons with a club option for a third.

College talents Leaupepe and Robertson have also signed two-year deals with an added option, while head coach Goorjian also signed on for three seasons.

Sydney’s core of locals was universally praised during their two-year period at the top of the NBL, and history looks to be repeating itself with this new and emerging group.

Pongrass says the locking away of Kuol for those three years is indicative of the club’s commitment to long-term success.

“He was one of our key targets, and he was one of our key targets last year,” Pongrass said of the South Sudanese international.

“He’s someone I know a number of teams have wanted for a long period of time, and kudos to Cairns and ‘Fordey’ (Taipans head coach Adam Forde) for the way they have developed and believed in him. His growth over the last couple of years has been immense.

“You bring someone like that in you know you’re getting defensive versatility, length, athleticism, but he’s just a tough, physical player and I think there are some areas we wanted to improve on this year, and that toughness, physicality and defensive intent is something he captures, and you layer that with his ability to shoot the ball and get to the rim, it’s the framework of the type of player you want to get.

“We were bullish – pun intended – in chasing him pretty hard and making sure he was going to be wearing the purple and gold this year. Locking him away on a three-year deal, we’re looking at this as very much a long-term thing for him to remain at the club.

“It’s important to lock it in for our safety, to ensure we’ve captured that local talent for an extended period, and then second to that you consider what it means when you’re bringing back guys on multi-year deals, there’s a level of continuity and comfort in playing alongside each other for that second and third year.”

In another universe, Leaupepe and Robertson could have already spent one season in the NBL – albeit potentially not in Kings colours – but instead, the pair are preparing to embark on their maiden professional campaign together and have got in at the ground floor of this Sydney build.

Leaupepe is the more known quantity of the two to the Australian basketball public. The muscular, mulleted and moustached undersized big is a walking highlights reel and looms as an immediate cult figure around the competition.

Robertson, on the other hand, is more of an unknown quantity. The sharpshooting wing was labelled as an archetypal Goorjian player by ESPN’s Olgun Uluc on The Marketplace and compared to NBL great Sam Mackinnon. He’s a versatile, multi-dimensional player who will be able to contribute in a variety of positions and situations.

Then, you can potentially add a third collegiate player to this burgeoning class of princes, who will soon hope to become the kings of the Kings. Jason Spurgin, a seven-foot center from Bowling Green State University, is also reported to be linking up with the side on, you guessed it, a three-year deal.

The likes of Josh Bannan and Sam Waardenburg’s success in the NBL in the past two seasons has already shown the type of immediate impact former college players can have on the competition, while former King Hunter’s development at the club indicates what can be achieved if collegiate talents are given time and support to build into future roles within the roster.

This collegiate recruitment piece is a concept that is still somewhat fresh to the NBL. In the past, top level local talents would look to play elsewhere before looking back home, but the standard of play and the potential pathways that have been opened up by the league has made it one of the most appealing destinations for young talent from all over the globe.

Pongrass says while the Kings have already picked up Leaupepe and Robertson for the long haul, the cyclical nature of building successful rosters means there won’t necessarily be a glut of collegiate talent coming into the club every year.

“Teams are realising the need to start recruiting earlier and earlier. You start to try and look at guys from U16s and U18s, and especially at their growth within the national program,” he said.

“Someone like Keli, we were definitely chasing 12 months ago, Tyler is someone we were also in conversations with 12 months ago to not only express interest in the viability of coming out of college last year and joining us, but it made sense for us again to target players in the needs we had.

“Keli was a priority target, as was Tyler. The importance of maintaining good relationships over time helps, and it helps to have people like Luc (Longley), Goorj and Andrew (Bogut) in that process from a mentorship standpoint on and off the court, and from a skill development standpoint.

“It’s also team dependent, what I think is sometimes lost on people is teams are built very differently and prioritise different things in cycles. We had success with Jordi Hunter who came straight out of college and spent five years with us, and his growth and trajectory from playing behind Andrew and ‘Kicks’ (Daniel Kickert) to develop into our starting five last year and is again onto bigger and better things. DJ Vasiljevic came here out of college and was also successful here.

“We target specific players that are going to play a role and we work towards that, rather than intending to be in the market for college players every year. We’re not going to have multiple rookie college players on the roster every single year. It’s convenient for this year with the players we’ve signed to be on the roster, but next year that won’t be the case.

“We’re going to have those guys returning with us for a second year and playing a bigger role. In five years’ time we might be in a different cycle of that rather than saying we’re going to bring in multiple college players every year, that’s just not going to be the case.”

While the players the Kings have committed to so far for next season hold a variety of different strengths, weaknesses, skills and sizes, there’s one emerging thread that binds them all together, and that’s their versatility.

Goorjian has always favoured multi-faceted, versatile players in his system. If you look through the most important players of his storied NBL coaching career so far – the likes of Mike Kelly and Mackinnon at the South East Melbourne Magic, Matt Nielsen and Jason Smith during his first tenure at the Kings, or Mika Vukona and Donta Smith at the South Dragons – highly versatile players have thrived in Goorjian’s systems for almost four decades.

With the dramatic interest in both McDowell-White and new Breakers signing Mitch McCarron in the early stages of free agency, capable playmaking and ball-handling amongst local talent looks to be held at a premium this season, and the Kings have well and truly covered that base with the likes of Bruce and Le’Afa in the guard spots, and Kuol and Noi on the wing and in the post.

The conductors of the basketball symphony that has been the recent successful Kings teams have both been import point guards – Adams and Walton Jr – but Pongrass says providing Goorjian with as many weapons as possible is of paramount importance to this season’s potential title push.

“I think the way in how physical and defensive this league is, ball handling is really important. Teams want to be able to have multiple options of guys who can carry the ball, play make and facilitate,” he said.

“Generally, you see teams signing an import one and we’ve had success there with Casper Ware, Jaylen Adams and Derrick Walton Jr, so that’s our continued approach.

(L-R) Casper Ware, Jaylen Adams and Derrick Walton Jr playing for the Sydney Kings.

“Teams are really starting to shore up their ball-handling. We’ve relied on 'Brucey' heavily for a number of years and he’s been a solider for us, he plays much more of a combo role for us and can even play small-ball three. He fits the mould of the type of player we want to keep around for continuity and culture.

“Bringing in someone like Izayah Le’Afa was one of our key targets this off-season. He’s such a defensive menace, I think back to that Play-In Qualifier against New Zealand, and he was making our guards’ lives hell even getting the ball across half-court and I love that type of stuff.

“He’s also a team-first player, he’s very unselfish, he can shoot the ball at an unbelievable clip, and he suits the kinds of things we’re after with his defensive intent, versatility, and shooting.

“Xavier Cooks a lot of times was run as a primary ball-handler when he was with us.

“I feel like at our ball-handling and guard positions we have multiple guys who can handle the ball. We’re giving Goorj as many options as we can at his disposal to execute.”