Former Champion "Not Worried" About Kings Roster Build

Friday, April 28, 2023

The Sydney Kings have just lost the league MVP, and none of the three imports that made them so successful last season have, as of yet, re-signed

The Sydney Kings have just lost the league MVP, and none of the three imports that made them so successful last season have, as of yet, re-signed with the side for NBL24. In fact, it’s likely they only have one player of a potential starting five committed for next season at the time of writing.

Why then, is Pete Hooley stress-free about their prospects at this point in NBL Free Agency?

The Kings have been relatively inactive in terms of signing new players having only brought in Melbourne's Makuach Maluach. They have, however, been active in re-signing the bench unit that has brought them so much success over the past two seasons.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Hooley said on The Marketplace. “They’ve retained a core that Chase Buford trusts – Shaun Bruce, Kouat Noi, Jordi Hunter, those guys who will do what they have to do every time and you trust them to go out there and play big minutes.

“It helped them win a championship last year because when there were injuries to Derrick Walton Jr and Xavier Cooks the bench guys stepped in.

“They’ve got pieces to work with. I don’t think it’s a bad spot to have the bench locked away with pieces you trust can get the job done.

“If I’ve got one team not worried about getting it done, it’s the Sydney Kings.”

There is still a Xavier Cooks-shaped hole in Sydney’s rotation that needs to be replaced though, and replacing the league’s reigning MVP is an unenviable task.

A key component to Sydney’s success in the past two seasons has been the ability to pair Cooks alongside a high-level import centre. In NBL22 it was Jarell Martin, and in NBL23 it was Tim Soares.

Hooley says it might be time for Sydney to move away from their tried and tested roster build.

“It is different in NBL24 because they don’t have Xavier Cooks,” he said. “It probably changes the way they go about filling the rest of the spots.

“Maybe they now change the roles and say ‘ok, can we get someone elite in that power forward spot, that combo guard’.

“They’ve still got DJ Vasiljevic another one who now is going to be their main guy in terms of locals.

“[The Kings] were the best shooting team last year, they shot 48.6 per cent from the field, and they were the best rebounding team with 41.7 (per game).

“A lot of that was Xavier Cooks in terms of his shots and the rim and crashing the glass.”