Hawks' depth threat

The Illawarra Hawks have warned the league of their fierce depth this season, with head coach Justin Tatum full of praise for his new front court trio. 

The Hawks kicked off their NBL25 campaign in style with a 102-75 win over the Cairns Taipans, and it was the newly-formed trio who turned heads in Sam Froling, Lachlan Olbrich and import Darius Days. 

"I told Sam in the locker room, I said 'I could play you two (Froling and Olbrich) together this season and we are going to cause problems for a lot of teams'. It's a luxury, it was one of the first times we have done it, we talked about it before we got here," Tatum said in the post-game press conference. 

"My goal was to play them two and Darius all together and see how it works out for us."

Days hit a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, an impressive start to the season after only playing two games at the Blitz. 

Big-man Froling followed with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Olbrich also notched a double-double off the bench with 12 points and 11 rebounds. 

Froling and Days were a part of the starting five, along with Trey Kell, Tyler Harvey, and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, before the bench came in to truly show how strong Tatum's team is.

"Our strength is our depth, I was saying in the locker room if Trey has not got it going, if Sam has not got it going, we've got Tyler, we've got Lachie coming in, we've got Davo coming off the bench," Tatum said.  

"It's our depth, we can play different paces with different teams. Our first five, they're more slower paced, they can go inside and find other ways to get shots, and we bring subs in who pitch the full court and traps you randomly.

"Our depth is going to help us get through the season."

The Hawks next play the Brisbane Bullets in Round 2 on Friday night at 7:30pm AEST. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.