SuperCoach NBL: Cash Cows

This article is part of the Pre-Blitz watchlist series by The Basketball Blokes. Be sure to read the other articles in the series that look at potential bounce-back candidates (available Friday) and the new import players (available Wednesday) that are on our watchlist heading into the NBL Blitz.  

The NBL Blitz gives us our best opportunity to solidify our impressions of new players, evaluate position battles and give us an insight into regular season roles that a player may have.

We have gone through each team and looked at the position battles we are watching that will impact our cash cow selections for SuperCoach NBL.   

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Which wing wins?
With the four big names at the 36ers locked in as starters (Davies, Vasiljevic, Martin & Humphries), there is one big question for SuperCoach NBL coaches out there, who gets that last remaining starter gig? There are 4 options for the 36ers, and it could be anyone of them. 

Nick Marshall is coming off a stellar NBL1 South campaign with Mt Gambier, leading the NBL1 South in scoring at 23.5 points per game, while also grabbing 8.35 rebounds per game. He only averaged 8.6 SuperCoach points in NBL24, so if he gets that last starting position, he surely increases this average. When given an opportunity late last year, Nick did have four games of 21 SuperCoach points or more over Adelaide’s last six games.

Sunday Dech is another option for new coach Mike Wells. Dech averaged 8.5 SuperCoach points in NBL24 due to inconsistent minutes and a lack of role certainty. He was listed as the starter in Pete Hooley’s recent article and if that role becomes the fifh Adelaide 36ers starter, does that bring Sunday into your SuperCoach NBL calculations?

Lat Mayen has come across from Cairns for NBL25 where he averaged 11.35 SuperCoach points over approximately 17 minutes per game. However, over the first 10 games of the season Lat averaged around 15 SuperCoach points in a stretch where he averaged almost 23 minutes per game.

Jason Cadee might be an outside chance for those starter mins, although it's more likely the veteran will see plenty of backup guard minutes compared to last season where the rotation consisted of Vasiljevic, Kell, McCarron, Dech and Flowers in addition to Cadee. 

Does Prather turn back the clock? Is it Zikarsky’s time to rock?
Brisbane is probably going to be the most watched team in the Blitz and preseason games for SuperCoach NBL players; and for good reason! They possibly have two of the best cash cows in the league this year in Rocco Zikarsky and Casey Prather.

We all saw a glimpse of greatness from Rocco for Brisbane last year, although he only averaged 7.1 minutes a game with Tyrell Harrison and Aron Baynes playing 20 and 14 minutes per game respectively.

With Baynes no longer on this roster, Rocco becomes the main man behind Tyrell. Even if Tyrell plays an extra five minutes in Baynes’s absence, Rocco can expect to see increased minutes; and with his 1.1 SuperCoach points per min average last year, production is sure to increase.

Prather could only manage seven games for the Bullets after coming in halfway through the NBL24 season for the injured DJ Mitchell. Prather spent significant time injured himself, prior to signing with the Bullets. He only averaged 11.4 SuperCoach points in 14 minutes per game, but did pop up for a 22 SuperCoach-point game against Melbourne United, when he played 23 minutes. This is the kind of SuperCoach points and opportunity we are hoping for on the regular for Casey, which should provide a nice little valuation appreciation for him.

The bad news with the Brisbane duo for SuperCoach is the terrible schedule to start the season. They have no double game rounds until round 9 but then come home with a wet sail!

Guards, Galloway and Gak!
As always seems to be the case with the Cairns roster builds, there are plenty of possible cash cow options from up North should things go to plan for these options!

With Taran Armstrong given the keys to the starting PG position (at $199k he is too highly priced for this article discussion) we are going to look at his backup options in Jackson Makoi and the newly signed Kyle Adnam.

Makoi is the interesting one for us, with Cairns coach Adam Forde suggesting that he is the backup for Taran, and will be seeing minutes from game one. With a $58,500 starting price, that is what we like to hear in SuperCoach NBL! This usually means we are going to see solid SuperCoach scores from Jackson and with his price being at an average of five SuperCoach points, it won't take much to get his price appreciating.

It's worth nothing Makoi is set to miss the first two rounds due to an off-court incident.

Adnam is an interesting one. We think he is signed as a mature head to play and train with both Taran and Makoi, but might see court time as well once he is over his recent knee injury. Will his minutes be at the expense of Taran and Makoi minutes? That is the risk here.

The other cash cow possibilities up North come from the battle of the backup bigs in Kyrin Galloway and AK Gak. Galloway comes across from Adelaide looking for more opportunity; and with what we saw in limited minutes last season, he could be an option for SuperCoach NBL. However, as we saw with AK Gak last year, those minutes aren’t always guaranteed with Coach Forde.

Do we get Olbrich quick?
This time last year, everyone who played SuperCoach NBL had their eyes focused on Lachlan Olbrich following his huge NBL1 Central season prior to NBL24. Unfortunately, given the SuperCoach NBL beast that was Gary Clark entering the Hawks roster, Lachie didn't perform to the expectation we had for him in SuperCoach. This year, after an MVP season in the NZNBL, we are again getting hyped for Lachie to come in and be a serious cash cow. He put up 20 points and a tad under 12 rebounds per game in the NZNBL; and while we can’t expect that sort of production, if Olbrich is destined to be the Hawks backup big behind Sam Froling should the Hawks not sign an import 4 quickly, we may see Lachie starting. This scenario is where he could become that cash cow we crave. 

Will Hickey was a revelation in the finals for the Hawks last season. He was given the backup ball handling responsibility, collecting 25.6 SuperCoach points per finals game. We think he may move back to the third guard on the roster with the acquisition of Trey Kell; and this has us questioning whether or not Hickey will be a legitimate top three cash cow. Hickey seemed to be at his best production wise last season when former Hawk import Justin Robinson was down on minutes and form; and the Hawks will be hoping for a better performance from Kell.  

Battle of the bigs!
With Jo Lual-Acuil and Luke Travers no longer on the Melbourne United roster, we will be seeing a new big rotation starting for them in Marcus Lee and Jack White. While these two are possibly looking at appreciating in value early in the season, they are not at the $150k or under price range, so we won't go into detail too much here. One candidate under that price range is Kyle Bowen who had six games of 19 SuperCoach points or more in NBL24. Bowen had an average of 10.4 SuperCoach points in 14 minutes per game, but perhaps if we see Bowen getting up to around the 20 minutes per game, we will see his production increase in line with those minutes.

Flynn Cameron is the other cash cow candidate at United. He averaged 8.75 SuperCoach points in only 10 minutes per game in NBL24. However, with a couple of the United guards aging another year, will we see Flynn’s minutes increase in NBL25? If so, he could become a prime cash cow on that United roster.

New Zealand takes a break
With the Breakers schedule meaning they will not play their 3rd game until round 5, we have a little more time than the Blitz to peruse the New Zealand roster for cash cows. Our eyes are firmly on Next Star Karim Lopez to see if he comes in and starts producing SuperCoach scores higher than his Next Star $115k starting price.

Is Next Star set to shine?
Speaking of Next Stars, there is one out west that not only the Red Army are getting excited for; and that is Izan Almansa, the Spanish fella! There are question marks over his role despite the early hype that he could be the starter on this Wildcats roster. We will be watching the Blitz closely as if he produces some good play in the Blitz, we are bound to see some minutes in the regular season from Almansa; and we think he could be a cash cow for your SuperCoach NBL side in NBL25.

The other name that is heating up following Perth’s first couple of preseason games is Elijah Pepper. Those that started with Henshall last season will know that young backup guards aren't always given playing time in Perth, so take it with a grain of salt, but with no Corey Webster there to play backup minutes, could Pepper be a cracking cash cow?

Angus Lover?
After a NBL24 season where Angus Glover saw a 30 per cent decline in his SuperCoach average, we are expecting a reversal of form coming into a new team for NBL25. We are hoping Glover will play 20 minutes per game as the Phoenix’s sixth man, so this could see him producing SuperCoach scores far above his price of $110k based on his average of 9.4 in NBL24. The red flag here is that the Phoenix have a bit of a roster glut at the backup guard and wing positions with Glover, Ayre, Kenyon and Foxwell all capable. 

The King has returned
Goorj is back in the NBL with a stacked Kings roster; so, it might be hard for a cash cow to see enough minutes to warrant a SuperCoach NBL selection. If there are any, it would be the college returnees in Tyler Robertson and Keli Leaupepe that we would be keeping an eye on due to their mouthwatering $69k price. Both played for Kevin Goorjian in Box Hill before heading to college; and Brian was recently quoted stating “on one hand I have to win for the organisation, but two, there’s got to be a heavy level of skill development” so perhaps we may see some on-court development in the regular season. 

Who plays a stack without Jack?
That question is what it all comes down to in assessing cash cows from Tasmania. With McVeigh absent from the starting lineup, who gets his almost 29 minutes per game he averaged in NBL24? Majok Deng? The replacement signing Te Rangi? Krslovic? Even Clint Steindl should see extra minutes as a result of the McVeigh sized hole in the JackJumpers. Deng has shown the propensity to prosper when given the opportunity in Cairns, having averaged over 20 SuperCoach points per game before moving to Tasmania. The NBL Blitz will give us a glimpse of who will benefit from McVeigh’s absence; and this is why Tassie needs to be on your pre-blitz watchlist. 

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