SuperCoach NBL: Coaches Court (Round 2, NBL25)

SuperCoach NBL is back for its second year, and this time around it’s bigger than ever!

With a fresh new look, improved game navigation and app experience, registrations are now open for NBL25.

This year, we've teamed up with our friends at The Basketball Blokes to provide you all the information you need to know to pick your team, navigate the schedule and maximise your scoring. 

Each week in the coaches court the Basketball Blokes use their best judgment to answer your SuperCoach NBL questions for the week ahead. But first, here are all the relevant facts you need to know before making your trades this week. 

>> REGISTER FOR SUPERCOACH NBL

Prior round premos

Xavier Cooks: 77
Jaylen Adams: 75
Trey Kell: 72
Jack White: 71
Matt Hurt: 65

Super Coaches

Round 2 scores
Lizzy’s Team <3: 466
Ballsdeepindalts: 465
Guns N Roses: 460

Overall rankings: 
KFC Buckets: 729
Bluth Lodge: 726
The Benchmark: 721

Scheduled selections

Adelaide and Cairns both start their run of consecutive double-game rounds, with Cairns also playing two games in Round 6. Melbourne United play the last two games of their perfect schedule to start the season, so make some plans about what you may want to do with your Melbourne United players going forward. Your South East Melbourne and Illawarra Hawks players can be traded out based on schedule, but please consider keeping the likes of Olbrich who is set to make you some more money. The JackJumpers have a double-game round in week three and are one of only two teams that have a double-game round in Round 5, making them a viable trade in option. 

New Zealand does not play for the next two rounds. Do not trade them in this week. Start to make plans to bring in Parker Jackson-Cartwright in Round 5.  

Trade targets 

Kendric Davis (GRD) ADL $277,000
It hasn’t quite clicked for Davis yet, but he should still be at the top of your trade targets list. Adelaide has two consecutive double-game rounds and Davis is yet to change in price.  Davis had 17 field goal attempts last game and we expect that it’s only a matter of time before they start dropping. Davis had a nice 8-assist to only 1 turnover his way to 33 SuperCoach points last time out; and if he goes off we can thank Olgun for revving him up.    

Montrezl Harrell (FWD/CTR) ADL $277,000
As with Davis, Harrell has a good schedule, is yet to change in price and should hit his breakeven this round. Why not get both and hope to stack the points together on those Davis to Harrell lobs and dump offs? He is an injury replacement player only, so note that this does come with some risk of needing a quick trade out on short notice. 

Will Magnay (FWD/CTR) TAS $317,400
Having avoided the concussion protocols in Round 1, Magnay was a force in Round 2. With double-game rounds in Rounds 3 and the all-important Round 5, Magnay is a great trade-in option.    

Ben Henshall and Elijah Pepper (PER) $69,000
Pepper took advantage of Henshall missing the last game with illness. Keep an eye out on updates about Henshall’s availability as this may impact both players. Pepper only saw junk time minutes in Tound 1, but does this performance earn him more opportunity? We favour a healthy Henshall over Pepper. 

Cairns imports (CRN) $277,000
With most of the Cairns imports starting questionably, their ownership is likely to be lower than we would have anticipated with them coming into a great schedule run. Despite only scoring 12 points last round due to being decimated with foul trouble, we like Tanner Groves best of the trio.  

Benny’s breakevents
Unlike last week, apart from the NZ Breakers, we will see a whole host of price changes this week. Here are some of the Break evens of interest:

Ben Henshall: -9 (2 games)
Elijah Pepper: -9 (2 games)
Keli Leaupepe: -5 (1 game)
William Hickey: 1 (1 game)
Angus Glover: 17 (1 game)
Lat Mayen: 18 (1 game)
Will Magnay: 27 (2 games)
Rob Loe: 33 (2 games)
Montrezl Harrell: 38 (2 games)
Kendric Davis: 40 (2 games)
Shea Ili: 58(2 games)
Tanner Groves: 61 (2 games)
Bryce Cotton: 90 (2 games)
Keanu Pinder: 97 (2 games)

Banksy’s captain options 
Banksy’s Captains podcast is exclusive to subscribers at basketballblokes.com for Round 3 onwards. In no particular order, here is the pool of captains candidates under consideration. 

Will Magnay
Milton Doyle
Montrezl Harrell
Kendric Davis
Jack White
Matthew Dellavedova
Bryce Cotton

Boydie’s questions and answers

Question: Do we use a boost for bench options?

Answer: We received a heap of questions relating to using a boost to get cheap players into your line-ups this week. Some situations discussed included Ben Henshall, Elijah Pepper, Kyle Adnam and Casey Prather. None of these players are a perfect boost candidate. Ben Henshall has health concerns and Elijah Pepper has Ben Henshall concerns. Adnam and Prather may all be impacted by the returns of Taran Armstrong, Jackson Makoi and Josh Bannan respectively. If given a clean bill of health, we like Henshall best as he seems to have the best long term role clarity. It is important to remember that our benches are not just for short term cash making, we need to score points as well. Many people boosted for Lachie Olbrich last season and that turned out to be disastrous. In most scenarios, it is hard for us to tick off a boost for any bench option other than Henshall.  

Question: Should I trade/boost for Sam Waardenburg? 

Answer: A 50 burger is likely to draw some attention, but the combo of foul trouble for Tanner Groves and getting smashed by Sam last season, will make it hard for many to digest. We are letting you know that this is a risky move. Yes he should get his Break Even of 9 across his two games this week and he does have an excellent schedule, but we have seen this before. Sam appears to be a bit of a second game specialist! In his second game last year he scored a season high 36 SuperCoach points and would only eclipse 30 on three other occasions for the final season. The deciding factor for us in this question is what does getting Waardenburg instead of a new import player open up for you with regards to your second trade. If that fixes a mistake for you with the extra cash, perhaps you could do it, but we aren’t entirely sure that you're not just bringing in another mistake down the line. 

Question: Can I trade out Angus Glover?

Answer: Yes you can, but ideally you would be downgrading to one of the cheap bench options or all the way up to a new import like Kendric Davis. Personally, as a Glover owner, I want to look at the Cairns options in Taran Armstrong and Makoi first before moving Glover on. 

 Question: Can I trade out Shea Ili?

Answer: You can look to move Ili on, but there is nothing wrong with keeping him for one more round also. As mentioned, the Cairns guards look to be decent Ili options after his final double-game round this week before United start a run of single-game rounds. We still classify this as a bit of a luxury trade option, but if you can get to Davis that should net you points over the next 2 weeks. We are less high on Rob Edwards as a SuperCoach option.