The Kings' successor?

When Derek Rucker labelled the JackJumpers as the team to beat, not many batted an eye. When Damon Lowery named them the team to beat, nobody batted an eye – but a surprise former NBL MVP has just come out and grandly labelled Tasmania as “championship favourites” ... Sydney Kings minority owner Andrew Bogut.

Bogut has been consistently outspoken on social media about how he believes the ‘Cinderella story’ narrative that surrounds the JackJumpers is false, and speaking on the Rogue Bogues Podcast, the former NBA champion threw the gauntlet down to Scott Roth’s side.

“I’ve had enough of the underdog tag for them, they are the championship favourites,” Bogut said.

“I’m sick of all the underdog crap. They are a well-constructed roster, they’re well coached, they just smacked Sydney on our home floor, but the underdog Cinderella stuff needs to go out the window.

“I think it’s theirs to lose at the moment the way they’re playing. Are they peaking too early? Who knows, but they’re playing really good basketball, Roth’s just got them humming.”

The JackJumpers have already faced Bogut’s Kings twice in NBL24, and they’ve defeated the reigning champions on both occasions.

First was an 80-72 victory at MyState Bank Arena, before they travelled to Sydney and defeated the Kings on their home floor 105-95.

Bogut pointed to that second victory as a key barometer for the JackJumpers’ quality.

“Sydney loves to run a high-peace, high octane offence and they slowed us down a lot, made it really grindy and scored the ball,” he said.

“Crawford was huge for them, Milton Doyle was big for them again and they just all know their roles and play well together.

“I’ve enjoyed watching them and I know I give Tasmanians a lot of crap on socials – it’s all part of the fun – but they’ve been really good.”