The NBL, newly de-linked from Basketball Australia, has commenced its 2013/14 season. The round started with the clash between the New Zealand Breakers, defending champions, against competition stalwarts Wollongong Hawks.
The Hawks were, for the first time in an age, without club legened Glenn Saville.
Joey Wright (Adelaide 36ers) and Trevor Gleeson (Wildcats), both new installed coaches faced each other in Perth and the new look Sydney Kings under Shane Heal took on the Melbourne Tigers.
Up north the new community based management arrangements for the Townsville Crocs were on show against local rivals Cairns Taipans.
New players included James Ennis, on loan from the Miami Heat, and the return of the prodigal son AJ Ogilvy after stints in college and Europe.
Wins went to the Breakers, Wildcats, Taipans and the Kings. Only one team, the Taipans, shot to triple figures and the biggest winning margin, 19 points, was by the Breakers over the Hawks.
The other three games were within 11 points or less. The Crocs and Taipans were the only two teams to shoot better than 50 percent from the field.
The league leaders at this early stage are Daniel Johnson (Adelaide) for points scored, AJ Ogilvy (Kings) for rebounding and blocks, Damian Martin (Perth) assists and Daryl Corletto (NZ) three-pointers.
None of the imports feature at the top of the NBL league-leader lists as yet.
Lastly, the attendances were consistent with previous years. At time of writing the TV viewing figures were not available.
After the first round it is not possible see patterns emerging or to make finals predictions however one statistic was telling.
All the winning teams in round one outshot their rivals from beyond the arc.
While team shooting percentages from the paint and the stripe varied as did such things as turnovers, rebounds and assists, the only constant was the value of three-point shooting.
What do we make of this? The referees were primed to shut down inside checking in order to open up the game – was this the result?
Has three-point shooting always been this important? Is this just a one off? Is there any point in scoring plenty from inside the paint or through mid range jumpers if your outside shooters let you down? I will let you ponder.
Next week the Breakers have the dreaded northern road trip. Perth host the Kings before flying to Melbourne and Adelaide meet the Hawks for their first home game.
My tips are for the Breakers to win two on the road (which being a Crocs fan hurts me to say), Perth should win at home in a thriller with Sydney, Adelaide are doing enough to beat the Hawks who look like struggling early in the season and I think Melbourne may get up against the travelling Wildcats.
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