The Sydney Kings haven’t been NBL championship contenders since returning to the league in 2010. But now they are raging favourites with seven other clubs scrambling for a way to stop them.

Relaxed salary cap rules for the 2016-17 NBL season has opened the door for the cheque books to be opened fully by Kings owners. The result is a roster unlikely any before been seen in the NBL.

Already the Kings had signed reigning league MVP Kevin Lisch along with Rio Olympics teammate Brad Newley, and big man Aleks Maric who wasn’t far off being on that Boomers team either.

Greg Whittington has proven a good import big and Sydney retained the services of two players who have been solid servants in difficult times, Jason Cadee and Tom Garlepp.

That’s only where the star power on this Kings team begins. Since the season started, they have added in NBA veterans Josh Powell and Steve Blake. Between the big man and combo guard, they have 1,285 games of NBA experience.

Despite having had little time to get the chemistry right and a rookie coach at the helm in Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze, the Kings are unbackable championship favourites having won five of six matches.

Considering Blake has played just one of those games and centre Julian Khazzouh is yet to hit the floor, no other club comes close to having the depth of top quality talent that the Kings do.

Sydney last won an NBL championship in 2005 before leaving the league at the end of the 2007-08 season. The Kings returned for 2010-11 season but have managed just one playoff appearance since, losing in two games to the New Zealand Breakers in 2013.

The Kings have won just 58 of 168 games since returning to the league before this season but now there are seven clubs trying to find a way to stop them.

Let’s take a look at what those clubs need to do in terms of making a move or what they need to go right to be any hope of stopping the Kings.

Adelaide 36ers
Jerome Randle is obviously the key. If he can catch fire and dominate, the Sixers are always tough but the Kings are blessed with the reigning NBL Defensive Player of the Year Lisch.

Mitch Creek being out for Adelaide hurts any hopes of challenging for the title. Nathan Sobey is stepping up huge but the 36ers need more. Right now they don’t look like a playoff team. To at least become that Daniel Johnson and Eric Jacobsen must become more of a factor inside.

Johnson remains the great enigma of the league as someone with all the tools to be an MVP candidate but he takes too many plays and games off. Jacobsen can be a factor, though.

A team with a dynamic point guard Randle, rising star in Sobey who plays without fear and dominant big man would be capable of making a push, but right now Adelaide doesn’t quite have all three areas covered.

The money isn’t there for the Sixers to make any personnel moves so they need faith in coach Joey Wright to pull something out of his hat with his youthful group.

Brisbane Bullets
The Bullets likely have enough firepower to match it with the other six clubs in the league, but they might just be missing one extra piece to really challenge the Kings.

Brisbane has decided to go with the two imports and it’s easy to understand why with Cameron Bairstow, Daniel Kickert, Adam Gibson, Anthony Petrie and Tom Jervis on board.

Jermaine Beal and Torrey Craig are good imports. It’s a talented roster but is it a championship calibre one when matched with what the Kings have at their disposal?

Perhaps not. But if Bairstow can get going and dominate inside, if Craig keeps producing athletically at both ends, and if Kickert and Beal’s shots from outside start falling more often it’s a team that can’t be totally ruled out.

To challenge the Kings in the finals they might need that third import, but it is a well-balanced team as is and they will back in what they’ve got.

Cairns Taipans
They appear on paper to be the great underdogs of the season and while they have signed three new imports, Fuquan Edwin, Nnanna Egwu and Travis Trice certainly aren’t at the level that Blake, Powell and Whittington are.

Nevertheless, Edwin is starting to find his confidence and scoring punch, Trice has been huge now that he is getting healthier (before a nasty fall on Sunday night) and Egwu is a handy back-up big.

The Snakes lost their first three games but they were all on the road. They got on the board beating Melbourne at home last Thursday and then were impressive winning in Illawarra.

What sets them apart is Nate Jawai inside. He has had an interrupted lead in to the season, but when he means business, he is unstoppable and that includes against the frontcourt of the Kings.

If he can stay healthy and have a big impact, the Taipans are at least a playoff threat as long as the imports stand up, and Cameron Gliddon, Mark Worthington, Stephen Weigh and Alex Loughton (when he returns) do what they do best.

A week ago I thought they could do with moving on Edwin and should look to lure Jaron Johnson from Perth. I’d now stick with Edwin and back him in.

Illawarra Hawks
Replacing Kirk Penney and Kevin Lisch was going to be no easy task for the Hawks this season and while Marvelle Harris is proving an able substitute for Penney, so far Rotnei Clarke is coming up well short of what Lisch delivered last season.

Illawarra did well last season to make the playoffs and it was on the back Penney, Lisch and AJ Ogilvy having outstanding campaigns surrounded by able veterans, and ‘Agent 97’ Jarrad Weeks providing a spark.

The same spark just hasn’t been there since a 34-point thumping of Adelaide to open the season. They haven’t won since and quite simply the Hawks either need Clarke to rediscover his MVP form of the 2013-14 season, or they need to move him on.

Illawarra need its import guard to be the leading scorer on the team, to help create for his teammates and to be a pest defensively. Right now Clarke isn’t delivering enough in any of those areas.

Clarke getting back to his best or a new import arriving combined with Harris continuing his form, Michael Holyfield staying out of foul trouble to have a bigger impact inside and veterans Oscar Forman, Tim Coenraad and Rhys Martin getting back close to their best are all what’s required.

Perhaps more than anything, Ogilvy needs to be tough and play with more physical presence inside if the Hawks are to climb off the bottom of the table, let alone be a playoff threat or to ultimately challenge the Kings.

Melbourne United
Without question on paper, Melbourne has the closest depth of high-quality talent to the Kings. So far that hasn’t clicked and that was the case two years when things fell apart, and again last season in the playoffs after finishing as minor premiers.

What the Kings have been able to do so far is have a hugely credentialed group of players, but they are playing as a team. Melbourne has the first part covered, but not the second.

On talent alone, Cedric Jackson, Chris Goulding, David Andersen, Tai Wesley, Majok Majok, Todd Blanchfield, Ramone Moore and Devin Williams is good enough to make United the main threat to Sydney winning this year’s title.

But there has been little sign of that delivering on the court so far. Goulding has been injured, Andersen has been solid yet unspectacular on return to the NBL and Williams has been the biggest disappointment of the season to date.

Williams is providing a paltry 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in 12 minutes a game as an import big man in the league. That’s not going to get the job done.

The Kings bit the bullet releasing Michael Bryson and had Blake up their sleeve. Right now if Melbourne wants to be a championship threat, Williams needs to be sent packing. Someone the calibre of last season’s signing Hakim Warrick needs to be on board.

There remains question marks over whether coach Dean Demopoulos can deliver in the NBL, but getting Goulding back healthy and an upgrade on Williams could be as simple as it needs to be for Melbourne to still be Sydney’s greatest threat.

New Zealand Breakers
They have played five of the last six grand finals and won four of the last six championships with Tom Abercrombie, Corey Webster, Alex Pledger and Mika Vukona keys in all that success still remaining at the Breakers.

The question mark over New Zealand was twofold this season – could Cedric and Charles Jackson be replaced, and could Webster and Kirk Penney co-exist to present the scoring punch from the two spot that no team in the league can match.

The answers weren’t known until Saturday night when everything clicked. Penney and Webster combined for 49 points. New point guard Ben Woodside had eight assists and new big man Akil Mitchell had 17 points and 11 rebounds.

That answered all those questions. Penney and Webster were unstoppable as a scoring duo while Woodside is a different point guard to Cedric Jackson, he might be perfect in setting up those two plus Tom Abercrombie and Mitchell showed he might even be an upgrade on Charles Jackson.

The problem is it was only one game. If the Breakers can replicate that performance the rest of the season, or close to it, the Kings do have serious competition.

Perth Wildcats
Drama is something the Wildcats have avoided over much of the past decade and the result has been championships in 2010, 2014 and 2016 with a core of Damian Martin, Shawn Redhage, Jesse Wagstaff and later Matt Knight and Greg Hire.

Knight and Martin, in particular, remain key to any title hopes again despite captain Martin having now suffered a second broken jaw inside 12 months.

Casey Prather is back for a second season and is playing at an MVP level. Jameel McKay as an import big and replacement to Jawai has been solid enough too.

But what the Wildcats need is a third import who can shoot, make a play, help spread the floor and take some of the pressure off Prather. Jaron Johnson wasn’t the answer and that’s why he was replaced with sharpshooter Andre Ingram.

He had a solid two games but then wanted to return home and was on the first flight back to Virginia. The Wildcats had little option but to recall Johnson for Friday night in Wollongong with Martin and Jarrod Kenny out injured.

But he wasn’t the answer then and isn’t now. For the Wildcats to challenge the Kings, they do need an upgrade on him but after a dramatic two weeks, the club might instead look to save face and back him the rest of the season to the detriment of the team’s championship hopes.

Right now compared to last year, the Wildcats look a weaker unit with Johnson a definite downgrade on Jermaine Beal while it’s tough to argue the duo of McKay and Angus Brandt are better than Jawai and Tom Jervis.

You can never write them off after seven championships and 30 straight playoff appearances, but it’s hard to see them matching the Kings with this group. And if they do, it’s going to be on the back of a dominant Prather, Martin’s brilliance defensively and Knight standing up inside.

Round 4 NBL results
Thursday
Cairns Taipans 83 defeated Melbourne United 75

Friday
Illawarra Hawks 81 beat Perth Wildcats 76

Saturday
New Zealand Breakers 119 defeated Adelaide 36ers 93

Sunday
Sydney Kings 87 defeated Brisbane Bullets 78
Illawarra Hawks 83 lost to Cairns Taipans 98