CEO: Your Sydney Kings will be 'ready to roll'

The following update was sent out to our members this afternoon from CEO Chris Pongrass _

Dear Members,  

It seems like yesterday when your Sydney Kings gloriously lifted the 2022 NBL Championship trophy. The last six weeks have flown by as we navigate a very short off season with the League indicating a late September/early October start to the NBL23 Season. 

A major focus every off season is roster construction.  

The process generally runs a standard course with the commencement of Free Agency signalling when the majority of domestic players negotiate new deals to stay in the NBL. Throw returning imports into that mix and the bulk of the relevant players get sorted out quite quickly. 

Our key focus in this period was to retain marquee local free agents Xavier Cooks and Dejan Vasiljevic. 

We made it clear to Xavier our desire to build our team around him and this remains our approach moving forward as he is the premier local in our league. He has been a key piece of our success these past three seasons and are thrilled to have signed Xavier to a fresh three-year deal.  

DJ is an extraordinary talent as we all saw at various times in the last two years. No doubt the premier Australian shooting guard in the NBL, his successful return from serious injury last season and his dagger in Game 2 of the Grand Final Series was the standout redemption story in 2022. 

That said DJ has clear ambitions to play internationally and our deal allows him the flexibility to explore those opportunities if they arise. We will always encourage ambition in our players.  

Our continuity from last season is underscored by bringing back at least seven players from our NBL22 Championship team, including exercising the mutual option for Angus Glover and re-signing Shaun Bruce for another two-seasons. Both critical pieces secured this off-season, they join Xavier, DJ, Biwali Bayles, Jordan Hunter and Jaylin Galloway as returning locals.  

In terms of new local additions, we’ve introduced Kouat Noi and Jackson Makoi.  

Kouat is a player we have had on our radar since he left TCU and entered the NBL. A young, high-upside prospect, Kouat has unfortunately been hampered with injuries the past two seasons; he remains an extremely exciting piece for our group, and we are confident he will play a significant role this season.  

Jackson is coming off an impressive season in Croatia and is one of the rising-stars on the South Sudan national team. Whist only 21 years old, we were lucky enough to lock Jackson up as a Development Player for the upcoming season, providing us key guard depth in our rotation. 

So, after the initial flurry of Free Agency the focus turns to imports, and this off season has been interesting. The global basketball economy is back, and even bigger in a regional and financial sense. 

The NBA Draft last week starts to see the respective NBA team plans become clearer, the majority of two–way deals are signed and the uncontracted player focus switches to Summer League and looming free agency period. Once that deadline passes the import market loosens up for uncontracted players who generally decide between G-League or offers internationally. Holding back on import deals is the most prudent approach in our view so we haven't made any decisions to date. 

The emergence of the Japanese League as a financial powerhouse is well and truly having an impact, now competing with China and Europe for US talent, and now increasingly drawing the interest of Australians.  

The Sydney Kings will continue to recruit on the credential of our ability to help players improve, being a winning program and the track record of getting players to the next level globally. Being the greatest city in the world helps as well. But we are limited financially in what we can offer players and we simply can't compete with other leagues in that sense.  

Jaylen Adams, Jarell Martin and Ian Clark were an incredible trio in terms of imports in the NBL. As much as we continue every effort to have them all return, it's unlikely we will have them all back. I do know that they are all in high demand globally and that is a testimony to our program and the platform The Sydney Kings offered them.  

We have been highly active and focused in our conversations with a variety of imports; we feel we have several intriguing options in front of us as we deal with possible scenarios of some players not returning and how we piece together a roster that will give us the best possible chance to go back-to-back. I know that Chase is incredibly excited by the opportunity to construct a roster that will play Kings-style basketball that our fans loved. 

This is intended to give you some insight into how things are shaping for NBL23. What we can say with certainty is the 2023 version of the Sydney Kings will be ready to roll. Having all our coaches, the bulk of our Australian players returning, and a Championship trophy to attract the imports that will take us a long way in 2023. We can’t wait for the first time we can all be together again, this time as reigning champions.  

Regards, Chris 

CHRIS PONGRASS 

CEO of The Sydney Kings