The NBL Blitz is finally here.
After what was perhaps the wildest offseason in recent memory, the entire NBL world will descend onto the nation's capital for the annual preseason tournament, with the league trading the Gold Coast sun for the Canberra cold as we get our first close-up look at every team.
This Blitz is shorter than usual -- only five days, running from August 27-31 at the AIS Arena -- but we should see meaningful-enough reps from each team to learn a thing or two, and get some indicators as the regular season draws nearer.
We finally get the chance to see what some of these monumental free agency decisions actually look like on court; from stars on new teams, the young players primed for success, roster moves that still need to be made, and if expansion is on the cards, here are 13 burning questions ahead of the 2025 NBL Blitz.
What will the Dellavedova-Davis backcourt look like?
The Sydney Kings opened free agency with a bang when they signed arguably the two best point guards from the previous season.
Kendric Davis was the MVP runner-up and Matthew Dellavedova is the reigning Championship Series MVP; both are credentialed, and proven, and fill the ball-carrying hole that Brian Goorjian had been crying out for.
In saying that, they're not the most natural fit. Sure, you trust smart basketball players to figure out how to play alongside one another, but, in Dellavedova and Davis, the Kings have a pair of point guards who both excel with the ball in their hands. So, how both find ways to be effective playing off the ball will be something worth tracking to start the season.
Davis has spoken about his excitement in showing off more of his off-ball game, and there's no better connective point guard to operate next to than Dellavedova, so let's see if the American's natural scoring ability can be maximised by the four-time Olympian.
In 2025, you always, always lean toward more ball carrying than less, and recruiting the league's two best assist men from last season -- even if there may be some early teething with the fit -- still feels like a step in the right direction.
What does the point guard position look like for the 36ers?
The 36ers' top-end talent is undoubtedly the envy of the entire league, but how will those players be maximised?
Let's look at Bryce Cotton, who was the team's -- and league's -- biggest signing of the offseason. The five-time MVP has always excelled playing next to a connective point guard; think Damian Martin and Mitch Norton. Dejan Vasiljevic is similar to Cotton, in that he excels playing off the ball. The 36ers then have a plethora of high-level forwards and wings, who would benefit from having a floor general to play alongside.
So, will someone fill that void?
It very well could just be Cotton who assumes a heap of the ball-carrying, but that takes a lot away from where he's most potent. Then, there's Flynn Cameron, who the 36ers recruited to start on the wing, but there was an expectation that he'd take on some ball-carrying duties, so let's see how he handles that opportunity. Isaac White is also someone projected to play minutes at the point for Mike Wells' team; what they'd be giving up in size, they'd be making up for in another shooter and scorer on the floor.
There has been a heap of personnel change for the 36ers, so Wells now has an opportunity to gauge whose hands he trusts putting the ball in.
Will the Bullets' trio announce themselves as the best import collective in the NBL?
In a vacuum, from a pure talent perspective, the Bullets have a real argument for having the best import trio in the NBL.
Jaylen Adams was the 2022 MVP, Casey Prather is a three-time champion and coming off an All-NBL Second Team appearance, and Javon Freeman-Liberty has been a fringe NBA guy for the last few years; the trio is unbelievably talented, with all three able to put together 30-point games on any given night.
They have the potential to be extremely dynamic, but there are also some questions. Can Adams rebound from an up-and-down season in Sydney? Is Prather completely over his injury concerns? Will Freeman-Liberty's scoring exploits translate to the NBL?
The Bullets are warrantably betting on the answer to all three questions being yes, so let's see if their new imports can produce on a consistent basis, and, more importantly, if it translates to wins in the NBL.
Can new head coach Stu Lash put those imports in the best position to succeed, will the talent of that trio actually lead to team success? The Blitz will be our first, close-up look at it.
Will the Blitz inform what the Hawks do with their last import recruit?
Put more simply: what does Will Hickey need to do to make the Hawks feel comfortable starting him at the point?
There's an argument he's already done enough -- shining in the 2025 Championship Series, finishing second in MVP voting -- but it's a question the franchise would be having internally as they pursue import guards.
On one hand, there's good reason to think following the same formula that won them the 2025 NBL Championship is the road they should go down, and that would be finding a like-for-like replacement for Trey Kell III to start alongside Tyler Harvey in the backcourt. However, if that player doesn't exist -- or is too expensive in today's market -- should the team just start Hickey and roll the dice with a guard who can provide a punch off the bench?
The Hawks are bringing JaQuori McLaughlin to the Blitz -- the American point guard played under Justin Tatum at Pelita Jaya in the offseason -- in what feels like a trial, of sorts. Imports coming through the building have been relatively common for the Hawks in recent years so, while there's a chance he's who they end up signing, it's not a done deal. If McLaughlin is who the Hawks land on, he's someone who may be better suited coming off the bench, while Hickey starts.
And, there's a good chance the Blitz will play a role in informing that decision.
Will Jaylin Galloway continue to prime himself for a huge season?
There might not be a player entering this NBL season in better form than Jaylin Galloway.
The 22-year-old is coming off being named the MVP of the FIBA Asia Cup, averaging 15.7 points and 3.5 rebounds per game -- shooting 64.3% from 3PT -- as he led the Australian Boomers to a third straight gold medal at the event.
There's a clear shooting leap, as well as more creation off the bounce, for a 6'5 wing who already enters basically every game he takes part in as the most athletic player on the floor.
We've seen glimpses of Galloway being a high-level prospect over his time with the Kings -- he was a key piece on both ends in their 2023 championship campaign -- but he seems primed to step into a bigger role going into the 2025-26 NBL season.
Whether Galloway starts on the wing for Brian Goorjian's team remains a question -- there is, of course, a very good argument that he should -- but there's no question he'll play a primary role for a team that's built to contend for a title.
Do we see the Hawks get closer to filling their final local spot?
For the Hawks, the Blitz is also an opportunity, of sorts, to get an idea of how best to fill their last local spot.
That spot opened up due to Hyunjung Lee choosing to leave for a contract in Japan, so there's wing depth -- and a shooting hole -- for the Hawks front office to replace.
There are some shooters on the local market -- think Jonah Antonio or Zac Triplett, for example -- but there's a real sense that the Hawks may be looking within to fill the vacancy.
The Hawks are a team that don't have any desire to spend over the cap, so the idea of elevating one of Johny Narkle or Kobe McDowell-White -- both of whom would fall under the Indigenous Player Rule, with the entirety of their salary exempt from the cap during their first NBL contract -- is one that's preferable and being discussed internally.
The Blitz may be the perfect opportunity for the Hawks to see both players in action and decide if one is worth elevating.
How will the Wildcats operate without Bryce Cotton?
It's been almost a decade since we've seen a Perth Wildcats roster without Bryce Cotton, so what it looks like -- and if we see different elements to John Rillie's coaching repertoire -- will be fascinating.
There's no question that having Cotton -- the five-time MVP and eight-time scoring champion -- is the ultimate luxury, because there hasn't been a more difficult player to guard in this league in some time, but it does alter how a team plays in a significant way. Offences are built around Cotton in order to maximise him -- and, granted, that's led to substantial team success -- while coaches know there's often a need to cover for him on the defensive end at times.
Rillie inherited a Cotton-led team when he first got to the Wildcats, and has had a ton of regular season success, but let's see how things operate without him.
The Blitz will be our first look at it; albeit still without an import point guard. Will things revolve more around Kristian Doolittle after his impressive playoff campaign last season? Will we see Dylan Windler's usage increase? How will Rillie utilise a big-man like Jo Lual-Acuil Jr., who's most effective with the ball in his hands?
Will we see the early stages of a Sam Mennenga leap?
This is the most important season of Sam Mennenga's young career.
The Kiwi is still, in effect, on his rookie contract in the NBL -- he was 'traded' after his first season, then signed an extension -- and is heading into this campaign as the starting centre for the New Zealand Breakers. The thing is: Mennenga's production will likely be on par with all of his starter-level local centre peers, but he'll be earning substantially less than all of them.
Mennenga did have the opportunity to earn some money in Puerto Rico in the offseason, before playing for the Los Angeles Lakers at NBA Summer League, but big-men are earning high-money contracts all around him and he's hoping to be next on the list.
The 2025-26 season is Mennenga's first real contract year, so he has every incentive in the world to perform at a career-best level in order to cash in as best he can.
United added dynamic creation in Milton Doyle and Tyson Walker. How much of a difference will it make?
It's quite clear what Melbourne United wanted to do this offseason.
Of course, they wanted to get slightly younger, but -- and perhaps this comes with the territory of youth -- there was also clear intent to add more dynamic creation to the mix, which is why Dean Vickerman opted for three imports for the first time in a little while.
Milton Doyle was the first import guard to be added to the roster, before United signed Tyson Walker. Now, neither are natural point guards, but they're both effective with the ball in their hands, can create their own shots, and bring a whole lot more dynamism relative to rosters Vickerman has had over the past few seasons.
In effect, United has replaced Dellavedova and Ian Clark -- both of whom are 34 -- with Doyle (31) and Walker (24), while 25-year-old big-man Jesse Edwards steps in for 30-year-old Marcus Lee.
United is coming off back-to-back Championship Series losses -- both in Game 5 -- so there was obviously no point in throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but they knew a slight change in philosophy was required. The talent aggregate of their new signings feels similar enough to the players they replaced, but maybe that extra layer of pop is the thing that finally gets them over the line.
Will a primary creator emerge for the Phoenix?
The Phoenix enter the Blitz with a very unique roster. They're quite deep, but don't have that full-blown, established, high-level creator that almost every NBL team in history has entered the season with.
Instead, they have a heap of guys who can be relied on to carry the ball, create in stretches, with a whole lot of trust placed upon head coach Josh King and the structure he'll provide on both ends.
Over two preseason games, Nathan Sobey has assumed that role of the most consistent creator, and Vrenz Bleijenbergh has shown glimpses of extremely creative passing, but there's a good chance we'll get to the midway point of the season and there won't be a clear hierarchy. It's the thing that other teams are questioning about the Phoenix.
What's fun is that it doesn't seem like the Phoenix care too much about it; they trust their ball-carriers, depth, and defensive foundation to get them to where they need to be.
Will we see glimpses of more efficient offence for the Taipans?
The Taipans made their big splash this offseason by adding that second marquee-level player that, historically, they'd never had the capacity to. Jack McVeigh was the biggest signing in the franchise's history; an NBL Championship Series MVP who's coming off an Olympic campaign and two-way deal with the Houston Rockets. Throw in Reyne Smith -- the Australian sharpshooter out of Louisville -- and it's clear that the Taipans should be a whole lot more potent.
'Should' is the operative word there, because they never have been under Adam Forde. Since he took over the Taipans in 2021, the team has had a bottom-three offence every season; even the 2022-23 campaign where they had a winning record and were a whisker away from a Championship Series appearance.
The hope is that the new personnel changes that. McVeigh, in particular, should play a big role in lifting the efficiency of the Taipans' offence, as well as his frontcourt partner Sam Waardenburg, who seems primed for another forward step in his development. There's also hope that new import point guard Ashton Hagans can come in and be a floor general, connecting the talented pieces around him in the starting unit.
How do the JackJumpers divvy up ball-carrying duties?
It's tough to think of the last time an NBL team went with three guard imports, with the plan to start them all.
Well, that's what the JackJumpers have in Tyger Campbell, Bryce Hamilton, and David Johnson; a trio of young Americans, all of whom have the ability to handle the ball and create.
The JackJumpers were forced into the Campbell signing, due to Sean Macdonald's season-ending knee injury, which means Scott Roth will roll out his starters at the one, two, and three that's comprised entirely of imports.
It must be stressed that too much reliable ball-carrying is a wonderful problem to have, so this is really just notable because it'll be fascinating to track who gets leant on the most, particularly at the end of games, and how those reps are distributed.
Campbell is the truest point guard on the roster, but Hamilton has a case as the JackJumpers' most threatening player with the ball in his hands. By the same token, Johnson is an underrated passer, which may end up shining through in this league.
Will Canberra's audition be successful?
By now, we all know that the Blitz isn't just a preseason tournament; it's also a test run for potential expansion.
The 2021 NBL Blitz was in Tasmania, ahead of the JackJumpers entering the league, while the event being held in the Gold Coast and Darwin in recent years was explicitly to feel out whether those cities could absorb a new team.
NBL owner Larry Kestelman has long eyed Canberra for potential expansion, and the redevelopment of the AIS Arena -- where the Blitz games will be played -- was a step in the right direction.
An already positive sign is that tickets to the weekend games of this Blitz are already sold out.
We'll see if the interest is there throughout the rest of the event and, most importantly when it comes to potential expansion, if government funding is something that may enter the agenda.