2025-26 NBL Season + Off-season news

[Gozu]

Ignite Cup Final

NZ Breakers 111 (Jackson-Cartwright 29, Brockington 21, Mennenga 21, Te Rangi 17, Lopez 12) def Adelaide 107 (Cotton 34, Cheatham 21, Rakocevic 21, Humphries 10)

Breakers win the tournament

[Jim05]

Is it time to hit the panic button?
Entering finals with some pretty ordinary form.
I’m not sure we can get past SEM or Perth in a best of 3 without lifting a cog or 2

[Gozu]

Ahead of the NBL awards tonight a round up of the team MVP winners has seen Nathan Sobey win the Phoenix team MVP, Jack McVeigh won the Taipans team MVP, JaVale McGee won the Hawks team MVP, Josh Bannan won the JackJumpers team MVP and Tyrell Harrison won the Leroy Loggins trophy as Bullets team MVP.

https://www.nbl.com.au/news/best-in-cla ... ore-finals

[amber_fluid]

Is it time to hit the panic button?
Entering finals with some pretty ordinary form.
I’m not sure we can get past SEM or Perth in a best of 3 without lifting a cog or 2

What is Coach Wells doing?
Jenkins started off well now he’s getting limited court time
Jenkins needs more court time as does DJ
Limit Isaac White’s time to zero if need be
Humphries needs to lift if we are going to go deep in finals
Can’t keep relying on Bryce

[Gozu]

Last night Bryce Cotton won his 6th NBL MVP award now just one shy of equalling Andrew Gaze's record of seven MVP's. Cotton received just two more votes ahead of runner up Kendric Davis.

Most Valauable Player - Bryce Cotton, Adelaide 36ers

Coach of the Year - Brian Goorjian, Sydney Kings

Most Improved Player - Flynn Cameron, Adelaide 36ers

Best Sixth Man - Angus Glover, SE Melbourne Phoenix

Best Defensive Player - John Brown, SE Melbourne Phoenix

Next Generation Award - Sam Mennenga, NZ Breakers

Fans MVP - Bryce Cotton, Adelaide 36ers

Executive of the Year - Nic Barbato, Adelaide 36ers

All-NBL First Team:

Bryce Cotton, Adelaide 36ers
Kendric Davis, Sydney Kings
Nathan Sobey, SE Melbourne Phoenix
Kristian Doolittle, Perth Wildcats
John Brown, SE Melbourne Phoenix

All-NBL Second Team

Jack McVeigh, Cairns Taipans
Parker Jackson-Cartwright, NZ Breakers
Xavier Cooks, Sydney Kings
Bryce Hamilton, Tasmania JackJumpers
Zylan Cheatham, Adelaide 36ers

https://www.nbl.com.au/news/bryce-cotto ... ndrew-gaze

[PatowalongaPirate]

At least Davis took it well lol.

Monday night's NBL MVP award has sparked controversy, with Sydney Kings star Kendric Davis accusing the voters of favouritism.

Davis finished second in the voting to Adelaide's Bryce Cotton by just two votes, handing the legendary guard his sixth Andrew Gaze Award.

For the Kings point guard, it is the second straight season he has finished runner up and if one more voter had leant in his direction, it would have been a tie.

He is particularly frustrated that, unlike in the NBA, voters' ballots are not made public.

"They got John Casey (voting). I love John Casey but John Casey on this, like c'mon bro," Davis said.

"Let's see who voted for who. So we know what is going on like the NBA.

"All I know is you put my stats up against his stats and take our faces off, and tell the NBA to vote on who should win MVP, I guarantee I come out on top. Guarantee, but not a go.

"I don't really even care. I'm just speaking on it because if it ain't spoke on, they gonna sweep it under the rug. So, you gotta speak on it.

"Don't tell me about 'rook' no more. 'Rook' is fake. Man, two straight.

"They didn't want me to win it from the get go. They didn't want me to win MVP from the get go. Trust me.

"Why do you think at the beginning of the year all they did was post, the NBL post said I'm a bad teammate and all this and that."

Cotton elected to play down the situation when asked about Davis' comments on Tuesday morning.

"I was too busy paying for everybody's drinks, so I didn't catch everything that was said. Sorry about that," he told reporters

[Jim05]

Unfortunately I think Davis might win the only thing that matters

[wenchbarwer]

COTTON DAVIS
POINTS 25.7 (#1) 24.4 (#2)
ASSISTS 7.6 6.7
REBOUNDS 3.6 3.9
FIELD GOAL % 44% 48%
STEALS 1.8 1.1
TURNOVERS 2.8 1.8
SUPERCOACH 45.7 42

[Gozu]

Big difference in minutes played though similar stats but Cotton played 37.9 mpg to KD's 31.6 mpg.

But I would argue Cotton is more valuable to Adelaide than KD is to Sydney. The Kings roster is loaded and they would still be a quite decent team without KD, the Sixers wouldn't be too flash without Cotton.

[Gozu]

I don’t believe so, they stayed in Perth. I’m sure that’s what was said on the TV coverage last time we played in Perth

Haven’t seen them at local games either

In Cotton's MVP acceptance speech he infers his family are with him here in Adelaide.

Cotton said he’s eager to build on this chapter over the next two seasons.

“Honestly, we like being in Adelaide,” he said.

“It's been amazing, because even if you take away the basketball, the city fits me and my family’s personalities.

“We don't really go out much. It's a laid-back city, and it's given us everything that we needed, including a breath of fresh air and meeting new people.

“I have no complaints at all, I love where I'm at.”

https://www.nbl.com.au/news/bryce-cotto ... n-adelaide

[Gozu]

Last night the Boomers beat Guam and next play the Philippines in Manila on Sunday night.

Australia 93 (Krebs 28, Pepper 23, Froling 13, Wilson 11, Kay 10) def Guam 80 (Freeman 25, Simon 19, Borja 11)

[wenchbarwer]

Hope they've packed their mouthguards

[Gozu]

Hope they've packed their mouthguards

I'm surprised Thon Maker isn't in the team just for his footwork alone.

[wenchbarwer]

Hope they've packed their mouthguards

I'm surprised Thon Maker isn't in the team just for his footwork alone.

I really hope he got the nickname "Hay" after that series

[Gozu]

The Boomers return to Manila Sunday night for the first time since that ugly brawl in 2018 with the game against the Philippines to air live on ESPN & Kayo at 10pm.

Last night the 36ers had their MVP awards night and it's no surprise that Bryce Cotton won the team MVP award.

Mark Davis Trophy (MVP): Bryce Cotton

Members Choice Award: Bryce Cotton

Coaches Award: Isaac Humphries

Chairman's Award: Nick Rakocevic

Most Imprived: Flynn Cameron

Defensive Award: Zylan Cheatham

https://www.adelaide36ers.com/news/cott ... mvp-trophy

In other NBL news the NZ Breakers have parted ways with coach Petteri Koponen who is expected to seek opportunities closer to his home country Finland.

https://www.nbl.com.au/news/new-zealand ... ri-koponen

Also Parker Jackson-Cartwright has won the Breakers team MVP award and Jesse Edwards won Melbourne United's team MVP.

[Gozu]

The Boomers had an incident-free win over the Philippines last night in their FIBA World Cup qualifier.

Australia 93 (Pepper 28, Krebs 18, Creek 13, Wilson 12) def Philippines 66 (Brownlee 20, Millora-Brown 11)

Also on the eve of the Finals starting on Wednesday the NBL have highlighted the record growth the league has experienced this season with 58 game sellouts and more than 1.1 million fans attended games this season. Adelaide and Tasmania sold out all 16 of their home games, the 36ers stretching their streak to 37 consecutive sell out games. The JackJumpers have sold out every home game of their existence since entering the NBL in 2021.

On the broadcast front live games on ESPN were up 20% on last season, which itself was a 20% increase on the previous season. There was also a 22% increase on viewership across the 10 Network games.

The NBL is also now broadcast in more than 190 countries around the world via ESPN and Disney+ and games are shown on the NBA App in the USA & Canada.

https://www.nbl.com.au/news/nbl-surges- ... ord-growth

[Gozu]

SEM Phoenix advance to the Semi-Finals to play the 36ers and Perth will play the winner of Melb vs Tassie.

Seeding Qualifier

SE Melbourne 111 (Sobey 24, Foxwell 18, Clark 16, Glover 12) def Perth 94 (Doolittle 22, Windler 13, Duke 11, Henshall 11, Lual-Acuil 11)

[Gozu]

Melb United now advance to the play-in game on Saturday night in Perth for the right to play Sydney in the SF.

Play-In Qualifier

Melbourne 82 (Delany 33, Doyle 19, Krebs 11) def Tasmania 68 (Marshall 20, Bannan 16, Johnson 16, Campbell 12)

[Gozu]

Perth advance to the SF to take on Sydney.

Play-In Game

Perth 95 (Lual-Acuil 28, Doolittle 24, Windler 18) def Melbourne 77 (Doyle 13, Edwards 12, Walker 12)

[Gozu]

Playoffs Series 1

Game 1
Adelaide 36ers v South East Melbourne Phoenix
Tuesday, March 10 - 7.30pm AEDT
Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Game 2
South East Melbourne Phoenix v Adelaide 36ers
Saturday, March 14 - 5.30pm AEDT
John Cain Arena

Game 3
Adelaide 36ers v South East Melbourne Phoenix
Tuesday, March 17 - 7.30pm AEDT
Adelaide Entertainment Centre
(if required)

Playoffs Series 2

Game 1
Sydney Kings v Perth Wildcats
Wednesday, March 11 - 7.30pm AEDT
Qudos Bank Arena

Game 2
Perth Wildcats v Sydney Kings
Saturday, March 14 - 8pm AEDT
RAC Arena

Game 3
Sydney Kings v Perth Wildcats
Wednesday, March 18 - 7.30pm AEDT
Qudos Bank Arena
(if required)