2020-21 NBL Season + Off-season news

[Gozu]

Game 1

Melbourne 96 (Landale 26, Hopson 22) def SE Melbourne 78 (Moore 17, Creek 15, Sykes 12)

United lead the series 1-0

In other news today the Brisbane Bullets announced they've signed James Duncan as their new head coach to a 2 year contract. The Canadian-born Duncan has spent the past two years as assistant coach at the Sydney Kings and has also coached in Belgium, Germany, Taiwan and Japan.

https://nbl.com.au/news/brisbane-bullet ... head-coach

Also today Sydney Kings captain and former Boomer Daniel Kickert announced his retirement. He played the first 8 years of his pro career in Europe before coming home starting with Melbourne then Brisbane and lastly Sydney where he played his 200th and final NBL game last weekend.

https://nbl.com.au/news/daniel-kickert- ... retirement

[Gozu]

Game 2

Perth 79 (Mooney 18, Travers 13, Steindl 12, Blanchfield 11) def Illawarra 71 (Harvey 24, Jessup 11)

Series level at 1-1

[Gozu]

Game 2

SE Melbourne 90 (Creek 26, Sykes 26, Wetzell 20) def Melbourne 79 (Hopson 19, Goulding 14, Lual-Acuil 11, Peatling 11)

Series level at 1-1

[Gozu]

Game 3

Perth 79 (Blanchfield 24, Mooney 16, Norton 15) def Illawarra 71 (Froling 14, Harvey 10)

Wildcats win the series 2-1

[Gozu]

Game 3

Melbourne 84 (Landale 27, Goulding 14, McCarron 11) def SE Melbourne 74 (Te Rangi 22, Creek 19, Sykes 15)

United win the series 2-1

[Gozu]

NBL Grand Final schedule for the first two games, all games live on ESPN, SBS Viceland & SBS on Demand:

Friday 8pm Game 1 Melbourne at Perth

Sunday 4:30pm Game 2 Melbourne at Perth

Despite United having home court advantage the first two games have to be played in Perth because currently any team that enters Victoria won't be allowed to re-enter WA without having to quarantine.

[Gozu]

The NBL's end of season Andrew Gaze MVP Awards were tonight, the winners:

Most Valuable Player: Bryce Cotton, Wildcats

Coach of the year: Trevor Gleeson, Wildcats

Rookie of the year: Josh Giddey, 36ers

Best sixth man: Jo Lual-Acuil, United

Most Improved: Sam Froling, Hawks

Best Defensive player: Justin Simon, Hawks

Fans MVP: Bryce Cotton, Wildcats

All-NBL First Team:

John Mooney, Wildcats
Jock Landale, United
Bryce Cotton, Wildcats
Nathan Sobey, Bullets
Tyler Harvey, Hawks

All-NBL Second Team:

Mitch Creek, Phoenix
Finn Delany, Breakers
Chris Goulding, United
Casper Ware, Kings
Mitch McCarron, United

[Gozu]

Basketball Australia have announced the Boomers squad for the Olympics has been reduced to 19 players:

Aron Baynes (Toronto Raptors)
Ryan Broekhoff (South East Melbourne Phoenix)
Xavier Cooks (Sydney Kings)
Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne Phoenix)
Matthew Dellavedova (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Dante Exum (Houston Rockets)
Josh Giddey (Adelaide 36ers)
Chris Goulding (Melbourne United)
Josh Green (Dallas Mavericks)
Isaac Humphries (Adelaide 36ers)
Joe Ingles (Utah Jazz)
Nick Kay (Real Betis, Spain)
Jock Landale (Melbourne United)
Patty Mills (San Antonio Spurs)
Brock Motum (Nanterre, France)
Duop Reath (Crvena zvezda, Serbia)
Ben Simmons (Philadelphia 76ers)
Nathan Sobey (Brisbane Bullets)
Matisse Thybulle (Philadelphia 76ers)

https://nbl.com.au/news/reduced-boomers ... -for-tokyo

After the selection camp later this month a final 12 man team will be named that will play exhibition games against the USA, Nigeria and Argentina in Las Vegas before departing for Tokyo.

[Gozu]

Game 1

Melbourne 73 (Goulding 23, Landale 17, Lual-Acuil 10) def Perth 70 (Blanchfield 27, White 10)

United lead the series 1-0

In other news the 36ers have announced they've parted ways with point guard Alex Mudronja despite still having a year to go on his contract. As well the Sydney Kings have announced centre Jordan Hunter has picked up his option for next season and signed a 2 year contract extension putting him under contract until 2024.

Also former Sydney King Jae'Sean Tate has been named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team where he is joined by former Illawarra Hawk LaMelo Ball who was also named the NBA's Rookie of the Year.

[Gozu]

Game 2

Melbourne 83 (Goulding 21, Baba 15, Landale 12, Lual-Acuil 10) def Perth 74 (Mooney 17, Blanchfield 13, Norton 12, White 12)

United lead the series 2-0

The NBL have released the schedule for the rest of the Grand Final series, all games live on ESPN, SBS Viceland and SBS on Demand:

Friday 25 June 7pm Game 3 Perth at Melbourne

Sunday 27 June 4:30pm Game 4 Perth at Melbourne*

Wednesday 30 June 7pm Game 5 Perth at Melbourne*

* if needed

[DOC]

Should win it from here.

[Spargo]

Should win it from here.

Balls on the line stuff there @DOC…

[Gozu]

The SE Melbourne Phoenix have announced they've re-signed point guard Kyle Adnam to a 2 year deal.

https://nbl.com.au/news/kyle-adnam-re-s ... -melbourne

Also for the Phoenix Mitch Creek has picked up his player option to return to the team next season. Creek is currently playing in the QLD state league on the same team as former 36ers teammate Brendan Teys.

[Gozu]

SE Melbourne Phoenix continue to lock up players for next season announcing they've re-signed development player Izayah Le'Afa to a 2 year deal on the full roster. The Kiwi scored a career high 29 points in a game against Sydney this season and last season was playing college ball at Sacramento State.

https://nbl.com.au/news/izayah-leafa-re ... -melbourne

Also the NZ Breakers have picked up their team option on Rasmus Bach for next season.

[Gozu]

Game 3

Melbourne 81 (Landale 15, Goulding 14, Hopson 12, Peatling 12, Baba 11) def Perth 76 (Mooney 14, White 14, Blanchfield 11, Magnay 10)

United win the championship 3-0

Finals MVP: Jock Landale, United

Also today the Sydney Kings announced the signing of their new head coach Chase Buford on a multi-year deal. Buford is the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks G-League affiliate the Wisconsin Herd and will join the Kings after the Bucks playoff run ends.

https://nbl.com.au/news/chase-buford-na ... dney-kings

The Cairns Taipans have also picked up their team option on Jordan Ngatai for next season.

In Boomers news today Isaac Humphries (injury) and Ryan Broekhoff (mental health) have both announced their withdrawals from the Olympic Games squad and although not confirmed yet it is expected Ben Simmons will also be pulling out.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/basketbal ... df8febb161

[Gozu]

With the NBL's Free Agency period starting tomorrow there have been a slew of re-signings over the weekend:

The Sydney Kings have picked up their option on import Jarell Martin bring him back next season and the Kings have also re-signed Kiwi big Tom Vodanovich to a one year deal, he is currently playing in the NZ league.

The Cairns Taipans have made a number of re-signings picking up their options on Majok Deng and Nathan Jawai for next season and re-signing Kouat Noi to a 2 year deal and Mirko Djeric to a 3 year deal.

The NZ Breakers have re-signed William McDowell-White son of AFL legend Darryl White to a one year deal.

Also the champs Melbourne United have re-signed Kiwi guard Shea Ili to a 2 year deal and have also announced the signing of Zac Triplett as a development player to a long-term deal. The 19 year old is a 6'6" guard who had been playing in the NCAA at the University of Portland.

The NBL have also confirmed that teams will return to 11 man rosters next season consisting of a maximum of three imports per team with Next Star signings again not counting towards the 11 man roster.

[Gozu]

The SE Melbourne Phoenix have announced they've re-signed forward Ryan Broekhoff to a 2 year deal.

https://www.semphoenix.com.au/news/ryan ... -heartland

[Gozu]

The Cairns Taipans have announced they've signed former Sydney Kings coach Adam Forde as their new coach to a 2 year deal.

https://nbl.com.au/news/adam-forde-name ... head-coach

Also in a surprise to no one Ben Simmons has now withdrawn from the Boomers Olympic squad.

[Gozu]

Some more re-signings today:

The Sydney Kings have re-signed forward Xavier Cooks to a one year deal.

https://nbl.com.au/news/sydney-re-sign-xavier-cooks

Melbourne United have also re-signed F/C Jo Lual-Acuil to a one year deal.

https://www.melbourneutd.com.au/news/lu ... her-season

The NZ Breakers have signed Kiwi Sam Timmins as a development player with a team option for a second year. The 6'11" centre had a stint in Estonia last season and is currently playing in the NZ league.

https://nbl.com.au/news/breakers-add-sa ... ent-player

[Gozu]

The Perth Wildcats have been sold reportedly for $8.5 million to SEG who own SEN and it's CEO is football identity Craig Hutchison who is chairman of Melbourne United and part owner of that team, he's said he intends to step down as United chairman but retain his part-ownership of the team.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/ ... /100259326

Also today the Perth Wildcats announced they've re-signed point guard Mitch Norton to a 3 year deal.

https://nbl.com.au/news/perth-re-sign-m ... -year-deal

The Tasmania JackJumpers have signed forward Sam McDaniel to a 3 year deal. The former Melbourne United player was born there and his father Wayne McDaniel was a star import for the Hobart Devils in the early 90's.

https://nbl.com.au/news/sam-mcdaniel-jo ... ackjumpers