Monday, April 14, 2008

Bullets Have White Knight and Slingers Look to The Philippines

Thank God this is not the Jason Williams the Slingers are looking at!

It seems that a local businessman has come to the rescue of the Brisbane Bullets. Dean Kemp seems to be the man of the moment.

Kemp who has already committed a large chunk of change to the Logan Thunder is looking to add the Bullets to his portfolio. (If you do not know who the Thunder are, they are a new franchise coming into the WNBL this upcoming season.)

It is great to see that the Bullets are going to be around, but the question is, can Kemp keep the "big names" in town.

High profile players Sam MacKinnon and CJ Bruton have commented publicly about moving on. Time is money and this process has taken a little time so players begin to get itchy feet. Plus how much longer will it take Eddie Groves and Kemp to nut out the finer points of this deal?

Once they agree, the NBL has to approve the deal. Although a deal seems very close, it only takes a hiccup for the whole thing to drag on.

My point regarding this timeline is, if high profile players move on, it becomes tough to replace this calibre of talent. We all know at the end of the day, wins equal bums on seats.

As I said before, I'm happy to see the Bullets survive, but I will be interested to see what becomes of their roster.

The Singapore Slingers must be congratulated for thinking outside of the box. It has been reported they are trying to sign Filipino League star Jason Williams Castro.

Castro is 5'8 point guard with skill according to Ben Knight but what I like about this approach is Bob Turner and his staff are trying to get bums on seats. You must remember that Turner was partly responsible for the Kings glory days with crowds.

The Slingers are entering their third year in the NBL and it seems that Turner has a better feel for the Singapore basketball landscape and crowd numbers are set to rise.

If you do not know Filipino basketball, these players are rock stars in their country. I'm sure Turner is hoping Castro will be able to attract some of his countrymen to be spectators at games in Singapore. Smart thinking Mr Turner.

It will be interesting to see what type of impact Castro can have on the league. To date none of the local Singapore players have troubled a NBL scouting report.

In other NBL news, Basketball Australia and the NBL are going to accelerate the new look for basketball in Australia. Razorbacks head coach Rob "Give Me a Stiff" Beveridge is home after coaching the World Select Team against the USA.

Kenny and Charles Change Nappies (viewers with children may only see the funny side)

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