2019-2020 NBL TEAM PREVIEWS
ADELAIDE 36ERS
2019 FINISH: FIFTH
PREDICTION: EIGHTH
While the Adelaide 36ers are not the most fancied team heading into the upcoming season, Joey Wright’s side is all-too familiar with defying expectations, most notably his Jerome Randle and Mitch Creek-led 36ers of recent years who have made semi-final (2017) and grand-final (2018) appearances. Wright has been at the club since 2013; the stability he offers as head coach must be credited for much of that success.
Centre Harry Froling (above) has been tagged a Boomer-to-be and should have a mortgage on the centre spot once Andrew Bogut steps aside following the Tokyo Olympics. Froling was the 2019 NBL Rookie of the Year, a coveted award that has proven a rite of passage for Australian greats including Andrew Gaze, Shane Heal, Sam Mackinnon and Joe Ingles. It is easy to see why Froling is so highly thought of. His game has been compared to Denver Nuggets and Serbia big man Nikola Jokic’s and he possesses a natural passing game rare among big men.
Deshon Taylor joins the Adelaide 36ers on a one-year deal after a stint in the Summer League with the Philadelphia 76ers and will be eager to parlay good form in the NBL into a potential NBA contract. Taylor, 23, will share the backcourt with fellow import Ramone Moore, the 30-year-old league veteran who was NBL Sixth Man of the Year with Melbourne United in 2018. The Temple University product splits his time between the NBL and the Greek Basket League, where he plays for Athens-based Peristeri BC.
