Hawks Provide Import Update

Illawarra Hawks GM of Basketball Mat Campbell has revealed the club is casting a “wide net” with their final import spot.

The Hawks have had a strong offseason, and have contructed a core of import backcourt pair Tyler Harvey and Justin Robinson, alongside rising Australian star Sam Froling.

Sprinkle in NBA hopeful AJ Johnson as a Next Star, the signings of Mason Peatling and Lachlan Olbrich, and the returning Will Hickey, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, Dan Grida and Harry Morris, and it is easy to mount a case for Illawarra to significantly improve from last season’s three-win campaign.

With two locals and one import spot available, Campbell said the club is “close to finalising one of the local players.”.

ESPN Insider Olgun Uluc has told The Marketplace sharpshooting veteran Todd Blanchfield is likely to return to Illawarra, reuniting with the club where he scored a single game career high 35 points with in 2020.

As for the remaining import, Campbell is still assessing what kind of player will best fit the Hawks’ needs.

“With the import, we are putting a really wide net with that,” he told the club’s YouTube channel.

“We got an idea about the kind of player we are looking at, off the back of some of our key signings in the offseason.

“Hopefully in the next few weeks we will get a bit of traction in that space to give an idea about the exact kind of import player we are looking for to fit the system and fit the personnel we have been able to put together.”

Johnson is projected to be the 13^th pick in next year’s NBA Draft and continues Illawarra’s strong Next Star history of LaMelo Ball and Justinian Jessup.

“This is another exciting piece in this program, and we are pretty excited to see how good AJ is going to be,” Campbell said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?????? ?????? ?<br><br>The Illawarra Hawks will kick off NBL24 with a Freeway Series blockbuster, hosting the Sydney Kings on Saturday September 30 ? ??<br><br>See more at <a href="https://t.co/LCoz1xVQaB">https://t.co/LCoz1xVQaB</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HawkNation?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HawkNation</a> <a href="https://t.co/32tOGPeOzB">pic.twitter.com/32tOGPeOzB</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1648446404459921411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

As for the signings of Peatling and Olbrich, Campbell says both players fill holes the club had entering the offseason.

“Mason Peatling was pretty important to us, we followed him all the way through to add a bit of size and toughness to the group,” he said.

“Trying to continue to get youth into the program with Lachlan Olbrich. Lachie is someone we have followed from last year when he played for UC Riverside and his progress has been quite outstanding.”

Illawarra’s season begins on September 30 against New South Wales rivals the Sydney Kings at the WIN Entertainment Centre.