REPORT: Clark, Hawks agreement on hold

The Illawarra Hawks have locked away the services of Tyler Harvey for another three seasons, but ESPN’s Olgun Uluc has reported the club is struggling to make ground on a deal to bring Gary Clark back to Wollongong for NBL25.

Clark took the NBL by storm in his debut campaign in the competition. The former Houston Rocket established himself as one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the competition ,and was named to the All-NBL First Team en route to a Playoff defeat to Melbourne.

Head coach Justin Tatum has been adamant he wants to bring as much of last season’s group back to the club for NBL25, but news of the contract standoff with Clark has come just days after Hawks General Manager Mat Campbell stated Justin Robinson would not be returning next season.

“I’m intrigued to see if they’re going to be able to get over the line with Gary Clark,” Uluc said on The Marketplace.

“As of now there is no agreement, the money that is being asked for is very high.

“The Illawarra Hawks have a directive every season to stay under the cap, and that’s very tough to do when you have high-money imports because there are no mechanisms to reduce the cap spend on those guys.

“Whether they are able to get that over the line is the next big thing. Their bench is sorted, their local core is locked in, it’s the same one as last season which I think is really solid.

“Whether they can get that high-level import, the guy who’s the alpha to Tyler Harvey, we’ll have to wait and see.”