Jackies’ new import “an absolute stud”

Replacing two of the most revered players in the Tasmania JackJumpers’ short history was always going to be a challenge, but Scott Roth and his team appear to be handling it impressively.

Combo guard Bryce Hamilton has built a strong reputation internationally, posting standout numbers in both the G League and Germany’s Bundesliga - enough to already earn high praise from rival stars.

“The big tell is when you ask imports around the league and coaches around the league about this guy, they say he’s an absolute star, right?,” ESPN’s Olgun Uluc said on The Marketplace.

“So if other imports say that ... they don’t always speak so fondly of each other. You know, they’re all competitors, right? They want to compete against each other.

“But a lot of them say that Bryce Hamilton is a really, really damn good player.”

Uluc and Pete Hooley already have Hamilton in their All-NBL First Team predictions.

“I think Bryce Hamilton is going to be an absolute stud in this league,” Hooley said.

The 25-year-old Californian posted averages of 17.1 points and 4.2 rebounds last season with the Rostock Seawolves, following two G League campaigns with the South Bay Lakers in which he scored 16 points per game.

Stepping into the role left vacant by the injured Sean Macdonald is Tyger Campbell.

Bringing valuable experience from both Germany and France, and brimming with youthful energy at just 25, he arrives with high expectations for the point guard role.

“He’s going to be a bit of a terror on defence. I really think he’s going to be someone that the Tasmanian JackJumpers’ fans fall in love with,” Hooley said.

“They get this 5’11” speedy point guard who played at UCLA … I think a lot of people would know him from his time there,” Uluc added.

“He comes in and then there’s some dynamic creation from him on a team that between him, Bryce Hamilton, David Johnson … there's a ton of dynamic creation across the backcourt of that team.”

Hooley maintains that the JackJumpers should approach the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 Season with strong optimism, even after losing several members of their Championship-winning roster.

“I’ve said it throughout the entire off-season, I’m very high on them. (But) they’ve got to stay healthy now they lose that insurance policy with having another import in case somebody else goes down,” Hooley said.

“Ben Ayre, chip on his shoulder, Nick Marshall, chip on his shoulder has never really reached the heights that he wanted to at Adelaide. Anthony Drmic going to the bench. He won’t love that. He's a competitive beast. Anthony Drmic, Majok Deng will always give you 150 per cent every time he plays,” Jack Heverin said.

“So depth was a bit of an issue for them last year as well, whereas it's not this time around.”

But Uluc was quick to counter, noting there was still plenty left to play out.

“We still need some of these guys to prove that they can provide impact in meaningful moments, right?,” he said.

“We need to see it from Nick Marshall. We've seen it in bits and pieces from Ben Ayre, we've seen it from Majok Deng and Anthony Drmic … Kobe Williamson is a rookie.

“So we still need to see that. And when we speak about, some teams have the depth that they're almost injury immune where if someone high level gets injured, they're okay because they can fill the gaps. I'm curious whether this team, if one of these major guys gets injured, if they can fill the gaps, that's something that we'll have to wait and see.

“But I agree that the guys with the chips on their shoulders and it feels like Drmic and Deng while Champions just have a perennial chip on their respective shoulders.”