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          Olgs' Notebook: The most underrated superstar in the NBL?

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          Crawford leads JackJumpers to seventh-straight win (1:40)

          Jordon Crawford's 26 points was enough to see the Tasmania JackJumpers take down the New Zealand Breakers. (1:40)

          • Olgun Uluc, ESPN Basketball Insider
          Dec 26, 2024, 08:51 AM

          Every week, ESPN's Olgun Uluc runs through what's catching his eye across the NBL, and takes you inside the conversations trickling around the Australian basketball ecosystem.

          The most underrated superstar in the NBL

          Tyler Harvey is playing the best basketball of his professional career.

          And still, for whatever reason, and despite being a fixture of the NBL for half a decade, he continuously flies under the radar. Even now, with his Illawarra Hawks atop the NBL ladder with a 12-5 record, Harvey's play is being given the sort of plaudits someone who's simply meeting expectations receives, as opposed to getting credit for exceeding them.

          It's, in part, because there are other noteworthy characters on the team. Head coach Justin Tatum is the popular figurehead of the franchise, Trey Kell III is the primary ball-carrier in the midst of an MVP-level season, and Sam Froling is the team's elite local who's performing extremely well.

          Just take a look at Harvey's numbers, though.

          Through this season, Harvey is averaging 17.4 points and 3.3 assists per game, on career-best efficiency: 48.1% from the field, including 50% from two-point range, an extremely impressive 45.4% from beyond the three-point line (on 6.8 attempts a game), and 92.1% from the free throw line. The 31-year-old has had more productive seasons -- his first campaign in Illawarra comes to mind -- but is playing with a level of efficiency we haven't seen before from the dynamic combo guard, blowing his previous career-highs out of the water.

          The counting stats are in his favour, and so is the efficiency and advanced data (a career-best +18.7 net rating), but the eye test also suggests Harvey is looking as comfortable as he ever has in the NBL, and on both ends of the floor.

          "I think it just comes with experience," Harvey told ESPN.

          "I've been in this league five years now, and this league does take a while to get used to. It's unlike any other league. It's very physical; every single game is so intense. I've been fortunate enough to play in this league for five years, and you pick up on a few things here and there, but it's still a grind every single night. I wouldn't necessarily say I know where my shots are gonna come from, but I'd say the familiarity with our offence and our defensive schemes definitely helps.

          "This season's obviously panned out better than others so far, but my approach to the offseason is always the same, and I just back myself and back the work I put in.

          "All you can do is hope that it shows out there on the court. This year, whatever my numbers are, I think it's just a result of how the team's playing. I think we all mesh with each other well. Our style of play suits all of us. That's the beauty of playing with so many of the guys for two, to three, to four years; some even five, like Sam. We kind of know where each other's spots are, and we do the best we can to get each other in those spots."

          That continuity was an important consideration through the preseason in gauging how well the Hawks may perform this campaign. Tatum having an entire offseason was a helpful development, as well as the likes of Harvey and Froling -- the team's primary duo over the past few years -- being surrounded by a similar core, so they've continued getting reps next to the likes of Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, Will Hickey, Lachlan Olbrich, Hyunjung Lee, Mason Peatling, Todd Blanchfield, and Daniel Grida.

          The new pieces to the roster have also fit relatively seamlessly. There's still a learning curve both Darius Days and the Hawks are going through with one another, but the partnership of Harvey and Kell III has been extremely effective from day one.

          There was no guarantee it would work -- you're pairing a pair of combo guards who, most recently, were volume scorers -- but it's been a success, primarily offensively.

          "I mean, from afar, it just seemed like he was a shot chucker, to be honest," Kell III said of his impression of Harvey prior to this season.

          "I know they didn't have the greatest team the last couple of years... a lot of weight was on his shoulders. Now, I think he's in a more relaxed state, he's shooting the ball tremendously well this year, and I'll be the first one to gas him up.

          "That's why that's 'Tyler Bean'. When he's on a heater, like he was last game, I'll be the first one to go 'go ahead, I don't care, carry us to the finish line'. Vice versa today, he's calling me 'Trey Bean' and telling me to go. We have a unique relationship in that way, but Tyler's been great since we've been on the same team."

          Over the offseason, the Hawks' General Manager of Basketball Mat Campbell was eyeing a bigger guard to pair with Harvey in the team's backcourt, primarily as a way to complement him on the defensive end. The playmaking and shot-making of Kell III, however, has opened the floor for Harvey to be more effective offensively, and the increased efficiency is a byproduct of that.

          That symbiosis led Tatum to call the import duo "the best backcourt in the NBL" after Sunday's win over the Perth Wildcats.

          "His skillset is elite, and he's able to shine within our offensive flow," Harvey said of Kell III.

          "He's a high-level basketball player, and it's a seamless fit when you have a high-level basketball player come into a team, even though he hasn't played with us before. It's been fun sharing the backcourt with him, and I'm just glad I don't have to go against him anymore."

          Harvey has had immense personal success as a member of the Hawks, and it's clear he's only getting better and more comfortable in the NBL with each game. From a team perspective, though, the California-native has come up just short multiple times. He's helped lead the Hawks to a semifinals appearance in three of his four seasons with the franchise, and has high hopes -- and it's warranted -- of going all the way this time around.

          "I just wanna win a championship, man," Harvey said.

          "Part of the reason why I came back was the unsettling feeling of not bringing a championship back to Wollongong. That's something that drives me like no other."

          Will the Kings add a piece?

          We know the Brisbane Bullets are about to bring in an injury replacement for James Batemon, who's likely out for the remainder of the season with a hamstring tear. Watch this space on that one.

          The Sydney Kings are also a team worth keeping an eye on.

          There's no guarantee they'll bring in a player, but there's been enough signalling -- both publicly and privately -- that it could very well happen, and they have some mechanisms to do it without absorbing a substantial cap hit.

          Head coach Brian Goorjian has mentioned on multiple occasions that his team could use another ball-carrying piece, so the import guard market is where the Kings would be looking.

          "All open thoughts," Goorjian said after the Kings' loss to the Hawks on Wednesday, on if his team may add a player. "...it's getting near D-Day."

          That D-Day is the Kings' January 9 vs. Melbourne United.

          If the Kings were to make a change, the player would have to be in the country and suited up for that game in order to meet the seven-game requirement to qualify for post-season basketball.

          The Kings have some flexibility here for multiple reasons. Jaylin Galloway recently had season-ending shoulder surgery, which means the Kings can bring in a player as an injury replacement for him.

          That player can be an import, because the Kings only signed two going into this season, after bringing in both Xavier Cooks and Bul Kuol as marquees. If they signed a third import, the Kings wouldn't be able to apply the marquee designation to Kuol for the games where three Americans are suited up, meaning the team would absorb the entirety of the wing's prorated cap spend for that contest. Kuol has already been in and out of the lineup this season with an ongoing knee injury, though, which, in turn, drastically improves the case for signing a third import; the Kings could use the extra body, and the multiple injuries -- particularly to Kuol -- have given them more cap relief than they thought they would've had at this point in their campaign.

          "That was always the reasoning behind, and the flexibility we had, when we bring in Xavier and we bring in Bul, and you marquee both players... you've just naturally got flexibility," Kings CEO Chris Pongrass told ESPN last week.

          "I wouldn't be doing my job if we weren't constantly looking... you always need to have an emergency list, or you need to be across the market in general, because things can change.... [there could be] circumstances that lead you to need to bring in someone else, so having that list is important. We're just constantly crafting a list, intel gathering.

          "If we decide we need to make that move, we have the flexibility and support of our ownership group to be able to do so... Right now, it's just staying active and, if the right thing comes along, then we'll definitely consider it."

          Harrell turns down EuroLeague offers

          There's been a lot of chatter recently regarding international teams outside the NBL eyeing the services of Montrezl Harrell.

          The big-man has been an extremely productive offensive player over his first season with the Adelaide 36ers, averaging 19.6 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, and that's led to interest across Europe.

          Over the past month, at least two EuroLeague teams made an offer to Harrell, sources told ESPN, but he turned both of them down.

          Harrell's plan, sources say, remains to finish the NBL season with the 36ers with the hopes of then leveraging that into an NBA deal.

          The 36ers are currently eighth on the NBL ladder with a 7-10 record, having lost six of their last seven games.

          My favourite plays of the week

          Credit to the Kings for recognising Tacko Fall being matched up on the wrong player, so they put heat on the rim to get good looks from deep.

          Alex Toohey is realising how much of a point of difference his body/length/athleticism is in the NBL, and it's leading to some impressive paint production form the 20-year-old. This was his best game of the season, until he dropped 25 points the following contest against Illawarra.

          Derrick Walton Jr. catches the Adelaide defence sleeping.

          Harvey doesn't get enough credit as one of the NBL's best shot-makers of this generation.

          Mason Peatling's Gortat screen gets Kell III a wide open layup.

          Tyrell Harrison's combination of size, mobility, and touch, is extremely underrated.