Cash Cows: SuperCoach NBL Classic

Two new imports have rocketed to the top of the SuperCoach NBL Classic "Cash Cows" list after back-to-back points-crushing performances at the NBL27 Blitz in Bendigo.

Brisbane Bullets Lithuanian point guard Arnas Velicka ($277,000) and Melbourne United forward Josh Oduro ($277,000) delivered +23.8 points and +17.3 points against their starting salary cap base prices. They have "Cash Cow" written all over them.

Both cost $277,000 because it's their first season in the NBL.

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Why Cash Cows are essential in SuperCoach NBL
‍A Cash Cow is a cheap player you pick to make money on, not just to score SuperCoach NBL points. It is the only way to finish SuperCoach NBL with a better team than you started with, because the cap is $2,000,000 for 10 players, and it is a hard blocker rather than a warning. Nobody fields a side of premiums: the most expensive legal squad costs $3,673,200, so a SuperCoach can afford a little over half of it. Prices are calculated using real-life statistics and vary throughout the season. A player the game has priced cheaply because it has never seen him play, then handed minutes and production, gains value – imports are no exception, and they will play big minutes. You spend two trades a round and four Trade Boosts selling Cash Cows near the top of their growing value, and put the profit into a player you could not otherwise fit. That is what SuperCoach means by a Cash Cow player who performs as an asset twice over: he scores for you now, and he buys you somebody better later (if you want to sell).

Best of the Blitz:

‍Velicka, 26, is Bullets new head coach Will Weaver's prized recruit. He averaged 50.5 SC points in two games (hard to maintain, obviously), and that puts his calculated value at a cap-busting $523,000 (+$246,000).

Oduro, 25, will start in Jacob Chance's rebuilt United frontcourt, emerging as a stats-stuffer supreme in the club's NBL27 Blitz pre-season championship run. The American averaged 44.0 points in two games, which would put him right around Bryce Cotton ($473,900) money at $456,000.

Elijah Pepper ($202,700) is John Rillie's highest-usage guard of the tournament, on the floor 32.8 minutes a game, more than anyone else in this price range, and he opened with a 40 against Cairns. He averaged 31.0 points in two games, which puts his calculated value at $322,000 (+$119,300).

Max Mackinnon ($200,000) is the rookie Will Weaver keeps starting, with a Boomers debut in front of him. He averaged 28.5 points in two games, including a 32 against Tasmania, which puts his calculated value at $295,000 (+$95,000).

Import Nick Rakocevic ($188,400) is the cheapest frontcourt body in Trevor Gleeson's rotation and the one who rebounds, 13 of them in a single game against Cairns. He averaged 27.5 points in two games, which puts his calculated value at $286,000 (+$97,600).

Import Milton Doyle ($274,700) – new club, potentially more responsibility. He is the only one of the six with NBL career form, priced off a 26.5 average, and he beat it anyway. He hit the game-winner against Adelaide and went 6-for-9 from outside in the decider, averaging 35.5 points in two games, which puts his calculated value at $367,000 (+$92,300).

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Don't fall into the over-valued trap:

‍The Cash Cows projection has multiple players – stars and starters – as loss-makers. Remember, it was the pre-season, and their minutes will go up in NBL27. Even so, they are important data points for your SuperCoach team selections.

Darius Days ($277,000) is the sharpest of them. Illawarra gave him 12.4 minutes against Adelaide and 10.6 in the decider against Melbourne, and behind the flat import price sit 33 NBL25 games for the same club at 19.5 minutes a night. He averaged 8.0 points in two games, which puts his calculated value at $83,000 (-$194,000).

Jordan Hunter ($224,800) played both of South East Melbourne's games and got 15.5 minutes, then 15.2, against the 20.2 a night over 37 NBL26 games that set his price. Neither game was poor, and neither was long. He averaged 10.0 points in two games, which puts his calculated NBL27 Blitz value at $104,000 (-$120,800).

Yannis Morin ($277,000) carries the flat $277,000 with no NBL season measure against, and five days gave us nothing to revise upward: 16.6 minutes against Sydney, 13.1 against Brisbane. He averaged 13.5 points in two games, which puts his calculated value at $140,000 (-$137,000).

Todd Blanchfield ($123,800) is the one the maths breaks on. He played 7.2 minutes against Adelaide for a minus-two, then 11.0 minutes against Melbourne, compared to the 18.0 minutes per game in the 32 NBL26 games his price was built on. He averaged 1.5 points in two games, which calculates to $16,000, below the $58,500 floor the game will not price under. Read his value as the floor of $58,500 (-$65,300); it's a warning, not a number.

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