1-6 Hawks accused of "honeymoon" mentality

Heading into Round 5 of the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 Season, only one team has just a single win next to their name, and that’s the Illawarra Hawks.

The reason behind this poor 1-6 record is the Hawks’ defence.

Justin Tatum’s side currently sit last, by a significant margin, in defensive rating (132.1), as well as being 10th in opponents’ field goal percentage (51.1), opponents’ three-point percentage (38.3), opponents’ points per possession (1.32), opponents’ effective field goal percentage (59.6) and opponents’ true-shooting percentage (63.6).

Hawks championship-winner Damon Lowery has labelled the players “soft”, and now former Sydney Kings captain Brad Rosen has challenged the effort of the Wollongong-based club.

“I commentated and saw them [Illawarra] in Sydney [recently], and the Kings just put a rout on them,” Rosen said on NBL Now, presented by CODE Sports.

“Sydney v Illawarra is one of the best rivalries in the League, if not the best, and the one thing no one likes hearing if you’re Illawarra is it’s big brother v little brother.

“Illawarra always had that chip on their shoulder. 'I don’t like you. You don’t like us. We are not little brother, and we’re going to come and get you, and we’re coming hard'.

“When I look back at that [NBL25] championship team, they were tenacious on the defensive floor. Yes, the personnel was great, but it’s about heart.

“I look at a Dan Grida, and that guy is bleeding Illawarra. I don’t see that from the other players; they look like they’re on a honeymoon.

“It’s not what’s going to get Illawarra wins.

“Maybe you can argue [that they’re not as talented], but I’ll tell you what, they’re not playing anywhere near as hard as other teams.”

Rosen went on to say that if they don’t turn around their effort, the Hawks could be in for a long season.

“If you don’t play hard in this League, you are nowhere near good enough to win. Doesn’t matter what talent you are,” he added.

“I’ve listened to Tatum’s timeouts; I’ve listened to his post-games. He’s pushing his players as hard as he can.

“The only thing that is going to change this right now, outside of bringing imports in, is you’ve got to play with heart.

“They did that against Adelaide a week ago, and that was the Illawarra Hawks.

“I don’t want to hear about the championship team anymore. I don’t want to hear about that 2025 season. That is so far gone. Forget it. You’re a different team, so stop living in the past.

“Right now, live in the future, and the future is: if you don’t play hard, you’re gonna win three or four games for the season, and it’s gonna be really hard, and people are going to get sacked.”

Illawarra’s next chance to rebound is on Sunday when they travel to John Cain Arena for an NBL25 Championship Series rematch with Melbourne.

That Round 5 fixture tips off at 5pm AEDT, live on ESPN.