Fear factor or freefall?

Rewind to this time last year and the Illawarra Hawks were making plenty of noise on the court, as they headed towards the club's second ever championship.

Carrying that momentum and by adding three time NBA champion JaVale McGee, the Hawks looked set to be one of the benchmarks again during the Hungry Jack's NBL26 season.

But this year's version of the Foundation Club, minus the likes of Trey Kell III, Lachlan Olbrich and Darius Days, is a far cry from last year's.

And any fear that teams had from playing the reigning champions is now gone, according to Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum. His team has lost that, despite the season only being 11 rounds old.

As it stands, the Hawks languish in eight spot, with a 5-10 record, following arguably their worst loss of the season on Saturday against Cairns.

"They don't [fear us], and it's a lot on us. It's because of a lot of inconsistency in our play and a lot of things that we're allowing teams to do a lot more than we did last year," Tatum said to the Illawarra Mercury.

"Even though other teams will give you their best shot, they can give you their best shot and still fear you, and right now we're getting both their best shot, and they don't fear us.

"We've got 18 games left. We can change our understanding of who the Hawks are as of recently to whom we need to get back to. That's what we're gonna start focusing on now."

The Hawks will look to keep their title defence alive on Thursday night when they host the Brisbane Bullets from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.

Read the full story here >>'They don't fear us': Illawarra Hawks in crisis mode ahead of Bullets game