"Chips in": Why Phoenix's time is now

The South East Melbourne Phoenix are arguably one of the most in-form teams of Hungry Jack's NBL26 season. Josh King's side have won four of their past five, including three straight victories against New Zealand, Perth and Brisbane.

This strong form has catapulted the Heartland Club into just one win out of second place.

A big part of this recent surge has been their disruptive defence, which is rated the best in the competition at 107.1 and holds opponents to a league-low 1.07 points per possession.

The other elements are their scoring (96.4 points per game, which is first in the NBL), three-point shooting (35 per cent from downtown - first), pace (81.6 - second-best) and controlling the ball (10.4 turnover rate - second-best).

"They defend you 94 feet, all over the court. They never lighten up," 1990 NBL MVP Derek Rucker said on Monday's episode of Moments That Mattered, presented by Mitsubishi Motors.

"They're also free flowing on the offensive end. Nathan Sobey takes shots early in games and sometimes we question those shots, but now I'm starting to see the blueprint.

"Josh King wants to get up as many three-point attempts as possible, knowing that they will turn the other team over and get easy opportunities.

"They offensive rebound and push the pace, which eventually wears teams down and smothers them into submission."

Due to all this, South East Melbourne was already in the championship mix with its 13-6 record. But the club's reported signing of NBL champion Ian Clark on Sunday has well and truly cemented that.

"Ian Clark is a guy who gives them something that we haven't seen a lot from South East Melbourne," Rucker said.

"[Hunter] Maldonado was a very good basketball player. I thought he did a great job in distributing the basketball, but he's not the professional scorer that Ian Clark is.

"He [Clark] can do it in a number of ways. He can do it with the basketball or he's a really good catch and shoot guy.

"The versatility that he adds and his three-point shooting consistency may level out some of that three-point variance I talk about that we see South East Melbourne exhibit during the course of the season.

"With the Phoenix, he'll get the green light to shoot. Everyone's got a green light under Josh [King].

"With the [quality] of ball handlers South East Melbourne play with, it won't put so much pressure on Clark to have to run the show. It's the perfect fit for player and club.

"[Before this signing] I thought they were a 6/10 in terms of chances to win the championship, but now they've gone up to 7.5. I really like what they've done. They've pushed all their chips in.

"Which you've got to when players on your team like Nathan Sobey are in their mid-30s. There's no sense waiting around having a 3-5 year plan trying to win a championship.

"This guy is in top flight form and you must build around him and give him the tools, so that you can get a real chance to get into that Championship Series."

The Phoenix next play in Tasmania on Monday, December 29 from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.