Rucker snubs the favourites with bold title prediction

With the Hungry Jack's NBL27 Season less than a month away, most teams' rosters are locked in and training hard on the practice court.

Many experts have been impressed with the retention and intense pre-season of Adelaide, while Melbourne United's recruitment of NBA talents Cole Anthony, Joe Ingles, Luke Travers and Josh Oduro has them firmly in the championship mix.

But 1990 NBL MVP Derek Rucker is backing a different team for the title, impressed by their off-season moves.

"I've got the South East Melbourne Phoenix as my championship favourite," Rucker said on NBL Now.

"I think their depth, and the fact that they've been wounded the past two seasons, losing to Illawarra and Adelaide in game threes, I don't think they're far off.

"Josh King is a young coach who has a lot of energy. He's an intelligent coach, and he's driven to learn from the mistakes of the past.

"Defensively, they have a very good style of play that can win you a lot of regular season games. But they've got to modify that defensive identity for the post-season."

Echoing Rucker was fellow panellist Chris Anstey, who is excited about what King, who now has players like Skylar Mays, Yannis Morin, D'Shawn Schwartz, Dash Daniels and Tanner Krebs on his roster, can do in year three at the helm.

"They're sick and tired of being the small dog or the little cousin in Melbourne," Anstey said.

"Josh King, in addition to his ability to coach the team, creates an absolutely identifiable style of play and has the ability to recruit players.

"He's got relationships in the United States. He can bring quality players in who are going to complement [Nathan] Sobey and the Australian talent that they've got.

"He's got his feet under the desk now; he knows the League.

"I think they're going to be a really sneaky chance, as they can beat anyone in this League on any given night.

"The asterisk is your injuries, but they've got a deep team, they've got an athletic team, and they've got more size than they had last year.

"I think they can be really good, and if I'm the [Phoenix], I'm very, very comfortable with Josh King at the helm."

South East Melbourne take on Sydney (September 2) and Brisbane (September 5) at the CODE Sports NBL Blitz before opening the season at RAC Arena against Perth on Saturday, September 19.

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