Hoops Heaven‘s Basketball Hustle - Season 3, Episode 25

Our last episode of Hoops Heaven's Basketball Hustle for #NBL22 and it's a huge one as Cody Ellis joins Chris Pike to breakdown Sydney Kings' championship win, the Tasmania JackJumpers effort, we announce the winner of the #TheGalen, take a look at NBL Free Agency, NBL1 West and we catch up with Cairns Taipans great Alex Loughton.

Where else but the Grand Final is where we start this week's episode by looking at the Sydney Kings securing their fourth NBL championship by beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 3-0.

Cody gives his thoughts on the absences of Fabijan Krslovic, Jack McVeigh and Jaylen Adams, the efforts of Xavier Cooks, Jarell Martin, Shaun Bruce, Ian Clark, Josh Adams and more in what he still rates as a high quality Grand Final Series despite the 3-0 scoreline.

We announce the winner of the inaugural The Galen Award as the Best NBL Team Man as well on this episode with the listeners deciding between Antonius Cleveland of the Illawarra Hawks, Shea Ili of Melbourne United and Keanu Pinder of the Cairns Taipans.

It's then time to catch up with Cairns Taipans legend Alex Loughton for the final time this season. We chat with Loughz about joining the NBL TV commentary team, his history with Cody Ellis, his thoughts on the NBL season and the Sydney Kings' championship triumph, and then the Cairns Taipans. He talks the Bul Kuol, Keanu Pinder re-signings, futures of Scott Machado, Tahjere McCall and Nate Jawai, and plenty more in a fun discussion.

Once we finish chatting with Loughz, it's time to cast an eye forward to look at the 2022/23 NBL season. We begin by looking at the players currently re-signed and then Cody offers his thoughts on the potential of Xavier Cooks and Jo Lual-Acuil reaching the NBA.

We then run through a list of the biggest names about to go on the free agent markets with Cody Ellis providing his thoughts on the futures of everyone from Cam Bairstow to Isaac Humphries to Duop Reath, Harry Froling, Finn Delany, Todd Blanchfield and Cam Gliddon.

We finish off the discussion with some thoughts on Luke Travers, Kai Sotto, Tom Digbeu, Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson deciding to nominate for the 2022 NBA Draft.

We then wrap up the season on Hoops Heaven's Basketball Hustle by getting Cody's thoughts on his Warwick Senators team this NBL1 West season and an overall look at the strength of the competition and why he rates it so highly in 2022.

Made possible thanks to the support of Hoops Heaven (www.hoopsheaven.com.au) and TABtouch (www.tabtouch.com.au).