Breaking down Illawarra Hawks-Melbourne United NBL Championship Series, fingers crossed for Shea Ili, not good enough from Jack White, Adam Caporn perfect Boomers choice, Andrew Bogut's first step to coaching Sydney Kings, New Orleans Pelicans on the way.

Plenty of other things to discuss along with the Championship Series beginning with Adam Caporn being appointed the Australian Boomers coach and Cody sees him as the perfect choice for the role moving forward.

We then also discuss if Keanu Pinder's social media posting was a farewell to the Perth Wildcats, if Josh Bannan is now the hottest free agent commodity and if Andrew Bogut being a Sydney Kings assistant coach might be his first step towards being head coach.

We also look at the New Orleans Pelicans coming to Melbourne in October with Zion Williamson to play a couple of NBA pre-season games against Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix.

We then break down Game 1 of the Championship Series in what was the perfect example of a game of two halves with the Hawks having things on their terms in the first half before United turned things on its head for the win.

Melbourne's experience and physicality came to the fore in that second half with Marcus Lee playing a huge role while the back court of Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova helped ensure that Trey Kell III and Tyler Harvey had tough starts to the series.

We then turn our focus to Game 2 in Melbourne and the Hawks were in control of a lot of it but there was a lot to dissect in the last 10 seconds with Ian Clark's go ahead foul shots, Tyler Harvey's massive three and then Chris Goulding's three rattling out.

Also in Game 2, the Hawks won the physical battle and going big with Lachlan Olbrich and Sam Froling worked while Harvey and Trey Kell III fired with Jack White not good enough for Melbourne United but Tanner Krebs showed his value.

After wrapping up the first two games, we take a look at the TABtouch odds for Game 3 and then the rest of the series, and Cody is going with the Hawks to win Game 3 and to take the series 3-2 from here.

The WNBL championship has been decided with the Bendigo Spirit led by Sami Whitcomb winning and while the league has a strong on-court product, it needs a big boost in promotion to boost the profile which should begin happening under the NBL banner.

We then rapidly run through some free agents with Cody giving his thoughts on the future of players in the NBL including Bryce Cotton, Keanu Pinder, Kendric Davis, Montrezl Harrell, Tacko Fall, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Jaylen Adams, Derrick Walton Jr, Milton Doyle and Jordon Crawford.

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

Hoops Heaven's Basketball Hustle – #NBL25 Episode 23

Chris Pike Basketball