Kings Prepping for Life Without DJ

DJ Vasiljevic’s departure from the Sydney Kings may have only been announced a week or so ago, but club CEO Chris Pongrass has revealed the club has been planning for life without the local sharpshooter for some time now.

After winning two titles with the Kings, Vasiljevic exercised his European and NBA out-clause. He’s currently teaming up with former Sydney teammate and reigning NBL MVP Xavier Cooks with the Washington Wizards’ Summer League side.

“When he signed his last deal, he had that itch to play in Europe or the NBA, so we had a European and NBA out in the contract,” Pongrass said.

“Straight after the season – even in the back-end – we knew he wanted to scratch that itch, so allowing him to do that is important for his development. When he’s ready to come back to the NBL – whether that’s in a year’s time, five years’ time or ten years’ time, he comes back to us with good feeling.

“It didn’t catch us by surprise. We’ve been recruiting with the expectation he wasn’t returning and if he was, great. We came into this slotting pieces like DJ Hogg with Xav [Cooks] leaving, bringing in Jonah Bolden, Alex Toohey coming in, with the idea we were probably going to go with an import one and two.”

The admission of Sydney chasing an import backcourt pair will be a slight shift from the formula that has made them so successful for the past two seasons.

Import guard Jaylen Adams started alongside Vasiljevic in the club’s NBL22 title, and was replaced by Derrick Walton Jr for the NBL23 triumph.

Even prior to Adams, the club started Casper Ware at the point following the guard’s title win and three All-NBL First Team nods with Melbourne United.

“It’s been an interesting off-season,” Pongrass continued. “You lose a lot of your starting five and it’s basically a rebuild, but not in an NBA sense.

“You’ve got to be competitive quick, so we’re looking right now with our lineup at an import one and two.

“We’ve always said from the start we spend most of our import money on an import guard. Having a strong import point guard has been successful for us.

“Which domino falls first kind of dictates the type of player we want … there’s a lot of teams looking and lot of great guys out here, so we’ve got a couple of names on the shopping list.”