Sixers starting contract talks with crucial trio?

Barely a month ago a consensus throughout the NBL was the Adelaide 36ers needed a hard reset. They needed a coach to take over from interim boss Scott Ninnis and a total revamp of their roster. Now though, that line of thinking has backflipped.

The 36ers are currently tearing towards the Play-In spots despite sitting bottom of the ladder for most of the season so far. They’ve leap-frogged South East Melbourne, and with four wins in their last five games are one of the in-form teams of the competition.

This dramatic shift in fortunes has largely been led by star trio Isaac Humphries, DJ Vasiljevic and Trey Kell III, and ESPN’s Olgun Uluc has reported Adelaide has already kicked off contract extension talks with two of its three stars.

“He’s playing really good basketball and probably outside Bryce Cotton and Trey Kell he’s the in-form player of the NBL in the last one or two months,” Uluc said of Humphries on NBL Overtime.

“Whether anything gets done, we’ll see what happens. He’s playing at a level the Adelaide 36ers are interested [in], and I’ve been flagged that a number of other teams are interested as well but he’s just playing incredible basketball right now.

“If you look at Isaac Humphries over the course of his career he has been one of the most skilled bigs to ever come through Australia, but it’s been injuries that have halted his development. Now he’s healthy.

“They’ve come to the table with Isaac Humphries so they want to get that deal done. Trey Kell has been playing really good basketball…they have not come to the table with him right now, that doesn’t mean they won’t.

“Then you have DJ Vasiljevic who is a part of that three-headed monster that is winning a lot of games lately but he is someone who they are engaged with. I reported a few weeks ago on The Marketplace they wanted to come to the table on a multi-year deal and he didn’t have representation at the time – he does now – and so those talks are underway.

“There will be a multi-year deal on the table – a three-year deal – and those talks are progressing well from what I’m told.”

The current crop of emerging local bigs in the NBL threatens to be one of the best batches of talent at the center position in years, and Humphries is leading a contingent that includes Jordan Hunter, Tyrell Harrison and Sam Froling.

That being said, a local, starting calibre centre in the NBL is still worth his weight in gold, and that’s why Derek Rucker believes the 36ers need to hold onto Humphries due to the difficulty import centers can sometimes face adapting to the NBL.

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“If you’ve got a good Aussie big man like the Sixers do at the moment, and Humphries is still a young man, he’s in good shape, it looks like he’s overcome those injury challenges that plagued him for a number of seasons, you’ve got to lock him away for three years," Rucker said on NBL Now.

“You know you’ve got one of the top big men in the league and if you can add DJ to the mix you’ve got an inside/outside local presence and you can go and get imports to fit around those guys.”

Rucker added while Kell is one of the in-form players in the competition, he needs to continue his current strong run to earn a return to the 36ers next season.

“I saw potential in him when he was with South East Melbourne, when a lot of people knocked him I felt he could be a very good player in this league,” Rucker said.

“This run he’s on now isn’t enough for me to put him in some esteemed category, I need to see more over the balance of the season and if they continue to win games with him performing at a high level then I’m going to lock him down for two years also.

“He’s on a little four or five game audition now to get a two-year deal provided that’s something he’s interested in. He seems like a quality guy, he’s shown he can perform at the level, I just want to see if he can close out the season strong and maintain good health.”

Adelaide hosts Cairns on Saturday night at 5:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.