Sydney star to miss opening weeks

DJ Hogg is set to miss the opening weeks of the NBL24 season, according to ESPN’s Olgun Uluc, who has revealed the star Kings' recruit’s shoulder injury was bad enough for the reigning champions to consider a short-term injury replacement.

Hogg is approaching his sophomore season in the NBL after earning All-NBL Second Team honours with the Cairns Taipans last season, before he went on to represent the Toronto Raptors at the NBA Summer League.

The 27-year-old looked primed to form part of a new-look starting five for the Kings to open the season against Illawarra, alongside new recruits Jonah Bolden and Denzel Valentine, and the returning Jaylen Adams.

My expectation is he’ll miss the first three or four weeks of the season,” Uluc said on NBL Overtime.

“It got to a point where the Kings did start to look around for injury replacements on a temporary basis, as of today they’ve scrapped that plan and are rolling with what they’ve got, but there are some names hovering around in Australia.

“Michael Frazier II is in Australia currently and some NBL teams are keeping tabs on him.

“It’s tough for the Kings because we saw them at the Blitz and they went 0-3, and they didn’t look like they had any groove which is natural with a new head coach [and] new lineup.

“Not having DJ Hogg there didn’t help with the teething issues they were going to go through.”

Overtime co-host and NBL analyst Liam Santamaria cited potentially increased roles for Jaylin Galloway, Kouat Noi and Next Star Alex Toohey in Hogg’s absence.

The Kings’ title defence will begin on Friday night against the Illawarra Hawks, live on ESPN via Kayo from 7:30pm AEST.