Tale of the Tape - Froling's Next Generation season

Sam Froling’s status as one of Australian basketball’s greatest emerging stars has been common knowledge since he made his NBL debut in 2019. Now that status has been confirmed in the history books, with his Next Generation Award win.

The Next Generation Award was announced as replacing the NBL’s Rookie of the Year award mid-way through NBL23, and any player who is under the age of 25 before the April 30 cutoff date is eligible to win, and the award can be won more than once. 

Froling had turned 24 just days prior to the NBL MVP night, and after locking down the starting center spot during the Hawks’ difficult NBL23 season, he’s soared in NBL24.

There had been heat placed on Froling from around the NBL’s media circles – not least by passionate former Hawk Damon Lowery – about how he needed to up his game to more effectively influence his team’s offence.

Those concerns have been dramatically answered during the Hawks’ run to the Finals.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A rising star of Aussie hoops ??<br><br>Sam Froling has been named as the NBL24 Next Generation Award winner, presented by Champion ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheGazeys?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TheGazeys</a> live on the NBL website &amp; app ? <a href="https://t.co/BtToVdguhw">pic.twitter.com/BtToVdguhw</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1759518905809457416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Of all players eligible to win the award, Froling averaged the highest number of points (14.6) and rebounds (7.9) per game, and was only behind star imports Gary Clark and Tyler Harvey in per game scoring metrics for the Hawks.

While the Next Generation Award has nothing to do with the NBL’s Most Improved award – which was won by Tasmania’s Sean Macdonald – Froling’s improvement in his consistency across this campaign helped him cement his status as one of the brightest young talents in the NBL, in a class filled with exceptional eligible recipients.

While there were a smattering of games in which Froling scored outside his mean – both low and high – his ability to provide a consistent base in the paint from which the Hawks could build on both ends of the floor was crucial to their turnaround under Justin Tatum.

Being that foundational piece, however, didn’t restrict him from taking matters into his own hands on more than one occasion.

His season-high 23 points came in a the dramatic double-overtime win over Tasmania in Round 15, where the Hawks prevailed by just one point. He put up 16 points and grabbed 13 boards in a one-point win over Cairns in Round 5, and he had 16 points and 12 rebounds in a win over New Zealand in Round 8.

He became a focal point for Illawarra when times were tough. When the offence was stagnant, Illawarra often found itself rolling again by targeting Froling on the interior. While he’s not a renowned shot blocker, he also came up big with his defence under the rim to stop, at times, free-scoring opposition.

Like his Tasmania counterpart Jack McVeigh, Froling’s off-season stint abroad looks to have helped redefine what the star center is capable of, and it’s only fitting that after season after season of breaking his own ceiling that he would be recognised as the top young talent in an NBL stacked with a generation of emerging stars.

Next Generation Award winners:
2024 - Sam Froling
2023 - Sam Waardenburg
2022 - (Rookie of the Year) Bul Kuol
2021 - (Rookie of the Year) Josh Giddey
2020 - (Rookie of the Year) LaMelo Ball