Brutal reality of the Illawarra Hawks’ title defense

• ‍JaVale McGee vs Bryce Cotton: NBL26 Performances Tracker‍
• Justin Tatum: 'I want to coach in the NBA'‍
• It was a 'Kell' of a Hawks run ... but it's over now

One of the greatest coaches in NBA history Pat Riley said it best: "The hardest thing in professional sports is repeating."

Arguably the greatest coach in NBA history Phil Jackson said it too: "Championships are won on focus. Repeating requires obsession."

One of the greatest winners in NBA history as a player and coach Steve Kerr said: "Repeating is exponentially harder. You’re dealing with fatigue, injuries, and everyone circling you on the calendar."

The late Kobe Bryant, easily the most obsessed player in NBA history, said: "Everybody wants what you’ve got once you win. Everybody."

Just nine months and three days ago, the Illawarra Hawks were on top of the NBL world, winning their second championship in a gruelling five-game series against Melbourne United 3-2 in front of their home fans in Wollongong. Illawarra is now eighth at 6-13, three games back of sixth-placed Tasmania JackJumpers at 9-11.

"We set the bar of how you supposed to win a championship last year and all the categories that we did," Hawks head coach and 2025 NBL coach of the Year Justin Tatum said. He was fronting the media after the Hawks were crushed 108-84 on Christmas night.

"We get that. We understand that. We understand that we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot. But once again, at the end of the day we’re trying to match intensity.

"We’re sitting up here managing an up-and-down roster as far as injuries and things, and inconsistency of having guys being able to practice and not practice. But we’re coming out there giving it all every night, and we just want the same respect that other teams have."

Tatum said the Hawks weren't getting the respect they deserve from the league or officials.

"The physicality is what they’re (the Kings) known for, right? They go 10 minutes — like I said — one foul. And then we try to reciprocate the same thing, and just unfortunately we were managing fouls," he said.

"This is something that once again — basketball game runs. Being the champions from last year in this league pretty doesn’t mean anything, in my opinion, as a respect factor.

"I get my technical foul for being happy that we found a way to get a foul called. And the opposing team could probably do the same thing and just get a smile, right?

"So, you know, but at the end of the day, no excuses here. Like I said, I tip my hat off to Sydney and their players and Coach Goorjian, everybody on there.

"It is what it is."

The what it is, is the Hawks NBL26 roster is fundamentally different to their NBL25 roster. They lost significant pieces of their championship puzzle.

NBL25 Illawarra Hawks Championship Team

Head Coach: Justin Tatum

• PG: Trey Kell | William Hickey | Kobe McDowell-White
• SG: Tyler Harvey | Lee Hyun-jung | Zac Triplett
• SF: Wani Swaka Lo Buluk | Todd Blanchfield | Daniel Grida | Bradley Ballinger
• PF: Mason Peatling | Darius Days | Kuany Kuany
• C: Sam Froling | Lachlan Olbrich | Luca Yates

NBL26 Illawarra Hawks

Head Coach: Justin Tatum

• PG: William "Davo" Hickey | QJ Peterson (IP) | Biwali Bayles | Kobe McDowell-White (DP)
• SG: Tyler Harvey (IP) | Jackson Ball (DP) | Johnny Narkle (DP) | Jonah Antonio (IRP)
• SF: Wani Swaka Lo Buluk | Todd Blanchfield | Dan Grida
• PF: Jonah Bolden | Mason Peatling
• C: JaVale McGee | Sam Froling | Harry Froling (IRP) | Luca Yates (DP)

All-NBL First Team guard Trey Kell III gone, glue-guy Darius Day gone, tough-as-nails power forward Lachlan Olbrich gone to the NBA, sharpshooter Lee Hyun-jung gone, centre Sam Froling sidelined with an Achilles injury (until Christmas Day), NBL veteran Todd Blanchfield a year older, de facto NBL25 Grand Final MVP William "Davo" Hickey out at the start of the season and now a starer, import JaQuori McLaughlin released in early October, and Jonah Bolden lost to a season-ending injury.

What it means is the Hawks are a fundamentally different team.

2025–26 Season

• Games Played: 19
• Points For: 1,681
• Points Against: 1,840‍
• Points For per Game: 88.5 ppg
• Points Against per Game: 96.8 ppg
• Points Differential: –159 total │ –8.4 per game

2024–25 Season

• Games Played: 29
• Points For: 2,941
• Points Against: 2,645‍
• Points For per Game: 101.4 ppg
• Points Against per Game: 91.2 ppg
• Points Differential: +296 total │ +10.2 per game

Hickey, the spark of the bench last season, is now the starting point guard, which has shifted the balance of the bench. Import QJ Peterson is an elite scorer but is a different archetype to veteran Kell III and is in his first NBL season.

Illawarra are scoring nearly 13 fewer points per game than last season. They are conceding over five more points per game. The net swing in point differential is –18.6 points per game, a dramatic reversal from a +10.2 ppg championship profile to –8.4 ppg this season.

Froling missed this first 18 games of the season and has watched from the sidelines as the Hawks have tried to find their new identity.

"I mean, we gotta work it out," he said.

"We’re running out of time. We’re over the halfway point of the season and we wanna get back to the finals. We’re running out of games to do it.

"So there’s frustration there obviously, but we got guys who are competitive and wanna win in that locker room. So it’s trusting each other to push and get those results, and then trusting what these guys do — their game plan — that it’s gonna be the best thing for us to go out and win."

Tatum can already see the upside of having three-time NBA champion JaVale McGee and Froling as the NBL's Twin Towers.

"Just their skill set and the high IQ," Tatum added.

"We haven’t had much to be able to have both of them on the floor and practice a lot because Sam wasn’t playing and P was, or whatever the case would be.

"So we really only had this last past couple days to really put them out there. So I just trust what they — how many years they’ve been playing basketball — to go out there and just, hey, figure it out, as far as out of the certain sets that we have.

"Which is something we’ll build on. We started second half and I think they started to get into a groove with each other, and we were just behind the eight ball too deep to push ourselves back. And like I said, Sydney was shooting the ball well."

Froling agreed with the potential of his partnership with McGee.

‍"He’s so talented," Froling said,

"And for me, he wants to be a guy that passes the ball, and he’s telling me to seal, and he catches it and do all that. So I’m trying to get to the spots.

"It’s been a long time since I’ve played the four spot, but some of the stuff we’re putting in is good too. And I think we ran that big-to-big screen and they all crashed in and it worked ’cause we got our guys and shooters open.

"So I think it’s productive for both me and him, but the other guys as well."

But it's not just the offensive side of the ball where the Hawks are struggling to find chemistry. They are conceding the most amount of points per game (96.8) through 19 games. Last season, they had the third best points against defence with 91.4 PPG.‍‍

"I mean, just trying to find a way to be aggressive, just like the similar same teams is doing right now," Tatum revealed.

"We wanna wrap on the screens. We wanna impede your freedom of movement. We wanna extend our arms while you’re in the post and get away with a lot of things. Or put our leg out with screens.

"But we try to do it the right way. And that’s why I was telling my guys: keep the hands up, play with your chest, move your feet, try not to be so obvious or things like that.

"But we want to play aggressive as well. It’s nothing that we’re not trying to do in practice. We do a really good job in practice getting after each other and we try to reciprocate the same thing.

"But I’m managing fouls first quarter. And then I just feel that sometimes when I do have double bigs, maybe the management team don’t understand how to officiate that type of situation.

"But everybody got to get better. No excuses from us. We had a talk and we just got to find a way to get back to the drawing board, get ready for task."

When the Hawks are cooking, the NBL is better for it. Clearly, Tatum has his players in the lab trying to find their chemistry on both sides of the ball.