Co-owner and NBA legend Andrew Bogut admits he has been surprised to see the Sydney Kings start the NBL season so well, while issuing a challenge to starting centre Jordan Hunter.
The Kings have been forced to contend with upheaval on and off the court since winning a second consecutive title in March.
Coach Chase Buford left to pursue NBA opportunities, with league MVP Xavier Cooks landing at the Washington Wizards only days after the Kings hoisted the NBL trophy aloft.
All three of the Kings' imports from last season moved on, as did shooting guard DJ Vasiljevic, whose search for an opportunity overseas has landed him back at the NBL's Adelaide 36ers.
Sydney have nevertheless begun Mahmoud Abdelfattah's first season with a 4-1 record, most recently posting a comfortable 99-86 defeat of Perth Wildcats to finish round three.
American guard Jaylen Adams has excelled in his first season back at the Kings and is combining smoothly with countryman Denzel Valentine in the back-court.
Ex-NBA big man Jonah Bolden, who retired in 2020 to pursue a finance career, has readjusted quickly to professional basketball, while Next Star Alex Toohey appears undaunted replacing injured import DJ Hogg.
"(The start to the season) has been surprisingly better than I thought it would be," Bogut told AAP speaking in his role as a Levin Health Sport Advisory Board member.
"That's not a knock on the coach or the roster, it's just that everything was fresh.
"We lost to Tassie (Tasmania JackJumpers) early on and I didn't think we'd be playing this way this quickly. I thought it'd take us six, seven or eight games.
"You usually have some growing pains along the way. Not to say that we won't, but at this point, to be 4-1 and top two in the league, has been great."
Kings centre Hunter has also been in strong touch to begin the season and came within one rebound of his first double-double for the season against the Wildcats.
Hunter began starting at centre after Bogut retired from the NBL ahead of the 2020/21 season, but was ousted by Brazilian import Tim Soares last campaign.
Now that Hunter is back in the starting five, Bogut is looking for sustained success from the man who filled his shoes.
"Jordi's shown so many flashes of potential so the challenge for Jordi is to maintain that consistency and not have a drop-off game," he said.
"That's not a knock, it's a reality, he'll have a really good game like he did on Sunday then have a bad game so the challenge for him is, we want to demand more from him and say, 'Hey, this is your standard now, you need to maintain this game-to-game'.
"He's slowly understanding that, that he needs to be more consistent."
