Sydney Kings young gun Alex Toohey has credited a three-month Los Angeles training camp with a renowned mentor to the NBA stars for his hot start to the NBL season.
As other players were putting their feet up in the off-season, Toohey shipped out to the US for a tune-up ahead of his last campaign before declaring for the NBA draft in 2025.
There, the 20-year-old Next Star spent three months training up to three times a day with Jordan Lawley, an in-demand skills coach for such NBA greats as Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony.
Touted as an NBA star of the future, Toohey had his priorities clear from the outset of the trip: Bulk up, improve one-on-one defence and become a more reliable shooter - especially from deep.
That meant paring the game back to its essentials.
Toohey would lift weight for 90 minutes by morning before hitting the court with Lawley for upwards of two hours in the afternoon, sometimes returning at night to shoot more hoops.
"On court in the afternoon, we'd break down my shots, making sure my arc is good, my elbow's up and really stripping it back," Toohey told AAP.
"Then getting a lot of reps with that too and then areas of my game where I could probably improve, like finishing."
Lawley and Toohey also spent time watching film to analyse NBA players with similar attributes to the Canberra product - a 202cm-tall wing boasting strong basketball IQ and athleticism.
Toohey also had the chance to pick the brains of Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine and four-time NBA championship winner Klay Thompson, who dropped in to train with Lawley during the trip.
"Just seeing them and how they carry themselves and how much they focus on their bodies and all the details. Obviously they've been where I'm trying to go," Toohey said.
The summer sojourn is already paying off for Toohey, who enjoyed his best game of the season in a 99-73 defeat of Cairns Taipans on Sunday afternoon.
Toohey is averaging 11.2 points and four rebounds across six games this season and has been projected as a possible first-round draft pick since the beginning of the campaign.
It's been hard to ignore the hype, but Toohey is tempering his excitement after his form dropped off towards the end of his first NBL season.
"You can't let it consume you. I was in a similar spot last year and then kind of fell off," he said.
"So now it's just day-to-day and making sure I have a good game on Sunday, rest Monday and Tuesday I can't be reminiscing about how well I played. It's got to be about the next game."
But Toohey remains quietly confident, knowing that his LA boot camp could end up a trump card this season and beyond.
"A big quote that I've heard is 'Where you are now is because of what you did six months ago', so I'm kind of having that mindset that I'm here now because I've done the work before," he said.
"Everything else now is maintenance and sticking with it.
"Everything has been going well for me so far, so I'm just trying to keep that momentum going."
