The most confusing part of the NBL awards season has today been given a major facelift, following an announcement that the league's Rookie of the Year award is being replaced with the new Next Generation Award.
The Next Generation Award will recognise the best player in the league under 25 years of age as of April 30th each season.
The new award will attempt to streamline what has been for some time a clunky way to recognise young talent, due mainly to the complex eligibility requirements dependant on the different contracts in the NBL.
One big issue that the original Rookie of the Year award presented was that players on import contracts were automatically ineligible, even if that season was the first professional season for said import. For example, Perth’s Brady Manek was not eligible for the award, but will now immediately become one of the front-runners for the Next Generation Award.
On the flip side, the NBL allowed players who had previously been on Development Player contracts to be eligible for the award on their first full contract year, meaning in some situations players could make meaningful contributions to teams for one or two years as a DP, before being eligible as a ‘rookie’ after this, such as Luke Travers in 2022.
The NBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger all but admitted this was the driving force in introducing the new award, to tidy this up and truly recognise the best in young basketball.
“The NBL has never been better and a huge part of that is due to the injection of the sensational younger talent we are lucky to have participating in the competition,” Loeliger said.
“From rising Australian and New Zealand players, returning college players, Next Stars, high level imports and exciting development players, the NBL has a healthy and diverse mix of up and coming stars who are making their mark in a big way on a global stage.
“Changing from Rookie of the Year to the Next Generation Award allows us to simplify the eligibility criteria so we can highlight and recognise the stars of the future with greater transparency.”
Potentially the biggest loser of this award change is Cairns Taipans forward Sam Waardenburg, who was considered all but a lock for this season’s Rookie of the Year.
Now, Waardenburg will have a lot stiffer competition, with players like Illawarra’s Sam Froling, New Zealand’s Rayan Rupert, the previously mentioned Perth duo of Travers and Manek, Sydney’s Angus Glover, and more.
Froling feels like the current top choice; at only 22 years old the Hawks big man has already made multiple appearances for the Boomers, won the NBL’s Most Improved Player award in 2021, and is currently averaging 14.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists as one of the centrepieces of the Hawks team.
There are also those who believe that the Next Generation Award should be given in conjunction with the Rookie of the Year, rather than replacing it, with the NBL’s Peter Hooley making the case via Twitter that the NBL should award the best local first-year player.
FWIW, I love the change to this. It’s an Award that was desperate to be altered. This will be very competitive every season.
— Peter Hooley (@PeterHooley12) January 17, 2023
Imo, with the age limit as it now is for it, I would have loved to see a traditional ROY award stay as well. First year young local. https://t.co/Rz0WXuTqFr
The inaugural Next Generation Award will be presented at the NBL’s annual Andrew Gaze MVP Night on February 7, so it won’t be long until we see just how effective this change will be at recognising the league's up-and-coming talent.
