{"id":909545,"date":"2026-09-29T07:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909545\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T07:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:50:12","slug":"made-in-the-nbl-the-players-and-coaches-taking-on-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909545\/","title":{"rendered":"Made in the NBL: The players and coaches taking on the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ties the Hungry Jack&#8217;s NBL has to the NBA in the United States have arguably never been stronger, as the latter nears the start of its 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, 14 former NBL players, including Next Stars Josh Giddey, LaMelo Ball and Alex Sarr, are part of NBA rosters heading into training camp.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, 13 former NBL individuals will be part of NBA coaching staffs this season, including champions Chase Buford, Matthew Nielsen and Adam Caporn.<\/p>\n<p>The league will also feature eight high-profile Australians and New Zealanders who are yet to play in the NBL.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the full list below:<\/p>\n<p>NBL players currently in the NBA (14):<\/p>\n<p>LaMelo Ball (Minnesota)<br \/>Ousmane Dieng (Milwaukee)<br \/>Tacko Fall (Philadelphia)<br \/>Josh Giddey (Chicago)<br \/>Ariel Hukporti (Philadelphia)<br \/>AJ Johnson (New Orleans)<br \/>Jock Landale (Atlanta)<br \/>Karim Lopez (Memphis)<br \/>Duop Reath (Phoenix)<br \/>Rayan Rupert (Philadelphia)<br \/>Alex Sarr (Washington)<br \/>Jae&#8217;Sean Tate (Houston)<br \/>Alex Toohey (Golden State)<br \/>Rocco Zikarsky (Minnesota)<\/p>\n<p>Australian\/New Zealand players currently in the NBA (8):<\/p>\n<p>Steven Adams (Houston)<br \/>Dyson Daniels (Atlanta)<br \/>Johnny Furphy (Indiana)<br \/>Josh Green (Utah)<br \/>Kyrie Irving (Dallas)<br \/>Tyrese Proctor (Cleveland)<br \/>Ben Simmons (Sacramento)<br \/>Matisse Thybulle (Los Angeles Lakers)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6abb46869119f7aca6af5ec8_GettyImages-2297099823_processed.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Former NBL coaches on NBA staff (7):<\/p>\n<p>Brett Brown (San Antonio)<br \/>Chase Buford (Denver)<br \/>Adam Caporn (Washington)<br \/>Mody Maor (Dallas)<br \/>Ross McMains (Boston)<br \/>Scott Morrison (Utah)<br \/>Matthew Nielsen (San Antonio)<\/p>\n<p>Other NBL connections to NBA coaching staff (6):<\/p>\n<p>Rick Brunson (New York)<br \/>Phil Handy (Philadelphia)<br \/>Garrett Jackson (Houston)<br \/>Chris Jent (New York)<br \/>Darnell Lazare (Memphis)<br \/>Jamahl Mosley (New Orleans)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6abb4623e48f3c140d21c5d2_GettyImages-2297630093_processed.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercoach.com.au\/nbl?utm_source=NBLContent&amp;utm_medium=NBL&amp;utm_campaign=Partner&amp;utm_content=Seasonal&amp;sourceCode=SCWEB_EPD_Partners\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"w-inline-block\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790668212_566_6aaf06b4ba693cfeb2523730_6a960795989a8ba3337cdc3b_SuperCoach NBL_ Bottom of Article Image Version 1 .png\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ties the Hungry Jack&#8217;s NBL has to the NBA in the United States have arguably never been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-909545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}