2014 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Betting
| ASEAN Basketball League Betting Sites | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bet365.com | Live In-Play Betting on ABL |
| 2 | SBOBet.com | Lowest Margin ABL Odds |
| 3 | 5dimes.eu |
Only US Friendly ABL Bookie |
| 4 | 188Bet.com | IDR, MYR,SGD,VND Currency |
The 2014 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) season runs from 16 July 2014 to 26 October 2014. This year, in part due to special requests we sent, several bookmakers are offering odds on each match. It is even listed on a popular odds comparison website. If you are looking to bet this league, the websites to the left are in my opinion the best places to do so. In this article I will cover ASEAN Basketball League in detail starting with more information about betting online.
First note that ASEAN Basketball League odds come out only hours before a match starts. It is rare to see early or overnight lines offered. Though not the first to post odds, www.sbobet.com (no US players) tends to have the best odds, offers outright markets and has the most markets prematch. For the latter they offer point spread and totals for full game, first half and first quarter. They also have odds-or-evens on full game and first half. The majority of these wagering options are offered at base odds 1.92 (-109) or better instead the 1.91 odds or less that most bookmakers use.
Most of the other online bookies listed on this page offer odds only on the full match. They however also offer home/away (moneyline) betting where SBO does not. The one site that does have MANY additional markets is www.bet365.com (no US players), but this is only for live in-play betting. At Bet365 you will find odds while the match is in-play for point spread, 1X2, race to X# of points, quarters, team totals, margin of victory, double results, and many more markets. The juice is however high, but some in-play value can certainly be found.
2014 ABL Teams and League Format
ASEAN Basketball League is fully professional. The players are paid, teams use foreign imports, and there is plenty at stake each season. Though only small money comes in from ticket sales, the league has a lot of sponsors. The title sponsor of the overall league from the second season on is AirAsia. Most teams have many other sponsors. For example Budweiser is the official beer of the Malaysian Dragons. All of the sponsorship money, plus in some cases added government funding to promote sport, have led to this league to become well financed for marketing, and most teams are well financed for signing players. This has created a very competitive league in a market where basketball is still a minor sport. Here is some quick information about the season format and the reward.
Regular Season Format: The 2014 season has six teams, all of them from Southeast Asia. This is a single team from each of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and two teams from Indonesia. Each team will play all others twice at home and twice on the road. This totals 20 games per team, for a 60 game regular season.
Playoff Format: At the end of the regular teams are seeded by record. The top four make the playoffs. #1 plays #4 and #2 plays #3 in a best of three semi-final series. The two winners then play a best of five series to determine the champion. The better seeded team has home court advantage in each series. This brings the grand total with playoffs included to a 67-71 game season.
Champion Advances: The 2014 ASEAN Basketball League Champion will represent the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup.
Which are the Best Teams in 2014?
Moments before the season began SBOBet had the following outright odds on who will the 2014 championship:
Indonesia Warriors 1.40 (-250)
Westports Malaysia Dragons 2.50 (+250)
Laskar Dreya South Sumatra 8.00 (+700)
HiTech Bangkok City 11.00 (+1000)
Saigon Heat 21.00 (+2000)
Singapore Slingers (+2500)
At the time it was a $250 max per bet, could bet the max multiple times but lines can move. These were of course only the preseason closing lines with one of the largest Asian bookies on the outright market. I thought a few of these looked well off, but several other bookies had similar odds. Well then after each team played one game, SBO was the first to reopen with:
Indonesia Warriors 2.50 (+150)
Saigon Heat 3.50 (+250)
Westports Malaysia Dragons 4.00 (+300)
Singapore Slingers 5.00 (+400)
HiTech Bangkok City 5.00 (+400)
Laskar Dreya South Sumatra 18.00 (+1700)
Those odds are much closer to how we ranked the teams just before the season (though still isn’t the correct order). I cover each team in some detail late on this page. This includes players and which in my well-researched expert opinion the best teams likely are.
Where to Follow Asian Basketball League
www.aseanbasketballleague.com is the league’s official website. It is quite good for information including schedule and news. When games are playing live there is a link to watch a stream of the game via YouTube. This is done with English language commentators. You can also follow live stats that shows play by play, the full box scores, etc. on their website.
Note to handicappers: From the live stats page you can click the score for each game and get access to a lot of valuable information. This is good for scraping data, plus oddsportal.com has historical odds (accessed game by game) for multiple markets. The problem here with box scores is these pages (which are very detailed) are not archived for past seasons. It takes some serious work to find comprehensive stats on past seasons. If planning to harvest for going forward, this is not too difficult.
For casual fans making bets and handicappers alike, if you’re a facebook user, it is probably wise to follow ABL on facebook too. Also note that most teams have a website, facebook and twitter account.
2014 Season Changes
The most noticeable difference from this season to last, the defending champion San Miguel Beermen are no longer in the league. With their departure Philippines is no longer represented in the ABL. Instead there is a second team from Indonesia: Laskar Dreya South Sumatra.
Sports Rev Thailand Slammers are also no longer in the league, but have been replaced with Hi-Tech Bangkok City also from Thailand. They have signed multiple players from the Slammers including Chris Charles who led the league last season in blocks per game and was awarded the title of most valuable world import.
Salary Cap
The ASEAN basketball league started with a $100,000 maximum annual salary for import players. This later changed to $10,000 maximum per month. As star players from the Philippines’ top league PBA earn more than this, this was perhaps the reason that in 2011, the cap was raised to $15,000 per month for imports. The current rules are unclear.
In 2013, the Malaysia Dragons signed Sammy Monroe to a one-month contract, but could not use him longer citing salary cap rules as the reason. This seems to hint during that season the cap was again annual not monthly. In any case, at the current time SBS has been unable to uncover the 2014 salary cap rules. To the best of our knowledge this information is not published online.
Import Rules
In past seasons teams were allowed 3 ASEAN imports. This number has been reduced in 2014 to just 2 ASEAN imports per team and is optional. The other rules remain the same with teams having two world imports and a single option for one heritage import.
ASEAN Basketball League Teams
The Indonesian Warriors won the Championship two season ago, and last year were the runners up to San Miguel Beermen who are no longer in the league. Just prior to the start of the 2014 ABL season SBO and other bookies had this team 1.40 (-250) to win the championship, while offering big odds on several other teams. After one game and odds that looked overall more on par came out they were 2.50 (+150) and still the favorites.
My opinion to start the 2014 season regarding the Indonesian Warriors differs from the opinion of the bookies. I’m far from convinced they should be the favourites and rank them around middle of the pack. To first start with the good news though, here is information on the two world import players that will debut in the ABL for the Warriors this season.
Chris Barnes (Age: 25, United States) is 203cm. He played 4 seasons as a forward in college with NCAA Division 1 basketball team the Georgia Bulldogs. In his 2010-2011 senior season he averaged 17.9 minutes, 3.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 0.8 blocked shots, but was only 51.9% shooting free throws. He has however traveled building an impressive resume playing professional basketball. This involved a D-League tryout and leading teams in Lithuania and Portugual, a brief 2-month tour in China and most recently playing in Mexico where he averaged a Double/Double in points and rebounds.
Tremayne Johnson (Age: 24, United States) is a 203cm forward who despite being tall has played most his professional career at small forward and shooting guard. He played college basketball at Eastern Washington University in the NCAA D-1 Big Sky Conference. In his 2011-2012 senior season he averaged 17.4 minutes, 6.4 points, 3.9 rebound, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks per game and was a 69.8% free throw shooter. He then began his professional career with Al Manama in Bahrain. Before joining the Warriors he played the 2013-2014 season with BC Timisoara of Romania Liga NationalA (Division A).
The start of the bad news is that while signing two world imports they lost two others. Former Warrior Chris Daniels is no longer in the ABL but now rather plays for Hekmeh BC in Lebanese Basketball League. The biggest loss however is ABL veteran Steve Thomas who I will cover later on this page as he now plays for Hitech Bangkok City (scroll down to that team to view the impressive information about him). So, two new world imports, with two world imports lost. From here the big shocker is:
The team has decided not to use ASEAN imports this season. This means they no longer have Filipino ASEAN imports at point guard in Stanley Pringle and Jerick Canada. Pringle likely enters the PBA draft and gets a big contract while Canada was quickly signed to HiTech Bangkok City. The team explained this move as they are looking to give young Indonesian players a chances. Still there is a ton of talent in PBA and they are allowed by league rules to sign two players from that region. To pass up on this puts them at a significant disadvantage.
Essentially this season the Indonesian Warriors are VERY young team mostly consisting of Indonesia National Basketball League NBL players as well the two import players mentioned on this page. They will likely need big games from those import players if they plan to run to a championship this season. The odds makers have them a big favorite but my personal opinion is they are very unlikely to win it all this season. I say that as my sincere opinion, do wish them the best of luck this season and mean no disrespect to their fans.
My prediction: Finishes the 2014 season with between the #4 or #5 best record. Their chances would be greatly improved if they reverse their decision not use ASEAN imports and pick up a pair of strong Filipinos to share time with local players. Without this, I suspect they are in a battle this season just in trying to make the playoffs.
2014 Saigon Heat
The Saigon Heat had the worst record in ASEAN Basketball League last season at 4-18. Thus right before the season began odds makers made them a large underdog. Several bookies had their odds to win the championship 20/1 and remember: this league has only six teams! However, those absurd odds were quick adjusted right after each team played a single game. The new odds saw the Heat priced 3.50 (+250 or 2.5/1) making them the second favorite. The odds makers must have initially missed that the team has been practicing together often since early January. They have a completely new starting 5 and an experienced coaching staff. This in my opinion is a team that has a very strong chance at winning the 2014 ABL Championship. Here is rundown of their starting 5.
Justin Williams (age 30, United States) is their 208cm (6’10”) starting center. After his NCAA 
college basketball career at Wyoming he went undrafted in the 2006 NBA draft, but made the league anyways almost straight away. He played 48 games for Sacramento Kings over two seasons and then 1 game with the Houston Rockets. He later failed to gain momentum in the NBA D-League and instead headed to Philippines to play in the PBA as an import. He debuted in the ASEAN Basketball League with the Philippines’ team San Miguel Beerman. He was a monster when it came to guarding the hole and finished the season with 53 blocked shots. He is a very valuable addition this year’s Saigon Heat roster.
Dustin Scott (Age 29, United States) is their 203cm (6’ 8”) starting power forward. After being state high school champion he stared his college basketball career at Tallahassee Community College where he was named a first-team all-American. He played the final two years of college in NCAA Division 1 for the College of Charleston Cougars. In his 2008-2009 senior season he was named All-SoCon Tournament second team. Straight out of college he began his professional career in the Luxembourg-Diekirch League. He played there for 2 seasons, left to play the 2011-2012 in Kosovo’s Super League, and then was back to Luxembour for a third season. In 2014 he was a standout player in New Zealand playing for IMS Hawks of the NBL and now makes his ASEAN basketball League debut.
Froilan Baguion (Age 30, Philippines) is 170cm (5’7”) and will be starting at guard. He is an ASEAN Basketball League veteran. He won the championship in the inaugural season with Philippine Patriots and did the same the following year with the Thailand Slammers. For season 3 he played with the San Miguel Beermen and season 4 he returned to the Thailand slammers. Before joining the ABL his background was all Philippines basketball. He played college basketball in the Philippine NCAA with the National University (NU) Bulldogs and during his freshmen year they made their first UAAP Final Four. He went undrafted in the 2005 PBA draft but was claimed on waivers by the Welcoat Dragons. He played for them for two season, played a season with the Coca-Cola Tigers and in 2008–2009 with San Miguel Beermen (PBA version) before heading to the ABL. He is one of only a few players that has played in every ASEAN basketball league season.
Leo Avenido (age 35, Philippines) is their 188cm (6′2″) starting small forward. He is a long time PBA veteran that adds great experience to Saigon Heat Roster. He was the 10th overall draft pick in the 2002 PBA draft, and has played most of all his career in that league. Playing in the ASEAN Basketball league is however not new for him. On the contrary, he played the 2011-2012 season with the Philippines team San Miguel Beermen and did so with great success! He averaged 14.9 points per game which earned him the league’s local player MVP award.
David Harrison Arnold (Age 23, United States) is a starting guard. He was born in Santa Monica, California. He attended, and played basketball at Highlands Ranch High School in Colorado. He played two seasons of NCAA Division 1 basketball for Northern Colorado but had limited playing time. He then transferred and played his 2011-2012 junior and 2012-2013 senior seasons in NCAA Division II with Montana State University Billings Yellow Jackets. If you view the recap of his team’s season during his senior year it is obvious he was a standout player, is a scorer, great free-throw shooter, and has plenty of assists. Listening to him to talk in interviews he comes off as American as can be. However, because his mother is Vietnamese, he is a citizen, and he relocated there in January 2014, he signed with the Saigon Heat as a local player and is not an import.
Reserve Players: This year the Saigon Heat have a rather young group of local players. This probably fits well with head coach Jason Rabedeaux’s goal of promoting basketball to youth in Vietnam. He has also stated the local players will have a big roll on the team this year. The full roster of locals not already mentioned are: Gia Lan Hong, Hoang Linh Pham, Ngoc Thanh Nguyen, Tan Hoang Nguyen Pham, Tien Thinh Tran and Tran Man Phan.
My prediction: 2014 ASEAN Basketball League Champions. To do this the team will need to stay healthy and they will need to fade a couple undermanned other teams signing ASEAN imports or better world players late in the season. Still my bold prediction early is that the Heat pull off the worst to first turn around and win the championship.
2014 Westports Malaysia Dragons
Prior to the 2014 ABL season starting the odds makers had the Dragons the second favorite to win the championship paying 2.5 to 1. After they lost their first game they were jumped by the Saigon Heat and became third favorites paying 3 to 1. I can certainly see why the odds makers like this team. They have many familiar local players returning from last season including John Ng Yaw Seng, Kwaan Yoong Jing, Loh Shee Fai, Kuek Tian Yuan and Izran Edika. Added locals this year’s roster are include noteworthy 23-year old Tong Wen Keong as well as Yim Shen Hao and Wong Wee Seng. Their imports see one returning star and three new additions. Information on the imports is covered below.
Chris Eversley (Age 22, United States) makes his professional career debut this season. He is coming straight out of college where he had great success. He led the Cal Poly Mustangs (NCAAB Division 1) on a Cinderella run last March where they started as the 7 seed but managed to win the Big West Conference Championship. In the finals he scored 18 points and was named the tournament MVP. This unlikely victory earned his team a play-in game for the 2013-2014 NCAA Division 1 tournament known as both March Madness and The Big Dance. They won the play-in game thus making the round of 64, before being eliminated by #1 seed Wichita State. He is a strong player that likely has a bright future playing professional basketball.
Justin Knox (Age 25, United States) just completed the most recent season playing for the Den Helder Kings of the Dutch Basketball League and was named an All-Star. Prior to this he played a season each in the VTB United League of Russia, and the Turkish Basketball League Division 2. Going back even further he had decent success playing college basketball in the United States. 2008-2009 was his sophomore season in NCAA college basketball. He started 31 of 32 games for the Alabama Crimson Tide averaging 5.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in more than 20 minutes per game and was named to the SEC All-Academic team. He then transferred to the North Carolina and during the Tar Heels’ 2010–11 Elite Eight team he came off the bench averaging 6.1 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game.
Moala Tautuaa (Age 25, United States) is a Malaysian Dragons standout that returns this season. Though from the United States, due to his Philippine Heritage is an ASEAN import for Malaysian Dragons. He had a successful career playing NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States for the Chadron State Eagles. During his 2011-2012 senior season he led the team in average points, rebounds, and field goal percentage. In 2015 he becomes eligible for the PBA draft and has a chance at being selected number 1 overall. Baring anything unusual happening he will near certainly be drafted in the top 5.
The other Malaysian Dragons ASEAN import is another Filipino-American Rashawn McCarthy. He played college basketball in his home town Old Westbury, New York for a Division III school. He is a bit of a wildcard as to what to expect. Division III schools do not keep player statistics. But after finishing his college career in 2013, he played in the non-profit PBA ministry New York tournament and became the MVP. This put him on the radar late with scouts. We’re not sure his age (other than he is young), or any statistics about his career, but are near certain this season is the first that he has played professional basketball.
My Prediction: The Dragons will very likely make the playoffs and I’m predicting they will be the #3 seed. I do very much expect them to be a good team. It is however rather unfortunate for them that they play 3 of the seasons’ first 4 games on the road and none of them are against the league’s weakest team. All teams play an equal schedule so one might expect this matters only a little. However, some of the import players arrived to the team late. In my opinion it might take these guys a little while to start to flow together. How long it takes may determine how well they finish. If they do start the season slow, look for opportunities to bet on them from their 6th game on as this is a team that should make a run.
2014 HiTech Bangkok City Team
HiTech Bangkok City is the newest addition to the ASEAN basketball league. Before anyone even really knew who the team was, and before ever playing a game, the team was already busy lobbying for local support. They did a basketball clinic, had a season launch party, and had press conferences claiming they believe they have assembled a team that can compete for the championship. For a new team that had no players at the outset, they have done quite well in assembling one.
Chris Charles (age 33, United States) is one of their two world import players and is their starting center. He debuted in the ASEAN Basketball League for the Thailand Slammers last season and became the league’s top star. He averaged a double-double with 19.7 points and 14.5 rebounds and led the league in blocked shots with 4.1 per game. This earned him defensive player of the year and most valuable world import awards. His best friend Randy Foye is a shooting guard for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and Charles spent the off season working out at Denver Nuggets’ facilities. Prior to joining the ASEAN basketball League he played most his professional career in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
Steve Thomas (age 33, United States) is their other world import and is their starting point guard. He is an ASEAN Basketball League veteran having played the last two seasons with the Indonesian Warriors and the season prior with the Philippine Patriots. He led the Warriors to winning the 2011-2012 Championship in as season which he was named defensive player of the year. His professional career has seen him be a star player in a number of leagues. He was drafted out of college to the WBA (an NBA minor league system). In his first season he made All-WBA 1st Team and played for New Jersey Nets (NBA) during their Tour of China. He has been a Polish Basketball League (PBA) All-Star, played in NBA summer league, been a CBA (a defunct US professional League) All-Star, played in Korean Basketball League (KBL) and has played in Mexico, Colombia and Dominican Republic too. He’s been a star player in ever league he has ever played.
Attaporn Lertmalaiporn (age 31, Thailand) (age 31, Thailand) is a prominent Thai basketball player who this year starts for Hi-Tech Bangkok City at power forward. It likely won’t take long for him to prove once again he is the best Thai basketball player currently active. He won the ASEAN Basketball League’s local player MVP award in the inaugural season. He’s also played for the Thai National Basketball Team the past few years. At the 2013 FIBA Asia Championships he was second on the team in scoring. This is the fourth season he has played in ABL. He was with the Thailand Tigers for the 2009-2010 season, and the Thailand Slammers during the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.
Jerick Uy Cañada (age 32, Philippines) spent the last two seasons as an ASEAN import for the Indonesian Warriors. He was expected to return but the Warriors made a late decision to start the season without ASEAN imports, and he was quickly snapped up by this HiTech Bangkok City team. Canada is very popular with Filipinos following the league as he was previously a standout player in college playing for the Adamson University Soaring Falcons.
In addition to Attaporn Lertmalaiporn there are 7 other players on the roster that played for the Thailand National Basketball Team in 2013. The most noteworthy likely to get plenty of minutes per game is sharp-shooter Bandit Lakhan. There is also fan favourite Wutipong Dasom as well as Chanachon Klahan, Mana Jantuma, Piyapong Piroon, Sukhdave Ghogar, Supachai Sangthong. From there the roster is completed by Nakorn Jaisanuk, Wongsawangtham Montien, and Kannawat Lertlaokul. Much of the locals, like the imports, have punched a lot of time in the ASEAN Basketball League over many seasons.
My Prediction: Bangkok City finishes the season with the league’s second best record. This is somewhat bold prediction considering the odds makers had them tied for 4th/5th favourite to win the championship. In this case I’m banking on experience over youth. This is a team where the 4 best players have an average age of 32.3 years old. Much of the reserves have also punched a ton of minutes in the ABL and with strong imports combined with experience “this is a team” not individuals.
2014 Singapore Slingers
The Singapore Slingers finished last season second to last in the league with a 7-15 record and of course missed the playoffs. Prior the first game being played, the preseason outright markets had this year’s team 25/1 to win the championship. This shows the Asian bookmakers were not giving them much of a chance, but also shows they were not paying attention. After each team played a game, their odds moved to 4/1 tying them for 4th/5th favorite. In my opinion The Slingers should have a significantly improved team this year and a fair chance at making the playoffs. Here is a breakdown of their roster.
Hassan Adams (Age: 30, United States) is 194cm starter that plays both guard and forward. He is a former NBA player having been drafted 54th overall in 2006 NBA draft after playing college NCAA Division 1 basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. In the 2006-2007 NBA season he played 61 games for the New Jersey Nets averaging 8.1 minutes and 2.9 points per game. The following season he played 12 games for the Raptors. He was traded to the Clippers and waived and then signed to play in the KLS in Serbia for KK Vojvodina Srbijagas. In 2011 he played in the PBA as an import for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. After time playing in Italy and Venezuela he makes his debut this season in the ASEAN basketball League and should be by far the Slingers best player.
Kyle Jeffers (Age: 28, United States) is the team’s 208cm starting center. He has been on the team since it started. He is the only world import to play all 5-seasons of ASEAN Basketball League and has done that all with the same team. Prior to joining the Slingers he was playing college basketball at Oregon State (stats here). Unfortunately last season he was forced to go on the injured reserve after playing 9 games in which he averaged 17.5 points and 11.9 rebounds per game. He’s made a recovery and should be back strong this season. He is a very popular player, and there is a chance he will soon be a citizen and join the Singapore National Team.
Al Vergara (Age: 34, Philippines) is the team’s 170cm starting point guard. He played for the Singapore Slingers during the first two seasons of the league and was a very popular player. After this he made the PBA. After playing point guard for GlobalPort Batang Pier, he left the PBA to return to the ASEAN Basketball league this season, again with the Slingers. He is a fan-favourite that is an expert at controlling the tempo of the offense. His return helps provide stability in the backcourt the Slingers lacked last season.
Gayford Rodriguez (Age: 29 Philippines) – is not yet on the Slingers’ active roster but should his health improve he will be a big addition to this team. He is 188cm and expected to play forward. He was the 19th overall pick of the 2013 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) draft. He is currently unable to play due to an ankle injury, but the anticipation of his recovery is the reason the Slingers do not have a second ASEAN import active on the roster.
Wong Wei Long – (age 26, Singapore) is a 174cm guard that is arguably the best active Singaporean basketball player. He has been on their team all 5 ASEAN Basketball League seasons. In the 2013 season, due to pursuing a degree he signed a unique contract that allowed him to play only home games. Despite juggling hoops with studies in February 2013 he averaged 16.5 points per game and was nominated for the AirAsia player of the month award. He also has also made third place in the local player MVP awards. On 31 March 2013 he scored 29 points against the Saigon Heat setting the ABL record for most points scored by a local player in a single game.
Larry Liew (Age: 21, 191cm forward) & Russel Low (Age 21: 197cm forward/guard) are two strong rookies making their professional debuts this season. They both are likely to split playing time with one being a starter. Perhaps permanently or perhaps until Gayford Rodriguez joins the team. Both are very talented young players that represented Singapore at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) back in 2010. As a fan of ABL since the beginning, I got chills hearing Larry Liew say his dream in high school was to play for the Slingers. This shows the league has finally matured and there are actually players young enough to have had that dream now joining the league.
The remainder of the Singapore roster brings some experience off the bench. Returning subs from last season, all local players, include Desmond Oh, Ng Hanbin, Tan Chin Hong, Wu Qingde, and Delvin Goh. There are also two more young players. In addition to the two rookies mentioned earlier that will share plenty of playing time, two more are on their roster in Gary Koh and Jabez Su who both had success playing academic basketball in Singapore.
My Prediction: Singapore will be in a battle with the Indonesian Warriors for the final playoff seed. I do feel it is likely enough they make the playoffs which would mean the early season favorite the Indonesia Warriors would not. It is very early in the season but I’m liking Singapore’s team this year much better than last.
2014 Laskar Dreya South Sumatra
Laskar Dreya South Sumatra is the newest addition to the ASEAN basketball League (ABL) giving Indonesia a second team in the league. Just prior to the season starting, odds makers priced them third favourite to win the championship at 7/1. I mean no disrespect to their fans, but those were extremely poor odds. After one weak of play they were being offered at 17/1 which is still probably poor. I mean no disrespect to their fans, but I find extremely unlikely this team makes the playoffs.
This a merged team that has the same owner and primarily consists of players from the HTS (Hangtuah Sumsel IM) of Indonesia National Basketball League (NBL). Last season is HTS had a 14 win / 19 loss record in the NBL facing much lesser skilled opponents than they will face this season in the ABL.
Laskar Dreya South Sumatra did sign a couple young Americans that had solid Division 1 NCAA basketball careers together and a couple years’ experience each at playing professionally overseas. However the team hasn’t signed any ASEAN imports and thus needs to rely heavily on NBL locals. In any case, here is a breakdown of their full roster as of the start of the 2014 season.
Starters as of First Game of 2014 Season
Paul Crosby (Age: 25, United States) is their 203cm starting center. He is not too far off his college basketball career having played NCAA Division 1 for Mississippi Valley State University. In his 2011-2012 senior season he averaged 33.2 minutes, 13.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.8 blocks per game with a 39.8% field goal percentage and 73.4% free throw percentage. After college he started his professional career by playing the 2012 season of the Uruguayan Basketball Federation (FUBB) for Montevideo. He then played the 2013 season of the Brazilian Basketball League for Minas. He was drafted in the 7th round of the NBA D-League draft this past November, but his rights were traded and he was then waived.
Falando Jones (Age: 24 , United States) is their 193cm starting shooting guard. His college career involves the same dates as Paul Crosby as they were teammates at Mississippi Valley State University and 2011-2012 was the senior season for both. In that season Jones averaged 25.1 minutes, 9 points, 2 assist, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game and was a 46% field goal shooter and was 63.9% at the line. After college he began his professional career playing with Porvoon Tarmo of Finland’s 1st Division League where he averaged 16.7 points per game. He now reunites with Crosby to play in the ASEAN Basketball League for the 2014 season.
Airlangga Sabara (age 29, Indonesia) is a 190cm power forward. Unlike most other local players on the roster he did not play for HTS in the NBL last season. He signed a fresh ABL contract to play for this particular team. He was however an NBL player. He was a key member of the PCF (Pacific Caesar Surabaya) of Indonesia’s NBL basketball last season. In 31 regular season games he averaged 9.4 points, 1.9 assists, 6.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.6 blocked shots. He was however only a 54.5% free throw shooter in 88 attempts. That was his second season with PCF, in 2011-2012 he played for BSC Bandung Utama (BBU) and in 2010-2011 was with this HTS (Hangtuah Sumsel IM) team. Over those 4 seasons he played in 94 regular season games averaging 9.2 points, 1.5 assists, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.4 steals per game. He was 361 of 926 (38.9%) at field goals, 4 of 31 (12.9%) at 3 pointers and 142 of 233 (60.9%) at taking foul shots.
Mei Joni (Age: 25, Indonesia) is their 188cm starting small forward. He is one of the two players on the starting 5 that played for HTS (Hangtuah Sumsel IM) last season, which again has the same ownership and most the players as this ABL team. He has been on this same team for 3 seasons. During the 2013-2014 regular season he averaged 4.6 points, 1.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game and was an 82.9% free throw shooter. Over all three seasons combined he averaged 6.9 points, 1.5 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game going 212 of 615 (34.4%) at field goals, 57 of 205 (27.8%) at 3-pointers and 150-179 (83.7%) at free throws.
Richardo Orlando Uneputty (Age 26) is their 164cm starting point guard that played the past 3 seasons in the NBL. His first two seasons were with BSC Bandung Utama (BBU) and he joined Hangtuah Sumsel IM last season. During the 2013-2014 regular season he played in 27 games. He was 35.9% for field goal percentage taking 89 shots and making 32 of them and made 29 of 44 attempted free throws for 65.9%. He averaged 3.8 points, 3.1 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game last season.
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Other HTS Players Coming off the Bench: The bulk of the reserves on this team, like two starters, were on this team last season in the NBL (then known as HTS *Hangtuah Sumsel IM*). As NBL does keep stats, here are details on those players.
Adhi Prasetyo (age 21, Indonesia) is a 197cm center that has been with Hangtuah Sumsel IM for 4 seasons and is also a member of the Indonesia National Basketball Team. In the 2013-2014 season he averaged 11.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 0.9 blocks, and was 55.2% at the free throw line. Over all four seasons he was 304 of 636 (47.7%) at field goals, 0-5 at 3-pointers and 173 of 326 (53%) at free throws averaging 7.7 points, 0.4 assists, 5.1 rebounds, and 0.8 blocked shots per game.
Bayu Anggara (Age 23, Indonesia) is a 174cm point guard. Last season with Hangtuah Sumsel IM in 33 games he averaged 3.8 points, 2.9 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 0.7 steals, per game. He made 27 of 50 attempted free throws (54%) and had a 37.5% field goal percentage. That was his second season in the NBL, but played the prior for SMB (SM BritAma). Over his two season career with both teams he went 80 of 305 (26.2%) at field goals, 27 of 130 (20.7%) at 3-pointers and 49 of 87 (56.3%) at the foul line averaging 3.6 points, 2.3 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game.
Tri Wijoyo Wilopo (age 27) is a 178cm shooting guard that played the past 4 seasons for this team in the NBL. In 32 games this past regular season he went 101 – 268 (37.6%) in field goals, 49 of 147 (33.3%) shooting three pointers and 39 of 67 (58.2%) at free throws. His career numbers over all four seasons are 8.4 points, 1.9 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game with a 38.6% field goal percentage, a 32.9% 3-pointers percentage and 70.7% from the free throw line.
Ahmad Junaedi (age 23) is a 184cm shooting guard that has been with this team for 4 seasons. Over his career he has been 204 of 575 (35.4%) at field goals, 6 of 36 (16.6% at 3-pointers), and 186 of 297 (62.6%) at free throw shooting. Last season he played in 30 regular season games averaging 4.7 points, 1.1 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game. On this ABL team he likely starts low on the depth chart.
Local Rookie Out of College: despite being a very young team, Laskar Dreya has only a single player that is making a professional basketball debut.
Suhandy Suhandy is joining the ABL fresh out of university. He was most recently the captain for his university team UEU (PRIM-A GJC MEN). He averaged 11.2 points and 4.1 rebounds and a 50% field goal percentage over multiple seasons.
Freshly Signed: In addition to Airlangga Sabara who is a starter, there are 2 other players on the roster that were on a different NBL team last season and signed fresh ABL contracts to play for Laskar Dreya South Sumatra. These two local players are:
Januar Kuntara (age 23) is a 171 cm point guard that was a rookie in the NBL last season. He played in his own home area of Bandung for SWM (Satya Wacana Metro LBC Bandung). He played 27 regular season games averaging 5.6 points, 4.4 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals. He made 61 of 225 attempted field goals (27.1%) 13 of 73 attempted 3 pointers (17.8%) and 17 of 46 free throws (36.9%). My limited understanding is that he starts the 2014 Laskar Dreya South Sumatra season low on the depth chart.
Frida Aris Susanto (age 27) is a 194cm power forward that is a National Basketball League Indonesia veteran. Last season was his first with HTS. He played the two prior seasons with SMB (SM BritAma) and the season before that with STD. Over those 4 seasons with 3 different teams he averaged 4.6 points, 0.9 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 0.4 blocks per game and went 232 of 552 (42%) shooting field goals and 85 of 208 (40.8%) at the free throw line. Due to competition at his positions he is also likely low on the depth chart at the start of the season.
My Prediction: Laskar Dreya South Sumatra will not win many games this season and will finish last in the league. It would make things far more interesting if I was wrong but this won’t be the case.