Coach Kirstin Daly-Taylor is eager to inject Tony Tolovae into her 2017 NBL equation. PHOTO/FILE
Hawks coach Kirstin Daly-Taylor is "pretty excited" after adding Tony Tolovae to their National Basketball League roster for next year's campaign.
Daly-Taylor sees the injection of the athletic swingman, who is with the Sydney Kings right now in the Australian NBL, as an ideal addition to the Hawks coalface with
point guard Jarrod Kenny and three-point merchant Everard Bartlett. "I want him in there with JK [Kenny] and Everard as my defensive guard but also forming the attacking three," she says of the 1.94m tall who turned 24 last month.
Mindful Tolovae has a penchant for scoring points, Daly-Taylor intends to press him more into becoming court savvy when the big men pull out their knuckledusters.
Last season's Taranaki Mountainairs player has played for the Otago Nuggets and Canterbury Rams in previous seasons as well as rubbing shoulders with the Illawarra Hawks when former Tall Black Kirk Penney was there last year.
"Hopefully the intensity of the Aussie training sessions with Andrew Gaze and Dean Vickerman [Sydney Kings] will have him ready to unleash when he hits the ground running as a Hawk here in March," says Daly-Taylor who is aware Tolovae isn't clocking much court time with the Kings but is gaining valuable experience.
