Basketball: Hawks sign Sydney Kings swingman

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.

"He has a natural flair for the game offensively and is a player who loves to shoot, get out and run and dunk. I'm looking forward to developing his defensive game, especially rebounding.

"We would love to see Tony rake down 6 to 7 rebounds a game so he can experience coast to coast himself."

In the absence of videotape footage on Sydney matches or training sessions, Daly-Taylor can't wait for him to turn up here in February.

In three matches against Taranaki in the NBL last season, she noted former Rotorua schoolboy Tolovae contributed 14, 12 and eight points "without big minutes".

He was rated among the top-four high schoolboy players in the country and has harboured US university ambitions.