Basketball: Bright Stars favourites again with the Kareem of the crop

The National Basketball League fires up on Friday with many pressing questions. Will Auckland continue its run at the top of the table? Can North Harbour finally move away from the bottom? Is Waikato too short?

Defending champions the Auckland Stars have won six of the past 10 NBL championships and coach Kenny Stone has re-signed the majority of last season's roster. Breakers and Tall Blacks Dillon Boucher, Aaron Olson and Lindsay Tait, as well as former Breakers, Mike Homik and American import Casey Frank.

Frank is keen to stay in New Zealand and become a Kiwi player. He has plenty of size and skills and first played NBL in 2002.

Olson, who is one of only three players signed on for the Breakers next season, will miss the first few games of the NBL as he is taking a well-earned holiday.

The Stars' other import is American centre Kareem Johnson, who is 2.03m and in his first year out of the University of Cincinnati. He was recruited primarily as a rebounder and post defender. How he handles a new environment straight out of university will be the only question for the Stars.

The North Harbour side is aiming to reach the top half of the points table for the first time since 2000 when they won the regular season. However, those days seem a long way away. The Heat were last in 2003 and 2004 but should improve with the signing of Canadian international Mike King, who has played 21 games for his country.

Other Heat signings include talented Hayden Allen as well as Waikato's Prem Krishna. A second import has yet to be confirmed.

The Waikato Titans were beaten finalists in 2003 and winners the year before but may start slowly with a number of their team unavailable for the first week which is a double header against Nelson and then Wellington.

Pero Cameron is in the squad, however his wife is expecting meaning he'll miss the first weekend, as will Kiwi-Australian Luke Martin who is in the Sydney Kings ANBL finals team. Import Geordie Cullen was to return but his insurance was too expensive for the Titans. He's been replaced by former Manawatu import Rick Randall. The second import is set to be American Greg Lewis.

The problem for the Titans will be height. Robert Tuilave at 2.02m should be the tallest in the side along with Ben Hill.

Of the remaining sides, the Hawks look to be strong with top-class Australian Dusty Rychart and Kiwi-Australian Adrian Majstrovich. Taranaki have a quality starting five including Tony Rampton, Willie Banks, Link Abrams, Michael Tompson and import Brad Davidson but lack depth off the bench.

Canterbury have had their imports, Michael Gardener and Ryan Prillman, for a number of weeks while the Saints have one of the stars of the past season - Ben Knight - and Manawatu have 2003 league MVP David Cooper back again.

The NBL starts on Friday with the Stars hosting Canterbury at Trusts Stadium while Otago Nuggets play the Hawks at Taradale.