Basketball On The Internet.

THE WNBL is about to launch and Brad Rosen and I are excited to preview the teams ahead of Round 1 at our Brad&Boti podcast, but there was plenty to savour from the NBL's fourth round too and we get stuck into it, isolating the players and plays of the week.

Who is new at the Flyers, now to be known as the Southside Melbourne Flyers, given their status as the only Victorian club of the three competing that is based in the state capital.

Issy Bourne was a huge pick-up for the Flyers, and this opening game against incoming Canberra also produces a bold prediction for Most Valuable Player honours!

Geelong has gone venomous now and hosts a Sydney team which has Lauren Nicholson returning. Former Flames playmaker Shyla Heal is new to the Geelong roster but will miss early going through injury.

Defending champion Bendigo starts where it finished, hosting grand final victim Townsville, which is the white hot favourite to claim the WNBL crown.

The big news in Perth is Han Xu, the 211cm centre and focal point of China's international play, will be joining the Lynx later next month. In the interim, Perth has brought in Brianna Turner but Xu's signing is the one which shifts the goalposts.

Even without her commanding and compelling presence, Perth should open its season with a road win over the revamped Adelaide Lightning.

Turning to the NBL and Illawarra, since releasing import Jaquori McLaughlin, the club has been at pains to contradict a "sources-based" story that implied he was in some way a problem. He wasn't. He just wasn't the right fit for what they need right now.

We take a shallow dive into the results of the round, Adelaide's win over Tasmania, Perth-Cairns and Sydney's smashing of the 36ers.

There's two coaches right now with big question marks over their abilities and we discuss whether Brisbane should stick with Lamar Patterson.

Brad has his Rosen Rattler, I throw down a Nagy Nasty, we have our plays and players of the week - all this and more, and you can access it now by hitting this link, or going to your usual podcast sources.

So let's leave now with a picture blast from the past, that moment when Illawarra stalwart Tim Coenraad tried to startle the man he was defending by levitating in front of him.