Basketball On The Internet.

ALWAYS been a fan of innovation, never been huge on imbalance though, which, it appears, is what the Sydney Kings have with their new line-up.

Announcing new import Charles Carmouche, 22 and a 192cm guard out of LSU today, Kings coach Shane Heal was naturally effusive.

"Charles Carmouche is an exciting addition to our team," he said.

"He is a shooting guard with point guard skills, a great defender, and his combination both defensively and offensively with Jesse Sanders will give us a great backcourt."

Well yes, it should.

But the NBL's leading scorer in 2012-13, shooting guard Ben Madgen will come back into that backcourt eventually too, when his ankle has healed.

And Sydney also has a fairly useful shooting guard in James Harvey.

Kyle Armour was signed to cover during Madgen's injury-forced absence, with Shaun Gleeson signed to back-up The Colonel, Sanders.

Let's not forget all-purpose and defensive guard Kevin White.

Now unless my maths is slightly askew, the Kings have 11 players on their roster.

And seven of them are guards.

That's seven-of-11, or six-of-10 if you factor in the Madgen/Armour situation.

So much will rest on the young but broad shoulders of AJ Ogilvy, who, at 211cm, should be a big-man stud.

But his back-up is 211cm Ben Allen who has yet to prove he is anywhere near a prime-time NBL player.

Then Sydney has the emerging Tom Garlepp, a 203cm forward with an upside, and newcomer Brad Hill, who is listed as a 198cm "guard/forward''.

But assuming Hill never plays at guard - he is earmarked to play at small forward, with additional time at power forward - the Kings still boast enough guards to rival Buckingham Palace.

(Heard that before? OK. Enough guards to defend Fort Knox? That work any better for you?)

Think the point is pretty clear.

Sydney is guard-heavy and, again, unless this is about innovation, then it is an unbalanced team.

In the same way that a top-heavy team such as Melbourne Tigers a couple of seasons back with their "giants" experiment of Cam Tragardh, Matt Burston, Wade Helliwell and Luke Nevill proved unwieldy, the Kings could face a similar issue to recent 36ers teams with long backcourts.

In Scott Ninnis' first season as 36ers coach, he had Brett Maher, Aaron Bruce, Brad Hill, Paora Winitana, Brad Davidson in his backcourt, then Julius Hodge for a while too, and he wanted to carry the ball.

It didn't end well.

Five guards the next season - John Gilchrist, Cortez Groves, Nathan Herbert, Brad Hill and Darren Ng - also didn't work well because it was five in the backcourt in a team of nine, under-23 forward Chris Molitor (who completed the 10-man rotation) rarely used.

It ended poorly.

Next coach Marty Clarke worked his way through four import guards - Craig Winder, Troy DeVries, Eddie Shannon and Ron Howard - in his first season at the helm, the Sixers also with Rhys Carter, Darren Ng, Brad Hill, Aaron Bruce and Tom Daly competing for backcourt minutes. And Nathan Herbert was injured in the preseason.

It was Chris Warren, Nathan Crosswell, Nathan Herbert, Darren Ng, Tom Daly, Everard Bartlett and even Mitch Creek at times playing off guard in season 2011-12.

The point is, top-heavy or guard-heavy does not appear the recipe for success.

Look at last season's pacesetters and Grand Finallists, New Zealand Breakers and Perth Wildcats.

The Breakers went with Cedric Jackson, Daryl Corletto, CJ Bruton and Corey Webster - four guards.

The Wildcats had Damian Martin, Kevin Lisch, Brad Robbins and Everard Bartlett - four guards. (Rhys Carter came in for Robbins when he retired early, then Robbins came back for Martin when he was injured late.)

Innovation is great. Look at the "Run TMC" era at the NBA's Golden State Warriors when coach Don Nelson played three guards - Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin together - and they enjoyed some success.

Unless Heal has some sort of similar plan to run-jump-press though, he will be expecting a lot from Hill and Allen - two players of great potential who have yet to set the world alight.