Basketball On The Internet.

TRUST this. It's going to be a long, hot summer for the NBL as the league again generates some heat across mainstream Australia.

We're a long way from it yet but there has been some great recruiting going on, not the least of which was today's announcement in Sydney the Kings had secured power forward Cody Ellis.

Ellis and AJ Ogilvy? Yes. You have to like that.

(Unless your name is Ben Allen. Big Ben really needs to be on the fast-track here to make this a Kings "big 3" or run the risk becoming irrelevant.)

Last had the pleasure of watching Cody live in action back in Launceston for a week at the under-18 nationals in about 2007 when he led Western Australia Metro into a gripping final against Guy Molloy's Vic Metro.

It was apparent then the 203cm son of Wildcats legend Mike - and heir to the Ellis family legacy - was going to be a star.

That is some legacy though, with his grandfather, the late Gordon Ellis one of those great pioneers of basketball in the West and the type of quality "olde worlde" gentleman we don't see too much anymore in this day and age. (Yes. I was a big fan.)

Cody's dad Mike Ellis played 302 games and captained the inaugural Wildcats championship team in 1990, with his uncles Glenn and Brett Ellis also part of Perth sides in the late 1980s.

And let's never forget the legacy Rosell Ellis left in Perth.

(Um. No. I might have that last one wrong... )

Point is, it IS a lot to live up to, so if starting on his post-US college career in the NBL across the nation in the league's largest market is a better choice, who's going to argue?

Ellis, 23, rocked at St Louis University, this year as a senior winning the Atlantic 10 Conference's Sixth Man of the Year award, averaging 10.1ppg.

But there is one drawback to the tyro's signing. He will not graduate until mid-December, meaning he won't join the Kings' roster till mid-season.

"It's not perfect for him to come in to the group in mid-December but we hope to ease him in and believe he can contribute in the second half of the year," Kings coach Shane Heal said in today's club release.

If we can agree "mid-December" sounds like, say, on or about December 15, Ellis should be ready to suit soon after.

Given the All Star Game is pencilled for December 20-22, he most likely would make his debut on Sunday, December 29 at home against New Zealand Breakers.

That's presuming he misses the December 13 home fixture against Wollongong Hawks, of course.

According to my copy of the proposed draw, if he is most likely to debut against the Breakers, he only will have missed 10 games (about the first-third) of the 28-round regular season.

He will have missed Melbourne (H), Perth (H), Townsville (A), Adelaide (A), Cairns (H), Townsville (H), Perth (A), Melbourne (A), Wollongong (A) and Wollongong (H).

While that presents a short-term risk, the long-term benefit to Sydney is obvious and excellent.

With The Madge, Ben Madgen, coming back from injury around the same time (if not sooner), the Kings will receive a terrific early-season injection when their guard-heavy team, all of a sudden, won't look too bad at all.