Giants ready to take flight at the Hangar

The NBS Nelson Giants are hungry to get back into the playoff picture after falling just short last season.

They jump head-first into another campaign this week with two games in the space of five says.

The first is an away game against the Canterbury Rams on Wednesday night to kick off the Sals NBL competition before their opening game at Trafalgar Centre against the Franklin Bulls on Easter Sunday.

With 16 rounds of action, the team is still waiting on the official signings of several imports as they look to fill out their roster with a big man in the centre and a shooting guard.

"A lot of the leagues around the world aren't finished. There's a good chance we won't have imports for our first couple of games," says coach Mike Fitchett at the team's launch last week.

He expects the announcement of their signings to come shortly, with a number of offers having been presented to players.

Already in the ranks is Tall Black Dan Fotu, who most recently played for the New Zealand Breakers after being with the Auckland Tuatara for the 2022 season.

Dan says the transition into the Giants fold has gone smoothly, having been coached under Mike as an age-grade New Zealand representative as well as at the Breakers Academy.

"Mike Fitchett is the biggest factor. . . I know what he wants from a player.

"One of the (other) reasons is I that get to play with my (Breakers) teammate, Alex McNaught."

Mike says it's been good to add some "power and force" into the squad, with Dan performing strongly at a preseason competition on the West Coast, picking up tournament MVP.

With eight of the 11 NBL teams at the Westside Blitz, the Giants won two of their three games as the team shared minutes between all of their squad.

"Our defence was really strong, especially rebounding, but we shot the ball horrendously," says Mike.

While they couldn't "make a three-ball to save our lives", Mike says it isn't a fatal flaw, and he isn't concerned because everyone has an off day with their shooting.

"Success isn't if we win or not. It's how well we play.

"We didn't look too closely at other teams and just focused on ourselves, but Auckland, Canterbury and Taranaki look good."

At 21 years old, Alex already has five seasons with the Giants under his belt and has continued to improve under the Breakers in the NBL offseason.

Mike says it will be exciting to see what the experienced beyond his years player can do, and he expects him to take another step up this season.

The team has also welcomed Illawarra Hawk Dan Grida back to the squad after a five-year absence, who will bring some experience to the squad.

And that depth of experience will be tested, with captain Sam Dempster expected to miss the first week of competition with an injury.

With tickets for the last 18 home games sold out, a record number of memberships have been purchased this year and are quickly selling out for the opening home game.