Where else but Melbourne United to start Hoops Heaven Basketball Hustle this week with Cody Ellis discussing how far ahead of the rest of #NBL24 teams they are right now while dominating at both ends, and we try to find their biggest NBL challenger.

From there, Cody Ellis looks at his former Illawarra Hawks team and believes Justin Tatum is putting himself in prime position to coach beyond #NBL24 while we look at a tough weekend for South East Melbourne Phoenix, and Cody asks if Rocco Zikarsky or Aron Baynes deserve more minutes.

We get #TheGalen Best NBL Team Man from Simon Mitchell, talk about the overreaction to a physio helping out DJ Vasiljevic, seeing big men allowed to defend and look ahead to the Christmas #NBL24 action to come.

For all the ways to listen click here: https://linktr.ee/basketballhustle

We open up this week's show with Cody Ellis talking about just how far Melbourne United is ahead of the rest of the NBL after 11 rounds. How potent they are offensively and how far ahead of other NBL24 teams they are at both ends of the floor with such a star studded yet well rounded team, and we try to come up with who is their biggest threat from the other nine teams.

The Illawarra Hawks have instantly improved under the coaching of Justin Tatum with Cody Ellis noticing the increased freedom they are playing with, how they are getting out to run and it's on the back of humming defensively. We talked about a more efficient and under control Tyler Harvey and why Justin Tatum isn’t far away from securing the job moving forward.

Sydney Kings talked about having to improve their defence and they did that led by Jaylin Galloway in a win against the Tasmania JackJumpers after a couple of bonding days during the week at Sydney's beaches.

It was a rough weekend for the South East Melbourne Phoenix with back-to-back 28-point losses at the hands of Melbourne United and Illawarra Hawks with the loss of Mitch Creek to injury despite the arrival of new import Abdel Nader.

Mitch Norton had a chance at the game winner denied by a split second much to Cody Ellis' chagrin while it opens an interesting discussion over who should be getting more minutes at the Brisbane Bullets – NBA champion and Olympic bronze medallist Aron Baynes or Next Star Rocco Zikarsky.

This week's show continues with a look at an improved New Zealand Breakers performance backing up the 'Anthony Lamb Guarantee' with Zylan Cheatham about to return, and how the Adelaide 36ers appear to also be giving better effort under new coach Scott Ninnis despite some intriguing rotation decisions.

Our discussion continues with the NBL's overreaction to a physio sitting courtside helping out a cramping DJ Vasiljevic and look at how pleasing it is to finally see some big men allowed to play defence, and rack up some blocked shots across the Round 11 action.

We then talk about Simon Mitchell's choice as #TheGalen Best NBL Team Man for Round 11 before turning our attention to Round 12 including the two Christmas Day games highlighting the fixtures as the Tasmania JackJumpers host the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and Sydney Kings battle Illawarra Hawks.

All made possible thanks to the support of Hoops Heaven (www.hoopsheaven.com.au) and TABtouch (www.tabtouch.com.au).