Sydney Kings star Kevin Lisch predicts former NBA player Bryce Cotton will help defending NBL champions Perth a lot, as he prepares to face the Wildcats new import on Saturday.
Former Utah, Memphis and Phoenix guard Cotton will make his NBL debut with Perth in Sydney, after replacing Jaron Johnson on the Wildcats roster.
Lisch, the NBL's reigning MVP and best defensive player, is likely to spend some time defending the new man.
While Cotton won't have had much time to adjust to the Perth system, Lisch agreed it could sometimes make it more difficult coming up against someone new to the NBL.
'In some way it does because you haven't seen how they play in this league," Lisch told AAP on Friday.
"But he's a really good player, we've seen some film on him.
"Perth does a good job of choosing their imports and he's going to help them a lot."
Third-placed Sydney snapped a four-game losing run last week with a win over NZ Breakers.
Guard Lisch made just one of 14 from the field in one of the worst shooting nights of his career.
The two-time league MVP wasn't worried by a rare off night.
"To be honest, nothing is going to change with my preparation, and really I saw some encouraging things," he said.
"That offensively, I could have that off night but other guys could carry us, and to get the win was really encouraging for our team."
Sydney (11-10) take on Perth (8 -9) in a game that both teams call ill afford to lose.
"From here on in every game is going to be extremely difficult because no team is a lock for finals right now and you have desperate teams going at each other," Lisch said.
He welcomed the addition to the Kings roster of highly-regarded youngster William McDowell-White, who gives coach Andrew Gaze a third guard option.
Lisch and Cadee have had to shoulder the backcourt workload since former NBA player Steve Blake returned to the United States.
"He (McDowell-White) has got a lot of tools to be a really good player," Lisch said.
"it's great to have him and especially to help us at the guard spots."
