THE National Basketball League (NBL) boasts some of the world’s premier talents, with a number of players catching the eye on a weekly basis.

Each round holds unique and engaging storylines, not only from a team perspective, but an individual one too.

In this new series, Rookie Me Central will highlight a few players to keep an eye on ahead of the weekend’s upcoming action.

With the first five rounds in the book, it is as evident as ever that the competition is set for an even season, with a new batch of guns emerging during the start of the fixture. There are plenty to watch on a weekly basis as the NBL continues to grow.

Kai Sotto – Adelaide 36ers

It was as encouraging a performance as we have seen from the young big man, coming off the bench to impact the game with an eye-catching performance on the weekend. He had 16 points and seven rebounds against the Breakers, and although Adelaide was thoroughly beaten, he never gave up and showed some seriously promising signs. Keep an eye on his minute rotation this weekend, to see if he has shown enough to get an increase in court time after the weekend. Sotto showed that he doesn’t need the most amount of playing time to impact a match, but if he does get more, then the sky is the limit.

Barry Brown Jr. – New Zealand Breakers

The import guard has returned from injury and changed his role to come off the bench after being replaced by Next Star Rayan Rupert. He has still been able to hit the scoreboard in emphatic fashion, and that culminated in back to back 20-point performances on the weekend. After starting the season with a tough bout of inaccuracy, Brown Jr. seems to have found his eye, producing a pair of efficient shooting performances from both in the paint and behind the perimeter. Expect him to get some extra defensive attention on the weekend, and it will be intriguing to see how he reacts.

Craig Randall II – Adelaide 36ers

Randall has been one of the most explosive scorers of the last few years, despite playing just over a handful of games in the NBL. He leads the league in points per game, and has been able to impact games in a big way thanks to his shot creation and bucket making. However, he was held to just 11 points last weekend, taking just seven shots from the field. The good players don’t have two bad games in a row, so keep an eye on how he responds, with a big game on the cards.