The Sydney Kings have just created one of the NBL's most fascinating pairings.
The ink is barely dry on the team's high-profile signing of Matthew Dellavedova to open free agency, and they've already gone and locked in arguably last season's most talented and dynamic point guard as his backcourt partner: Kendric Davis.
It's a vehement response to head coach Brian Goorjian, who was crying out for an elite point guard over most of last season. The Kings' decision-makers responded by getting two.
"It made sense," Davis told ESPN.
"Me and Delly got on the phone, and we thought both of our games complement each other very well... it just made sense for the platform [the Kings have] given me; they just kept preaching that, if I do my end and win, do everything we need to do, they believe they can get me to the NBA."
Progressing to the NBA was Davis' unabashed driving force when deciding to sign this one-year deal with the Kings. The point guard is coming off an incredibly productive season with the Adelaide 36ers, averaging 25.6 points and 7.8 assists per game, and was the runner-up to Bryce Cotton for the league's Most Valuable Player award.
That wasn't enough to propel the 5'11 Davis onto an NBA roster, so his attention turned to fine-tuning other elements of his approach to basketball, and the Kings' infrastructure stood out as one that can help guide him to that next level. From Goorjian, to Dellavedova, part-owner Luc Longley, newly-appointed assistant coach and part-owner Andrew Bogut, and CEO Chris Pongrass, the Kings have a substantial NBA network and breadth of experiences to lean on, and will look to refine what Davis brings to the table.
Above all else, though, it was the opportunity to play alongside Dellavedova -- a legend of Australian basketball and reigning NBL Championship Series MVP -- that Davis saw immense value in.
"I told [Goorjian] I want to play with Matthew," Davis said.
"To help me become a better leader, a better professional on and off the floor, to push me at practice. In a game, you need an extra ball handler. I think in Adelaide, we kind of lacked that, that extra ball handler. You see Illawarra with Tyler Harvey and Trey Kell; you see that backcourt with multiple ball handlers, where you can't deny one guy.
"I know Delly's a proven winner, who helps my game a lot. Everyone knows how unselfish he is, how willing a defender he is, how great a leader he is..."
"Delly wanted to play with me and I wanted to play with Delly."
Dellavedova was a proponent of signing Davis. When it was broached to him as a possibility, the four-time Olympian championed the idea, and immediately began to assess how the two ball-dominant guards could play alongside each other. Dellavedova reached out to Kings assistant coach Shaun Roger and asked for some clips to send to Davis.
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"He sent me film of [him] playing with Kyrie Irving, and picturing, like, this is you... with Kyrie, this could be you," Davis said.
"Jordan Clarkson... [he said] this could be you. We're both point guards and, even in the NBA right now, you need two point guards on the floor... It's times where I need to bring it up and let him rest, and there's times where I need to come off pin-downs, and I need to come off to get an open shot and be a scorer, and times I need to be a facilitator for him... We both know how much we needed each other."
We'll likely see a different version of Davis over the 2025-26 NBL season than the one we saw in Adelaide. It'll be the same impressive shot-making, blinding speed, and ability to bend a defence, but he'll operate off the ball more than we're used to seeing. Davis led the league in usage (29.8%) through the 2024-25 season; a number that's almost certain to drop with the Kings.
"I'll get some easy looks," Davis continued. "If a team wants to try to deny me, Delly sent me a 10-minute clip of Kyrie Irving getting backdoor layups because teams wanted to deny him getting pin-downs coming off curling to his midrange or a three.
"You'll just see more versatility in my game; it won't just be me having to create, create, create... I think I'll be asked to do a little less, as far as handling the ball.
"I can kind of pick my spots more. Man, I've got so much room to get better... with Delly, you'll see me in my off-the-ball action, coming off pin-downs. Late in the year, we started getting into that with Jason Cadee on the floor as a point guard... me coming off pin-downs, me doing backdoor cuts, because teams were overplaying me this year.
"Defensively, seeing a guy like Matthew get into the ball... why not [me]? How can I not do it? I think playing off the ball, getting backdoor cuts, sprinting my lane in transition and Delly throwing it up to me and I'm getting and and-one lay-ups, kick-out threes. Not everything is off-the-dribble, side-steps."
Kendric Davis talks through his excitement to team up with both Xavier Cooks and Matthew Dellavedova in Sydney..
Davis says the Kings first reached out to him the day after NBL Free Agency began, and he was immediately enamoured by the franchise, from ownership down to its roster.
Before the Kings engaged with the Houston-native, however, they sought all the intel they could, using every resource at their disposal. It's an open secret around the NBL that Davis' time in Adelaide was tumultuous, with the point guard often on the periphery of drama over the course of his single season with the 36ers. The Kings did their due diligence in seeking information from Davis' time in Adelaide, as well as his stint with the Golden State Warriors' NBA G-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, to get the clearest picture of what it would look like if the 25-year-old joined their franchise.
They came away with a determination that the personnel and infrastructure in Sydney was enough to maximise Davis' talent and help to guide his maturation as a professional, the latter of which he cited as a key reason in joining the Kings.
"It's grown me a lot," Davis said of his time in Adelaide.
"I was spoiled. I started at SMU, where me and coach were best friends... my high school coach is like my father. Memphis, me and Penny [Hardaway] are super tight, like a dad. Golden State: a first class organisation [and] I was real tight with Steve Kerr and his son.
"You get spoiled in a sense that everything's gonna be upscaled, and it wasn't. It taught me, no matter if it's a first-class organisation or a growing organisation, you've got to learn how to be professional in all manners. For me, being the best player I would say, I never had to be the biggest leader. I'm kind of like a 'just hoop' guy - I'm gonna work hard as hell on my game, and take care of my body, and 'follow me' leader -- but this year I think I needed to be more of a vocal leader, and I wasn't.
"So, I learned every team needs a different thing, and you've gotta be more flexible. Maybe this year on Sydney, I don't [need to be a vocal leader]; we've got Delly and Cooks, so maybe I can just hoop more. Who knows? You've got to be flexible, and also the team that sticks together the most through adversity will be the team that comes out on top. The tightest circle, and the people who do right day in and day out, they'll get the job done at the end.
"We figured it out toward the end a little bit, but it's the habits. What habits you build in preseason are going to take you to the top. Our habits weren't great as a team, and it cost us at the end because I think we had the most talent, but we didn't have the [best] infrastructure. Going into Sydney, I know the habits from day one are super important if you want to get the job done."
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Davis is joining a Kings team that's just missed the playoffs for the second straight season, which came after the franchise won back-to-back NBL titles. The backcourt pairing of Davis and Dellavedova will be flanked by one-time MVP Xavier Cooks and three-and-D wing Bul Kuol, with Kouat Noi, Keli Leaupepe, Tyler Robertson, Shaun Bruce, Jaylin Galloway, and Jason Spurgin also on the Kings' roster as free agency continues.
The Kings now only have two spots to fill. There's mutual interest in Makuach Maluach returning to Sydney, sources said, while there's a desire to target a big-man for the other vacant roster spot.
The Kings had the league's No. 1 defence for the vast majority of last season, but were consistently a below-average offensive team. The addition of Davis should play a key role in remedying that issue for the Kings, which could well put them back in championship contention. If all of those stars align, then getting on an NBA roster naturally becomes a more distinct possibility for Davis.
"[Goorjian] was telling me he can get me to the NBA," Davis said.
"[The Kings] platform can help me get to the NBA, and they believed I was an NBA player. But, with that, he said you know we've got to win. I said yeah."