Injured Wollongong Hawks centre Larry Davidson is on track to be fit for next month's season-opening home clash with Townsville.
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Davidson underwent knee surgery last month and sat out preseason wins over the University of Eastern Kentucky and the Dongguan Leopards.
The 31-year-old won't play in Saturday afternoon's trial against the Sydney Kings at Moss Vale but is a good chance of suiting up for the October 10 first-round meeting with the Crocodiles.
"He's straight-line running and he's starting that loading process," Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod said.
"It could take four weeks, it just depends on how it all progresses."
The battle with arch-rivals Sydney will be the Hawks' first proper test of the preseason.
Former NBA player Josh Childress will line up for the Kings, while the presence of Wollongong imports Jahii Carson and Gary Ervin should ensure a packed house at Moss Vale Basketball Stadium.
"This time of year is about trying to accelerate your development as a team, so it's really good to complement our practice time with games and that's the phase we're going into now," McLeod said.
"We've had our new group together for a couple of weeks and it's good to get out and play some games and try to replicate the things that have been happening in practice.
"Our schedule going forward is to practise during the week and play games on the weekend. That's what we'll do now virtually up until the season starts."
While the Hawks are 2-0 in the preseason, the Kings are also unbeaten.
McLeod said the focus was on his team's performance.
"It's always a work in progress and when you start every year it's normally a new canvas, so it's about trying to best use the parts we've got."