New centre struggling to get on 'same page'

Hawks centre Luke Nevill admits he has struggled to adapt to coach Gordie McLeod's offence but is confident he will continue to improve as the season wears on.

Arriving in Wollongong just days before the season began, Nevill has had to learn on the job what the Hawks offence is all about.

It's been a steep learning curve for the 218-centimetre centre, whose arrival saw Hawks' veteran Dave Gruber released from the club.

He has averaged 8.2 points and 6.7 rebounds in nine appearances so far.

"It is hard for me to adjust because I am used to breaking out of the offence from time to time and making reads. It doesn't seem like we are all 100 per cent on the same page at times," Nevill said.

"It takes a while to get used to playing the Hawks system. The more time I am here I will get better at it. Overall the amount of minutes I have played I feel like I have done a good job while I am on the court."

While Nevill has endured his own learning experience in the opening months of the season, his Hawks teammates have also had to adjust to playing with a bigger inside presence.

"None of these guys have really played with a five man," Nevill said.

"Larry is rostered as a five but he can roam around, shoot threes and jump shots. He is more of a kind of spacing five or even a four so we haven't really played with an inside presence.

"A lot of the time I might be open but they are not geared to looking at me in the post so that is obviously going to take time as well for guys to get used to.

"Not being here in the pre-season and getting familiar with me might have hurt that aspect of dealing with me in the post."

Nevill said there was no point making excuses and the squad had been working hard to turn their season around.

They'll get another chance to do so when they travel to New Zealand to face the Breakers on Friday.

"We have to come out and play a strong defensive game. That is where we have struggled a bit in the past few games, is defensively. Offensively we have been able to get our shots and our points but defensively everybody needs to be knuckling down and stopping their guy, and our help coming to rotate.

"If we can defensively put a good performance on the court that will go a long way to a successful game."