His performance against New Zealand on Sunday was simply outstanding. For the record, he finished with 17 points and eight assists.

It's an impressive stat-line on its own, but his real impact showed in the plus-minus numbers where he finished at +21 in just over 25 minutes on the floor.

People will always debate the merits of plus-minus numbers with good reason. To use an old sporting idiom, the numbers are like bikinis - they show a lot but they don't show everything.

In this case it's a string bikini, they show pretty much everything. On a night the Hawks twice reeled in a 15-point deficit, they were demonstrably better with Naar on the floor.

Coach Matt Flinn put it succinctly in the post-match presser.

"That game wouldn't have even been close without Emmett Naar," he said.

"He's just a fantastic player at running the team. All due credit to Church [Sunday Dech] who's an enormous defensive player for us, Emmett's probably the only guy we've got at the moment who can really get us into stuff."

The obvious question is whether it will continue when LaMelo Ball returns from injury. With all the 'will he or won't he' conjecture surrounding Ball it could become a moot point.

Still, it's absolutely crucial the Hawks manage it correctly. Naar is contracted for next year, though Hoopla understands it's with an option in his favour.

The deal should be lucrative enough to keep him, but these matters rarely come down to money. Nick Kay and Mitch Norton weren't simply chasing money when they left for Perth.

As much as it was pitched that way, there were plenty of other factors at play. That's a column for another day, but the club can't afford to get it wrong on Naar.

What's been good to see the aggression with which he's attacked his chance.

To call him mild-mannered is an understatement. Your columnist once asked his former roommate Dan Grida for some dirt and all he could say was that he spent a large amount of time doing crosswords.

What appears to have emerged over the last month is a healthy ego. He was jack of being drip-fed minutes and it's shown now that he's getting real time on the floor.

He's young, but not that young. At 25 he's entering a prime and it's reasonable he wouldn't want to spend it playing second fiddle as he did in his rookie season and the first half of the current one.

With imports coming and going as they do, he may never be the Hawks best player, but he can be their most important if managed properly.

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If the form of Sunday Dech and Angus Glover, who are both contracted for next season continues, that task will be even tougher next year when all three are off-contract.

The club's future relies on it getting it right. We can expect the same 'not enough money' line if it doesn't but, for now, the ball is in the Hawks court.

What is encouraging is that Flinn appears to have taken some personal strides in that area. He copped plenty of flak early in the year for running a cluttered rotation.

It's largely been taken out of his hands through injury, but there's no doubt the necessary shorter rotation has benefited his side. The challenge will come as the troops return.

"I'm definitely learning," Flinn said after Sunday's loss to the Breakers.

"At the start of the year it was very difficult given the swollen roster we had and the the quality and the depth we had. That was very disruptive at the start to try and find your way in those rotations.

"I think it's easy for everyone to see a shorter rotation works. It's probably somewhere we're going to head in the future, now it's just a matter of guys wanting to step up and embrace what we do.

"I've said it before, we're really trying to adopt a growth mindset here in terms of, OK yeah we took a loss but what are we going to learn from it and how are we going to get better and improve moving forward?

"The guy's who've been ripping in are the guys who are really embracing that philosophy. My philosophy is, and always has been, if you're given an opportunity and you perform then it's up to someone else to come and take your spot.

"It'll be good to get them all back and then see where all the dust settles."