Dech will give Hawks every chance

Dech enjoyed a breakout campaign with the Hawks last season, turning the injury woes of big-name stars Aaron Brooks and LaMelo Ball to his advantage on the floor.

It saw him in Most Improved Player award calculations at season's end before former owner Simon Stratford placed the club into administration.

READ MORE: Ball remains runaway leader in Hawks ownership race

It left players and staff owed more than $750,000 in entitlements and also voided all player contracts, including the final two seasons on Dech's initial three-year contract.

Angus Glover and Sam Froling are also now free agents with the trio all being eagerly courted by rivals while the club remains without an owner or coach less than a month out from free agency.

"It has been a bit of a whirlwind off-season," Dech told NBL.com.

"Some of the key elements is to give Illawarra the respect of going through that process with them. That's something I've been waiting on, to see who the owner is and what that looks like going forward before I look at other avenues.

"Having the right fit's really important because you can go to a team that has so many great players and you're caught on the back end of a roster again. I want to be on the court playing.

"A key element is still development, want to keep getting better and I think I still have a lot more to prove, and obviously winning. You want to go out there and win and play come finals time because that's when the most exciting basketball's played.

"They're probably the two key factors in my decision coming up to free agency."

The NBL's decision on granting the Hawks license to new owners has been in a protracted state of imminence for more than a month with the joint LaMelo Ball-Tory Lavalle bid still expected to get the nod.

Dech formed a close bond with Ball and manager Jermaine Jackson while the NBA Draft aspirant was in Wollongong and was also tight with coach Matt Flinn who's been tipped to return as coach should the bid be successful.

Dech said the opportunity to stay in Wollongong and remain part of a new guard is still an attractive one despite returning a franchise-low 5-23 ledger last season.

"It was a bit of a roller coaster and I think, in isolation, it was good to take a breath and take it all in," Dech said.

"It was a whirlwind of a year, one I really enjoyed. There were so many highs and a lot of lows with it as well. You just take everything in your stride to try and take forward and get better next year.

"All in all, it was a really positive year. We didn't get the wins on the board we wanted with the Hawks but that was something we were really excited about because we wanted to go back and give it another crack."