With the obvious exception of the New Zealand Breakers, the Hawks were unquestionably dealt the toughest scheduling hand last season.

The entire squad and staff were relocated to Albury on Christmas Eve before shifting to far North Queensland amid the Sydney Northern Beaches outbreak.

With the Melbourne NBL Cup added to the schedule, it saw Brian Goorjian's team play 16 of its first 17 games on the road, not returning to Wollongong full-time until April.

With NSW currently in the grip of a coronavirus outbreak that's expected to top 2000 cases per day in the coming weeks, the Hawks face a similar prospect ahead of the more traditional November season tip-off.

The NSW government plans to ease lockdown measures once vaccination rates reach 70 per cent of the eligible population.

However, the Queensland and West Australian governments in particular have been bullish in their implementation of hard borders.

With Tasmania joining the NBL this season, the league will cross every state border in the country as well as the New Zealand international border - a challenge no other professional sports league in the country faces.

It's likely to be another season of upheaval, but Hawks guard Emmett Naar says it's simply a "new normal" for the league.

"This is my fourth season so half of my career will have been like this," Naar said.

"We don't know how long it will be until the season starts. I know they've said November 18 but we'll have to see what happens.

"Every state is different and you've just got to be prepared for anything. It doesn't change too much, you just get ready as if you're going to play.

"If it keeps getting pushed back it can become a bit draining but, being realists and seeing what's going on everywhere, it's obviously not going to be a normal season."

Read more: Harvey putting new spin on old Illawarra Hawks story

With all teams likely to be greatly affected, more so than last season, Naar feels his team can benefit from its experience as league nomads.

"We had that experience last year and it should help," he said.

"For imports like Tyler [Harvey], it's all he's known in this league. There's silver linings in it.

"You get to spend that much more time together and that can help you gel on the court if you bond well off it. That's what happened with us last season.

"People are working from home, stuck inside, struggling. They don't have the freedoms we have to see our friends every day and do something we love. You've got to put it in perspective."

Amid the tumult, Naar is enjoying more stability on the club front than at any point in his time in Wollongong.

The 27-year-old has played all three of his seasons under a different head coach and has also endured the uncertainty around the collapse of the club's former ownership.

To play under the same coach and staff two years running is a welcome first, though he'll need to find his niche in rotation that will include guards Harvey and NBL returnee Travis Trice.

"It's good to have the same caching staff back two years in a row for the first time since I've been here," Naar said.

"Just knowing what Goorj wants and what the coaching staff wants is a big plus. Having that year under my belt I know what I can work on going into this season to carve out that role.

"I just want to try and help the team as much as I can, that's the main thing. We've got such a good player in Tyler leading us and obviously Travis Trice coming in.

"It's about finding ways I can fit in and parts of my skillset they might not have to be that point of difference there."

Playing in last season's finals was another major first for Naar just a year after he was part of a squad that fell to a franchise-low five wins.

He feels it's set a new benchmark for the traditional battlers, one that's reflected in betting markets that have Goorjian's team in title reckoning.

"It's the first time we've projected anywhere that wasn't last or second last since I've been here," Naar said.

"We definitely won't be getting too cocky about that, but we were one game off making the grand final last year and that's definitely the goal for us this year, to go and do it all.

"We felt that our last quarter of the season, every game started to mean a little bit more as we realised we had that chance.

"The finals were a big a step up again and it felt great to not be watching it on TV and not leaving town at that stage of the year. We don't want to be doing that this season."

The Illawarra Mercury news app is now officially live on both iOS and Android devices. It is available for download in the Apple Store and Google Play.