Jessup's averaging 14 points, three assists and three boards in his second season and has spoken about feeling less scoring pressure in team with a lot more offensive punch than in his rookie year.

Most eyes were always going to be on how he'd develop as a total package this season and he has his effort at the defensive end to thank for a jump in minutes.

There's no hiding the fact the Hawks boast a far greater offensive arsenal than in Brian Goorjian's first season but, with Defensive Player of the Year Justin Simon having departed, he was going to need to find something defensively on the perimeter.

Having been rained on all too often from deep last season, the Hawks could not remain sitting ducks for rival long bombers and hope to progress further than they did last season.

Antonius Cleveland has filled the void in the like-for-like sense and, much like Bryce Cotton, Tyler Harvey is a great defensive pick-pocket when it comes to nabbing steals and is a better defender than many give him credit for.

Individually though, it's Jessup who has the highest ceiling for improvement at that end and the signs are good if his defensive effort on Melbourne United star Chris Goulding on Sunday is any guide.

He kept the long-range wizard off the sheet for the entire first half and to just nine points on the evening at 3-11 from the field - just one of seven from long-range.

It followed a similar performance against Sydney where he spent a bunch of time on Jaylen Adams and Dejan Vasiljevic on the perimeter.

Both are typically razor-sharp from long range, but Adams went 2-8 from three and Vasiljevic 2-5. Jessup had just five points, but had five rebounds three assists and a block, finding ways to contribute without scoring which was a challenge as a rookie.

It's fair guess that Jessup learned a a lot bit about making shots difficult in looking for his own last season, a task that became more and more arduous as the season went on.

When he wasn't scoring, there was little reason to keep him on the floor, but Goorjian is feeling much more comfortable handing the Boise State alum tougher defensive assignments.

"In the Sydney game we had him locked into a shooter and that was one of the comments that we made after the game," Goorjian said.

"He only scored five points and he played 34 minutes. It's because he rebounded and he got ahead of the ball and he locked down perimeter players.

"[Sunday] night was a huge task. Goulding's been incredible at hitting shots from all over the floor and I thought, that was there again [from Jessup].

"With that, he is that real [offensive] threat when they're going after Tyler, they're going after Duop [Reath]. Now you've got him there on the perimeter getting some looks.

"He had 18 points and he did a great job on Goulding, so he is moving forward from last year, especially at the defensive end of the floor."

Still on Brian Goorjian, the mastercoach feels his record in more than three decades as a head coach speaks for itself when it comes to sideline conduct.

Known throughout his career for his intensity, Goorjian has been his animated self so far this season. It's seen him pick up technical fouls in the past two consecutive games.

Veteran whistleblower Vaughan Mayberry teed him up against Sydney on Thursday night, while he also copped a technical from referee Daniel Troy on Sunday.

Post-match, Goorjian said it was a misunderstanding on the official's behalf, saying he was speaking to his review team about whether to utilise his coach's challenge when he was teed up.

"With the technical, I was actually talking to our guy doing the video and I got a technical," Goorjian said.

"If you have a look at what went on, I'm talking to my guy asking if I should call a timeout [to challenge the call]. Whatever I said, I was talking to him.

"I was constantly referring to him because there were a lot of questionable calls taking place in the game and I gave the ability to [challenge] and go after that.

"There's a limited timeslot, I'm telling him to 'hurry, hurry' and going through that with him and I got a technical foul. It was a key technical and an important technical."

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Fellow GOAT Andrew Gaze suggested on commentary that it was perhaps heavy-handed, but overdue given the build-up.

Goorjian admitted it was a costly foul, but didn't feel he was being over the top, pointing to his full body of work in that regard.

"I'm not sure what you heard, I just know I've been in this thing a long time, I know how to work the sidelines, and my track record speaks for itself," he said.

"I've been in this coaching all over the world, coaching internationally, coaching here... have a look at the stats and see how many technicals I've had in my career.

"I don't know if I've ever had a technical internationally, in China [never]. Here, in 20 years, I honestly think you could count how many I've got on one hand and now I've just got two in two nights."

In this column's view, if Goorjian's behaviour in both instances warranted technicals, then Dean Vickerman and Trevor Glesson should've copped around 10 a game the past two seasons.