Thankfully, despite a first-up home loss to Sydney on Saturday, Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas doesn't have to look too far, even after giving up 106 points and losing by nine.

The Hawks also squandered a handy third-quarter cushion - that should've been nine points barring a key turnover - to be overrun late.

It piles pressure on Thursday's home clash with the Phoenix back at the Sandpit, given most would be quick to label an 0-2 home start into a Perth road trip as disastrous.

Read more: Dent's breakout NBL showing a big plus for Hawks despite defeat

What people do need to consider is the fact that this Hawks outfit was always going to be a work in progress come tip-off.

The free agency waiting game - by mutual consent - on Duop Reath was largely unavoidable as the club made every best effort to to retain him. Though his departure was without animosity - it did leave the Hawks sourcing imports later in the game.

George King's 14 points and five rebounds in 25 minutes against Sydney came on the back of a single preseason outing against Adelaide at the Blitz - that saw him drop 20 points and eight rebounds.

His solid numbers on Saturday aside, King's elite defensive capabilities will be vital to solve the match-up puzzles the likes of Vic Law and Mitch Creek posed to the Hawks last season.

His 15 points, and a career-high 19 points from Lachie Dent, were the bulk of a 48-point second-unit contribution, an area plenty pinpointed as a weakness on paper.

The other asterisk on predictions was a skinny front court, but the Hawks out-rebounded the Kings overall and went 15-9 on the offensive glass.

That said, the Kings had 46 points in the paint and shot 27 free-throws to the Hawks 11.

While the Hawks forced more turnovers, the Kings coughing up 17 to their own 14, but converted them to just nine points. The Kings had 26 points from turnovers.

Those, and the foul-line numbers, are the 'easy points' Brian Goorjian so often spoke about that become the difference down the stretch. It can be addressed.

It brings us to the real silver lining. The Hawks ran the Kings as close as they did while their big three - Tyler Harvey, Justin Robinson and Sam Froling - went 14-51 from the field.

Harvey was 1-8 at halftime and finished 1-7 from three in his 18 points. Froling was 3-12, while Robinson was 5-20 and 0-9 from three-point range.

Read more: Late surge not enough for Hawks as Kings reign supreme in Wollongong

It's not ideal, but the prospect of those numbers repeating - certainly in unison - is minute.

Robinson in particular has shown too much class in stints with five NBA franchises to suggest anything but a quick bounce back. For his part, Jackomas was adamant that will be the case against the Phoenix this week.

"I've got total, unbelievable faith in Justin so any day of the week I'd go with him," Jackomas said.

"Guys are going to have their nights. They're going to have great nights, and they're going to have nights they'd like to forget.

"He'll be right by Thursday. He'll be angrier than anyone and I feel sorry for the next guy that's guarding him."

Let's make it clear from the jump, your columnist is in favour of coach/captain's challenges - in all sports.

It's very existence is much-needed emphasis of the fact that officials can't get every call right. A coach or captain's challenge has the officials, coaches all in it together.

While it obviously applies some scrutiny to refereeing/umpiring decisions, the challenge system actually eases pressure on officials. It might see the occasional dent in pride but it's preferable to the awful game-determining 'howlers' that such challenges safeguard against... in theory.

When it's been around a particular sport for long enough, like cricket, there's a very discernible shift in discourse around decisions.

While poor or incorrect decisions are inevitable, there's an element of shared responsibility in that players or coaches have a responsibility to use them wisely. If there's a rough call made late it's now fair to say 'shouldn't have burned that challenge earlier mate'.

When such challenges are well-established and used correctly, they can actually become a means to reduce the intervention of replays and stoppages.

For all those reasons, I was a fan of its introduction in the NBL, but what is the point of it if we still get calls like Sydney's successful 'challenge' of a foul call on big man Tim Soares on Saturday.

It seemed a strange decision when the Kings did challenge Soares foul on Justin Robinson as the Hawks guard went to the basket. As former Boomer Adam Gibson said on commentary "you can't challenge that. Just by that motion of the arms dropping down it's an automatic call for the referee."

Indeed "verticality" has become a buzzword in the NBL. In that vein, pitching the arms forward or down largely removes ambiguity when it comes to calling a foul.

Good on the Kings for rolling the dice, most teams would like to keep their key big man out of foul trouble, but how the final decision was reached, with the benefit of several replays, beggars belief.

If it's the type of decision we're still going to get, just brush the challenge altogether. It's just another means of embarrassment.

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