Illawarra is hoping to have a new import en route to Wollongong as early as Monday but coach Jacob Jackomas insists there is no sense of panic in the quest to replace the injured Justin Robinson.
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Robinson will undergo season-ending surgery on a torn meniscus on Monday, leaving the Hawks without a point-guard heading into this weekend's road-home double against Adelaide and New Zealand.
General manager Mat Campbell has been in contact with multiple player agents as a host of players become available in the US as a result of NBA waivers.
The club will be looking for a floor general but Jackomas says the role being played by the likes of Lachie Dent, George King and Tim Coenraad as part of the second unit leaves him confident he won't be asking a fresh import to play saviour.
"There's always urgency because the season's on, but how I'd put it is that there's urgency but there's no desperation," Jackomas said.
"It does have to be the right piece but the games are 'a ticking.
"When that guy does come in, he's going to have the ball in his hands, it's a big personality in the group and we have to make sure that he has some time to gel.
"We've been in situations where we've brought a point-guard in a little later and sometimes it doesn't gel the whole season.
"Our group's really tight and if they come in and they're like-for-like with our guys, it'll be easy, just like it was easy with Justin.
"If it's not, it might take a little bit longer. We're not desperate right now, but it is urgent."
The Hawks are 1-2 following Saturday's road loss to Perth, a game they were well in command of in the first half only to go cold offensively and manage just 22 points in the entire second-stanza.
Led by George King's 17 first-half points, the Hawks were a hot 6-12 from long range but could hardly buy a bucket in the third term before Perth clicked into gear in the fourth.
"We came in and shot the lights out of the ball [early] and that obviously wasn't going to go on for the rest of the game," Jackomas said.
"To keep Perth to 77 points on their home floor is quite an effort. The scoring did dry up [for us], but we hit everything in the beginning and what I would say is that we didn't look after the defensive end as much as we should've in that patch.
"We were what we were from that point on but, [giving up] 77 points is something I'm pretty happy with."
It's no doubt one that got away for the Hawks but Jackomas found plenty of positives about the performance in the absence of his primary ball-handler.
"We recruited Justin to be our heartbeat so it's a big hole for us right now," Jackomas said.
"In the short period of time he's been with us, his influence has been massive for myself as a coach and as a playing group but we've seen the best out of Lachie Dent, Sam (Froling) in a leadership role because Tyler has to carry a lot of the scoring [load].
"I think it [impacts] everyone because they've all got to go out of their comfort zone to step up for us to win basketball games.
"Lachie's a development player but, whoever plays, we just need to keep moving forward as a group. We'll pick apart what wasn't our brand of basketball, but there were parts of this thing where we moved forward."