Biwali Bayles heaps praise on Illawarra Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas

The 21-year-old point guard signed with the Hawks on a two-year deal to add some depth to the guard rotation including Justin Robinson, Tyler Harvey, William Hickey and AJ Johnson.

After playing 27 times for the Kings, he signed with the Hawks as a development player under one of his old mentors Jackomas.

Ahead of the NBL opener against his former club the Kings in Wollongong, Bayles told the Mercury that under Jackomas and the Hawks coaching staff, his hopes of progressing to the next stage in his career were in the best possible hands.

"I've got a lot of love for Jacob. I think he's one of the best in the business in my personal, humble opinion," he said.

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"Me and Jacob go way back. He's been my coach since under 16 stuff and a lot of the staff here have known me since I was a junior. He (Jacob) gets the most out of his players and he gets everybody to play hard and he builds an environment where we all love each other and we compete. So that's great.

"Just the fact that they're there for not only me but everybody, they have genuine love for everybody here, they're just such great people. So that helps regardless if I did or didn't know him.

"They give you the freedom to be yourself. It's a good environment to be in."

Bayles said he was working hard each day to improve and progress to that next stage of his career.

"Training is good. We come in each day and just try and get better as a team," he added.

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"For me, I'm trying to get better individually as well every single day. So it's good. My goal is just trying to focus on just getting better each day and whatever comes I'll make the most of it.

"If I get opportunities great if I don't just focus on trying to be there for the guys, just become the best version of myself."

With one of the biggest tests on the horizon in the Kings, Bayles said the team would show no fear.

"Hopefully we can get the win over them. They've got a very good squad but so do we, so it'll be interesting."

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