How Gary Clark overcame slow start to earn All-NBL First Team honours

The 29-year-old big man had been seemingly a lock for several weeks, but any suggestion that would be the case back in November would've been met with raised eyebrows.

The veteran of 170 NBA games with five franchises was tipped to be an MVP candidate on arrival down under.

Early showings were, instead, underwhelming in much the same way as they were on the team front.

Fairly or not, the blowtorch is inevitably placed under the imports amid team struggles, and Clark felt the heat.

As it turned out, the Hawks faithful needn't have worried. In fact, if there's anyone to thank for their side's rebirth under Justin Tatum, it's Clark.

It's a fact revealed the numbers, but the typically humble native of North Carolina was quick to give credit to his teammates for not losing patience with him.

"I think it was just guys trusting me," Clark said of the form turnaround.

"I think early on it was a pull back and forth as a new guy, an import, coming into an environment where the guys are trying to figure it out from last season and trying to hold on to some of that.

"I think once JT took over the guys kind of bought into what he wanted and how he wanted things to go. There was a more of a fluent flow of what the expectations are.

"I think, from the beginning, me being selfless and kind of feeling it out and not trying to take over just allowed it to blossom to what it is now."

Whether it would blossom into a finals push was something he was far less sure of, but the Hawks's scoring leader pinpointed a bounce-back road win over Perth as the moment he new it was possible.

It snapped a three-game losing slide, the latter two coming on their home floor to sides below them on the ladder, and will give Tatum's side plenty of confidence should they need to head back there this post-season.

"I think Sam mentioned it last night [at the NBL awards], we took a couple of tough losses that we should have won," Clark said.

"We all came together at one of the practices and just really locked in and said 'OK, we can really win this thing if we string together a couple of wins and get some respect throughout the league'.

"I'm sure we've earned a lot of respect throughout the teams in the league and I'm sure most teams wouldn't want to play us. We've been very solid defensively, offensively we've been just as clicking.

"At this point of the year, you anyone can win it. We've had a tremendous turnaround, so we've been playing well and that's all we can ask for going into the post-season."

Clark turned some heads when he arrived at Tuesday's NBL finals launch in a moon boot after spraining his ankle in Sunday's loss to United, but Tatum was quick to allay fears his star man would be sidelined.

"One hundred per cent, he'll be fine," Tatum said.

"It's just precautionary to make sure he walks well and the swelling stays down. We'll start treatment when we get back [to Wollongong]."