Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova have collected championship rings for their respective sides in recent seasons.

Dante Exum and Ben Simmons were high draft picks.

NBL players are now getting more opportunities to train in America.

Nathan Sobey is one of those hopefuls with four NBA clubs – Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets and an unnamed franchise putting the free agent through his paces.

His 2016 Big V coach Matt Alexander believes the Warrnambool export has the game to play in the world’s biggest basketball competition.

Justine McCullagh-Beasy: Thanks for joining us Matt. Nathan Sobey is in America trying out for the NBA. What do you think his chances are of getting a gig over there?

Matt Alexander: I think it’s very good. The league’s gone to 17 players per team – it was 15 last year – so there’s more opportunity. He’s obviously had a really great two seasons in Greece and in the NBL and absolutely I think he’s got an NBA game and he’s got a very good chance.

Q: What are some of the skills he could translate into that competition? 

A: His athleticism is NBA-level and obviously he’s very clever. To get to that point he’s a very smart guy and very adaptable.

He’s been able to play in the three spot in Greece and he’s been a one-two guard in Adelaide and dominated in both leagues. Defensively he’s elite – he can stay in front of anyone I feel.

Q: He played here for Warrnambool in the championship last year and he’s come a long way. Did you ever imagine he’d be at this point in his career?

A: I thought he’d do it eventually. I thought he might have done it earlier.

He had an amazing college career (at Cochise College and then National Collegiate Athletic Association division one school University of Wyoming).

He came out and was in the top-10 Australians coming out of college and just to not get a development spot would have been very disappointing for him being an elite player already.

But he just kept with it and took the bumps and persisted and had trust in his own ability and he’s really starting to show where he should be.

He’s a homebody and has strong family connections and playing in Warrnambool was good for him. It was important for him to have his brother Jacob playing last year. He wanted to win a championship with his brother. Having his mate Xavier (Johnson-Blount) from the States playing was important too.

Q: Nathan got a chance via the NBL at Cairns as a development player a few years ago with limited opportunities up there and then went across to Adelaide and has thrived. What do you think the difference has been?

A: His voyage with his basketball career in Cairns, he didn’t play many minutes but he adjusted his shot. (Taipans coach) Aaron Fearne was really good skill coach and adapted his shot and he’s a much better shooter from that experience. He moved on to Adelaide and played limited minutes and showed (he was a) sporadic excitement machine, dunk of the year, very athletic, massive blocks and making a big impact in 10 minutes. Then he came to us (his home club Warrnambool) and I just gave 100 per cent faith in him.

If he missed five shots, I’m saying ‘take the next shot’. He probably really needed that at that part of his life.  You miss two or three shots in the NBL, you sit back down and that’s hard, that’s tough to battle and just to have that extended period of someone backing them saying ‘shoot the ball more’, dominate and read and react how you see fit and make decisions, I think that helped him. Before the season I said his skills hadn’t caught up with his speed yet and when that happens you’ll be unbelievable. I witnessed that in the Big V grand final series. Then he came out of that having lots of confidence and obviously (Adelaide 36ers’) Joey Wright is an excellent coach. He really develops individuals and he (Nathan) really stepped up for the Adelaide 36ers last year and he went onto Greece (to play for PAOK BC) after that, so he’s having an amazing career so far.

Q: What does it mean for the Warrnambool Basketball Association to see a player come through the ranks here and progress to the stage where he is trying out for NBA clubs?

A: It is amazing. It really sends a message to juniors that anything’s possible if you work hard. Nathan works very, very hard on his game. He’s got full integrity – behind closed doors he’s doing the right thing, he’s eating right, he’s training, stretching, working out constantly. It is out there – if you really want to be dedicated in something you can reach the absolute pinnacle of any sport.

Q: I guess with the NBL it’s come a long way in the past few years in regards to depth, imports and exposure around the country and there seems to be a lot more players getting a chance to go over to America and Europe. What do you put that down to?

A: I think Australia’s got a really good program, from Centre of Excellence all the way down.  I think there a lot of coaches who are passionate about coaching and are getting resources from the United States and all over the world now. The world’s got smaller so the information is out there and in places like Warrnambool you can develop a player with the right athleticism into an NBA player.