Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian wasn’t too comfortable with his team's interrupted preparation to start their NBL championship defence, but he couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised with their first up showing on Sunday.

Goorjian found plenty of reasons to be nervous ahead of the Kings opening their championship defence at Afterpay Arena on Sunday night beginning a run of six straight home matches.

While that's a nice luxury, it also creates pressure to not waste the opportunity to capitalise with a fast start while then there was the late arrival of championship stars Kendric Davis and Torrey Craig.

The seven-time championship winning coach wasn’t comfortable with Sydney's preparation for the season opener but he needn't have worried with them delivering a strong showing to beat the Cairns Taipans 111-90.

"I just thought that we were in probably one of the more disturbed (situations) coming in and you look at the starting line-up, and we probably had Kendric for two practice sessions," Goorjian said.

"Torrey just got in too and it's no excuses, everyone's going through injuries and change, but we've added a lot of youth which everybody's talked about.

"So we've been establishing roles and who am I playing with who, and some of those line-ups tonight had never even played together in practice.

"I just thought we were getting our feet in the paint more and getting to the foul line more than last year with the perimeter players driving and creating pace, and we have much more interior presence.

"We're on the right page, but we have a long way to go, and during the process we have this home stand that you can't get back.

"When you're unsettled you're nervous coming into this game because you're behind the eight-ball and playing at home, so it made things extremely difficult.

"There were concerns but I liked the way we handled ourselves and I liked the camaraderie amongst the group."

The other aspect that Goorjian saw as a great unknown would be the impact of the championship celebration ceremony before the game.

That saw the Kings raise the championship banner and also hand out the rings to those players who were able to be in the building that did include Shaun Bruce who is now a Taipans player again as of NBL27.

But Goorjian liked the way the Kings did the whole ring ceremony and to enjoy it with the strong crowd of 13,632 in attendance.

"I've never done that before where you've waited and gotten the ring on the night (to start the next season) and I wanted those guys to enjoy it because it moves so quick," Goorjian said.

"You finish and guys are playing in Puerto Rico or going home so tonight to get that ring and have a hug and put a lid on it was a really nice moment."

There was plenty to like in what Sydney produced on Sunday night including the 26 points and six assists on limited preparation for Davis with Xavier Cooks producing 18 points and seven rebounds, and Craig 13 points.

But once again it was the defensive buy-in from Matthew Dellavedova who made life hell for Jack McVeigh that was instrumental in the Kings winning just like he did through the Championship Series last season on Bryce Cotton.

While it wasn’t a one man job and Makuach Maluach and Craig did have time on McVeigh too, Dellavedova had the biggest impact in limited the Taipans superstar to just seven points on seven shot attempts with four turnovers.

"You go to the Bryce Cotton scenario in the Finals Series and we had bodies to throw at him and I thought Delly in that match up was tremendous, but I thought Kuach came in and did a great job," Goorjian said.

"Torrey is that other piece too so when we've gone through change from last year's roster to this, we didn’t want to lose that wing defence.

"So getting Kuach back was such a huge key and so was getting Torrey back, and we're really excited with the losses of (Jaylin) Galloway and Bul (Kuol), it's so important to look at someone like Kuach to step up and he played 20 minutes tonight and was tough offensive and defensively, and ran the floor really good."

There was great change at the Kings following last season's championship triumph even with Davis, Cooks, Maluach, Craig, Dellavedova, Tyler Robertson and Jason Spurgin returning.

Galloway, Kuol, Tim Soares, Hunter Goodrick and Kouat Noi all took some replacing, but Goorjian's focus was on a combination of youth and players that wanted to buy into the Kings culture while wanting to better themselves.

That saw him bring in the likes of Will Johnston, Jayden Stone and Harry Wessels, and he couldn’t be happier with the group he has at his disposal coming into NBL27.

"For us there was a concentration when the season finished that we wanted guys that wanted to be Kings, and we wanted guys that wanted to grow and pursue," Goorjian said.

"This isn’t about the championship, it's about the championship culture and if you're also going to develop, you want guys coming in that can be players.

"I feel like with Stone, Wessels and there's not one guy here that you look at who can't be a player. We've got a lot of young ones that I like that have goals and who want to be national team players or want to play in the NBA or want to play EuroLeague.

"I'm excited about my role in that and I love that having young guys that want to get better and who want to grow, and you could see that tonight."

One of the heroes of last season's championship triumph for the Kings was Tim Soares and not only did he have the biggest offensive rebound of the Championship Series, but his presence was huge all the way through.

That made him mighty hard to replace but the Kings might have got as close as they possibly could with the addition of Andrew Carr who started well on Sunday night with 11 points, four rebounds and two assists while going 4/4 from the field and 2/2 from the foul line.

"I really like him and you're looking at the strengths and weaknesses in the locker room, and Tim was an incredible winner and everybody loved him and was happy for him coming here to win a ring and getting his opportunity to move forward," Goorjian said.

"Now getting a guy like Carr it's a similar personality and he's well received, he's a great teammate and all he wants to do is win and he cares about the team.

"He's here on a journey too to go take the next step after playing at Kentucky and he's getting comfortable in this.

"When I put certain line-ups out there, I've got four guys who can carry and pass the ball and make good decisions, and he adds to that which is gonna be a big strength for us long-term."

Chris Pike

Nerves unfounded for Goorj's Kings