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ONE of the big marquee names likely to return to the NBL in 2016-17 is European-based superstar centre David Andersen who appears United-bound, along with Nathan Jawai.

Andersen, 36 and 213cm, is making a run at his fourth Olympics if selected for Rio and told me two years ago he liked the idea of completing his career where it began, in the NBL.

That time is virtually upon us.

"Winning a couple of Aussie championships would be a pretty good note," he said of finishing his career.

Andersen (above) is one of Australian basketball's unsung heroes, with multiple Euroleague titles under his belt, and an NBA stint as well.

Though he enjoyed one NBL season in Wollongong with the Illawarra Hawks in 1998-99, he was a Frankston junior and returning to Melbourne, most likely as a “marquee Australian,” makes perfect sense.

He and Jawai are not the only centres on the move with Perth Wildcats’ dual-championship winning back-up pivot Tom Jervis heading to Brisbane Bullets.

Jervis (above) wasn’t originally on the free agents list but the Bullets have pounced, their frontcourt starting to look solid with Daniel Kickert and Anthony Petrie already there.

The club also now is making a play for Townsville Crocodiles’ power forward Nick Kay, who won Rookie of the Year honours in his 2015-16 League debut and was the first major signing the now-defunct Crocs planned to announce.

But with Townsville no longer in the NBL, Kay has landed on Brisbane’s shopping list, alongside fellow Crocs award-winner Clint Steindl, who was last season’s Most Improved Player.

“We’re unlikely to go with three imports,” Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis said of the League’s new foreigner option.

“My philosophy is let’s first see if we can get all locals.”

That hardly should surprise, coming from the current national coach, although he said Brisbane was likely to suit two imports and keep a third option up its sleeve in case a key Australian player went down injured during the season.

Replacing quality Aussie players lost to injury mid-season by hastily finding a comparable replacement is a near impossibility.

Lemanis said it was quite a challenging prospect to put together a new team “from scratch” because in most environments, a new coach will inherit several contracts/players and build from there.

“There’s a number of players we’d love to have but the reality is the other clubs are out there recruiting as well,” he said.