Life after Andrew Gaze for the Melbourne Tigers turned out better than expected. Led by Chris Anstey, the Tigers won two championships (2006 and 2008) and played in four consecutive Grand Final series (2006-2009) until last season's horror.

For a club that has long been identified with a marquee attraction - be it Gaze, Anstey, Mark Bradtke or Lanard Copeland - the Tigers enter the 2010/11 season without a recognizable face of the franchise, no player who is capable of drawing huge crowds to the Cage on his status alone.

And with seven new names on the Tigers roster, the faithful fans will be scrambling early on to find out who is who.

When the Gaze era ended, Andrew and Lindsay Gaze both retiring on the same day, new head coach Al Westover had seven players carry over from the roster left behind, and while legends Copeland and Bradtke moved on, the fans knew who they were cheering for and were aware of what each player brought to the floor.

Now it's a new story.

Melbourne have a pair of new imports, TJ Campbell and Eric Devendorf, who have both shown an ability to knock down shots from the extended three-point line and have been praised throughout the pre-season by Westover.

The Tigers have also recruited a frontline that may just be the biggest ever assembled in NBL history, with three seven-footers, Luke Nevill, Matt Burston and Wade Helliwell set to stand alongside the 6'10" Cameron Tragardh.

Westover has long been a fan of height and wingspan, now he has at his disposal the biggest bodies ever teamed together.

In Friday night's season opener against the Sydney Kings, fan favourite Daryl Corletto is set to play his 250th game, although NBL records have him listed on 248 games so far, trailing only Gaze, Copeland, Bradtke, Warrick Giddey, Ray Gordon, Stephen Hoare and Nigel Purchase for appearances in a Tigers uniform.

After a tumultuous off-season, Corletto was nearly let go by the Tigers, but finally he re-signed and will celebrate his milestone in front of a crowd that could be as low as 2,000 or as full as 3,500.

Melbourne have long been against playing home games on Friday night due to the popularity of representative basketball around Victoria, and with the game also shown live on oneHD, a crowd figure is very hard to predict at the moment.

One of Melbourne's favourite players of yesteryear, Nigel Purchase, who played 250 games and is ranked seventh all-time on the Tigers for games played, will also lose his famous No.12 jersey this season to Helliwell.

Purchase who played with the Tigers from 1984-92, is one of the next in line at Melbourne you might think would have his number retired, but now that appears unlikely with Helliwell taking over the number.

Maybe this new era has forgotten about its history.

After a rocky start to life in the NBL, the Tigers became a playoff team in the late 80s, and despite one minor hiccup in 2001 and last season's disgrace, the Tigers have constantly been one of the best teams in the league who have challenged for a championship nearly every season.

Hopefully this new group of players can live up to the foundation the legends before them have paved.