On his first day in the job, new Melbourne Tigers head coach Trevor Gleeson got rid of Corey 'Homicide' Williams.

It was believed, through all the speculation and rumours, that Gleeson's decision not to bring back Williams was because Adam Gibson would soon be signed and immediately inserted as the Tigers' point-guard for the 2011-12 season and beyond.

But with Grantley Bernard's breaking news in the Herald-Sun over the weekend that Gibson has rejected the Tigers offer and will re-sign with the Gold Coast Blaze, the Tigers find themselves already moving on to Plan B, less than two weeks after Plan A was put in motion.

Plan B is believed to involve Perth Wildcats dynamo Damian Martin, although you can write your own odds about the chances of Martin even entertaining the thought of leaving the Wildcats.

When, not if, Martin rejects the Tigers' overture, that will push the Tigers back to Plan C, already, and the Tigers will be forced to settle for the best of the rest.

The best the Tigers could end up with now is a combo of Nathan Crosswell (Townsville Crocodiles) and Rhys Carter (Adelaide 36ers), if the Tigers stay true to their word that they will put together the best Australian talent before adding any imports. With special consideration given to Daniel Dillon (Cairns Taipans) if he decides to move on after having success in a break-out season up north.

Crosswell is the only non-Australia/New Zealand national player (Olympics/World Championships) or non-import who has started at point-guard for a championship winning team since Darren Perry started game one in the 1992 NBL Finals (see a list below), but the Tigers at the completion of the 2009-10 season made no effort to keep Crosswell and allowed him to leave for the Crocodiles.

Bearing that in mind, it might be tricky now for the Tigers to convince Crosswell that all is fair in love and war, if the club does attempt to re-kindle its relationship with the left-handed point-guard.

So under the unwritten NBL law, you must have an import point guard or a player from the World Championships/Olympics to run your team if you are to have the ultimate success - and with none of the Australian point-guards available (Patty Mills at the Portland Trailblazers, Steve Markovic (Radnicki), Gibson (Gold Coast Blaze) and Martin (expected to re-sign with the Perth Wildcats) all happy elsewhere) - the Tigers would be best to go with an import at the point.

Which only adds fuel to the debate: why let Williams go if there wasn't a qualified replacement signed, sealed and delivered?

For the Tigers to so quickly dispose of Williams, arguably the best player and the best point-guard in the league, and for Gleeson to so openly proclaim that the Tigers will only be adding Aussies at this point, puts the club in a seriously dangerous predicament. Now, the most important position on the floor could be their most vulnerable.

If the Tigers are unable to find a satisfactory Australian point-guard and are forced to acquire an untried import, the club moves one step closer to the same predicament they found themselves in last season with an NBL virgin running the team.

While the TJ Campbell experiment was a disaster, the Tigers may very well be forced to head down the same road unless they are able to somehow sway either Gary Ervin (Wollongong Hawks) or Ayinde Ubaka (Cairns Taipans) to make the move.

So the Tigers recruiting campaign has got off to a shaky start. To say the least.

* Corey 'Homicide' Williams made his debut last Saturday night for the Brisbane Spartans in the SEABL. Williams finished with 24 points and Cortez Groves had 15 points but it wasn't enough as the Spartans fell to the Knox Raiders, 91-76, with Lester Strong (25 points, 11 rebounds) and CJ Massingale (18 points, 9 rebounds) leading the way for the victors.

** Starting point-guards for NBL Champions since 1993 - (1993, 1997 - Andrew Gaze; 1994, 2006 - Darryl McDonald;  1995, 2000 - Ricky Grace; 1996 - Billy McCaffrey; 1998, 1999 - Darnell Mee; 2001 - Charles Thomas; 2002 - Brett Maher; 2003 - Shane Heal; 2004, 2005, 2007 - CJ Bruton; 2008 - Nathan Crosswell;  2009 - Adam Gibson; 2010 - Damian Martin; 2011 - Paul Henare.)