Dash Daniels put on a show for a stadium full of NBA scouts at the CODE Sports NBL Blitz in Bendigo.

According to ESPN's Olgun Uluc, up to eight NBA teams had a presence at the pre-season tournament, with the highly-rated Next Star very much in their sights.

"I'm talking the Oklahoma City Thunder sent multiple guys, the Orlando Magic, the Houston Rockets, the Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat got there," Uluc said on The Roundtable.

"Dash was really good. He shot the ball reasonably well in the first game and in the second game he did a bit of everything.

"They wanted to see a semblance of an offensive game. It was just very choppy last season. It's not just the shot, it's everything. It's the confidence. It's the fluidity he plays with. They want to see something, and he showed a lot of that.

"It wasn't just the shot, he was able to come off on balls, make reasonable reads. He's obviously a high level defender, but the defensive playmaking was also there.

"There was one NBA scout told me in the building, he said, 'He's playing free'."

Daniels made the move across town from Melbourne United to South East Melbourne in the off-season, and the early signs are it was just what he needed.

"The thing that impressed me the most, and it's impressed me over the course of this entire pre-season, is there have been times at the start of games where sometimes teams won't guard him," Uluc said.

"They'll go way under ball screens. They'll let him shoot it. They'll make him feel the fact that they're not guarding you. I remember against Melbourne United in the pre-season, Joe Ingles was the matchup. He went way under those ball screens. Cole Anthony was talking from the bench, yelling at Dash.

"Dash has gotten better over the course of games from the first to second to third to fourth quarter, and that's a level of one, maturity to overcome that psychological hurdle, but two, just the processing. He's figuring out what defences are throwing at him and he's able to process the game at a really high level and perform well come the end of games, to the point where he's on the floor at the end of games.

"He's making shots. He's making high level reads and plays. That's the most impressive thing that teams saw. Yes, he's bigger, it seems like he's more athletic, but just that development, that growth. NBA teams really like seeing that."

Former NBL MVP Derek Rucker can see plenty of upside in Daniels' game.

"He's still only 18 years old, and this will be his second season in a high level league," he said.

"He's still learning how to shoot the basketball. You get tremendous developmental improvement with shooting the basketball from the ages of 18 to 24. He's got plenty of time to figure out how to shoot the basketball.

"NBA clubs are always extremely confident in their player development staff that they can take an average shot and turn it into a good shot, provided that they have the requisite amount of time to work with the player.

"I think he's going to be fine shooting the basketball. The other stuff that we knew he could do well, he's improved upon. And the next thing I'd like to see is to make sure that in one-on-one ISO situations … he can consistently beat the defender."

Former champion Damon Lowery is equally excited about what lies ahead for Daniels.

"Dash plays with violence. I love it when he gets him in the open court, he'll hit you, and you think a grown man has just hit you. He can finish.

"And we saw some floater game too … some getting to the key, some nice teardrops. I was like, okay, he's added that to his game.

"He's only going to get more confident, and Josh [King] isn't going to see the best of him either. Whoever gets him at 22, 23 will start to really see Dash, but he is definitely going to take a leap this season."

Uluc believes it's important for Daniels to shake off the pressure of being the brother of Atlanta Hawks star Dyson, and instead forge his own path.

"Yes, he gets opportunities because of it, but there's also expectation on him that can often be unfair," Uluc added.

"We've seen this in the past where a lot of guys get very hyped and then they don't follow the same pathway that we want them to. We want them to get to this level really quickly, maybe that's not their journey though. Dash, I think, is slowly learning more about himself and figuring out, 'alright, I'm playing within myself. I know I put my own expectations on myself, and that's how to do it … the hype can often be destroying."

Host Kelsey Browne agreed.

"The quicker he figures out that he's not Dyson, the better he'll be. He has to be Dash. He can't be Dyson," she said.

Daniels and South East Melbourne open their season on September 19 against Perth, the first chance for those watching eyes to see if Bendigo was a sign of things to come.