Based on the current evidence it is hard to decide whether basketball is steaming ahead or a complete train wreck.
Best guess is it is perhaps both.
At the top end, we have Basketball Otago grappling with a serious financial crisis which has resulted in one redundancy, an alarming series of resignations and a plenty of silent finger pointing.
It was back in June when the Otago Daily Times broke the news of the organisation's financial struggles and we still have not seen the financial accounts.
We will not get a clear picture of how bad the books are until the accounts are made public.
But former deputy chairman Simon Eddy was quoted as saying the expected deficit for the financial year ending December 31, 2013 ''will be upwards of a $50,000 loss''.
Chairman Ricky Carr later dismissed Eddy's comments, saying ''indications are it will be way less than [$50,000]''.
Wherever the reality lies, the organisation is in a tough spot financially.
BBO has also lost much institutional knowledge.
In the past 12 months, eight board members and three staff members have left for varying reasons, but a consistent theme has been the financial pressure the organisation has been under.
Basketball Otago general manager Markham Brown resigned in June, following a review of the organisation's poor financial performance.
Office and events manager Sandy Wallace was made redundant the same month.
In August, director of development and Nuggets player-coach Mark Dickel accepted a head coaching position with the Canterbury Rams.
He has now moved to Christchurch to take up the role and leaves a huge void in Basketball Otago's wonderful development programme which has achieved such tremendous success.
For all the chaos and bumbling at the top, the game's grassroots are perhaps as healthy as they have been at any time during the past decade.
The province's junior teams have had a season to remember. Four Otago age-group sides made the top four at their respective national tournaments.
The school teams have benefited from the work Dickel and BBO have put into the city's young athletes as well.
Otago Boys' High School won the secondary school championships for the first time in the school's history at the weekend and big Sam Timmins was named tournament MVP.
He was well supported by a talented cast which included Joe Cook-Green, Josh Petermann, Liam Aston and Benoit Hayman.
King's High school also qualified and finished 21st.
Kavanagh College won the smaller schools secondary school championships, thanks in no small part to a remarkable performance from Richie Rodger, who drained 29 points and made 19 rebounds.
Kavanagh beat Oamaru's St Kevin's 64-56 in the final.
Otago Girls' High School and St Hilda's Collegiate also represented the province in the girls' elite tournament.
There are quite clearly a large number of really talented basketballers in the region and it would be a tragedy if the Nuggets and Goldrush programmes became victims of BBO's financial struggles.
Carr has made assurances the organisation remains committed to keeping those pathways open.
But that has not always happened in the past. BBO pulled the Nuggets from the national league in 2009.
The franchise made a comeback the following season but it did so on a shoestring budget and a roster which resembled a high school team boosted by the presence of a couple of Americans.
The Nuggets lost all 18 games and the development of players such as Riki Buckrell and Tom Rowe, and later on Sam King, all of whom were junior Tall Blacks, was perhaps compromised.
They struggled to foot it in the league and it must have impacted on their confidence.
That kind of scenario could easily unfold again. If the Nuggets get up next season, it is looking increasingly likely the team will be made up of mostly locals.
That means the best young talent, who do not head off shore to play college basketball, could end up suiting up for the Nuggets most nights.
As good as some of them are, the NBL has proven to be a big step up.
Of course, it may also be the making of them.
And you cannot help wondering, with all the talent here, how good will the Nuggets be in 2020 if they can hold on to their stock of young players?
