BASKETBALL: He's tipped to be the MVP of the revitalised NBL, but impressive Illawarra centre AJ Ogilvy isn't getting his hopes up of a recall to the Boomers for the Rio Olympics later this year.

Ogilvy is a pivotal part of a Hawks team that has surged to third on the NBL ladder by winning seven of their past eight games.

He is in the upper echelons of several statistical categories including steals (1st), blocks (2nd), rebounds (4th), field goal percentage (5th) and points (sixth).

Ogilvy was part of the Boomers squad on a number of occasions between 2008 and 2011.

Despite his outstanding form he believes it will be tough to break back into the squad this year, given the bountiful big man options for coach Andrej Lemanis.

"Australia have such a great team at the moment with all the guys playing over in the NBA," Ogilvy told AAP.

"The (Andrew) Boguts and the (Aron) Bayness and Cam Bairstows and all those guys that are very high quality players.

"I think it's an uphill battle to make that squad for anyone really, but I'm focused on what we're doing here, not what's going to happen after the season."

Ogilvy isn't getting caught up in the increasing buzz about his prospects of winning the MVP, which will be presented in Melbourne on February 17.

"It's exciting to have people recognise that I've been playing well, but I'm not really bothered too much about individual accolades, I just want to win games," Ogilvy said.

It's been a triumphant return for the 27-year-old, who was an NBL First Team player in his one previous season in the competition in 2013/14 with the Sydney Kings.

He's been the dominant centre in 2015/16; no mean achievement in a competition which boasts its best lineup of big men in recent memory.

"The league has really gone to another level," Ogilvy said.

"Especially the big guys like (former NBA players) Hakim Warrick and Nate (Jawai) and guys like Daniel Johnson and Matt Knight that have been around all these years are all high quality big players.

"It's definitely the best talent level in the league that I can remember in a long time."

Ogilvy is averaging five points a game more than he did with the Kings in 2013/14.

"The shooters stretch the floor and it gives me a lot more room to play," he said.

Ogilvy said the Hawks defence was the reason he was leading the steals statistics, a category normally dominated by much smaller players.

"It forces people into turnovers and bad passes, so it's allowing me to pick them off, more than me having a good ability to steal the ball.

AAP