Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright on why he broke his two golden rules by signing US import Deshon Taylor in May

Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright hasn’t seen Deshon Taylor play live and hasn’t met him in person but he didn’t need to before signing him for next NBL season.

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ADELAIDE 36ers coach Joey Wright has revealed why he broke two of his own golden rules by signing US import Deshon Taylor without meeting or seeing him play live.

The 23-year-old point guard was recommended to Wright by his agent a week after the NBL season finished, and the more Wright inquired, the more he liked what he heard.

In fact he tried to find someone who would give him a reason not to sign Taylor and rather wait until he’d seen what was on offer at the NBA’s Summer League in July. But he had no luck.

“I don’t sign players that early, I typically wait until summer league and have a look at them,” Wright said.

“We usually create a list of 10 people at summer league and rule them out from there, last year we didn’t have the opportunity.

“But this time I kept checking (on Taylor) and said ‘let me call one more person’ and they said ‘if you can get that dude on your team, get him, you don’t want to play against him’ and a couple of Aussie guys who coach against him say ‘this kid is unbelievable’, his work ethic, his approach, his desire.

“I couldn’t get anyone to say anything bad about him, when someone says they’ve seen Patrick Beverley and he competes as hard, I was like ‘OK, sounds like my type of guy’.”

The other golden rule Wright broke by signing Taylor in May was not meeting him in person to learn about his mindset.

“I didn’t do a face to face (meeting) and typically I like to do that, that’s what we do in Vegas (at Summer League),” Wright said.

“When I do my face to face what I’m trying to figure out is do they have the character and the resilience to play for me? That’s usually what I’m trying to figure out.

Deshon Taylor in action for the Fresno State Bulldogs last year. Picture: Jayne Kamin-Oncea (Getty).

“But because everybody spoke about that first about him, I was ‘OK, I’ll go against my system a little bit’ because the first thing they say is how hard he plays is unbelievable.

“Most guys can play basketball, I just wonder if they can play for me, and usually I can get a feel for it.

“He was one I sought after and he wanted to come here so that was important as well.”

The 36ers are set to return to Utah in October for an NBA pre-season game against the Jazz and Wright is planning a training camp in Australia before they go.

Wright said his team failed to connect last season and missed the finals, and he hopes Taylor and fellow signings Daniel Dillon and Kevin White can make a difference.

“He’s (Taylor) a quiet person but leads by example, and that’s why we brought in guys to get other conversations going — they’re more vocal,” Wright said.

“Last year came down to one thing — we never played for each other. It was only the second group I’ve coached in all the time I’ve been head coach where I couldn’t sell my vision.

“He (Taylor) has the character and defensive presence and he can score. And he’s hungry as hell, by all accounts he’s all about that.”

Wright and Adelaide Lightning coach Chris Lucas will be guest speakers at the Free Throw Foundation’s off-season luncheon at The Highway on Friday, May 31. Tickets are $60 per person and funds raised go towards helping young people participate in the sport.

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