Brisbane Bullets GM Sam Mackinnon says 2021/22 roster is the club’s deepest since return to NBL
Boasting their own “big three”, an exciting Next Star and a 225cm giant – the man who put together this year’s Brisbane Bullets GM Sam Mackinnon roster reveals why he thinks this team could be special.
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The performance of the Brisbane Bullets at the NBL Blitz may have surprised some but for general manager Sam Mackinnon all it did was prove what he already thought when he put together this year’s roster.
“I think this is the deepest team we’ve had since we’ve come back into the league,” Mackinnon said.
And boasting what he called their own “big three” in Olympic bronze medallist Nathan Sobey, the rejuvenated Lamar Patterson and new import Robert Franks along with exciting Next Star Tom Digbeu and 225cm giant Chuanxing Liu – Mackinnon could be right.
The Bullets were more than impressive at the pre-season tournament, with their only loss coming in their last game on Sunday against the eventual Loggins-Bruton Cup winners, the Adelaide 36ers.
In that game they played without Patteron, Sobey, Franks, big man Tyrell Harrison and injured import guard Isaiah Moss.
And despite being one of the minnows of the competition budget-wise, Mackinnon said they were excited about the roster heading into Friday’s season opener against league newcomers, the Tasmania Jackjumpers.
“The Blitz was really positive for us … we got out of it pretty much injury free and the players got a lot of reps with JD’s (new coach James Duncan) style of coaching and how they’re going to play in it,” he said.
“I think some of the biggest things we take out of it is how our ‘big three’ played with Sobey, LP and Franks, it’s going to be hard to focus on one of those guys because either of the other two can have big games as well.
“But on top of that we had a lot of other players show great signs such as Tanner Krebs who got more opportunity and did really well, Tom Digbeu showed what he can do and our bigs in Tyrell and Liu were good.”
One of the strengths the Bullets showed during the Blitz was the versatility in the line-ups coach Duncan played, going big with either Harrison or Liu but also throwing out a bigs combination of new recruit Deng Deng and Franks, which proved successful.
And that is something Mackinnon believes recent Bullets teams may not have had.
Another thing the Bullets haven’t had in previous seasons was a Next Star but in Digbeu they have one that cannot only have an impact on the court but can attract crowds to Nissan Arena when the team hits their home floor.
“Tom’s still young but the great thing is he was happy to travel halfway around the world to play here,” Mackinnon said.
“He showed glimpses at training of what he could do but obviously everyone got to see it at the Blitz and when he locks into both ends of the floor, he’s a huge bonus for us.”
But the best player at the Blitz for the Bullets was Patterson, who looks in the best shape he’s been in since arriving in Australia.
“There’s been lots of honest chats with Lamar and they started over six months ago but I’m so glad we could re-sign him despite what some people were saying,” Mackinnon said.
“He loves Brisbane, he’s been holding himself accountable and just how he’s been around the group this season, I’ve never seen LP this engaged before.
“He doesn’t really have a point to prove to anyone but himself.”
Mackinnon also gave an insight into the process of recruiting this season’s roster.
“It’s all about looking at what the spend is going to be early on, we were lucky enough to have some guys, including Sobey on contract, and then it’s about analysing what talent is out there and where we’re going to spend our money,” he said.
“Hodgy (Matt Hodgson) told us he wasn’t going to be around pretty early on, which helped us because we re-signed Tyrell during last year and then we were able to sure up the roster in different spots.
“We’ve got some older rookies, Jack (Salt) is 25, Tanner’s in his second year but he’s 25, people also questioned Tom (Digbeu) as a Next Star but we did our due diligence and thought he was a great fit.
“We had a Special Restricted Player before but he didn’t get the chance to play, whereas Liu will play.
“Everyone’s also still maturing, Sobey has improved a lot as a leader since coming back from the Olympics, LP is still growing as a pro and he’s 30.”
Mackinnon said he hoped with a new coach, new roster and the positive signs they showed during the Blitz that Nissan Arena would be packed for their first home game on December 19 against the Illawarra Hawks.
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