Adelaide 36ers hand caretaker coach Scott Ninnis full-time job, with ‘Operation Isaac’ his first assignment

New Adelaide coach Scott Ninnis has a massive job ahead of him now he’s been given the full-time gig, with ‘Operation Isaac’ the first cab off the rank.

Scott Ninnis has been named Adelaide’s fulltime coach. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

New Adelaide coach Scott Ninnis pushed for a two-year deal so he would have a chance to bring roster stability to the 36ers and plot a return to the postseason for the first time in six years, as he prepares to execute ‘Operation: Isaac’.

Ninnis, 58, took over as caretaker mid-season, when CJ Bruton was sacked. As he led the team to an 8-7 record and an unlikely shake at the top six, the Sixers courted Australian coaching doyens Brian Goorjian and Trevor Gleeson. Once they pulled out of the race, the choice became clear. The hometown hero won universal praise for turning around the club’s fortunes and instilling hope in the long-suffering but loyal Adelaide fanbase.

The four-time Sixers champion — two as a player, two as an assistant — said his first task was to convince star big man Isaac Humphries, who recently broke off contract talks with club and player ‘miles apart’ on remuneration, to stay in the City of Churches.

Scott Ninnis has taken the role at the head of the Adelaide 36ers after standing in as interim coach for the 2023-24 season. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images.

“The interim role’s gone and now the hard work starts,” Ninnis told this masthead.

“We’ll prioritise who we want to return and obviously Isaac Humphries is a big piece of that puzzle.

“We’ve only got four guys signed but one thing I consistently talk about is we can’t keep changing half the roster every year. I think we brought in eight new guys this year.

“We just have to get stability and I think that was an important thing for me in getting a two-year deal. We need to know things are in place, moving forward.

“Getting DJ to sign for three years was a great start but we’ll now sit down and talk about what that looks like with Isaac and (Kyrin) Galloway and some of the other players we want to retain.

“Hopefully, for me, commonsense prevails and we find a happy middle ground with Isaac that everyone’s happy with.

“We all saw the type of basketball he played here and he’s under no illusion as to how high a regard I hold him in. He knows I’ll make him a focus of what we’re doing, offensively.”

Both Humphries and Sixers teammate Dejan Vasiljevic were in Bendigo on Thursday preparing to represent the Boomers when Ninnis was officially unveiled.

Vasiljevic is on board with Ninnis and the club’s push to bring back the giant 26-year-old focal point — making a pitch right in front of his mate, outside Bendigo stadium.

“My main job is to try to get Isaac back, he’s one of the best bigs in the league, I said to him we might have to create a GoFundMe account to try to bring him back,” Vasiljevic joked, as Humphries listened.

“But seriously, I don’t sign contracts or anything, I try to do my part in trying to recruit, but Isaac is the No.1 priority for me.”

Humphries said he would take his time to plot his next destination and remove the emotion from his decision.

“It’s not all about money, there’s a lot of things happening in my life and a lot of factors and variables I’m taking into account and I’m definitely not going to make a rushed decision,” Humphries said.

“I’m on a high in my career right now, I’ve just played the best season of my career and my next move, my next season is very important for my trajectory.

“I will wait to see what I have on the table and make a very informed decision, not an emotional decision.”

SIXERS FINALLY SETTLE ON COACH AFTER BIG GUNS PULL OUT

Adelaide’s search for a new coach has ended where it began, the Sixers rewarding interim Scott Ninnis with a two-year deal.

The club legend was appointed as an assistant last season then took the reins as caretaker when CJ Bruton was sacked, triggering an uptick in performance that had the Sixers, at one point, dreaming of an unlikely finals appearance.

That 8-7 record in his second stint as head coach of the club reinstilled hope in the diehard Sixers fan base and had current stars and past greats united in support of the hometown hero to be given more time.

Ninnis, from very early on, made it clear he wanted the top job beyond the end of the season. But it wasn’t a lay down misere: the Sixers did court Aussie coaching doyens Trevor Gleeson and Brian Goorjian.

But, when the former, last month, landed a plum NBA role as assistant in Milwaukee, and the latter, earlier this week, pulled out of the race, the choice was clear.

Goorjian, who said no club other than Adelaide had contacted him about taking on a coaching role, even confirmed Ninnis’ work in rejuvenating the club was a key factor in the Boomers coach’s decision to remove himself from consideration - which amounts to a glowing endorsement for Adelaide’s new figurehead.

“The community’s behind Scott, ex-players, coaches from the opposition, players on the team are all supportive of a guy doing a great job and that’s not what I was looking for,” Goorjian told this masthead.

Scott Ninnis has been handed the Adelaide 36ers role on a full-time basis after impressing during the 2023-24 season. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images.

“They’re behind Scott, which they should be, because he’s done a great job and the guys are playing their ass off, the team, it looks like they’re behind him.

“I’m not 40 years old hunting down a job, I’m 70 years old and I had the same mindset when I took Wollongong (Illawarra Hawks), I’d been offered many times to come back to the NBL and said no, but Wollongong was a perfect situation. They needed help, needed a rebuild and I feel really good about what went on there.

“Adelaide is set up for success. I think what’s going on off the court is tremendous and, while they’ve struggled on the floor, as this thing has moved down the line and got closer and there was discussion (with management), it became very apparent for me, the team was doing great and Scott was doing a great job and I’m looking at it and I just said ‘I’m not doing this’.

“This whole thing is from the heart, I’m at an age in my life I want to go somewhere I’m going to be good for it. It might not be this year, it might be a year away. It might be overseas.”

Locked in until the end of the 2025-26 season, Ninnis’ attention now turns to a roster rebuild and deciding who stays and who goes, although club boss Nic Barbato has long maintained they would look to bring in a basketball mind to work with coach and management in a bid to make better decisions on personnel.

It remains to be seen if that will happen but, for now, only Dejan Vasiljevic, Nick Marshall, Sunday Dech and Jason Cadee remain contracted.

Brian Goorjian pulled out of the race to coach Adelaide. Picture: Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images

Import Jacob Wiley has a mutual option but it’s understood no decision on a return has been made yet after he jetted out to join Spanish club Granada for the remainder of the Liga ACB season.

Fellow import Trey Kell has also found an off-season job with Bahcesehir Koleji in the Turkish Super League.

He is out of contract but it’s understood there was initial interest from both parties in a return.

It’s not clear if Trentyn Flowers will return, but his draft stock has tumbled considerably and his mother, Kristi Flowers, tweeted the following this week: “Thank you Adelaide fans. Your love and support of @FlowersTrentyn has touched our hearts and he will carry his time here with him forever. Love you Australia.”

It’s likely Flowers will test the NBA draft waters - he’s a 206cm athletic freak who didn’t have the best time of it Down Under but is still only 18 and will be enticing for NBA clubs.

Code Sports previously revealed star centre Isaac Humphries had broken off talks with the club, with the two sides a long way apart on money, while Kyrin Galloway was yet to engage in talks, the young forward keen to explore his options - and wait on who was appointed coach.

Mitch McCarron won’t be back, with Brisbane understood to be a likely destination,

Thirty-five-year-old rookie Alex Starling comes at a budget price as an energy guy - and has deep links with Ninnis, given the pair powered South Adelaide to the 2022 NBL1 Central title.

Kiwi Tohi Smith-Milner was brought in by Bruton, but his minutes dwindled to nothing under Ninnis.

Originally published as Adelaide 36ers hand caretaker coach Scott Ninnis full-time job, with ‘Operation Isaac’ his first assignment