Watch: Adelaide 36ers star Mitch McCarron blows up at teammates, Scott Ninnis reveals plans

There are poised to be two big winners from a reshuffle at Adelaide 36ers after the sacking of CJ Bruton. Plus, watch captain Mitch McCarron’s epic training spray.

Amid a dark week for Adelaide where the coach was sacked after a horror road trip, the 36ers have responded to CJ Bruton’s departure with a pair of fiery practice sessions where captain Mitch McCarron accused teammates of “snitching” and interim Scott Ninnis drove home new standards he expects his embattled group to meet.

Code Sports, on Wednesday, revealed McCarron, along with veterans Jason Cadee and Sunday Dech, had been told they would be removed from the team’s rotation, with the Sixers shifting their focus onto blooding younger players like American Next Star Trentyn Flowers and highly-rated Nick Marshall.

The tumultuous week had NBL champion McCarron launching a withering salvo during Friday morning’s heated practice.

“Shut the f**k up, stop f**king bitching,” McCarron roared in vision captured by 10 News.

“This is why we’re in this f**king position (second bottom).

“Everyone wants to f**king snitch on every other person and throw every other f**king person under the bus,

“Train hard, shut the f**k up, get stops, win games, end of story.”

"Shut the f**k up, stop f***ing bitching"

Clearly this week is taking its toll on the @Adelaide36ers, listen in as captain Mitch McCarron accused his teammates of 'snitching' in a rant at training today.@[e-mail]/B03iB4VCUg

— Lucas Rinaldo (@LucasRinaldo_) December 8, 2023

McCarron clarified his serve, post training.

“I’m just talking about us as a group, just staying together and not talking about minutes, not talking about who’s playing, who’s not playing, reading in the newspaper and what that means to me,” he said.

“Buy in as a group, buy into the coaching staff, listen to Scott Ninnis and support him. That’s really what the message is about.”

McCarron’s broadside came a day after Ninnis, as he began the tough task of righting a Sixers’ ship that has languished for years, called on every member of the organisation to “take a look in the mirror”.

On Wednesday, at his first official practice session in charge since he was handed the reins in the wake of Bruton’s departure, Ninnis addressed the playing group, along with owner Grant Kelley and chief executive Nic Barbato.

“I told them I wanted them to look in the mirror individually from the playing group to the coaching staff to the support staff, we’re all partly responsible for this (Bruton’s departure),” Ninnis said.

“The response was great, they were vocal, they were communicating well with each other, there was a bit of s**t on their liver.

“Everyone was a bit pissed off, which you should be, but they’ve channelled it in the right direction.

“We did all our testing and catapult measures and our high performance guys said it was basically at game level.

“So, however much you read into that, they were busting their backsides, which I was really pleased about.”

Adelaide 36ers captain Mitch McCarron has given his teammates a serve at training. Picture: 7NEWS

One former coach told Code Sports, as much as it pained him to see someone in the fraternity out of a job, he believed it was the right time for the Sixers to part ways with Bruton. He reasoned Bruton, in the last of a three-season deal, was coaching for his life and would likely turn to his most-experienced and trusted players in favour of young players.

Ninnis, who said he would use a rotation of nine on Saturday night against Cairns, insists the overarching goal is still to win games but he’s also prepared to embrace the club’s younger brigade — and the teething problems that come with that.

It means more opportunity for NBA hopeful Flowers and talented local Marshall.

Many thought this would be Marshall’s year after the 24-year-old dominated the past two NBL1 South seasons. But, for whatever reason, he was never able to crack Bruton’s rotation.

Ninnis, an Adelaide hall-of-famer who won two NBL championships across 233 games with the club, wants to see Marshall follow in his footsteps.

“I look at the big picture with someone like Nick, with my involvement in the club and history of the club,” he said.

“Nick’s an Adelaide boy, I hope he’s playing for the 36ers in 10 years time and is lucky enough to have a career with the 36ers like I did or a Mike McKay or a Brett Maher, have that longevity and success.”

McCarron unleashes. Picture: 7NEWS

The positives of showcasing Flowers are obvious — there’s a prestige in developing a player who becomes a high NBA draft pick, with scouts enamoured with the 18-year-old’s potential.

“I spoke to Trentyn about playing consistent minutes and I’ll wear the mistakes that come with youthful exuberance, which is what he has,” Ninnis said.

“He’s a bit of an x-factor and he gives us size and athleticism and that speed. He’s unique in our group with that, let’s see where we can get him to.”

Ninnis expects those who do fall out of his rotation to handle the disappointment with professionalism.

“There’s a couple of very good players who probably aren’t going to play,” he said.

“The thing that’s important to me is keeping those conversations open.

“I mentioned that to the group: I said ‘Look, if you don’t play, everyone wants to play, I expect you to be pissed off, you’re not a competitor if you’re not, but I also expect you to handle it the right way.

“I expect that they handle themselves like professionals and be good teammates, regardless.

“This has just happened and things can turn around. It can change very quickly, through injury or foul trouble or lack of form or circumstances.

“(Perth coach) John Rillie has shown the blueprint in Perth with the turnaround they had by limiting his rotations and letting that core group of guys know they’re going to play regular, consistent minutes.”

CJ Bruton was sacked after a dismal start to the season.

There was one other speaker following Thursday’s heated session — the legendary Maher, arguably the club’s greatest, whose name adorns the Adelaide Entertainment Centre court.

Maher only spoke to the group for two minutes and he had a simple message Ninnis said hit home.

“People know what he has done, how much the club means to him and they listen to him,” Ninnis said.

“Brett spoke about the expectations from him as a past player, what he wants to see from them.

“He spoke about last weekend’s game (a dismal 59 points against Tasmania). It just wasn’t up to standard. He wants to see a response as a past player.

“Wins and losses — you can’t always guarantee wins, but you should always be able to guarantee effort.

“He would have only spoken for a couple of minutes and that’s all I asked him to do but he just told them to make people proud.

“We left it there with Brett as the last voice they heard.”

Ninnis knows all the talk is cheap — It’s about action, with the unique Taipans arriving Saturday night, having beaten top-of-the-table Melbourne United in Melbourne and denied a chance of knocking off Sydney by the buzzer.

“They’ll be up and about — going into Melbourne and beating them is probably the most difficult thing to do in the NBL,” Ninnis said.

“They run, they’re athletic, they do a lot of different things.

“The focus is on what we want to do and want to accomplish but we’re going to have to make sure we have our skates on to deal with them because they’re going to come in and throw caution to the wind with a crazy style of basketball that you’ll have to match them with.”

The NBL world’s eyes will be focused on Adelaide Entertainment Centre from 7.30pm ACDT, Saturday.