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The Brisbane Bullets might be the first team knocked out of the hunt for the NBL finals, with two rounds of the regular season remaining, but they continue to fight against the odds and the building blocks are clearly in place for future success.
The Bullets have returned to the NBL this season and a large chunk of their success was always going to depend on the veteran leadership of Adam Gibson and Anthony Petrie, the shooting and big-game experience of Jermaine Beal, and the quality of Olympic and NBA big man Cameron Bairstow.
The fact that Gibson (calf), Petrie (knee) and Bairstow (knee) saw their seasons end prematurely due to injury, then the hired gun in Beal proving more hindrance than help in their absence and subsequently released, meant a playoff appearance was unlikely.
Full credit to the players still taking the court, they were a playoff contender up until Friday night’s tight loss at home to the Sydney Kings, and it wasn’t just their opponents that led to their downfall.
Already with Gibson, Petrie, Bairstow and Beal missing from the line-up, another big man, Mitch Young, fouled out, while young point guard Matt Kenyon suffered the same fate.
It was the fouling out of import swingman Torrey Craig that spelled the end of the Bullets’ playoff hopes though. Having been on the end of a bewildering foul call, he was then given an even more baffling technical that ended his night early in the fourth period.
That all but ended Brisbane’s hopes of winning the game and subsequently meant the Bullets can no longer make the NBL finals this season.
They went on to lose in Cairns on Sunday and now with two road games remaining over the final fortnight, in Perth and Illawarra, the best the Bullets can hope for is to end with a 12-16 record.
That’s not the result that coach Andrej Lemanis or anyone involved in the Bullets were after on return to the NBL. But there is every chance with the benefit of hindsight in a year or two that what Brisbane began to build this season was made for long-term success.
The fact that they have been able to continue to compete and fight, and even thrash Melbourne United just over a week ago, despite being without four of their most important pieces shows that the culture and character in the group is strong.
With Lemanis as coach, Richard Clarke as general manager and veteran leaders Gibson and Petrie returning, along with the quality of Bairstow next season, they have every reason to be expecting big things.
There isn’t the need for great change either. Provide that trio returns, the Bullets will aim to retain import Craig, who has been outstanding as one of the best all-round players in the league. They will look to welcome him back along with Daniel Kickert, Tom Jervis, Young, Reuben TeRangi, Shaun Bruce and Kenyon.
All that leaves Brisbane to do is add the import replacement for Beal. His signing was a sound one after he helped Perth to two titles in his time with the Wildcats, but he just never got going this season and had become a liability after Gibson hurt his calf.
If the Bullets can add a guard the calibre of a Jerome Randle, Bryce Cotton, Casper Ware or Kevin Dillard on top of the pieces they already have, they will be genuine contenders next season, especially considering the heart and spirit they have displayed in adversity this campaign.
Lemanis had a tremendous run coaching the New Zealand Breakers, firstly having to build the club up from a rabble to an NBL powerhouse as he oversaw three championships, before standing down to coach the Australian Boomers.
He was excited by the challenge of helping get the Bullets up and running, he wanted to be involved in a full-time coaching role again and he’s proud of what they have built in a short time.
“Obviously there is no greater honour than coaching your national team and I absolutely loved and enjoyed it. However, the role as it was set up in a full-time capacity meant that I was only coaching about six weeks of the year,” Lemanis said.
“I loved those six weeks but felt that I had the itch to be on court more. The opportunity to come back into the league excited me and the talent level is now unbelievable and the games are good, and the closeness of the league is all fun.
“I’m now just loving being back on the court day to day and for me one of the biggest learnings of the last three years is that I understand now what really makes me happy.
“That is coaching on the court day to day, helping players and working with them through challenges and going through the highs and lows of the emotion of basketball. That’s not only on-court results, but what happens off the court in players’ lives and thinking you might have had some positive influence somewhere.”
Lemanis knew that while talent was important, building up the values and culture was even more so:
“I am a 100 per cent believer in having a values based organisation focusing on what we stand for. Part of that is family and when we first established the club and sat down as a management team, family was one of our values,” Lemanis said.
“When the team did their own, family was one of the values too and there’s no coincidence in that. For me it’s always so much greater than what happens on the court and this is bigger than all of us. It’s having a positive impact on people’s lives in the community but the players as well and their families.
“If people feel welcome and valued, and that includes wives, partners, kids and parents, then that creates an environment that can have some sort of legacy in it. If you don’t care about those things you might have some success, but it’s hard to sustain it.
“If you build something with meaning and that people feel like they belong to and that it has values you are held accountable to, you have a chance of building something with long-term success. You won’t win the championship every year, but you don’t have tremendous lows that you can have without values.”
Round 17 NBL results
Thursday
New Zealand Breakers 81 lost to Cairns Taipans 94 at North Shore Events Centre
Friday
Brisbane Bullets 77 lost to Sydney Kings 80 at Brisbane Convention Centre
Saturday
Illawarra Hawks 95 beat Adelaide 36ers 92 at WIN Entertainment Centre
Perth Wildcats 73 beat Melbourne United 71 at Perth Arena
Sunday
Sydney Kings 84 beat New Zealand Breakers 57 at Qudos Bank Arena
Cairns Taipans 97 beat Brisbane Bullets 83 at Cairns Convention Centre