Bullets out to break the drought

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

The Brisbane Bullets are aiming to break their NBL Finals drought in NBL26, with head coach Stu Lash leading a top-four push backed by a revamped roster including Jaylen Adams.

Brisbane head coach Stu Lash says the Bullets are laying the foundations for long-term success, with their sights firmly set on being a top-four contender every season.

That’s welcome news for Brisbane fans, who haven’t seen their team reach the Finals since 2019, with the Bullets finishing no higher than seventh in each of the past four seasons.

Lash says there’s been a strong focus behind the scenes on improving the club’s culture and competing with the League’s top-tier teams.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position now where the goal realistically is to compete for a top four spot every year,” he told basketball.com.au.

“That’s how the top teams in this league work … Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, they put themselves in a position to be consistently competitive.

“You can’t skip steps.

"There’s things that we’ve done over the last couple of years off the basketball court that I think have put us in a position to be at the table with big players.”

After joining the club in 2023 as Senior Basketball Advisor, Lash officially took over as head coach in April.

Since then, he and his staff have moved quickly to assemble a roster that stacks up as one of Brisbane’s strongest in recent memory.

The Bullets have landed a proven scorer in Javon Freeman-Liberty, who impressed in the G League last season, added NBA champion and rising Aussie talent Alex Ducas, and secured the signature of NBL22 MVP Jaylen Adams.

“For Jaylen, that guy’s a closer,” Lash said.

“We go back and we look at our games from last year, we had a hard time finishing games … so to have somebody like Jaylen come in … he’s shown the ability to do that.

“He’s played against us. He knows our personnel. He knows our players. He knows the style of the league, the pace, the whistle, all the things that sometimes can take a while to learn.

“We need Jaylen, but I think Jaylen needs us … he’s coming in with a mindset of, ‘I’m an MVP of this league and I want to do something with this franchise that hasn’t been done for a while’.”

Tyrell Harrison and Casey Prather are back after standout NBL25 campaigns, while Sam McDaniel adds a fresh spark following his recovery from a shoulder injury.

The pieces are coming together for what shapes as an exciting new chapter for the Bullets.

“If you’re doing things and building the right way with the right people, you get a little bit of luck and a little bit of love from the health gods, then you’re in the fight ... and once you’re in the fight, anything can happen,” Lash said.