Bullets Narrow Search for a Star

After a season well below theirs and just about everyone’s expectations, the Brisbane Bullets have rung the changes in the off-season.

A new coach, new assistant coaches and new CEO were just the start, and now Justin Schueller is looking to round out his new roster at the NBA’s Summer League. 

Just four players have returned from the Bullets’ NBL23 squad, Nathan Sobey, Aron Baynes, DJ Mitchell and Tyrell Harrison, easily the least retention of any team across the league, and the search has been far and wide for new talent. 

Isaac White, Mitch Norton, Sam McDaniel and Shannon Scott come with valuable NBL experience, Josh Bannan is a talented addition out of college, and perhaps the biggest x-factor of all comes in the form of 16-year-old Rocco Zikarsky, part of the Next Stars program and a scholarship holder at the NBA Global Academy. 

At 220 centimetres, or 7’3 on the old scale, Zikarsky is already a giant, and his future prospects loom just as large. 

So with many key pieces locked in, what’s next for Brisbane? Well, an import two-way wing looks the perfect fit. 

“We wanted to have a defensive mindset first with local talent and how we went about it, but this one (next signing) is now just about what scoring punch can they give us?,” Schueller said from Las Vegas. 

“Their own creation of the bounce is going to be important to us with to the other personnel we’ve got around them, but that’s basically where we’re going to start …. but we want a two-way player and the other end’s going to matter to us as well.

“We’ve got a good little shopping list going – we’ll sit how many stay after the first couple of days and then we’ll start our interviews and hopefully round this out pretty quick.”

Schueller says bringing in vast experience from across the League will hold the Bullets in good stead, alongside the already star-studded presence of Baynes and Sobey. 

“’Norto’ [Mitch Norton] coming in was a real key for us because we felt confident in the way we could go with the point. We were looking at Shannon [Scott], and what’s the point in keeping looking? He’s exactly what we talk about and exactly what we want. 

“That does give you that confidence to go and just have a, for better use of a word, a little bit more risk in that spot where we could maybe go a little younger because we’ve got an experienced point guard who’s played in the league before. So we just broaden what we can do in that spot.

“I'm looking forward to seeing where it ends up.” 

Schueller said the Bullets were looking to lock in their next import spot over the next week, with Summer League games up until July 18, Australian time, in Las Vegas.

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