NBL Great "Shocked" by Duncan Departure

Mid-season coaching changes are a rare occurrence in the NBL, which is why James Duncan’s departure from the Brisbane Bullets has stolen basketball headlines around the country.

With Bullets General Manager of Basketball Sam Mackinnon set to take over interim coaching duties, Duncan’s early release from his contract signifies just the 31^st time in league history a team has cut ties with a coach mid-season, and the first time the Bullets have done so since 2002.

After struggling in both NBL22 and to start NBL23, the Bullets had picked up three wins in their last four games before parting ways with their head coach, and the timing of the shock contract termination has NBL great and former Bullet Derek Rucker scratching his head.

“I don’t think you want to make a move like this at this time of the week before you depart for one of the biggest games of your season,” Rucker said on The Huddle.

“Heading down to New Zealand, not exactly an easy beat now. They’re really tough and I think you need everything going in your favour to be able to compete let alone beat that team down there.

“I’m also shocked the Bullets took priority in replacing the coach over finding that next import spot.

“They let Devondrick Walker go three weeks to the day and they have yet to get a guy in to replace him and bolster this team that obviously isn’t talented enough to compete with the top teams in the competition.

“I don’t know where the blame lies there, if it’s financial reasons, if it’s logistical reasons, [but] that’s where I’m sitting.”

NBL analyst Liam Santamaria agreed with Rucker’s sentiments, however he added he wasn’t expecting Duncan to remain as Brisbane’s coach in NBL24 anyway, barring a huge turnaround in form.

“I’m not surprised we’ve arrived at a place where Brisbane has parted with James Duncan,” Santamaria said.

“They were 10-18 in year one of his tenure there and then loaded up. Aron Baynes, Tyler Johnson, re-signed Nathan Sobey, DJ Mitchell, bringing in a guy who really hasn’t been in Australia for his life but you can play him as a local. Then they start 0-5.

“We’ve been having conversations about who has been the most impressive team and who has been the most underwhelming team, and certainly in the second half of the season the Bullets fell into that second category. From that point I felt like they’re really going to have to turn this around for James to be the coach again next season.

“The surprise is more along the timing especially when after an 0-5 start they didn’t make the move then, then they went three games in a row – now two of them were against the Illawarra Hawks who were struggling – they beat them properly then they went down and beat Tasmania and then they lost to Cairns, so they’ve won three of their last four games.

“You could see some improvement on the floor, meanwhile the CEO heads to the States, meets with ownership and decide the right way to go is to part with James Duncan.”