Sixers confirm import guard hunt

Adelaide 36ers General Manager of Basketball Operations Matt Weston has confirmed the club will search for an import point guard for its NBL25 roster following the failure to sign hotly pursued local talent Will McDowell-White.

Adelaide was one of the clubs most heavily linked with the former Breakers point guard, with the club looking to expand its core of high-level local talent alongside the contracted Isaac Humphries and DJ Vasiljevic.

The 36ers have already been active in repurposing their roster ahead of the new campaign. Forwards Jacob Wiley, Tohi Smith-Milner and Kyrin Galloway have left the club, as has point guard Mitch McCarron, while Lat Mayen has arrived from Cairns.

Alex Starling recently signed a one-year extension with the side, while reports have emerged that NBL24 NRP Jacob Rigoni has also been offered a deal.

Adelaide's recent fortunes with import guards has been mixed. Former NBL MVP Jerome Randle was a revelation in his two stints for the club between 2015 and 2020, but the club parted ways with Craig Randall II after just six games in NBL23, and terminated Jamaal Franklin's contract before a game was played last season.

Weston says while he was under the impression McDowell-White would continue his NBL career next season, he wished the guard all the best for his European journey.

“I thought he was going to stay in Australia but there was some hint he might be looking overseas when I spoke to his agent. I spoke to him just before he came out with the decision, he rang me on the Sunday night prior and he explained his decision, and I said, ‘it’s a fantastic idea, if that’s what you want to do go and do it’,” Weston said on NBL Now.

“He’s young and can go and do that at this stage. I’d love him in my team, but if this is what he wants to do these opportunities may not come up again and he wanted to tick that box off.

“You’ve always got your plan b – everyone does – and I think the thing was for all people involved in that ‘sweepstakes’ if Will didn’t come, we would be going with an import decision.

“It wasn’t like there was another Aussie we would take instead of Will, it was going to be Will or an import and that will take us down another line.”

Although he’s not a point guard, Nick Marshall is a prodigious talent who has been predicted to make headway in his NBL career over the past two seasons, but the sharpshooter has struggled to make his impact felt on an Adelaide side that has felt in flux for much of his tenure.

Marshall has played a total of 57 games across three seasons for the 36ers, but his numbers regressed slightly in NBL24 when compared to the previous season. The 24-year-old averaged 3.6 points per game this past season and hit just 25 per cent of his three-point attempts.

Weston believes a clearer, more defined role for Marshall will help him have an extensive impact on the 36ers next season.

“Now he’s really had his legs underneath him, it’s time to come and play,” Weston said.

“You’ve got to have a tight rotation, and Brett Brown used to say to me ‘you go eight people, and seven-and-a-half in playoffs. We’ll roll with eight, nine if we’re at a pinch and something happens, and that’s how we’re going to play’.

“It’s now time for him to have some of that continuity and consistency, and this is what the role is. We’re going to have very defined roles, this is what we’re going to be after and what we want to get through.

“Once we have that that’s going to help him understand what he needs to do each game.”