Tatum locking in on Illawarra "nucleus"

A Round 8 win for Illawarra has finally given the embattled club some momentum in NBL24, but the mid-season break has meant there’s it’s still well over a week before the Hawks take to the court once again. 

That momentum is key, any Justin Tatum's team no doubt be desperate to get back on the court.

Under the guidance of the interim coach, the Hawks earned a low-scoring, gritty victory over New Zealand in his first game in charge since taking over from Jacob Jackomas, and while the desire to build on the victory as soon as possible is palpable, Tatum believes perspective is key.

The Hawks’ 69 points against the Breakers is the lowest winning score of the season, and third lowest overall in NBL24.

Tatum says the extra time on the practice court will help him figure out his rotations and offensive sets leading into Round 9.

“We have to start getting adjusted to the style I’m trying to get these guys to play. I think the break is going to be good for us. The win was great to come into the break on, but now we need to dive down because one win is not good enough for us,” Tatum said.

“We are not a 69-point team, once we do some fine-tuning and have a couple of good days of practice to get guys in their spots, I think we’ll have more points than that.

“But with the effort and adversity we had to go through I’m glad we were able to hit free throws and come up with that offensive rebound to help get that win.

“We have 12 talented guys, I can always look at the bench, but these guys need to get a rhythm. As we learn that and learn what their rhythms are … [we want to] just really find our nucleus, our top eight or top nine that is going to really push us through the tough times and help us win games.

"[We're] definitely fine-tuning those top eight or nine guys that are going to play a lot of minutes in our rotation to win games.”

With the broad rotation the Hawks have been running all season, there are opportunities for Illawarra’s entire roster to stake their claim to be part of Tatum’s aforementioned nucleus, and former Sydney King Biwali Bayles’ audition in the win over New Zealand looked strong,

Bayles played a season-high 13 minutes, and both Tatum and star import Gary Clark praised the defensive energy of the guard following the win.

The 21-year-old says fans can expect that type of performance from him, whenever he hits the court.

“I feel like that’s the type of player I am, whether I’m going out there and playing two minutes, or ten minutes, or whatever it is. Each time I come in I’m going to try and give it my all and do my best to help the team win,” Bayles said.

“Whatever that role is and whatever I need to do I’m going to just do whatever it takes to win.

“With this break we’re going to get a lot better and tidy things up but defensively is where we’re going to hang our hats for the rest of the season – there’s a big emphasis on that so I feel like as long as we keep doing that I feel like the offence will come.

“If we can turn this season around and get into that playoff spot. For me that’s all that matters. I don’t have any personal goal in mind yet, except for cracking that spot, which I’m kind of doing.

“As long as we win, that’s all that matters.”