The DP 'Next Star' setting a new NBL blueprint

It's fair to say we’ve never seen an NBL development player perform like Sean Macdonald in NBL24.

While the JackJumpers guard is set to become a fully-rostered player next season, Scott Roth’s ‘Next Star’ pulled together a historic campaign for the eventual NBL champions.

Macdonald role within Roth’s rotation has increased exponentially in his three years at the club. In the JackJumpers’ inaugural season he appeared just eight times and scored four total points. Then, in NBL23, he competed with the likes of Isaac White, Sam McDaniel and Jarrad Weeks for minutes, but threw down the gauntlet when import guard Josh Magette was sidelined with an eye injury.

NBL24 saw Macdonald take himself to new heights though. He took part in every single one of Tasmania’s games across the campaign and established himself as Roth’s first choice guard off the bench.

In fact, his contributions off the bench were so exceptional that he found himself nominated for the NBL’s Best Sixth Man award, alongside fellow JackJumper Will Magnay, and eventual winner Ian Clark.

Even outside of his eventual Most Improved Player recognition and NBL title, Macdonald’s conversion into a fully rostered player in NBL25 has capped off an incredible rise within both the JackJumpers organisation and the NBL landscape, and he told NBL Media he hopes his path can become blueprint for future development players to make their mark.

“I hope people who are in the same position I was a couple of years ago can take inspiration,” Macdonald said. “Obviously there’s a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes. I’ve done heaps and heaps of work with our assistant coaches, which I have to give them a lot of credit for. 

“Jack Fleming was huge for me in my first year with Tassie when I wasn’t playing or traveling, just getting workouts every day, making sure I was in a good mindset and just focused on developing, not so worried on the results but just getting a little bit better each and every day.

“I think that’s the blueprint for development players, that’s what you want to do. There shouldn’t be any expectations of needing to play or needing to play instantly. It’s just about getting that little bit better and when you get that opportunity just being ready for it.

“Then if you show out, you’ll continue to get opportunities.”

As the sport of basketball becomes more and more global, more development pathways will open up for players. There’s the traditional collegiate route that still seems most popular, there’s Macdonald’s development player route, and there’s an emerging group of players who are electing to take their talents overseas before returning to Australia.

While Macdonald is perhaps the greatest new era example of a DP taking their chance after extensive investment by a club, Chris Goulding is perhaps the best ever NBL player to have run that path in the 21^st century.

Goulding started his career as a development player for the Brisbane Bullets in their 2008 title-winning side. He then took his talents to Perth and the Gold Coast before finding his home in Melbourne.

It was almost fitting then that in Game 5 of the Championship Series, when Macdonald was injected into Tasmania’s starting lineup in the biggest game of the season, that it should come in an attempt to quieten the injured Melbourne superstar.

“I found out I was starting the day before when we were at the airport about to travel to Melbourne,” Macdonald reflected.

“When I went over and said hello to Scott he said ‘how do you feel about starting tomorrow?’, and I was like ‘sick, that sounds cool’.

“I think his mindset was we knew Chris Goulding was carrying a little calf niggle and we wanted to go at him a little bit and test him out, and having another ball handler on the court was able to free up JC (Jordon Crawford), who obviously went crazy in the first quarter.

“I guess that was the mindset going in, and then trying to wear some of their guards down from the initial jump.”

Now, though, Macdonald has been afforded the time to take a breather before he embarks on his NBL1 North campaign with the Darwin Salties.

Darwin has pulled together an NBL-laden line-up that will see Macdonald team up with Sydney’s Kouat Noi and Makuach Maluach, and Illawarra’s Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, however it’s still two weeks until the Tasmania star links up with the side.

He’s since come back home to Melbourne, where he initially started his basketball journey, and he’s finally had time to reflect on the monumental achievement his club pulled off in NBL24.

“I got to Melbourne on Monday morning and when I had some time alone that’s the first time I’d let it sink in and think ‘wow, we actually just did that’,” he said.

“Straight after the game there’s lots of celebrating and getting together with family so you don’t really have too much time on your own. It’s all kind of celebrating with the team and family members and stuff like that.

“It wasn’t until I was alone with my own thoughts that I was like ‘wow, that actually happened’.”