Wildcats Reveal Roster Priorities

Perth Wildcats General Manager of Basketball Danny Mills says the Wildcats are approaching NBL Free Agency with a desire to recruit emerging, Western Australian-born talent.

Perth has already put its plan into action this off-season by acquiring Derby-born former Cairns star Keanu Pinder, and, more recently, Perth-born David Okwera from Melbourne United.

“We set out to go hard in free agency this offseason. A big priority was one, improving areas of our game defensively, but also definitely adding local talent and bringing them back to Perth. Our first two recruits are exactly that," Mills said.

“Any kid that grows up in Perth and is Western Australian at heart wants to play for the Wildcats. For us I think it just shows proof in our program that we’re heading in the right direction.

“We’re extremely excited that David’s chosen us for the next stage of his career.

“Players believe in the player development that 'JR' [John Rillie] is preaching, and we’re on the right path to rebuilding and getting the Wildcats back to where we all know where they should be - as title contenders every year,” he said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SIGNED ??<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PerthWildcats</a> have continued to bolster their frontcourt stocks heading into NBL24 and have signed out of contract Melbourne United forward David Okwera to a three-year deal.<br><br>Read more: <a href="https://t.co/ABHedWgXHk">https://t.co/ABHedWgXHk</a> <a href="https://t.co/8pc8G0fCRg">pic.twitter.com/8pc8G0fCRg</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1643418571270389760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Official confirmation of Okwera's move west came out on Wednesday while the announcement of Pinder's signing was one of the first to be made in the free agency period - which kicked off on March 30.

Mills says "youth and athleticism" are key factors in the club's recruiting heading into NBL24.

“We know in the last few years we’ve had the number one offence in the league, but obviously it hasn’t got us to the pointy end of the season where we all want to get to,” Mills said.

“So for us improving our youth and athleticism which coincides with rim protections and defensive rebounding, is something that we wanted to do and it’s a strategy we wanted to do from day one.”