Wildcats' weaknesses wavering ahead of NBL24?

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Former South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell has questioned the Perth Wildcats' recruitment ahead of the new season.

For all their offensive firepower last season, the Perth Wildcats exited NBL23 with two clear areas they needed to improve.

Defence and rebounding.

The Wildcats have made sweeping changes to their frontcourt this NBL Free Agency period, with Keanu Pinder, David Okwera, Hyrum Harris and Next Star Alexandre Sarr all coming into the club to beef up their rebounding stocks.

Import pair TaShawn Thomas and Brady Manek have since signed overseas, and the club is reportedly targeting an import big with one of its final roster spots to help in those two crucial areas.

As it stands though, former South East Melbourne head coach Simon Mitchell believes the club’s rebounding prowess has moved backwards heading into NBL24.

“They’ve got a lot of depth, but their rebounding outside of Keanu Pinder is atrocious right now,” Mitchell said on The Marketplace Round Table.

“They were the worst rebounding team amongst the playoff teams last year. They needed to fix that and I don’t know with what they’ve got right now with Wagstaff, Okwera, Harris at the four.

“Liam (Santamaria) intimated there may be an import four coming in, I think they may need more help on the boards from what I see. I’m not going to ask a young player in Sarr coming in to go and sweep the boards, that’s going to be too much.

“Right now I look at it and it’s very similar in the make-up to last year minus some rebounding, and I think that’s a place they needed to improve.”

NBL legend Andrew Gaze did, however, throw up a name he believes could be in the market to head to the Wildcats - Boomers centre Duop Reath.

Since leaving the Illawarra Hawks after NBL22, Reath’s stock in the world of basketball has only grown.

He added a Lebanese Basketball League title to his resume with Al Riyadi – and defeated Jo Lual-Acuil Jr’s Dynamo Lebanon in the finals series, and was a dominant force alongside former Breaker Rayan Rupert with Portland at the recent NBA Summer League.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Todays action at Wildcats HQ ? <br><br>Ft. a few special guests including familiar faces Nick Kay, Duop Reath & Harry Wessels from <a href="https://twitter.com/saintmaryshoops?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@saintmaryshoops</a>! <a href="https://t.co/VHIeYPmUSq">pic.twitter.com/VHIeYPmUSq</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1684469456859455488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Although Reath’s stock is high, Gaze confirmed he had heard rumours the Wildcats were chasing the Olympic bronze winning big’s signature.

“If Duop Reath steps into this team … that’s what I’ve heard, how [do] you work him with Pinder?” Gaze said.

“There’s some coaching issues you’ve got to address, but they’re some nice issues to have.

“You hear little bits and pieces about certain things.”

“He would be an outstanding signing,” Santamaria added on Reath.

“As the roster sits right now, a starting small forward and power forward are still to come into the mix.

“They’re still in the market for a couple of imports. A couple of guys who are going to play big minutes, play important roles for this team.”

The new-look Wildcats will be in action at the upcoming NBL Blitz ahead of their first game of NBL24 against the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday, September 29.

Click here to learn more about the Blitz.