NEW-LOOK BULLETS ARE FULLY LOADED
Photo: John Gass
ENOUGH is enough. No more shooting blanks.
The Brisbane Bullets were once famous for collecting NBL silverware – not wooden spoons.
So back-to-back last-place finishes in their first two seasons back from the wilderness does not sit well with the proud club.
Brisbane was a major player in the free agency period, luring Boomers Cameron Gliddon, Jason Cadee and Matt Hodgson to the Sunshine State along with fivetime championship winner and NBL great Mika Vukona.
Former Chicago Bulls forward and Rio Olympian Cameron Bairstow returned to the Brisbane fold after missing the entire 2017-18 season with a serious knee injury, while 417-game NBA veteran Alonzo Gee was also picked up by the Bullets.
On paper, the squad looked good. But the only time paper wins is over rock. A horror run of injuries and international commitments have all but decimated the pre-season campaign that has featured a string of losses with the squad only getting together as a whole before last month’s NBL Blitz pre-season tournament.
But nobody at the Bullets is in panic mode ahead of their season-opener against New Zealand in Auckland tonight.
“We’ve had some results in the pre-season that we are not happy about,’’ Vukona (pictured) said.
“But we’ve come together as a group with a really tight-knit bond so we all work together on resolving things or changing things that have to be changed.
“I had a lot of confidence about this group when I saw the names on paper a few months ago and I still have confidence in this group.
“The past is the past for the Bullets. This is a new group that is setting a new path.
“Sure, there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way but I’m positive about what we can do. “We’ve got guys who have played in the NBA, guys who have played a lot of international basketball so we go deep in this team.”
Gliddon, who joined the Bullets from Cairns, says teams that take Brisbane lightly could be in for a shock.
“Whether people sleep on us or not, we are going to bring it every game. We have got an awesome package here with a lot of guys than can do a lot of things,’’ he said.
“We are not too concerned about what’s happened in the pre-season. This is a tight group that knows what we can accomplish once we get into the regular season when it really counts.’’
Dual NBL championship winner and 2012 Olympian Adam Gibson is one of the handful of survivors from the past two seasons and is happy with how the club has been overhauled to climb out of the cellar.
“It’s been a massive culture shift,’’ Gibson said.
“We’ve recruited to try and bring the right people with the right skills, to build that winning culture. We want to get back to where we were the last time I was here (2006-07 champions) but it’s a process and it’s going to take some time.
“Someone like Mika Vukona, the way he plays, his leadership and the way he holds people to account is going to be really important for us.
“I don’t know how many games we’ve lost by under five points in the last two seasons but we’ve brought in experienced guys to get the job done.
“It’s such a tough league when you look at the rosters, so a lot of games are going to come down to those last few minutes when you have to be physically and mentally tough to close it out.’’