New Bullet set to fire

NBL great and Bullets assistant coach Sam Mackinnon says it is a matter of when – not if – new Brisbane import Lamar Patterson fires on all cylinders.

After his tumultuous “Puppygate” arrival in Australia last week, the former NBA swingman had two points and one rebound in eight minutes on court in Brisbane’s 93-90 win over the 36ers in Adelaide on Sunday.

Patterson had just one training session with his new teammates before his NBL debut and had not played a game for an extended period of time since his high-scoring stint in China came to an end earlier this year.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with the league-leading Wildcats in Perth, Patterson has been doing extra conditioning work on top of team sessions in sweltering conditions at Carina.

Mackinnon expects Patterson to play around 15 minutes against Perth, with his pedigree to fully come to the fore after the FIBA World Cup qualifying window at the end of the month when the NBL takes a week off.

“He just needs to play basketball. You can see he’s really good,” Mackinnon said.

“He’s a good passer, a really good shooter but he is just probably behind on conditioning.”

The Bullets sit third.