JACKJUMPERS TAKE SHAPE
Team gearing for new NBL season
THE final piece of the JackJumpers puzzle was put in place on Wednesday with American point guard Josh Magette arriving in Hobart after completing his required 14-day quarantine in Sydney.
The JackJumpers are now understood to be the first and only NBL team to have all 15 of its players together and out of quarantine, and eligible to train as a full squad ahead of the NBL season set to start on November 18.
On Friday it will be one year since the JackJumpers brand launched and coach
Scott Roth was thrilled to have his entire squad in the Apple Isle before the team’s one-year birthday.
“We are extremely excited with the work that Simon [Brookhouse] has done to get these players here and to have 15 guys here in Hobart is an amazing feeling,” Roth said.
“The advantage for us is that with having 15 new players you have 15 different guys who have to mesh together and that process is going to take months, and having all of them here in Hobart now is super exciting.”
The coach said he would slowly integrate all his players for team workouts to build towards the season but kept his cards close to his chest when asked about who would start for the new side. “I couldn’t care less about who starts, it’s more about who is going to finish,” Roth said.
One of those fighting to earn a starting spot on the league’s newest team is Canadian import MiKyle McIntosh,
who arrived in the state last week and, like his teammates before him, stated the team’s goal in its debut season was a championship.
“You want to go out there and win a championship which would obviously be a historic thing to do in the team’s first year and it would be an amazing thing, but we are fully capable of doing so,” McIntosh said.
“We are going to go into the season as a new team with a whole state behind us and we just want to go out there and prove to everyone that we should be there and we’re not going to back down from anybody.”
Roth said the 201cm, 109kg McIntosh, who prides himself on his defence, would bring some toughness to his new side. “He’s a no-nonsense guy, he has an edge to him and he’s a competitor with a lot of fight in him,” he said. “I think he’ll give an edge to us.”
The NBL season is set to start on November 18 and Roth said he expected his full 15-man roster would be available.