"He's a lethal shooter. We are still waiting for his game, right?" Adelaide 36ers stand-in coach Marko Marinovic on John Jenkins III. On Nick Rakocevic's foul shooting: "We are working on that every day... He'll be fine." Marinovic named no injured players or timelines.
"So he's 1-0 as a head coach." Bryce Cotton on Marko Marinovic, who coached Adelaide 36ers in place of Trevor Gleeson. Marinovic, "probably first Serbian ever coaching in NBL," likened working with "the best player in Australia" to his time with Nikola Jokic.
"I want them to see sometimes that we're human. We have bad games." Adelaide 36ers' Zylan Cheatham on why he retweets critics who come after him on Twitter, then bounces back to silence them. Early in the season, "a lot of people gave up on us, wrote us off," he said.
Bul Kuol is on track for a return around Christmas, "tracking really well," Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson said. Flynn Cameron is "starting to shoot now" and assessed week to week; Gleeson would love him back the following week but did not commit. No update on Isaac.
"I've coached over 1,000 games in 4 different countries, so I know what happened." Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson stands by his claim that Bryce Cotton was targeted, calling it unnecessary. He asked the referees about it: "I asked and I didn't get a response."
Matt Kenyon's brief from Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson: stay busy. "What I didn't like was just standing behind and standing and watching." Gleeson wants Kenyon cutting, screening and rebounding instead.
"If they can keep up with us, all the better." Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson is embracing playing small after his team shot 50 threes. John Jenkins III took 17 threes. "Maybe he'll get 20 3s this time," Gleeson joked.
"Sometimes people got me marked around their calendar. I'm quiet until you got something to say, and everybody knows how I get down." Bryce Cotton on his late clash with Kendric Davis in Adelaide's win over Sydney. Trevor Gleeson: "no reason for that." He backed Cotton.
Keanu Rasmussen has gone from 2-3 minutes a game to about 25 for the Adelaide 36ers, and Trevor Gleeson says he has "taken that opportunity and run with it." Jacob Rigoni's minutes are up too with players out. Gleeson says he "can shoot, stretch the floor."
Corey Webster debuted for the Adelaide 36ers with only a game-day shootaround behind him after flying in from China. He played more than expected but never found his rhythm. His "first practice, full practice with the team" was 9 October; he expects to ramp up from there.
Adelaide are "down limited bodies," Trevor Gleeson said, after getting "outworked at home." He wants scoring beyond Bryce Cotton and Nick Rakocevic, and on Zylan Cheatham, who rarely looked at the rim: "I don't care if he's open for a 3, shoot the goddamn ball."
"I think I was targeted for that." Adelaide's Trevor Gleeson got a technical from one referee while talking to another about a backhand to the face. He'll again send Scott Butler clips of missed fouls: "when the bright lights come on, something else happens."
Players who got no minutes last season are now Adelaide starters, Nick Rakocevic said, and the veterans must support them. He calls the trip to Sydney, who ended their season last year, personal: "We need to go there and we need to make a stamp."
Isaac Humphries won't need knee surgery, Adelaide's Matt Weston said. He is being eased off before being built back up, with a return weeks away. "It's angry at the moment on him," Weston said; the knee hurts on court and at home, even on stairs.
Nick Rakocevic awaits a league ruling on a disciplinary matter before Adelaide's next game. "I think he'll be available," Matt Weston said, defending the contact: "There was no blood... when you're in the jostling around for rebounds, this happens."
New signing Corey suits up in Adelaide's next game, filling in short-term while Flynn Cameron's ankle heals. Matt Weston puts Cameron 4 to 6 weeks away; he is out of a boot and doing layups. Weston expects Corey's shooting to "help Bryce [Cotton] get a little bit more free."
Flynn Cameron is out for Adelaide, and coach Trevor Gleeson gave no timeline. Keanu Rasmussen has done a good job covering the role, Gleeson said, and he wants Rasmussen and Jacob Rigoni to bring "hustle, deflections, offensive glass."
"Too worried about just dribbling the ball 16 times before the half court." Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson wants a faster tempo, saying his team let the defence set. Ahead of Melbourne, he cited 22% three-point shooting in Wollongong and 20% in the latest game.
"We haven't got that much depth to have our 2 imports down." Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson, on John Jenkins III and Zylan Cheatham. He said Nick Rakocevic, whose early-season role was bringing energy off the bench, has "really stepped up."
No return timeline for Isaac Humphries. Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson said he has missed every game: "we haven't had him all season so far, so 4 games." He said they miss his basketball IQ and rim protection, and are conceding too many points in the paint.
Bryce Cotton got 4 shots and no 3-point attempts in Adelaide's loss to Illawarra, though fouled 3 times on the 3-point line. "That's not good enough," coach Trevor Gleeson said. Teammates firing quick 3s when he's denied doesn't suit a roster without many shooters, he said.
"It looked like a men's team playing against a kids' team out there." Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson on a heavy loss to Illawarra, after conceding 65 first-half points. "Wollongong came and got any shot that they wanted," he said.
Adelaide 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson on losing Flynn Cameron: "Flynn would have been averaging 30-35 minutes a game as our premier point guard." Gleeson still plans to rest Bryce Cotton in games "so he's fresh at the end" but won't sit him if he's scoring heavily.
Adelaide coach Trevor Gleeson rejected the idea the Perth game went wrong because of an offence too focused on Bryce Cotton: "Nah, that wasn't the issue. The issue is how we played." He said toughness, playing together and discipline were missing, and were fixed against Cairns.
Adelaide's Isaac Humphries is being evaluated for what Trevor Gleeson called "an ongoing issue" through his career. No status or timeline; the club will "get second opinions" first. Asked about signing a replacement, Gleeson didn't commit: "find out exactly where we are" first.