Bryce Cotton opens up on shock switch to Adelaide 36ers

Bryce Cotton says Adelaide’s offer to switch allegiances came "out of the blue", but admits everything fell into place perfectly for his move to the City of Churches.

The five-time MVP and former Perth Wildcat officially joined the 36ers in May, marking one of the most significant Free Agency moves in NBL history.

“It was out of the blue,” Cotton said, speaking to Dejan Vasiljevic on the Straight Shooters Podcast.

“Me and my agent were talking about different offers and different things that may come through in the next coming weeks.

“I was in Puerto Rico and getting ready to go to bed and he [Cotton’s agent] sends me all the bullet points of the proposal Adelaide put together.

“My eyes got so big like a cartoon and I go in and wake my wife up and I was like ‘I think we’re going to go to Adelaide’.

“We started talking it over and it was just a situation we couldn’t pass up.

“You guys came out of the blue, but I’m sure glad you did.”

With several offers on the table, Cotton said the move to Adelaide simply felt right.

Now, he’s gearing up to join a star-studded 36ers lineup featuring Montrezl Harrell, Zylan Cheatham, Isaac Humphries and Vasiljevic.

“When Adelaide came into the picture everything kind of lined up for me as a person and for my family,” Cotton said.

“It helped that Mike has been my coach before when I was at Utah and I’ve played years and years against, so obviously the dynamic of having such a great shooter was very compelling at me.

“I saw how good they were last year and I felt like their style of play, it just resonated for me.”

The 33-year-old delivered one of his most dominant seasons in the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 campaign, putting up a career-high 28.1 points per game in another MVP year.

But he echoed Vasiljevic’s comments earlier in the week, highlighting that “sacrifice” will be key to Adelaide’s success.

“Despite my ability to score the ball, I’ve always been a willing passer,” Cotton added.

“With the attention I get … with the type of shooters we have, especially somebody DJ, I have no problem getting 10 assists to DJ alone.

“Whatever it takes to win … it’s such a cool challenge to be here and we want to help to try to implement a winning culture.

“It comes with sacrifice, it comes with commitment, but the only thing that matters is the bottom line of trying to win ball games.

“I just want to win, however we get it done.”