Bullets Eye Culture Shift

By Dan Woods - NBL Media

The Brisbane Bullets have undergone a drastic roster change this off-season, but it’s not just on-court improvements that head coach James Duncan is looking to see results in this season.

As he heads into his second season in charge of the Bullets, Duncan is seeking to implement a culture shift within his side. A shift that the acquisition of key NBA veterans Aron Baynes and Tyler Johnson will help push.

“To be honest with you, I was coaching effort last year,” Duncan told The Huddle. “I hate to say it but that’s the reality of it and to this point and it’s early days, for the last four or five weeks I haven’t had to coach effort. It’s unbelievable how these guys are after it in the weight room, on court, post recovery, they attack that every single day and that’s what we’re about.

“Our standards are going up obviously. When you add an Aron Baynes to the group, his quality stands for itself on the court but off the court it’s been interesting because he wants to do things the right way. He’ll say that, he’ll do it, and if you have a problem with it ‘let’s go outside’ in terms of you have to take what he says very seriously and he really believes in doing everything the right way.

“We’re not taking shortcuts. You’re either on board or I don’t want you here. Go kick rocks, I don’t want to deal with that and we’ll move onto somebody else that believes in what I’m trying to do.”

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A key man in leading this shift is Tyler Johnson. The pedigree with which he comes into the NBL is perhaps only rivalled by his new teammate in Baynes.

The introduction of Johnson into the Bullets’ program has been a slow burn so far. With his last professional minutes coming off the back of a ten-day contract with San Antonio in early January, he hasn’t been afforded much opportunity to hit the court in 2022.

Duncan says despite Johnson missing his team’s first two pre-season contests, he’s already setting a good standard in training.

“I think it was two practices in and he (Johnson) might not have had the best practice,” Duncan said.

“We huddled up afterwards and he put up his hand and said ‘I wasn’t good enough. I need to be better. I’m letting you guys know I’m going to be better tomorrow and you can count on that’. He was that guy we didn’t have so much of last season.

“You have Tyler putting up his hand saying ‘I need to be better’, you have Baynes putting his hand up saying 'I need to be better', you have Cadee putting up his hand … we have a whole bunch of guys now putting up their hands rather than pointing the finger at other people.

“Other guys recognise that and look at themselves in the mirror and realise we all need to be better. It’s a trickle-down effect.”

After two wins over United to open pre-season, that culture shift certainly looks to be taking hold in south-east Queensland.

While Melbourne also made a number of forced changes to their roster heading into NBL23, a championship and semi-final run in their last two seasons have them as one of the teams with a target on their back in the upcoming season.

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Duncan says he’ll be looking at the teams with runs on the board for inspiration.

“We want what a lot of teams in this NBL comp have in terms of defensive identity, standard of character, just a work-like way of doing things,” he said.

“That’s all that I’m thinking about. How are we going to put ourselves in a position to get what these other team have.

“The last three seasons who have been the best teams in the comp? The best defensive rated teams. They’re always the ones that are making finals. If you can’t understand that as a coach and as a player then go kick rocks.

“This is what we’re about. Jump on board and lets have a crack at it. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not supposed to be easy.”