Finding Identity - Cadee Maps Brisbane Recovery

If the Brisbane Bullets weren’t a team in crisis before Wednesday night’s clash with a red-hot Sydney Kings side, they certainly are now. A “deflating” 49-point loss has left the side reeling re-assessing where it’s at in the context of the season.

The Bullets opened the game in a positive manner and found themselves just three points behind at quarter time, but they were outscored 92-46 in a dominant final three quarters from the Kings.

Only Tyler Johnson and Nathan Sobey finished the game with double-digit scoring for Brisbane, while Gorjok Gak was the only player to take more than two shots and shoot over 50 per cent from the field.

Veteran guard Jason Cadee says his side needs to find its identity, and quick.

“We’re trying to find who we are and what we are, and right now we have no idea,” Cadee said post-game.

“Sometimes I ask myself ‘how did we get here?’ There’s a lot that’s gone on and you’re trying to find positives … I’m trying to seek answers, I’m trying to help fix things, I’m talking to ‘Vandy’ (Greg Vanderjagt) and we’re trying to work through stuff.

“It just goes from one point in the game where it goes from being a two or three point game and we’re right in amongst it, and it goes to 15 in the space of two minutes and now you’re trying to claw your way back. We’re not good enough at the moment to be able to give up leads like that and find our way back in it.

“You look at Sydney tonight, they’ve got their stuff figured out. They know who they are, they know where there at, they know who to go to.

“We owe the people that show up. We owe them a better performance than tonight. How do we do that? We have to keep working hard.”

The instability of Brisbane’s NBL23 campaign has been well-documented over the course of the season.

Greg Vanderjagt is the third head coach the team has had in this season alone after the departure of James Duncan and the stepping aside of Sam Mackinnon.

“We just haven’t had the stability to find ways to just know who we are. We haven’t had it and we’re trying to find it, and as we try to find it it’s not coming off in the right way,” Cadee said.

“I don’t think we have selfish people, we have great guys around the group, but we’re trying to find our way at the back end of a season when people know who they are and I think it’s coming off in the worst possible way right now.

“It’s not through a lack of effort or a lack of care … I care about this place and the singlet I play in so it’s deflating and disappointing.”

The loss has resigned Brisbane to a 5-16 record for the season, good enough for only second-bottom on the ladder despite entering the campaign as one of the most highly thought of title-fancies.

Despite the team’s struggles Bullets fans have continued to provide strong support to the side, and over 4000 packed into Nissan Arena for last night’s heavy defeat.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">67 - 116 ?<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> dominate with a massive 49-point victory over the <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrisbaneBullets</a> which is the biggest winning margin of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <br><br>The Foot Locker Player of the Game honours go to Xavier Cooks who had an impressive 20 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds ? <a href="https://t.co/1oKTKp9J5s">pic.twitter.com/1oKTKp9J5s</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1613120071446167552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“You lose by 49 in front of a really good crowd of over 4000 here. They’re good, they’re loud, they’re energetic,” head coach Greg Vanderjagt said.

“We have to repay the faith at some point in time by putting together a 40-minute performance, not just ten minutes.

“Any time you lose it hurts, to lose by 49 hurts a lot. The reality is we have to turn it around.”

“There’s just moments where we have to find collective buy-in, and it’s got to be on the five guys on the floor at that time in moments to seize moments, show up with some confidence and find some ability to give each other confidence,” Cadee added.

“There are some things we have to do collectively to empower each other.”

The Bullets continue their campaign on Saturday evening against Melbourne United.