Phoenix coach’s blunt locker room message

Josh King knows NBL27 could slip away from the South East Melbourne Phoenix quickly. The coach says the fix has to start in his players’ heads, not with changes to the roster.

The Brisbane Bullets, playing without an import point guard, carved up the Phoenix for 115 points on Thursday night. King fronted the media afterwards with a blunt assessment of where his 2-5 side stands.

“Scoring 105 points should be enough to win a basketball game but clearly we need to figure some things out defensively,” King said.

“That’s what we’re most concerned and we’re not a good team right now, it doesn’t mean I don’t think we can be a good team and I just told our guys in the locker room we’re not a good basketball team right now.

“It’s my job to figure out how we can become one and that starts with stepping on the floor and believing that you can be, but in this League no one’s going to give it to you.

“We have to fix some things obviously with our team.”

The damage went well beyond the scoreboard. The Bullets racked up 31 assists, grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and shot 56 per cent from the field.

The Phoenix are conceding 95.4 points a game. That rises to 98.6 in their five losses and 109.5 across their past two games, against Melbourne and Brisbane.

King can see exactly what’s going wrong, and he’s backing the current group to fix it.

“We’re going to stick with the guys that are in our locker room, they’re here for a reason and we need everyone more from everybody, everybody’s gotta step up and you gotta take pride in the defensive side of the ball,” King said.

“It’s a pride thing and I think we’ve got guys that can do it, and we have shown in patches this year that we can put together moments where we play together, but it comes down to knowing your assignment and taking pride in your responsibility and your job, and your match up when the game starts.

“We didn’t step on the floor ready to go from the get go and we have to figure some things out, and I’m confident in this group but at some point we have to move forward and get better.”