NBL23 Review: Adelaide 36ers

With the NBL23 season in the books and Free Agency just around the corner, the time to review the season is now.

From bottom to top, NBL Media will be running through each side’s most recent campaign and assess the good, the bad, the ugly, and the upcoming off-season.

While they finished well clear of Illawarra and Brisbane in the ladder’s bottom two spots, it’s hard to argue there was a more disappointing side in NBL23 than the Adelaide 36ers.

Their historic pre-season win over Phoenix and strong showing against Oklahoma City had people championing them as title contenders. The new import trio of Craig Randall II, Robert Franks and Antonius Cleveland was looking lethal, Mitch McCarron and Daniel Johnson were stuffing the stat sheet, Kai Sotto was set to take a huge leap forward, and Anthony Drmic helping lead the bench unit looked exciting.

Then the wheels fell off.

Randall II departed after just six games, Johnson put in his lowest scoring campaign in almost a decade, and the side lost six of its final eight games of the season to end their campaign with a whimper to not even make the Play-In.

The Good – THAT Pre-Season Win

It may seem like something of a cop out to say the best part of Adelaide’s season wasn’t even during their NBL23 campaign, but so historic was the 36ers’ win over the Phoenix Suns that it can’t be ignored.

Adelaide became the first overseas team to beat NBA opposition since Turkish side Fenerbahce beat the Nets in 2015, and the NBLxNBA victory helped continue to catapult the quality of the NBL onto the world stage.

While it was Robert Franks and Craig Randall II who rightly gained most of the plaudits for the win, the 36ers’ local talent stood up tall too. Daniel Johnson helped steady the ship and calm his side’s nerves early in the first quarter, and Mitch McCarron finished with a monster 16 assists.

The captain finished the game just one rebound shy of a double-double despite only scoring four points for the game.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HIST?RY ?<br><br>Yesterday was like a movie, so we made a mini-movie to mark the occasion and document the <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Adelaide36ers</a> historic win over the Phoenix Suns.<br><br>Next up for the 36ers is the OKC Thunder on Friday! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLxNBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLxNBA</a> <a href="https://t.co/kqyEh1WZOX">pic.twitter.com/kqyEh1WZOX</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1577144412974764032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The victory may have placed what became unrealistic expectations on the 36ers for the bulk of their season, and they came crashing back down to earth with a 25-point home loss to Tasmania in their first regular season fixture of the season, but they wrote themselves into NBL folklore with their historic pre-season victory.

Adelaide's Mitch McCarron defends Phoenix star Devin Booker in the 36ers' pre-season win over the Suns.

The Bad – The Craig Randall II situation

That 35-point masterclass against the Suns was the best it got for Randall II in a 36ers jersey. After an up and down experience in the City of Churches he was out of the league barely one month later after only six regular season appearances.

On the court he was immense in those half dozen games. He was averaging 20.3 points per game on 47.8 per cent shooting from the field, while also connecting with 40 per cent of his three-point attempts and every single free throw.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/chomicide?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@chomicide</a> has gone ??? ?? on Craig Randall II, slamming the outgoing <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Adelaide36ers</a> guard for his attitude during his time at the 36ers ?<br><br>You don&#39;t want to miss tonight&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLOvertime?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLOvertime</a>, dropping at 7:30pm AEDT ??<br><br>More: <a href="https://t.co/leinu2lkc3">https://t.co/leinu2lkc3</a> <a href="https://t.co/ocA1xZq1Yk">pic.twitter.com/ocA1xZq1Yk</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1589827576012632066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

There were reported ripples within the 36ers' camp due to the body language and conduct of Randall II around the group, but the final dealbreaker looks to have been the star guard being told he would come off the bench.  

He has since signed with the Iowa Wolves in the NBA G-League where he’s averaging 22.2 points per game across 18 contests at the time of writing.

The 36ers undoubtedly looked a more cohesive unit with the star scorer gone, but lacked an element of firepower and class down the stretch in a number of tight games.

Former King Ian Clark came in for the final 10 games of the season, and although the NBA champion is a notoriously good team man and a brilliant player in his own right, his inclusion once again muddled with the chemistry and cohesion of the side.

Craig Randall II was among the top scorers in the NBL at the time of his departure.

The Ugly – The poor end to the season

Despite the off-court and chemistry issues that plagued the organisation throughout the course of the NBL23 season, they still gave themselves a strong opportunity to play post-season basketball – before they fumbled the bag in the final few weeks of the season.

The 36ers were in direct competition with Melbourne, Perth and South East Melbourne for the final two spots in the Finals, but they ended their season with just two wins from their last eight games.

If an overtime loss to a ninth-place Brisbane hammered one nail in the coffin, a pair of losses to United and a defeat to Perth unequivocally buried their season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The final day of the regular season is ???? ?<br><br>Three of the four teams in action are fighting for one finals spot. Who goes through, who goes home? ?<br><br>Game one of the day kicks off in ten minutes on 10 Peach and 10 play | Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/vN0NkYsb0v">pic.twitter.com/vN0NkYsb0v</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1622064961349644288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Those final two wins of the season came against the high-flying Sydney and Cairns, and offered an insight into what might have been if much of what had gone wrong over the campaign had gone right.

It all came together in the victory over the Kings. Antonius Cleveland had 23 points and 12 assists, Mitch McCarron stuffed all aspects of the stat-sheet like he does at his best, Ian Clark chipped in with 18 points and Daniel Johnson dominated from the bench.

If they could have consistently put in that type of performance, who knows how their season could have ended up?

The Off-Season – Starting Fresh?

The Adelaide 36ers could be undertaking something of a ground-up rebuild in this NBL off-season.

Key pieces Antonius Cleveland, Sunday Dech and Mitch McCarron all remain under contract – and McCarron has recently denied rumours he was looking to leave the organisation – but aside from that CJ Bruton has plenty of room to play with.

Young prospects Nick Marshall and Kyrin Galloway could both expand their roles in the upcoming season, while rumours are suggesting that club legend Daniel Johnson could be out the door, and the return of Kai Sotto is far from a certainty.

Robert Franks was just an ankle injury away from not even suiting up for the 36ers ahead of the NBL23 campaign but is still no certainty to return, and the likes of Ian Clark and Anthony Drmic look all but certainties to be on the way out.

If Johnson were to leave, NBL24 would represent the first time since 2010 he hasn’t been on the club’s roster.

Only club legends Brett Maher and Mark Davis have played more games for the Adelaide 36ers than Daniel Johnson.

A real changing of the guard could be set to happen if Adelaide does part ways with Johnson, and it will be up to the likes of McCarron and Dech to push themselves to the forefront of the club.