Opportunity Knocks for Young Star Travers

A change of scenery for emerging powerhouse Luke Travers could prove to be the decisive factor on his rise to stardom in NBL24.

Having played the entirety of his basketball career in his home state of Western Australia - outside of an NBA Summer League stint with Cleveland - the 21-year-old guard is about to embark on a basketball journey outside of Perth in the hopes of becoming one of the next big stars of Australian basketball.

He says stepping out of his comfort zone was a key factor in his move east.

“My goal is to get to the NBA, so I needed a little bit more opportunity,” Travers said on the ‘FatChat by Body Majic’ podcast.

“I’m also looking forward to be able to live in a new city and a change of scenery.

“I feel like sometimes you might get too comfortable with living at home and having family and friends around. To be able to get out of that comfort zone and move over there to focus on basketball for a little while is something that I needed,” he said.

Like any other young aspirational athlete, Travers’ main goal is to reach the pinnacle of his chosen sport. In his case, the NBA.

Travers was recruited to the Cleveland Cavaliers as the 56^th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. In the 2022-23 NBL preseason, the young guard flew to Cleveland to work out with the side and take part in the Summer League.

Travers says his previous experiences in Cleveland opened his eyes to a new type of on-court mentality.

“Going over there I was getting up shots, I want to say at least 500 shots a day," he said. Whether it was shooting in the morning or a bit of skill work, and then coming back later in the afternoon and getting more shots up.

“It was just a shift in mentality, I wasn’t second guessing my shots, I wasn’t thinking am I open or am I getting closed out. I was just shooting them with confidence.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One of our newest NBL24 recruits, <a href="https://twitter.com/luke_travers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@luke_travers</a> stopped by MU HQ to meet the squad and get to know his new city a bit better.<br>Take a look at his first day and hear from him &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/DeanVickerman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeanVickerman</a><br> <br>Full interviews with Luke &amp; Dean are available via our website and YouTube. <a href="https://t.co/opTaggtePa">pic.twitter.com/opTaggtePa</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1654350255805313025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After shooting fewer than one three-pointer per game in NBL21 - his first full season with the Wildcats - Travers has placed a focus on improving his shooting from range.

In NBL22 he averaged 2.5 attempts from distance per game, but hit just 25 per cent of those shots. Last season he put up almost three threes per contest at a clip of over 40 per cent.

“That’s something that I want to keep doing," he said of his long-range shooting. It might not be as good next year, hopefully the volume is up a little bit more.

“It was about two and a half attempts [per game last season] which is not too bad, but I want to get that up as well.

“I still will try to keep it up at about 35% but that is definitely a goal of mine.”

Travers will make his debut with Melbourne United on Thursday, September 28 in their first throwdown match against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.