Perth Leaders Back Manek: "He Will Figure It Out"

The Perth Wildcats’ leaders have backed Brady Manek to increase his impact, after a challenging first month in the NBL. 

The 24-year-old shot at just 27 per cent from the field across the Wildcats’ two losses in Round 5, and played season-low minutes against South East Melbourne on Friday night.

He started on the bench for Sunday’s game against Melbourne United.

“The kid (Manek) has a great work ethic and he brings it every day, so at some stage he will figure it out,” coach John Rillie said.

“I think he has such high expectations of himself. He performs day in, day out at practice. I go up against him and he performs super well, so I believe in him, I know 'JR' does,” captain Jesse Wagstaff added.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brady Manek hits the SP?T.<br><br>? Watch live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/zJEQEVZCeI">pic.twitter.com/zJEQEVZCeI</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1587023232808329217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Manek was signed by Perth in August, having played his college career at the University of Oklahoma and University of North Carolina.

He played a key role in UNC’s run to the 2022 NCAA championship game.

But the sharpshooter has taken time to find his feet in the NBL, in his first year at the professional level.

“He finished his college career at Carolina at the final four, the pinnacle of collegiate athletics and he played at a very high level in that atmosphere,” Rillie explained.

“Now transferring to the professional level it’s an adjustment for anyone.”

Rillie said Manek’s move to the bench wasn’t a demotion, but aimed at finding the right rhythm for the talented youngster.

“When he first went to Carolina he did the same thing and then he went gangbusters at the end of the season when he got back in the starting rotation,” he said.

“I’m like ‘how can I help him get himself in a rhythm?’.

“Let him see the game and with the second unit he can be more aggressive offensively.

“I’ve got to do my job and help him out.”

Manek had been performing strongly in the early part of the season, with a 14-point, seven-rebound, three-assist, two-steal statline against the Cairns Taipans his best performance yet.

His form in the past fortnight has coincided with a four-game losing streak for the Wildcats, with Rillie conceding there’s plenty of work to be done for his team.

“When you don’t generate anything off your defence, offence can become a struggle for any team,” he said.

“When you want to compare winning a game and losing a game, our activity on defence and our disruption is a big difference-maker.

“We have great patches … we come out in the third quarter (against Melbourne) motivated, together, connected and we were very disruptive. We need to evolve and have greater stretches of that.

“Our offence is generated from our defence and we haven’t been able to do that over the last couple of games.

“The good thing about it is we get Tasmania coming into our place on Thursday, so we can lick our wounds for a minimal amount of time and get after it again.”

Wagstaff echoed the sentiments of his coach.

“We have patches where we look really good and we have patches where we look abysmal. We’ve got to find a way to minimise the lows and push the highs out a bit longer,” he said.

Following the clash against the JackJumpers, Perth takes on Adelaide on Saturday night in enemy territory.