Travers' Time up in Perth?

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Perth Wildcats’ Luke Travers may be outgrowing his Wildcats family, as NBL analyst Liam Santamaria said “it’s time for him to spread his wings”.

Perth's Luke Travers may be outgrowing his Wildcats family according to Liam Santamaria, who says “it’s time for him to spread his wings”.

Travers began his journey with the Wildcats in 2019, and was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 56th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

“Maybe it is time for him to spread his wings,” Santamaria said on NBL Overtime.

“Look at maybe a move somewhere else, a change of scenery, a chance to be in a different system with a different coach with some different teammates.”

Santamaria urged the Perth young gun to explore his options, but feels there's still a strong chance the 21-year-old continues with Perth.

“Or is he going to make the decision to say, no I’m sticking with John Rillie, the Wildcats have been awesome for me and I can grow organically within this system,” Santamaria said.

“It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

Travers has caught the attention of many in the league this season with his much improved three-point shot - particularly in the latter half of the season.

Travers averaged 9.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3 assists and a shooting goal percentage of 50% from the field.

Santamaria added a decision needs to be made as to whether Travers remains as a traditional forward, or evolves into a more modern day, all-round player.

“So he needs to make a decision more of a basketball perspective, who’s going to play me as the point-forward and give me opportunities to get triple-doubles.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Your team’s free agents ??<br><br>A star-studded list of free agents will be up for grabs from Thursday, March 30 at 9am AEDT, when free agency opens in the Hungry Jack’s NBL.<br><br>Read more: <a href="https://t.co/vynNYI3ccM">https://t.co/vynNYI3ccM</a> <a href="https://t.co/qpGtEIHavz">pic.twitter.com/qpGtEIHavz</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1640475205347975168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2010 NBL MVP Corey Williams was more adamant about Travers' immediate future.

“I think Travers is out of there,” Williams said.

“A bunch of teams will take him, I think he is done in Perth.”

Travers' signature looms as one of the highest-priority signings for teams across the NBL this off-season.

NBL Free Agency opens on Thursday, March 30.