Wildcats legend: How Perth can reverse trend

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Damian Martin believes any improvement for the Perth Wildcats this season needs to be driven by the playing group.

Wildcats legend Damian Martin has spelled out a road map to the recovery of NBL24 for his former side, and says any turnaround in form must be “player driven, coach facilitated and club supported”.

The Wildcats have started the new season with a 2-5 record to sit eighth on the ladder, and club owner Craig Hutchison has recently come out and publicly supported embattled coach John Rillie through a variety of media appearances.

Martin won six titles as a player with Perth after crossing form the Sydney Spirit in 2009, and believes the current group of players has the ability to turn the season into a success.

“It’s not one person’s fault so where do we start, how can we improve and do we have a roster good enough to win?” Martin said on NBL Now.

“I look at the players they recruited and I was excited coming into the season to see what the Wildcats could do, so I ticked that box – on paper they have enough to do something special this season, and what have they got to do collectively to make sure they all shine?

“That’s not just the coach, that’s everyone from front office, coaching staff, support staff and players. Rob Beveridge, now going back to 2009, used to say the success of a club is when everyone’s on the same page. It should be player driven, coach facilitated, club supported.

“If you can do all of those three things and you’ve got the right players then you can go on to win it all.

“One thing I’ve learned when I was playing is if you win games they credit players, if you lose they blame the coach. One of the things Trevor Gleeson told me was 'when you’re a coach if you start listening to the people in the stands, that’s when you’ll sit next to them'.

“You’ve got to back your game plans at both ends of the court, you’ve got to have confidence in your coaching ability, otherwise once you start second-guessing yourself that’s when there can be real cause for concern.”

Perth has managed to restrict its opponents to under 90 points in three of its last four defeats, however has struggled offensively to put winning scores on the board.

The Wildcats are currently shooting a competition-worst 42.4 per cent from the field, and only the Brisbane Bullets and Adelaide 36ers are averaging fewer points per game this campaign.

They also rank ninth in three-point percentage at 30.5 – however one positive on the offensive end is their league-low 10.5 turnovers per game.

Martin says improved offensive structure is the key to Perth being able to put up a winning score against Adelaide on Saturday night.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"Everyone out there is to blame."<br><br>Derek Rucker believes John Rillie shouldn't be the only Wildcat under the microscope after their 2-5 start to NBL24 ?<br><br>Read more ? <a href="https://t.co/9qbND5eiI6">https://t.co/9qbND5eiI6</a> <a href="https://t.co/uIn3bdcBKE">pic.twitter.com/uIn3bdcBKE</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1719501760837124403?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I want to see an offensive game plan that doesn’t rely on simply giving Bryce Cotton the ball up the top and running a pick and roll,” the six-time Best Defensive Player said.

“I want to see them run – I’m not saying they need to go back to the flex series Trevor Gleeson had – but run some screens away from the ball for Bryce, have some other options so if the first option is taken away players don’t have to stop and think.

“If you stop and think it slows you down and gives the defence time to reset. If option a is taken away, what’s your counter? If that counter is taken away, can you go straight to a second counter?

“If they can do that with the offensive weapons they’ve got like Bryce Cotton, Corey Webster, Jordan Usher, Keanu Pinder, then they should be able to put 92-96 points on the board.

“The frustration by the Red Army showed during the game, it was heard during the game and then the outcry of people saying ‘what’s going on? Do we need to make changes? Can we turn the corner?’, I’ve probably never heard, read or seen as much of it as I have in the last three or four days.

“The Red Army are a massive part of the success the Wildcats are going to have going forward and have been their sixth man for a long period of time. You want them buying into the style of play, you want them to know every player is going to dive on loose balls and be given an opportunity to shine and play to their strengths to exploit the weaknesses.”

The Wildcats host Adelaide at RAC Arena on Saturday, November 4 at 8pm AEDT.