Depth, team work the key to Tigers despite star power

DESPITE having a starting five the envy of most in the SBL, it is the Willetton Tigers' depth and their ability to play as a team and sacrifice for one another that coach Steve Black is most excited about entering his first full season in charge.

The Tigers returned to being a genuine contender last year in the SBL despite Alan Black forced to stand down as coach early on as he made the move to Malaysia with his son Steve taking over.

Kyle Armour, Damien Scott and Jay Bowie proved potent in the back court and with good support from Josh Johnson, Nic Cody, Charles Funches, Andrew Black, Lachie Evans and other role players, the Tigers pushed the Joondalup Wolves to three games in a hotly contested semi-final series.

Given how good of a performance that was by Willetton last year to rise up the ladder and be so close to getting to the grand final, there was little reason for Steve Black to look to make too many changes coming into his first full season in charge in 2017.

However, the Tigers have pulled off a massive coup signing the 2015 league MVP Ray Turner when he was with the Perth Redbacks.

The addition of Turner to a starting five of Armour, Scott, Bowie and Cody looks remarkable for Willetton coming into the 2017 season.

But Black is fully aware no team would survive without some depth and it's those role players that has him just excited coming into the new season.

Despite the loss of Johnson to injury, Black can't wait to see the impact that his brother Andrew along with Casey, Michael Collins, Daniel Casey and another new signing Hayden Noordhoek can all have backing up the star-studded starting five.

"We are fortunate that we have some good depth and we have guys who can now play a larger role with Josh's injury. I thought Andrew had a very good year last season and he can get even better," Black said.

"I thought Lachie Evans is a really special young talent and as the year went on we realised just how we can utilise him and I see him having an even bigger role. Even bringing Hayden Noordhoek back, Mikey Collins is a young guy I have faith in and Daniel Casey gave us good minutes last year.

"We are very comfortable with that group and with Mitch Clarke coming back from his knee injury at some point, I think that's going to hopefully be something that helps us to set ourselves apart from some of the other teams who have gotten better. Everyone looks to have improved from a talent perspective so hopefully our depth can set us a little bit apart."

The Tigers were rolling by the second half of last season and they put in a tremendous effort in the semi finals against the Wolves after beating the Stirling Senators in the quarter finals.

Black was happy with what his team delivered last year but knows they need to improve further this year. Finding guys to step up and provide the leadership and production that Johnson provided is going to be a big part in determining how well they end up going in 2017.

"We were really happy with how we performed last year but if we really want to achieve our goals of getting to that next level, we still had to keep in mind that there were improvements that were needed to be made," he said.

"That was certainly our goal at the end of the year to keep predominately the same group together and try to improve that little bit. Losing Josh Johnson for the season was a fairly major blow for us, but that's where we were fortunate for Ray to fall into our lap.

"When I look across our team now, we certainly have enough talent to be a contender. It's just a matter of whether we're able to get some of those things that Josh brought as a leader from other guys stepping up and performing those roles."

Turner had a stunning season with the Redbacks back in 2015 winning the MVP award on the back of averaging 31.2 points and 16.1 rebounds a game. He headed back to the Rockhampton Rockets in Queensland last year before heading to Hungary and now returning to Perth to play in the SBL.

Black wouldn’t expect him to put up the same sort of remarkable numbers he did two years ago with the Redbacks, but he also doesn’t need him to.

What he needs is Turner to be that strong inside presence for the Tigers and to play his role for the team to help them improve on last year. Whatever his numbers turn out to be it won't matter compared to how many wins the team ends up with.

"In all my conversations with Ray, he spoke of winning first and I think he has been fantastic to this point in every situation I've put him in in trying to do whatever the team needs," he said.

"He is a fantastic inside presence and I think we need to utilise that, but at the same time he knows and we have spoken about not wanting to slow our team down to take away from some of the things we have been very successful at.

"For us it's about finding the balance of being able to utilise him within the current format that we play. Ray has been outstanding in that regard and I see that being an evolution as the year goes on of us getting better as a group.

"Whilst his numbers would struggle to be as good as they were during his season with the Redbacks only because that's clearly the pinnacle, I do see him having a major impact with us and I hope that will translate into wins. I feel very confident that he is a winner so that is something he can do for us."

The other exciting part about the Tigers heading into 2017 is just how good a trio that Armour, Bowie and Scott can become in their second year together.

They already proved tremendously potent last year, but now in their second season together there is every chance their chemistry improves further and their production can go up even further as a result.

Black can't wait to see how well they can all perform but firstly it's important to get things as a team back to clicking as well as they were by the end of last season.

"Late in the year last season we found our groove and those three guys are an exceptional trio for us on the perimeter, and there's no reason for that not to be the catalyst for our success," Black said.

"It's about those guys getting more used to each other and everyone getting more comfortable with their roles, and obviously each year is a different beast. We are going to be slightly different to what we were last year, but we are working very hard get comfortable in that space.

"The key is that they are all very unselfish people and at times the only things I really have to talk to them about are trying too hard to keep the other guys happy.

"That shows that they put the team first and it's a very fortunate place to be when you have guys who are just trying to see how they fit in and help us win."

Photo by June Halliday




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