Adelaide's import conundrum

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Jason Cadee stepped up in the absence of a third import, but CJ Bruton has revealed Adelaide is in the hunt for its final piece.

Adelaide head coach CJ Bruton has revealed he plans to meet with senior figures at the 36ers to discuss the potential signing of a new import player.

The 36ers parted ways with Jamaal Franklin prior to the season commencing and suffered two losses from two games in the opening round of the campaign.

After flying out to a 15-0 lead against Brisbane on Friday, the Bullets stormed back to take a 15-point win. A final quarter collapse then saw them lose to Melbourne by eight points.

“There’s been some improvements from the Blitz. The Blitz is to grow, it’s used to get a feel for where everyone’s at, get a feel for the competition and clearly we had more things to go through that just that,” Bruton said post-game.

“I’m happy with where we’ve improved at but we’ve got a long way to go in certain areas. With the group right now if we’re going to win the game next week, we’ve got to clean up some stuff.

“Clearly in this league everyone’s got three imports but it is what it is right now. While I had the pre-season to get that right, I didn’t get that right. We’ll see where we get to this week and beyond.

“Clearly there’s a hole and a need but as a team and as management I’ll talk with them and see what they see as well.”

Jason Cadee marked his return to Adelaide with a pair of solid performances for his new side – after initially having played for the club between 2012 and 2014.

The former NBL Best Sixth Man came off the bench in both outings and was particularly spectacular against Melbourne’s star-studded guard rotation.

He added a team-high 18 points and six assists in almost 28 minutes of action, as the 36ers continue to search for their prime guard rotation.

Cadee says consistent pressure from Bruton allowed him to score the ball more easily against United.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jason Cadee sinks it from downtown ?<br><br>? Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL24?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL24</a> live on ESPN <a href="https://t.co/eQeaMBUgAu">pic.twitter.com/eQeaMBUgAu</a></p>— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ/status/1708329792615948656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I was disappointed with how I played [against Brisbane],” Cadee said. “I wasn’t assertive enough and CJ has been really on me since he signed me about coming in and being aggressive.

“With our group we need someone to step up because we don’t have the three imports, and we’ve had two of our imports out for basically a month of pre-season.

“We’re still trying to find our way and it’s going to be on me a little bit and make plays.

“It doesn’t have to be a hero play, but just to make plays.”

Adelaide face another double-header in Round 2. First they travel to Perth to take on the Wildcats, before heading to Sydney to take on the Kings.