Adelaide: 'We're ready'

The Adelaide 36ers are certainly talking the talk ahead of the NBL pre-season. The question remains though, can they walk the walk?

Whether it be veteran forward Daniel Johnson claiming his side is 'stacked at all the positions' or new signing Antonius Cleveland boldly stating 'it's championship or bust' this season, the 36ers are eager to perform. 

Fresh off of leading Australia to gold at the FIBA Asian Games, captain Mitch McCarron is buoyish about Adelaide's chances in NBL23. 

"You need some things to go your way to win a championship. You need health, sometimes you just need a shot to go in at the right time. There’s a lot of things that need to go your way, but at the same time I like the motivation from the group, I like that the guys are ready," McCarron said on The Huddle Podcast.

"We know what’s ahead, and having a couple of guys in the import slots that know what this league is like, that you don’t take nights off if you want to be number one ... every team will beat you if you don’t play well.

"I think we’ve got a group that’s going to go in in the right headspace and we’re definitely looking at it from a perspective of if we’re not in the finals and competing for a championship, then it wasn’t a successful year."

Adelaide has been active in the market this off-season as it looks to round out the roster and improve on last year's disappointing seventh-placed finish.

Not only have they retained key talents in the form of McCarron, Johnson and Sunday Dech, they’ve also added some star-power. 

Reigning Defensive Player of the Year Antonius Cleveland and former Bullet Robert Franks have been brought in to fill the import slots, while veteran Anthony Drmic, and young gun Kyrin Galloway will add new dimensions to the side.

With a pair of roster spots remaining though, McCarron knows exactly the type of teammate he next wants to see through the door. 

"We probably need another guy who can handle the ball a little bit," he said.

"In this league it’s hard to have just one ball dominant guard on the floor. Teams get after you and they take that away. 

"I think we need someone who can help make plays off the dribble. We talked about what we can do defensively, but another offensive guy who can create his own [shot], create for others and beat a press is going to help us.

"I’m not sure if the five spot is locked up, so maybe another big man there depending on how (head coach) CJ [Bruton] wants to go with that. I think protecting the paint is something we struggled to do consistently [last season], just protect the rim at times." 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Money Saving Mitch ?<br><br>Luckily for <a href="https://twitter.com/MitchMcCarron?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MitchMcCarron</a>, he was mic&#39;d up after the Boomers&#39; Asia Cup Gold Medal win and not during it ?<br><br>via <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBAAsiaCup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FIBAAsiaCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/AosqaSwXPf">pic.twitter.com/AosqaSwXPf</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1552812167409197056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>