"Best version" still to come for 36ers

The Adelaide 36ers have won three of their last four games, and with a full squad now on deck coach Mike Wells only expects them to keep discovering the best version of themselves.

From the moment the bottom fell out of the 36ers in Melbourne back on November 17 with Montrezl Harrell and Kendric Davis subsequently suspended, all Wells was asking for was his team not to be judged until they were at full strength.

That took longer than he envisioned because just as his two superstar imports returned, his two most experienced NBL players, DJ Vasiljevic and Sunday Dech, were sidelined with hamstring injuries.

The road was certainly rocky with Adelaide losing seven of eight games including three straight 20-plus point defeats, but things have markedly improved the past four matches.

All of a sudden, the Sixers are playing as well as anybody and it started two days after losing to Perth by 24 points, and stunning the Kings in Sydney by 15.

Adelaide backed it up to beat Melbourne at home by 19 points and then looked to have the win in Tasmania locked away on a host of occasions before losing in overtime to the gritty defending champions.

The 36ers then hit back at home on Monday to beat the league-leading Hawks by three points but again, having led late in the first half in 25 and producing a tremendous showing.

It coincided in the first time that Dech, Vasiljevic, Harrell and Davis had all been in a game together since that fateful day in Melbourne.

Wells isn’t surprised that the result was a fourth straight tremendous performance from his team, as they try and force their way into a top six position with a trip to Perth to come on Friday night.

"We have not had that group completely in uniform together since against Melbourne United before we had that situation," Wells said.

"This is the first time we have had our full compliment of roster and you've got to put that into perspective of what this group has been going through with suspensions and injuries. I still don’t think that you've seen the best version of this team."

The 36ers have now beaten the Hawks in all three meetings in NBL25, but more importantly to Wells is that their full squad is together and they can finally find the true version of what they are capable of.

"What we did was we protected home court. It was a huge win for us and our desperation was more than theirs," Wells said.

"This is really the first game of this version with Sunday coming back and he came off the bench tonight. Our roster and where we are at in this point of the season is super exciting. I just think that we haven’t seen the best version of this team.

"I said from the moment I took over that you hope you get one per cent better and hope that at the end of the season you're the best version of yourself.

"I hope that's where we're going and it's been a hell of a ride, I'm not going to lie. There's been a lot with just having different line-ups, guys in and out, but we have found something here in 2025, and we've won three of four."

One aspect that Wells is still finding the best way to handle is how to juggle having three bigs who all deserve to be playing big minutes and who are now all in good form.

Jarell Martin is now in better shape and finding form reminiscent of his championship season at the Kings with 16 points on 6/11 shooting with nine rebounds in the win against Illawarra.

Harrell was an imposing presence again too with 26 points, nine rebounds and three assists, and while Isaac Humphries played the least minutes of the trio, he still had eight points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Wells will continue to work from game to game on which two of the three he'll stick with down the stretch, but he does acknowledge it's a nice problem to have.

"Jarell Martin had a hell of a game tonight and I have a really difficult situation with three really talented bigs," Wells said.

"Ice (Humphries) plays his arse off and does everything you want him to do, he runs the floor, he rolls, he rebounds and in pick-and-roll defence he literally is in the right spot almost every time. 

"He's been a huge reason why we've been super successful against Illawarra, it's Isaac Humphries. But this guy (Martin) was rolling a little bit, Trez had his deal and I just had a little different feel.

"It's a really hard thing because there's three of them and two of them will be on the floor, and one of them on the bench. That's not comfortable for that guy and I totally understand that, and there's all kind of situations."