"Knockout punch" won't dampen King's pride

Game 3 didn’t pan out how the South East Melbourne Phoenix hoped, but coach Josh King was still beaming with pride in a playing group that embraced him fully and were within one win of the Championship Series.

The series decider was one to forget with the 30-point loss after trailing by as much as 43, but King coached the Phoenix to 18 wins and just 10 losses after taking over the reins early in the season. 

At the time, they had a 2-6 record and had just parted ways with Mike Kelly with King implementing a game style change that should have everyone at the Phoenix excited moving forward.

"We just got punched early and it was a big knockout punch. I haven’t been a head coach for that long and haven’t ever been involved in a game like that which gets up to that high of a deficit," King said.

"It's a learning experience for me too trying to figure out what to do in a game like that, but the guys kept playing hard and they are a great bunch of guys.

"It wasn’t our best night and it was a bad night to not be at your best with the circumstances that were at stake, but I'm just focusing on the season that we had right now and congratulate the group of guys I got to coach for what we accomplished."

Despite an incredibly tough start to the season, the Phoenix stuck with the same playing group and right from captains Jordan Hunter and Nathan Sobey to imports Joe Wieskamp, Matt Hurt and Derrick Walton Jr, young gun Owen Foxwell and everyone in between, King couldn't be prouder of his squad. 

"Right now it's about this team, this season and the group of guys that were in that locker room that stuck together and supported each other all year long," King said.

"I really appreciate them accepting me and allowing me to coach the way I wanted to coach, and it's not easy to do when you're 0-5 and everybody's talking about how bad you are, and to find a way to get off the mat.

"To then basically have do-or-die game after do-or-die game, it's not easy to do but it was a really fun year once I got here."

King had always been keeping an eye on the NBL from his time in Europe, so has had a vision of a playing style he feels would work. Now he is looking forward to working in the off-season to put that in place for NBL26.

"Once we have some time to take a deep breath, we'll evaluate where we feel we need to pivot and obviously some changes need to be made, but that's every team in the league as well," King said.

"I have a style that I think can be successful in this league, but it'll be a long, throughout out process and very strategic."

While there's still work to be done to digest NBL25 and get ready for NBL26 and his first full season coaching at the Phoenix, there's another priority for King.

After such a whirlwind five months, the immediate focus for King is some much-needed family time with his wife and young daughter.

"My wife has had the toughest part of it and we also have a newborn, or not such a newborn now, and it's been a whirlwind for us all," King said.

"I think now once the season's over you can go home and take a bit of a deep breath, but you can't relax too much because there's still a lot of work that needs to be done for next season.

"I'm excited to get to take a deep breath once we get back to Melbourne and I wouldn’t say relax, but a deep breath will be nice."