Martin's warning: Cotton ready to shine

The Tasmania JackJumpers picked their poison in their Game 1 defeat to the Perth Wildcats in an attempt to limit Bryce Cotton’s influence on the game, and while they were successful in limiting the four-time MVP to just 15 points, Damian Martin has praised his former teammate in how he was still able to contribute to the win.

Keanu Pinder took the lead in the Wildcats’ victory with 25 points, while just six of Cotton’s points came from open play. He hit 9-10 free throws across the contest and missed all six of his three-point attempts.

Martin says the consistent “disciplined” JackJumpers double-team forced Cotton to find different ways to remain involved on offence, and he did so.

“Credit to Scott Roth and the game plan, and also credit to Bryce Cotton for not forcing anything. You might look at the box score and think he had a quiet night, he shot 0-6 from the three-point line, but he got double-teamed at every single opportunity, which meant somebody else had to step up,” Martin said.

“Usually we see Bryce get double-teamed, and there could be a drop off defensively and he passes the ball to the person that goes on to score and gets credited with an assist, Tassie was so disciplined that not only was the double-team on point, but the first pass out was usually guarded.

“It was the second pass after that which led to the Keanu Pinder open threes, or led to guys diving to the basket, or it led to Hyrum Jarris having space and getting layups. Bryce did what any smart player does when getting double-teamed – get the ball out of there as quickly as possible to find the open man.

“Other players can play selfishly, they might get frustrated and say ‘I’m sick of passing, I’m the leading scorer in this league, I’m going to go and force some opportunities’, but he didn’t do that.”

Cotton could find more joy on offence in Game 2, due to the suspension-enforced absence of starting JackJumpers center Marcus Lee.

Lee accepted a one-game ban for a late-game foul on Jordan Usher in Tasmania’s defeat to Perth on Friday night.

Martin says since it was Lee who was often stepping up to double-team Cotton, the star guard might have more space in Monday’s fixture.

“What he does is he just takes up so much of the keyway as an elite shot-blocker, a lot of the time Bryce Cotton was in that double-team it was Marcus Lee who was coming out to show and stay with him using that 7’5” wingspan to make Bryce make other decisions,” Martin said.

“He’s their starting center, he’s one of their imports, and on the flipside it means Will Magnay – if he’s OK to play, we’re not sure if he’ll pass the medical yet with his foot – with no Marcus Lee will play 30-plus minutes, and to me that’s actually not a bad thing for JackJumpers fans, we saw that a couple of weeks ago and he was absolutely brilliant.

“However, if Magnay is out because of his foot and now Lee is out suspended, I’m not sure who they’ll play in that five spot and look to the Wildcats to try and exploit that because the two elite shot-blockers are taken away.

“[Then it’s] happy days for Bryce Cotton once he gets in the keyway, because nobody is going to block his shot.”

Game 2 of the Playoff Series between Tasmania and Perth will tip off at 7:30pm AEDT on Monday night, live on ESPN via Kayo.