Prather promises best is yet to come

Casey Prather had what could very well have been his best ever NBL season with the Brisbane Bullets, but he feels he is only just getting warmed up now that he's got full trust in his body once again.

When Prather joined the Bullets 13 months ago, he was a three-time NBL champion but had also not played in two and-a-half years, and there were no guarantees he would get back to the level he was at before the debilitating knee injuries.

The last full season he played he was the MVP in Israel so his credentials couldn’t be questioned. If you now fast forward 13 months, Prather could very well have just completed the best of his four seasons in the NBL.

That's quite a feat given everything he's been through and he might not be quite the unstoppable explosive athlete of the past. But he's unstoppable in different ways now as a crafty and knockdown shooter, and creator with a lethal mid-range game, and still has flashes of that explosiveness.

The numbers back it up too with him putting up 21.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists this season with the Bullets on the back of shooting 47.3 per cent from the field, 39.9 per cent from three-point range and 74.0 per cent at the foul line.

His points per game, three-point percentage, rebounds and then his 31.3 minutes are all the best he's produced in the NBL, and stack up well with his MVP season in Israel with Hapoel Eliat where he had 22.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

Prather has sent an ominous warning that now that he's proven to himself he can get through a season, he's got plenty more improvement left in him.

"To be honest, y'all haven’t really seen nothing yet," Prather said.

"I did have a pretty good season I guess individually, but I still have more to go to be honest. I'm excited about showcasing that, there's more to come.

"The confidence has built now, I know what I can and what I should be doing, and now it's just about adding to the game and adding to the success that I've had."

Prather deserves to be proud of the level he was able to perform at personally in NBL25, but as a three-time championship winner, it's team success he rates above everything else.

He has no doubt this Bullets team could have at least reached the top six had it not been a horror run that ended up in season-ending injuries to Sam McDaniel, Jarred Bairstow, James Batemon, Tyrell Harrison, Deng Adel, Rocco Zikarsky, Josh Bannan and Emmett Naar.

While that means Prather and the Bullets are frustrated with what might have been, he's also proud of the group he continued to go to war with night after night who kept on fighting to the end including producing a stunning upset in Adelaide last Friday.

"I'm extremely proud and it had been a long two years before I got here, but to be honest I'm more proud about the team and the guys who are in the locker room besides me," Prather said.

"We could have easily folded but we handled adversity well and that's a great making of a great team.

"I think there's an opportunity for us to build on and I'm happy to contribute as much as I can and I think it's going to be great for the team in the long run."

Now that it's a fully healthy and mighty impressive Prather who finishes NBL25, he is sure to attract plenty of offers from rival clubs and all around the world.

There's a lot to play out to see where he ends up signing, but there's no doubt the Bullets have a lot to offer to sway him both on the court and with the way Prather, his wife Ariana and their young son have enjoyed living in Brisbane.

"Yeah absolutely, I love the team and I love the culture that we are building here," Prather said.

"My wife and my son, I love seeing them thriving in Brisbane too. I love the culture and let's see what's going to happen."