Roth backs Magnay to keep shooting

It’s the ‘y’ word you don’t mention in sport, but there’s a question that needs to be answered for Tasmania star Will Magnay heading into Round 18 of the NBL24 season. Has the burly center got the yips from the free throw line?

Magnay was at his destructive best in the paint in the JackJumpers’ defeat to New Zealand last week, but hit just five of 14 free throw attempts in the six-point defeat. In the post-game press conference, he said he felt responsible for the loss, due to his inability to connect from the charity stripe.

The JackJumpers open the new round with a clash against Taipans in a game that has been labelled as ‘do-or-die’ for Cairns, and Tasmania head coach Scott Roth has backed Magnay to turn around his free throw fortunes.

“The thing with him is he knows like anyone else, as long as you put in the work and time – which he does after practice and he shoots them quite well – you just have to stay with him and see if he can get to the other side of this” Roth said.

“We’re not asking him to be an 80 or 90 per cent foul shooter. Can he get into the mid-60s and then start to improve at some level? This is not anything more for him, it’s much more mental than mechanical.

“You have to stay with him and when it’s close at the end of games you have to make decisions whether or not to leave him on the floor, but to this point he’s done a great job of creating a lot of fouls for us and allowing us to get to the foul line, which we haven’t been able to do very much.

“Now we have to capitalise on the fouls he creates for us by getting into the bonus early.”

Despite Magnay’s stardom and potential candidacy as the competition’s Best Defensive Player, he’s yet to start a game this season.

Roth has utilised just two starting lineups in the entirety of NBL24, and the five of Jordon Crawford, Milton Doyle, Anthony Drmic, Marcus Lee and Jack McVeigh has hit the court first in 23 of a possible 24 games.

Sean Macdonald started in lieu of Doyle in Tasmania’s only other opening lineup for the campaign.

Roth says Magnay’s all-action, high energy playing style means the center will likely continue to enter proceedings from the bench in the run-in to Finals.

“We’ve had discussions every week about that move, but ultimately Magnay is playing about 20 minutes per game when he’s up and fit and running and not in foul trouble,” Roth said.

“I think starting out the game, Marcus has been relatively good. I think we’ll stay with that formula ... but you never know. They both, at times, deserve to be on the floor more than others, but Magnay, ultimately, is probably a 20-25 minute player when healthy.

“The luxury of having Marcus, who has been playing well in the short minutes he’s been getting, is to have a tag-team of those two.”

One of Tasmania’s other options in the post, Majok Deng, has been sidelined since Round 13 with an ankle injury.

Deng has averaged 7.9 points per game at almost 50 per cent shooting this season, but Roth says an imminent return is unlikely for the former Taipan.

“The only thing I can tell you is he’s not practiced five on five with us yet. Until that happens I probably couldn’t give you a fair estimate, that’s a little bit out of my area,” Roth said.

“As of yesterday he has not played five on five with us yet. We’re hopeful and are keeping our fingers crossed we’ll have him back by the last game of the season, but we’ll see where we’re at.”

The JackJumpers and Taipans clash tonight at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.