Why Sobey and Brisbane parted

Brisbane Bullets coach Justin Schueller has opened up on the departure of guard Nathan Sobey, saying the club needs to make tough decisions if it wants to win a championship.

Sobey is reportedly in line to sign with the South East Melbourne Phoenix, despite winning the club’s MVP this season.

“Really this decision wasn’t about Nathan, but how we can continue to move forward as a club and build a true contender which can contain success,” Schueller said on SENQ.

“Nathan’s an outstanding player and been a good servant of the club, but we really felt like we needed to lean more into our culture and our habits that we believe in every single day that are going to get us the ultimate success.

“Collectively we just feel like we needed to continue to lean into bringing winners into the club and how we can continue to grow in that space.”

Brisbane missed the Finals in NBL24, but showed significant improvement under Schueller, recording five more wins than the previous season.

Only percentage cost the Bullets a place in the finals.

Nevertheless, the exit of the All-NBL Second Team star came as a huge surprise after arguably one of the best seasons of his career.

“We can’t shy away from Nathan’s production, but we also know that there’s other area at both ends of the floor we need to improve,” Schueller said.

“The only way we can do that as we move forward is to make the tough call, and that’s the part now that we can do, is go and get the pieces that we absolutely need to know what it’s going to get a championship for this ball club.

“We’re excited about the direction we’re going in.”

Schueller said he looked to the Tasmania JackJumpers for inspiration, knowing what a fine line there is between success and failure.

“We see Tassie go and win the title … we got them twice this season and we dropped one by one shot, so we look at them and know we’re not too far away.

“The frustration of missing out on percentage … we just have to get better. That’s what we’re excited about.”