Busy White building for Brisbane

Isaac White has had a busy last four months.

First, he signed for his hometown club the Adelaide 36ers back in April, ending several years playing for NBL sides interstate.

Then he guided the Rockingham Flames to the top of the NBL1 West ladder as part of a league MVP-winning run.

Now after the Flames’ Preliminary Final exit in Western Australia, the 27-year-old is back home and on the training court with the Sixers.

“It's good,” he smiled after his first session. “It’s a bit tough on the lungs, to be honest.

“The intensity's always a little bit different at this level.

“(There’s) new terminology, new faces (are) always very exciting and, I kind of hit the ground running a bit there, so it was good.”

Originally from Adelaide, White signed with the 36ers in April after spending the NBL25 season with the Brisbane Bullets.

As well as the Bullets, White has NBL experience with Illawarra and Tasmania, and returns home off the back of a brilliant NBL1 season with Rockingham Flames in Western Australia.

White was named the NBL1 West’s MVP after averaging 30.57 points per game to go with six assists and 6.61 rebounds.

While he would have loved to be playing in a Grand Final for the Flames this week, he’s also happy to be home in Adelaide and hitting the court with his new teammates.

“It was fun. I take the NBL1 stuff pretty seriously, like I obviously have a lot of influence over the results, and I take a lot of pride in that,” White said.

“So it’s tough to get knocked out before the Grand Final, but (it was a) pretty successful year.

“I got to play a bunch on and off the ball, which is probably going to help me coming into this role on this team – just doing a bunch of reps, obviously my conditioning's kind of still up in game shape, so that's helpful too, but (I’m) ready for the next challenge.”

White was one of the club’s first signings after coach Mike Wells and General Manager of Basketball Operations Matt Weston settled on a roster and cultural re-set.

At the time he was not aware that the club was to sign five-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton among six new faces.

And he was excited to join the experienced shooter as the pair had their first training session with the 36ers on Monday morning.

“Adelaide always signs talent, (and there’s) obviously no bigger than Bryce,” White said after the session.

“I knew we were going to have some big pieces that we always seem to have (and that) just kind of just builds on the excitement, obviously makes us a contender, but we’ve just got to do the work and earn all of that.

“(Bryce is) just a pro, obviously I haven't seen too much, only a couple of hours, but just a really high level player, and seems like a really good guy too from the 30 seconds of conversation I've had.

“Just his habits, the way he goes about it. I mean, he just got off the plane and he's going 100% too, so it's always good to see.”

Fellow recruits Flynn Cameron and Zylan Cheatham will join the side in the coming days, with fan-favourite Montrezl Harrell still completing playing commitments in the US and expected to arrive in time for the NBL Blitz pre-season tournament in Canberra.

With most of the side now in training together, White is keen to get to work on gelling as a unit and understanding Wells’ structures.

“The Blitz is not the be all and end all but I think we're gonna have, you know, a good week of practice now,” White said.

“It's just important to start building towards the start date of the season.

“Obviously, you want to compete in the Blitz and stuff like that, but it's not a matter of, having everything down. It's just more probably learning our processes and just building from the ground up.

“We'll get there and we'll play hard… but I'm not worried that we don't have everyone in town yet and we're not peaking right now.”

The 36ers will come up against White's former side Brisbane in their season opener on Sunday, 28 September.