Cleveland making his mark early

It's only taken two games for boom off-season recruit Antonius Cleveland to show why Adelaide 36ers head coach CJ Bruton wanted his signature so badly for NBL23.

The reigning NBL Defensive Player of the Year has sparked his new team after a sluggish starts against South East Melbourne and Tasmania and Bruton has got nothing but admiration for his 198cm swingman, who has dominated the opening stanzas in both games.

“He’s amazing right, he’s the Defensive Player of the Year for a reason, just his ability to change a game and flip it on its head is just his effort levels, his length and size and he leads by example,” Bruton said.

Swingman Sunday Dech was in awe of Cleveland's performance against Tasmania, a game-high 27 points, which included 19 in the first quarter.

"It was unbelievable, people haven’t seen him yet, AC can flick the switch and definitely turned it on from the get go," Dech said.

"The offense we play allows AC to be himself, he gets into passing lanes, he’s up and down the court and his ability to shoot the ball was huge."

Bruton had some anxious moments early in the win over South East Melbourne, when his star man fell to the floor early on clutching his knee.

“It was like please, please no. I changed a few players on the roster to add depth but when you have elite players and to see that, I was about to stop him from playing altogether just to make sure he’s OK,” Bruton said.

“But he said ‘coach, I’m good’, so I believe his word and he was ready to roll and he showed right there we need him and he is going to be really good in this league again.”

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