Henry backs three-man leadership group as captains

The Adelaide 36ers have three standout, experienced and quality leaders in this squad for the 2021 NBL season and coach Conner Henry thought the right way to go about the leadership for his first year in charge was for the trio to share in the captaincy.

Captaincy of any club for any season is always one of the most important and high profile positions, and with the 36ers having three genuine candidates for the role for the 2021 NBL campaign, what soon became obvious was that it would be best to back all three of them in.

Daniel Johnson and Brendan Teys have both captained the Adelaide 36ers previously while Daniel Dillon is entering his second season at the Sixers as an experienced and seasoned professional, and NBL champion.

That meant that all three men had a strong case to be the captain of the 36ers for the 2021 season, but rather than appoint one and potentially get the other two offside, coach Henry and his assistant Jamie Pearlman in conjunction with club management went for the approach of empowering each of the trio.

Henry couldn’t have been more impressed in recent months during the longest pre-season of training imaginable with the leadership shown by each of Johnson, Teys and Dillon, and as a result is delighted to announce each will share the captaincy role for the 2021 NBL season.

"I think our leadership group with DJ, Brendan and Dan are showing the way and I've turned that over to the vets," Henry announced during appearance on Sixers Fix with Scott Ninnis.

"They've made a very good impression on the boys, they communicate and talk, they are fighting through the tough parts of practice and showing the way. 

"Those three guys will be our leadership group which means that if we want to roll out DJ for the tip that night then he's the captain. If we want to do Dillon or Brendan then they'll be the captain. 

"There'll always be one of those guys on the floor at most times to be able to address the officials, and we just feel like for this first year with this group and being as young as they are that it would be the best way to go with our leadership. So far they've been great and our group has been coming together nicely."

The way the three-man leadership will work is that Johnson, Dillon and Teys will rotate being the captain during games throughout the season, meaning they'll share the roles of leading the team out onto the court and being the representative in the centre for the coin toss.

One great positive Henry sees is the likelihood that at least one of the captains will always be on the court at any given time with each of them now experienced NBL players capable of providing leadership, direction and production all at the same time.

Johnson already has built a career that has him an all-time great as a five-time Adelaide 36ers MVP winner during a career that has now spanned 323 matches, of which 275 have been with the Sixers.

He is coming off another brilliant 2019/20 season where he delivered 18.1 points and 8.3 rebounds a game continuing to be one of very best big men in the league for his consistency, shot making for someone his size and rebounding.

He showed his commitment to Adelaide and the 36ers by re-signing this off-season for a further three seasons and there's every reason to be excited by what he's going to provide this coming season in a frontcourt alongside Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder.

Teys is another man who has previously captained the 36ers in his own right and he was also co-captain a season ago so he seamlessly continues on with his leadership role.

He has now put together a tremendous career made up of 236 games in the NBL with 201 of those having now been played with the Sixers, and his combination of ball handling, shooting and defence on top of his leadership make him a crucial and valuable member of the 36ers organisation.

Dillon might only be entering his second season in Adelaide but he is a seasoned professional now who will bring up his 100-game NBL milestone three matches into the 2021 season.

On the back of four years at the University of Arizona, Dillon's time in the NBL began with winning a championship with the South Dragons in 2008.

He has since played with the Cairns Taipans, Melbourne Tigers and Melbourne United along with stints overseas in Romania, Poland, Japan and France, but returned to the NBL with he 36ers last season and now assumes the leadership role and will form an important part of the backcourt.