'We are excited the season is here': Bruton

Adelaide 36ers head coach CJ Bruton has faith in his current roster ahead of the NBL24 season opening weekend which starts in Brisbane on Friday night.

Bruton will have the full complement of his current roster for the first time this season when the 36ers run out onto Nissan Arena against the Bullets.

“Pre-season is over, and it’s been a journey in itself, incorporating everyone from new staff members to new players, but definitely excited the season is finally here,” Bruton said.

The club and import guard Jamaal Franklin agreed to mutually part ways earlier this week and Bruton said the club must move forward.

“I just think with the group that we have got; we made the early call and we have the chance of finding that player,” Bruton said.

“It wasn’t ideal at this part of the year, and you can look at it in many different ways, but I think we have got a talented group right now and we can still win games in the NBL.

“We were so much out of place at the Blitz and we didn’t have all of our pieces on display.”

Import duo Trey Kell and Jacob Wiley will play against the Bullets and Bruton said the club played the long game so both of his gamebreakers were at 100 per cent for the season opener.

“Everyone is fit and firing and ready to go. We knew going to the Blitz Trey Kell was out and (Jacob) Wiley was managing his way back to full fitness,” Bruton said.

“We weren’t going to run the risk of playing those guys with the season starting so close after the Blitz.

“We wanted those guys to be ready and jumping out of their skin come Friday night.”

Bruton said this pre-season has had a different approach with the focus on making a strong start to the regular season and not being in the position of playing catch-up.

“We want to compete in the games that are meaningful, and we were going through a new pre-season with (Head of High Performance) Nik Popovic and he has prepared us to be at our best at the start of the season,” Bruton said.

“Pre-season was tiring, a lot of people saw that in the way we played, but we are ready to go and hopefully we come out of the blocks and put a good display on and show everyone it’s a different approach this season.”