Weaver can already rely on Bullets' fight

Will Weaver knows he won't have to question the competitive spirit or fight of the Brisbane Bullets while discussing the love he has for Nate Hinton, how Max Mackinnon is much more than a shooter and backing Sam McDaniel to return as strong as ever.

The Bullets may now be preparing to be without Arnas Velička, Sam McDaniel and Taine Murray for the next stretch of NBL27, and they may have lost their past three matches, but coach Weaver can't find fault with their fighting spirit so far.

That was again on show back on Thursday night in Cairns where even though it led to an eventual six-point defeat to the Taipans, there was a lot to like from what the Bullets produced.

Brisbane pulled down 22 offensive rebounds for the game and that saw them get up an extra 17 field goal attempts so once again Weaver couldn’t fault the effort of his team, and winning the possession game does usually lead to good things.

It wasn’t the shooting night the Bullets were after going just 42 per cent from the field and 8/33 from the outside, but Weaver knows that the more his team focuses on getting all the effort areas right, then the shooting will eventually catch up to that and they'll get rewarded.

"We're five games into this thing now and we've built enough for me to not wonder if our guys are going to stay in the fight," Weaver said.

"We've talked openly about how clear minded we are about where we're at and where we're going.

"It's going to take steps to get there, but the group of people that we have in that locker room are going to fight and compete, and they're going to make you earn it if any team is going to beat us."

The Bullets remain the best offensive rebounding team in the competition so far in NBL27 pulling down 14.6 of them per game led by Tyrell Harrison with 3.8, Nate Hinton 2.0, Velička 1.8, Max Mackinnon 1.6, Jacob Holt 1.6 and Lat Mayen 1.4.

That's the good news and Weaver is happy that his team is creating so many second chance opportunities. But he hopes they don’t need to keep relying on that and can lift their current shooting percentages of 44 per cent from the field, 31 from the outside and 65 at the free-throw line.

"We're the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the league and on one hand you think that's great, but on the other hand you know you have to miss a lot of shots to get rewarded as often as we do with the offensive rebounding," Weaver said.

"I hope we make a few more shots and get a few less offensive rebounds. You play good teams and you play on the road, and it's part of the league, and you see how parity there is, and I give our guys a lot of credit for buying into what we're doing.

"Last time we played these guys (Cairns) was an exhibition game on the Sunny Coast and they beat us by what felt like 100 points.

"The improvement that we've had from then is a testament to not only our guys buy in and commitment, but also our coaching staff Alex Grossman, Markus Klusemann and Hanno Mottola who have experience coaching the schemes that in particular relate to our offensive rebounding and defence.

"I give all three of those guys a lot of credit for how they've taught it to all our players, and to me."

Weaver was excited about the signing of Nate Hinton coming into NBL27 because of what he can provide at both ends of the floor and he's more than delivering on those expectations.

Hinton continues to take on the biggest defensive roles and is finding his feet offensively too, including breaking out with 30 points, six rebounds and two assists against Cairns.

"Nate's great and we're lucky to have him," Weaver said.

"He is having a fantastic season and he defends very often the best player on the other team, and carries a really heavy load for us offensively.

"So he's very versatile, so competitive and brings great energy, and I love him."

Another player making an immediate impact this season so far with the Bullets is homegrown rookie Max Mackinnon.

While like any shooter that can be a little hit and miss and he's had two tremendous shooting nights going 11/16 from three against the JackJumpers and Hawks, but it's been a little tougher going with 4/20 against the Breakers, Kings and Taipans.

But what he is doing consistently is rebounding the ball averaging 7.6 boards across the season including 13 with five at the offensive end in Cairns last Thursday night.

Weaver is looking forward to him continuing to learn, grow and develop.

"You can't be a shooter and overreact to when you miss them and be excited and think you did something great when you make them," Weaver said.

"He's a shooter and I have coached plenty of shooters, and there are nights like this and ones like the other night where he goes 6/8.

"For sure there are things you can look at and try to improve the details of like he hasn’t figured out how to draw fouls on those shots like Dakota Mathias, Bryce Cotton and Chris Goulding have.

"So he's got to learn how to do that so he gets rewarded for the contact he feels, but that's a process that a rookie needs to go through the fire to get to that level.

"That rebounding is also a big part of what makes Max so unique is because he has such an impact on the boards at both ends, and that's a really hard thing to do from the perimeter. He does it consistently."

The horror run of injury luck has continued for Sam McDaniel as well who missed the start of the season with a finger injury and now is sidelined again with a lower leg injury.

But because of how diligent McDaniel is with everything he does and his injuries keep happening because of nothing but bad luck, Weaver continues to have full confidence in him and can't wait to see him back and thriving in the Bullets system.

"I thought that I was going to need to (pick him up) but I had a conversation with him and you could just see how clean minded he was," Weaver said.

"He recognises that he knows what he needs to do and we've got a great plan in place, and sometimes it doesn’t' go your way.

"You break a pinky shooting the ball when somebody closes out and it takes away your conditioning, and makes it harder to come back and ramp up the way you need to.

"You hate it for him, but it really is luck, and there's nothing he's doing wrong and I know he appreciates the support we've put around him, and the plan that we've got in place.

"That is going to return him to career-best fitness during this season and we'll all be ecstatic when that comes because we all recognise that we built this team with the big part of the thinking that he would be a massive piece. When that big piece comes back we'll all be excited."

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Weaver can already rely on Bullets' fight | Brisbane Bullets