Enjoyment key for 'weird cast of characters'

Brisbane Bullets coach Will Weaver is happy to embrace that he has assembled a weird cast of characters for this team in NBL27 knowing that he's the leader of the pack with creating an enjoyable environment for everyone to thrive key.

It goes without saying that results are ultimately what every coach and team is judged by, but when you are trying to build something that is able to produce sustained success, it's important to have that vision in mind of what you want the culture to look like.

At the forefront of that for Weaver is having a group of players who are willing to work hard, do all the right things and work together as a unit, but it's also about the environment that you are providing for them to thrive.

That's where having a mix of characters is always important to have an environment within the group where you have a whole variety of personalities to come together, but in the end what is important is how they all mesh.

Creating an environment where hard work is at the forefront, but you have a place that everyone enjoys being at and to put in those hard yards.

It's only early days with this Bullets team that Weaver is in charge of, but the signs have been encouraging and he likes the variety of characters they have in the mix.

"We've got a weird cast of characters and we embrace it. Nate (Hinton) is himself and yes, we love it. Ty's (Harrison) weirder than Nate in ways that none of you will ever know, and I'm the weirdest of them all," Weaver said.

"There's a degree to which we embrace the weird and celebrate authentically what everyone is like. With Arnas no one has any idea if he's screaming with joy or screaming with anger or what's going on in there.

"This is a place where we try to make basketball fun and we also are really serious about improving and helping everyone's career improve like this (going up).

"I think you're seeing what that looks like on a basketball court and it's purely being themselves, and I'm not the general and running people into the ground.

"We're not doing two a days or creating an environment where it's some fake ass military BS that coaching's been for way too long in the sport of basketball.

"All of that I hope creates an environment where people feel the excitement to just be themselves whatever that is."

Weaver is confident that both with the group of players he has put together for this Bullets team of NBL27 and with the way they are building things on and off the court, that it will give the best chance for success to be the end product.

But he also knows that even with putting the best plans and people in place, for it to come off as hoped that it requires the hard work and commitment of all involved.

Weaver has every faith that this is a group that is willing to do exactly that and has seen no reason so far to change his mind, but ultimately that success will only be judged in hindsight.

"Am I confident? Yes, but it's not going to happen on its own and we've gotta put in the hard work to where everyone is seeing it the same way and talking it the same way," Weaver said.

"I'd say we're way ahead of schedule, we're four games in now and that group over there in Hobart has been talking the same language and building things for a long time.

"We go to Cairns next and Fordey's been there for a while getting his group together so we have to appreciate that we're playing catch up.

"That's everybody including me learning how the game flows and how to intervene and help as much as I can, but I have to be better on challenges.

"I need to understand what is a kick out turnover three and not because that ends up being a pivotal play in the game so I could have saved my challenge for that.

"All of us are building and improving, and relentlessly studying what we're doing so that's what gives me the confidence that we are going to end up actually humming."

One of those characters at the Bullets is Lithuanian point guard Arnas Velička who set an NBL record with 14 assists on debut in the first up win against the New Zealand Breakers to go with 23 points and five three-pointers made.

He backed up with 17 points and 11 assists in the win over the Illawarra Hawks before Matthew Dellavedova hounded him for just about all his 34 minutes against the Sydney Kings where he finished with 15 points and five assists.

Velička then had an off shooting night on Saturday against the Tasmania JackJumpers going 0/11 in regulation before stepping up to hit two huge shots in overtime despite the eventual loss for the Bullets.

He also contributed strongly all night with 13 assists and five rebounds despite his shooting and Weaver has full faith in him to continue to lead the Bullets on a whole number of fronts whether his shot is falling or not.

"Everybody wearing blue understands, and green for that matter, that that dude is the one that has his hands on the driver's wheel," Weaver said.

"Nobody wears it harder than he does and every mistake he makes, he's wearing really hard so a lot of what I'm trying to do is help him understand that when you have as big a role as he does on our team, that means there's going to be mistakes mixed in there.

"Tyrell's had that indifferent games too, Arnas has had that at other time and everybody gets a turn of having nights where the shot isn’t falling or you're just a step behind on making a read or something.

"But I tell you what, the way that he creates for our team and the approach that he has in those tough moments, I don’t think anybody on our side was the least bit surprised that he drilled that floater or knocks that under three in crunch time.

"He's not going to change his approach just because of a moment."