How the Stu Lash appointment came about

Stu Lash had never considered putting his hand up to coach the Brisbane Bullets until the ownership group saw him as the perfect fit and with that backing, he now sees himself potentially as the final piece to a winning NBL puzzle.

Lash joined the Bullets in the back end of NBL23 as Senior Basketball Advisor but when the decision was made to be on the look out for a new coach after two seasons under Justin Schueller, he had never even considered putting his own hand up.

Lash had quickly joined in the process of searching for that new coach and also building the playing roster for NBL26, but then the Brisbane ownership group broached the subject that all of their criteria seemed to fit Lash perfectly.

When Lash took some time to think it over, the more thought he put into it the more the idea appealed to him and suddenly his competitive drive kicked in and he wanted to do the job.

Not only that, but he thought with him in charge and keeping that continuity growing given he had played such a key part already in building the playing roster and coaching staff, it gave the Bullets the best chance to win immediately.

"I looked at the roster we already had in place and the feedback we'd already gotten from our players and assistant coaches in the exit meetings was overall really positive," Lash said.

"I knew it was a really good job as well because of the work we've put in over the last two years so not only did I decide I wanted the job but more importantly I felt like we could win.

"I didn’t think I would have been as interested if this was like a rebuild or if we were starting from where we were two years ago.

"So from there I went back to Malcolm and the owners and said I was interested, and that it was something I wanted to pursue, and from there I became a candidate within the pool of everybody else."

"The more we talked about it through the process the more sense it was making because we had that infrastructure in place," he said.

"Situations like this when coaches come in as the last piece and not the first piece are typically the ones that are most successful.

"That's because when a new coach comes in it can take a year or two to hire the right coaches, the right staff all around him and to sign the right players, and to put your system in place.

"Very rarely does a rebuild just take off in the first year and go, but when you bring somebody in and everything else is already in place, then there's less for the head coach to do in terms of building."

In the immediate aftermath of the Bullets having made the decision to be on the lookout for a new coach, all Lash was worried about was working with the ownership group and CEO Malcolm Watts on working out the type of person they were looking for to lead the club forward.

"It actually happened the other way around to what people might have though. After Justin's departure, we took a week or two to just let the air go a little and we all took a deep breath, and decided to see who would call us before we even did anything," Lash said.

"We sat back and in that time we locked in on the character traits and the personality of the person more than anything else that we're looking for. 

"So we came up with a criteria sheet like you would with any leadership position, but we were pretty confident that anyone we'd talk to would be at a leadership and experience level where they'd tick off all those checkboxes.

"So we discussed the sort of person we were looking for and we had a lot of interest coming inbound and we started to develop a deep pool of candidates, and started to have some introductory conversations with different coaches and kept going back to our criteria."

From there it was on the urging of the ownership group that thought Lash fit all their criteria and wanted Watts to feel out if he would be interested in becoming a candidate.

It wasn’t something that had even crossed Lash's mind up to that point, but then once he sat back to think about it, he started to think it might be the best thing for the Bullets and that it was something he really wanted to do.

"Early in the process unbeknownst to me ownership reached out to Malcolm wondering if I should be considered for the role," Lash said.

"They said they were talking about all these character traits and personality traits, and they felt like that was who I was.

"Until Malcolm broached it with me after that to update me on that conversation, that's when I went away to take some time to think about if it would be something I would be interested in.

"Malcolm made it clear at the same time that I wasn’t being offered the job, they were still going to run the process and I would then become just one of the candidates.

"Obviously that meant I had to be removed from the decision-making process too and that piqued my interest, and deep down inside I want what's best for the club. So I took a couple of days and spoke to my family, we talked it over and it actually lit a fire in me from a competitive standpoint."

Knowing that key players like Mitch Norton, Casey Prather, Tyrell Harrison, Sam McDaniel and Tohi Smith-Milner were already locked away, and that assistant coaches Greg Vanderjagt and Darryl McDonald wanted to remain also had Lash excited to take on the coaching role.

The fact that Lash has been part of the Bullets for two and-a-half seasons, knowing that the CEO, assistant coaches and half the playing group are all well and truly familiar with one another all mean that he comes into the role confident that success is on the horizon.

"We leaned into how important that continuity component was and the understanding that Vandy and Mac wanted to remain part of it too even though they didn’t know who the head coach would be was important as well," Lash said.

"The key players had also spoken very highly of those assistant coaches so it was really starting to sound like it was a good fit for me to take on the job and that was it really in terms of how it happened.

"I continued to follow the process along and speak about how my vision would be, and we went from there and the owners liked the sound of it all and here we are.

"The more people we told about it, I think it started to make sense to more people after when initially you hear it in a vacuum and it did sound as though it came out of nowhere."