Isaac White Leveling Up for NBL25

Fairytale Mackay win perfect Bullets preparation for White

Not only is Isaac White coming into NBL25 fresh off becoming an NBL1 North championship winning captain, but he has no doubt the role he played at the Mackay Meteors has him ready for a more significant impact with the Brisbane Bullets.

White was a man on a mission in the recently completed NBL1 North season with Mackay to help outgoing coach Joel Khalu depart with a championship.

In the end, White had a standout season as captain with the Meteors and ended up leading them to the championship with the Grand Final triumph against Sam McDaniel, Greg Vanderjagt and the Brisbane Capitals.

Not only that, but White had a terrific individual season to be named to the All-First Team on the back of 24.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists a game while shooting 51 per cent from the floor, 39 per cent from downtown and 88 per cent at the free-throw line.

On the back of that, White is now preparing for his second season in Brisbane with the Bullets and to continue his 111-game NBL career and has no doubt his campaign at Mackay has him best situated to have an even greater impact.

Levelling up for NBL25

White has now quickly turned his attention to the upcoming NBL season with the Bullets with pre-season in full swing.
Not only is White excited to be back with the likes of Josh Bannan, Mitch Norton, Casey Prather, Sam McDaniel, Rocco Zikarsky and Tyrell Harrison, but also for the new faces Deng Adel, James Batemon, Jarred Bairstow, Tohi Smith-Milner and Keandre Cook.

"Things have definitely gone up a level physically and just in each position guys are battling," White said.
"It's tough to even get open to get the ball at the moment, which is going to make us better and I think the additions we've made this year will make us better.

"We've added Bairstow, Keandre now and guys like that who play super physical. We've got Casey back at his best too so it's definitely a level up and with a good month of this we're only going to keep getting a lot better."

Being a 'dog' in practice

Another thing that White prides himself on is how hard he competes in practice and especially to continue that friendly rivalry with Josh Bannan he built throughout last season, and now adding Jarred Bairstow in that mix.

He has no doubt that adding that competitive edge to practice only helps the team in the long run be better when they pull together for the same cause to compete on game night against real opposition.

"I've got to say Bairstow is in that conversation now too. He's probably a little less vocal than me and Banno are, but he's also a guy that's a bit of a dog," White said.

"In general you need a couple of guys like that on a team to raise the level of practice. I see that as one of my roles to come out and be a bit of a dog, and that's Banno's personality too.

"If we can keep it tame enough where it's not taking over practice, it's good for us and can raise the level of physicality and competitiveness.

"If we can get a good couple of months of pre-season and hit the floor with a bit of momentum to start the season, then I think that can be really dangerous and having guys like him around is awesome for the group in general."

Pre-season games ahead of season

While pre-season training is important to bring a group together and develop their chemistry and game style ahead of any season, what brings everyone together even quicker is playing real games.

That's why White is happy the Bullets are going to have such a packed schedule leading up to the season-opener in Perth as part of HoopsFest.

"I think the advantage of getting a lot of guys back from last year is that we're not starting from scratch," White said.
"As we've already seen, guys can pick up where we finished last year with our offence and defence so being able to go and play a bunch of games now hopefully means that by Round 1 we'll be a lot further along than we were last year potentially.

"Then also just as a bonus games are a lot more fun. We'll have a little less time on the practice court and a bit more time in front of fans just playing the game we like."

Watch the full interview here.