Mayen wastes no time buying in at Bullets

Once Lat Mayen knew Will Weaver had been appointed coach of the Brisbane Bullets, he knew that's where he wanted to continue his NBL career, and now he's excited to help build something sustainable.

There was a period where Mayen was a fierce rival of the Bullets and not overly popular in Brisbane back when he was at the Cairns Taipans and part of some spirited Sunshine Stoush battles before he continued his NBL career over the past couple of years with the Adelaide 36ers and Perth Wildcats.

But now that he's inside the four walls of the Bullets, he is fully bought in to what coach Weaver is trying to build and to be a program that the city of Brisbane can be fully proud of and get behind.

And three games into NBL27, with a 2-1 record and two home wins already, the signs are encouraging, with Mayen playing an important role even if it doesn’t always show up on the box score.

The 28-year-old is now in his fifth season in the NBL since his college career finished at Nebraska and he's wanted to play for Weaver for some time now, and couldn’t be happier to be doing it in Brisbane.

"It's awesome and me and Will connected a few years ago and ever since then I always thought about playing for him in the future," Weaver said.

"The opportunity came across this year and it was easy to grab because I know the type of person he is, and the type of coach he is, and how much he can bring out of his players.

"I was up for that challenge and me and him had a conversation during the recruitment and we talked about a few things and I was down. It was an easy decision to come play for Will."

As for Weaver, first and foremost, when he was building this Bullets roster, his focus was on bringing in good people who could be culture drivers and help to carry out the vision of what he wanted this team to represent for Brisbane.

Obviously, being able to play basketball and contribute on the floor is a factor too, but character always came first in his recruiting, and that's where Mayen became a key target for him while he was playing back in Perth in the NBL1 West at the East Perth Eagles.

"The reason I asked Lat Mayen to join us in here (post-match press conference) was because of what his approach is like coming in whether he's playing two minutes, going out for 10 and coming back and playing 12 minutes straight," Weaver said.

"This dude embodies a lot of the characteristics that we're asking all of our Bullets to bring to the table. That's what allows me to singularly focused on just trying to help because these guys are easy to cheer for."

What helps Mayen and the rest of his Bullets teammates feel connected to their coach and motivated to carry out what he is preaching is knowing how genuine his care for them is as people, and that he's building a successful program for the right reasons.

That's why Mayen has fully bought into everything about being part of the Bullets already and it's why it makes it easy to come in and put in the work every day because everyone is pulling in the same direction.

"On the court, off the court, it's an every day thing and it's not an act with coach," Weaver said.

"He's not coming in and just doing it during the game or in front of the cameras, he's setting the standard for us every day and everybody feels that and wants to help with what we are trying to build.

"It's easy coming in every day because we enjoy being around one another, we enjoy learning and obviously it's been tough for the Brisbane Bullets for a while.

"But we've all bought in and we want to help in every way and we just love being around each other, and just have to keep that going."

While success both in terms of winning games and filling the stands with a proud Brisbane fan base is the ultimate goal, all Mayen and everyone at the Bullets are focused on is putting in the right work every day.

If those processes are right, success will naturally follow.

"That would be pretty cool (to win for the people of Brisbane) but we come in every day and we take it one day at a time," Mayen said.

"We wanna win the day and continue on to win the next day and so on and so on. Obviously if we win in the process then that's what we wanna do as well."

The Bullets started the season strongly, beating the New Zealand Breakers 88-85 at Pat Rafter Arena before backing up by beating the Illawarra Hawks 103-95 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

They weren’t quite able to back it up on the road to the defending champion Sydney Kings on Wednesday night, but they did put up 34 points in the first quarter and were still leading at half-time.

While the Bullets only managed 44 points over the last 30 minutes, it was defensively that Mayen felt was their biggest area to work on ahead of hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers now on Saturday.

"It did change a little bit and our spacing could have been better after it was pretty good in the first half," Mayen said.

"We had a few assignments that we didn’t capitalise on and then it was just our defence really, and the rebounding. But it was our defence that wasn’t quite where it had been at the level it was in that second half."