Murray embracing being thrown in deep end

Taine Murray will always see his rookie NBL season as the steepest of learning curves and he'll be grateful to have gone through so much as he looks to only build on it moving forward with the Brisbane Bullets.

On the back of his college career at Virginia, Murray wasn’t sure what to expect coming into his rookie NBL season at the Bullets but it didn’t take long for him to be thrown in the deep end and he's thankful for those opportunities.

Murray quickly went from someone who might have been deep on the bench to playing an average of 24.2 minutes and that skyrocketing to 30.8 over the past five games with his teammates struggling to stay healthy around him.

The 23-year-old Kiwi guard has made the most of all the chances he has been given with the Bullets and hopes the steep learning curve will now only hold him in good stead for the rest of his professional basketball career.

"When I was coming into my first year I wasn’t too sure what it would look like or how my game would translate from college, but it has been awesome to have the opportunity to play in this league," Murray said.

"I think it's been a credit to the organisation for believing in me and my teammates for helping to put me in these positions to succeed.

"Obviously I've had some highs and some lows through it all, but I just feel really fortunate to come out the other end and have the opportunity to play, and try to help us in some of these games."

Coming into the season and considering he had back court teammates like Javon Freeman-Liberty, Jaylen Adams, Alex Ducas, Tristan Devers, Mitch Norton and Sam McDaniel, and Murray had no expectations on his role or the minutes he could play.

Given that depth the Bullets started the season with, there was a chance his rookie season might have included limited minutes, but that certainly hasn’t been the case and it happened early once he was thrown the job of guarding Jack McVeigh and Bryce Cotton after McDaniel's early injury.

He has continued to show exciting signs in his increased role since throughout the season as a solid defender and as someone who can handle the ball, and score in a variety of ways.

"I think obviously we've been really unfortunate with some of the injuries that we've faced and because of that I might have had to expand what my original role might have been," Murray said.

"I've been really grateful for that and there's been a lot of learnings in that, and I'm just excited to just be able to carry this moving forward in my career. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have had within this rookie year even though it's obviously had its challenges."

It's hard to imagine a rookie season having more to deal with than what Murray has gone through with the Bullets this season.

After all, he's now had 18 teammates including an eye-boggling seven imports, and then you factor in a coaching change, suspensions and even his own ankle injury midway through, and there has been as much to deal with in one season as you might expect in 10.

"I think it has been a lot and there's no hiding from the fact that we've been unfortunate with some things, and I guess I've had to learn pretty quick that it might be the reality of professional sports," Murray said.

"But I just give credit to our leadership, guys like Mitch and Tyrell and Tohi, they've been so great with dealing with myself just as a first year guy.

"I obviously haven’t been through many different situations, if any at all, so their guidance is something I've really appreciated and the way they've made it easier to navigate through some of these challenges we've faced as a team.

"It's a credit to not only who they are as basketball players, but also as people as well."

Murray came into his rookie season not expecting Darryl McDonald to be his head coach, but he was looking forward to working with him as an assistant and now that has surpassed all expectations since he has taken over the top job.

"He has been great and with himself being a point guard as a player has been awesome for me, and he sees the game through a guard's lens," Murray said.

"That has been awesome for me to learn off and grow, and I can't fault the way that he's instilled confidence in all of us and I think that he's handled the situation that he's been put in as well as anyone could.

"I can't fault the way that he's led us since taking over so I can't speak more highly of DMac and I'm really thankful for how he's installed confidence in us to allow us to go out and play as hard as we can."

While it's been a tough season on most fronts for the Bullets in NBL26, one of the great positives is some of the building blocks put in place for the future including the emergence of rookie big man Jacob Holt and rising guard Tristan Devers.

Murray's growth can be thrown into that mix too and he can't help but be excited for what the future is still looking like for the Bullets.

"In some of these situations that we have faced, there have been some silver linings and one of those is definitely the young guys with Jacob, TD and myself who have been able to get more opportunity than we might have got if we were on a fully healthy roster," Murray said.

"I'm really excited for what is to come here at Brisbane and I think that the organisation is trying their hardest, and with the core group of guys that we have moving forward is a great group and I'm really excited to be a part of what we're building and what the vision looks like moving forward.

"I love living in Brisbane too and our fans have been amazing supporting us in some tough times, and they deserve to have a team that are striving to win and to win championships as well."

Another experience ticked off during this season for Murray was during the FIBA international window when he was selected in the Tall Blacks squad for the pair of games against the Boomers.

While they were two heartbreaking losses for his New Zealand team, there was a lot to be thankful about with the whole experience especially getting to play a game at home represent his country and even coming up against Alex Ducas who was out there for the Boomers.

"It was an awesome experience and obviously we lost both games which were really close and in both of them we had opportunities to kind of win, but it was just amazing," Murray said.

"One of the big goals in my career is to represent New Zealand as much as I can and I don’t take those opportunities for granted.

"It was awesome and it was my first time playing for New Zealand in New Zealand so that was really special, and my sister was able to be there to watch me play which was pretty cool.

"I loved that experience and it was funny as well playing against the Australian guys in the NBL and that included Ducas so it was a funny experience guarding him in an international game, and then coming back to being Bullets teammates straight after."