Shannon Scott excited to make return back in Cairns tomorrow night

Written By
Chris Pike for Brisbane Bullets Media
Brisbane Bullets point guard Shannon Scott is fit and raring to go to make his return from a hamstring injury as NBL24 resumes and it just happens to be a battle with his former team this Friday night.
Scott has joined the Bullets this NBL season on the back of a terrific campaign with the Cairns Taipans where he was instrumental in the Snakes reaching the playoffs, and he made a strong start in Brisbane too.
Up until injuring a hamstring against the South East Melbourne Phoenix back on October 21, Scott was doing a strong job running the point and leading the defensive effort for the Bullets.
That hamstring injury has kept him sidelined since, but he was banging down the door to play two weeks ago against the Perth Wildcats, and now thanks to the FIBA window the extra two weeks means he is cherry ripe to return for this weekend's double-header.
It's amazing how these things work out and Scott's return just happens to be against the Taipans this Friday night back on his old home floor in Cairns, but it's not his first time against his former teammates and he won't be thinking too much about that.
"Obviously going back to where I played last year it's going to be a fun environment, and a tough game," Scott said.
"I'll just be treating like any other game once we get out there, we know they will come out ready to play. We just have to do the same and be ready to go."
Last time the Bullets and Taipans played earlier this season it was an eventful affair, but Scott doesn't expect any of that to carry over to this Friday night.
"When you've got five guys that want to win basketball games out on the court together, anything can happen, but I think for the most part we're all smart players and we don't want to do anything dirty out there," he said.
"We just want to play another game and keep it as cool as possible, and this game will be no different to that."
Since Scott has been out the Bullets have played some tremendous basketball starting with the wins against Perth, Tasmania and South East Melbourne, and then going into the break three losses after being in strong positions against the JackJumpers, Kings and Wildcats.
Scott was frustrated having to watch from the sidelines and not being out there to help his teammates, but he knew he also had to make sure he gave his hamstring enough time to heal to make sure there's no on-going issues.
"I'm excited to be back on the court obviously after about five or six weeks now. I'm ready to get out there. Watching the guys in practice every day, I kind of got a little antsy but it's now going to be fun to get back out there," Scott said.
"For the most part, it's more than just about being able to play basketball, I want to make sure it doesn’t get any worse and I don't hurt it again.
"So I've been focused on doing everything our physios and trainers have been telling me to do, just to try and make sure I tick off every box. Once I got that I was free to go and I can't wait now to get back out there."
Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller can't wait to have his point guard leader back out there this weekend either starting Friday night in Cairns and then back home at Nissan Arena on Sunday against the Illawarra Hawks.
"Shannon's gotten through great. We had him in a Summer League game which we hold on a Tuesday night as his final test last week and he got through that really well," Schueller said.
"He's continued to practice great this week and he's ready to go for sure. Norto's done a great job holding down that fort and Isaac White's more of a scoring guard than point guard in the role that we want him to play, so Shannon coming back gives us that one-two punch of point guards again.
"It's exciting for us and it's been a challenge for us closing games as well and we know Shannon gives us a lot of experience in that space. That's the advantage we'll get now from having two point guards."