Stars align for Neto to join Bullets

The injury to Arnas Velička might be unfortunate, but in terms of replacements a three-time Olympian with 464 games of NBA experience is making the best of a situation and Raul Neto only wants to come in and help the Brisbane Bullets win.

Lithuanian point guard Velička took the NBL by storm starting the season with 25 assists across his first two games, but with him now sidelined with a calf injury, suddenly the Bullets were on the lookout for a replacement.

It's hard to imagine a better result from a difficult situation than now bringing in Neto with the 34-year-old having had a storied career with the Brazilian national team along with playing in the NBA at the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers.

He also comes to the NBL now for the first time after a strong 2025/26 season with Longevida San Pablo of Spain where he had 10.5 points and 4.0 assists while shooting the three ball at 41 per cent.

Earlier in his career if Neto came in for a stint like this and he might have cared about coming in and scoring 20-plus points a game or dishing out 10-plus assists to show everyone what he was capable.

But now the 34-year-old version of himself is someone that only cares about helping his team win and helping his teammates thrive, and that's what will make him such a perfect fit in this stint as a point guard with the Bullets.

"I think I'm in the point of my career that my individual numbers I don’t really care too much about it," Neto said.

"But if I can help the team and the other players to get better with my experience, and with my knowledge of the game and being a leader and point guard on the court, I feel like for me that's more important than what I'm going to do individually.

"Also of course, I'm a competitor and winning games is what I play for so hopefully we can win games first and I can leave a mark on everybody and be able to help the team how it really needs me to."

Neto hasn’t played now since a couple of games at the end of August with the Brazilian national team against the Dominican Republic and Mexico where he averaged 12.5 points and 7.0 assists in 25 minutes.

Prior to that and his previous season in Spain with Burgos SP ended on May 29 so coming to Brisbane now in mid-October means he's not too rusty and has continued to be working out to be ready for a next opportunity while back home.

He now feels ready to go coming into the Bullets and settling into Will Weaver's system after everything all lined up nicely.

"The trip was good, long, but I'm excited to get to know everybody and to start working with the team," Neto said.

"I just think everything aligned well for me to be here and the schedule where this last summer I focused more on my family, and the fact that it's a short, quick time here that aligned with my schedule.

"I talked to Will about the program, and I know a couple of guys that are on the team, and what they are trying to achieve, and all of that caught my eye and made me come here."

There's not much that Neto hasn’t done in his career, but coming to play in Australia is a first for him and he's done his best to get up to speed quickly with the NBL ahead of trip to Tasmania on Wednesday where he'll suit up for the first time.

"It's hard to follow the Australian league when you're not here just with the time zone and all I've seen is social media, and knowing guys like Joe Ingles who have come here this year," Neto said.

"I'm good friends with him and have been following those guys around is what I see from the league, but since I signed with the team I watched the last couple of games.

"I see a very intense way to play basketball, Will has been in the NBA for some time so he brings that way to play basketball which I'm familiar with.

"And then you see great players around and I'm excited to get to know them on the court and play together with everyone on this team."

Neto might be coming to play in the NBL for the first time and it might be just a short stint until Velička is right to return, but it's not a league he's totally unfamiliar with and some faces he will be happy to see again.

To start with at the Bullets, he still remembers battles as a teenager with his new captain Mitch Norton while he is a former NBA and G League teammate of Nate Hinton.

Then there is Melbourne United veteran Joe Ingles who he spent four seasons in the NBA with at Utah and can't wait to catch up with him again – and no doubt cop some trash talk from him when they play against one another.

"I've played with Nate, he was in the G League with Cleveland when I was there and Mitch also we played against each other when we were 17, 18 years old," Neto said.

"In my first year in the league, he (Ingles) was there, and it was the beginning of his career too in the NBA and we played for four years together in Utah.

"Just both being international coming to a different country, he always said amazing things about Australia and he was probably one of the first ones to text me once this news came out.

"It was things besides basketball about how I was going to like the people and the country, and what a great place it is.

"He was a little bit more experienced when I got to the NBA and he definitely helped me get adapted to the league, to what the game is in the NBA and besides that, he became a great friend."

Neto has also been a regular on the Brazilian national team including representing them at World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2023, and at the London 2012, Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

And at 34 years of age, he has his eyes set on next year's World Cup in Qatar and then the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, but before getting too far ahead of himself, he's focused on the day to day first.

"I think you always have goals with the national team and I want to help us qualify for the World Cup and the Olympics, but I've also had some things during my career where all those future plans you have get thrown away so quick from injuries, changes plans, getting cut from teams and there's so many things that can happen," Neto said.

"So I think I more focus on the day to day now, and enjoying every practice and every shootaround, and every game more than thinking so far ahead.

"But it's also impossible to not look at the bigger picture and into the future, but I think I'm also able to enjoy day to day and the journey is more important than where I'm going to be in one, two, three years."