Weaver wants Bullets to be pride of Brisbane

The Brisbane Bullets delivered a standout final 15 minutes to open the new era under coach Will Weaver with a win on Monday night and what he wants his team to go out there representing the city of Brisbane with pride every time.

Weaver might be an outsider coming to Brisbane to take over being in charge of the Bullets, but what he has done wherever he has coached whether it be in the G League, the Sydney Kings or at Paris Basketball, is for him and his family to fully throw themselves into the culture of the city.

So when he was appointed coach of the Bullets, he put the time in to learn about the city of Brisbane and Queensland as a state, find out what makes the people tick and what they want to see represented in their sporting teams, and then got to work to build a team that could do them proud.

There's still always going to be growing pains and that was the case for the first 25 minutes on Monday night in the season-opener against the New Zealand Breakers at sold out Pat Rafter Arena.

The Bullets found themselves down 11 four minutes into the second half, but then turned the tide with a 20-7 run over the last six minutes with Lithuanian point guard Arnas Velička showing the way with a spectacular performance.

Brisbane then completed the job with the eventual 88-85 victory and there was plenty to like, but what impressed Weaver the most was fighting spirit and competitive drive his team displayed.

The Bullets collected 15 offensive rebounds for the game and 13 of those were in the second half and that proved critical and showed the hustle that the team played with that Weaver wants to become their trademark.

"It's all we talk about and we know that if we do things the way we practice that we're gonna be tough to deal with in minutes 20 through 40," Weaver said.

"We only had two offensive rebounds at half and ended up with 15 and that is an incredible testament to how committed our guys were to stay on keeping care of all the details that you need to be in position to get those plays.

"That's for sure a big hallmark of the program that we're building."

By the end of the night, the biggest thing that wasn’t totally positive that stood out to Weaver was the team's free-throw shooting with them finishing the night going 15/28 at just 54 per cent.

That included Velička going 4/10 and Nate Hinton 2/6, but at the same time they combined to also go 7/14 from behind the three-point arc.

So free-throw shooting isn’t something that Weaver is going to spend any time stressing about unless it ends up becoming a trend.

"We'll have nights like this and we'll have nights where we go 90 per cent so I'm not too bent up out of shape about it," Weaver said.

"If anything, I just take it as a huge positive that despite that frustration, we locked in and gave defensive effort to focus on defending a really good team that's really well coached, and who already had a game under their belt.

"Clearly they gave us some things that we found tough to deal with so I see it as a positive if anything."

There were plenty of positive individual performers from the Bullets in the season-opening win and not only the 23 points, 14 assists and five rebounds from Velička.

Tyrell Harrison also had 22 points, seven rebounds and four blocks, and Hinton 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

But two more players that impressed are rookies and coming out of their time in college, Max Mackinnon and Harry Rouhliadeff.

It wasn’t quite an NBL debut for Mackinnon who had played with the Bullets prior to his time in college, but he showed his growth to end up with nine points and seven rebounds.

Rouhliadeff also showed encouraging signs in the 11:20 of court time he received while pulling down three rebounds and having an assist.

Weaver couldn’t be more excited about the future of the pair.

"I love them both for how you could tell they weren’t focused on themselves and were focused on the team," Weaver said.

"Tyrell screws up a coverage and gives up a straight line drive to Cartwright (Parker Jackson-Cartwright) and Max comes over and blocks the shot.

"That is a level of focus and competitiveness that you don't see very often from rookies, and it's why we should enjoy him while we can because he's going to go far in this basketball thing and I would guess he's not going to be making Australian dollars for very much longer.

"But while he is, I'm glad he's on our team. And Harry Rouhliadeff, I told him how proud I was of him for letting that three rip from the right wing.

"He stepped into it with confidence and he's going to be a great shooter, and will have an incredible career, and I would say of the guys on our team, I don’t know if any of his teammates would say any of them are more consistent with how he competes and the effort he brings in every single phase of the game.

"Both those guys will have to learn everything that rookies do and there'll be ups and downs, but we're in a place where if you're serious about your basketball career and reaching your potential, we'll invest in you and give you opportunities, and hold you to a higher standard to maximise your odds of reaching that potential."