The Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was given a clean slate to build a roster from the ground up in the debut NBL season for 2021-22.
With an emphasis on building team culture, the roster focused on “team-first” players. Unsurprisingly Scott Roth used his previous experience as an assistant coach with the Perth Wildcats to reach out to several off-contract players from his former club to make the move south.
This saw Jarred Bairstow, Clint Steindl and Will Magnay make the move from the West. However, Magnay and Roth never crossed paths in Perth, with Magnay joining the Wildcats in late 20-21, after Roth departed the Wildcats to take up the head coach role with the JackJumpers.
There of course were a few players that the JackJumpers targeted early but did not eventuate. Most notable was former Perth Wildcat Nick Kay, who was looking at his options after finishing his debut season in Spain’s Liga ACB. But he decided to stay overseas and signed with the Shimane Susanoo in the Japanese B League.
It was again Coach Roth’s connections to Perth that saw the JackJumpers pursue Mitch Norton. Despite a tug of war between the JackJumpers and Wildcats, Norton signed a three-year deal to remain with the Perth Wildcats.
Former Sydney King Craig Moller was also pursued, who had connections with Tassie having plied his trade in Hobart in the NBL offseason with the Hobart Chargers (NBL1 – 2018) and Southern Huskies (NZNBL – 2019). But after gaining a German passport he signed a one year deal Wursberg in the German basketball Bundesliga.
However with the roster now finalised, here is an early look how we think the team will
Depth Chart
| 1 Point Guard | Josh Magette (I) | Jarrad Weeks | Sean McDonald (DP) |
| 2 Shooting Guard | Josh Adams (I) | Clint Steindl | Matt Kenyon |
| 3 Small Forward | Sam McDaniel | Nikita Mikhailoviski (NS) | Serj Deans (DP) |
| 4 Power Forward | MiKyle McIntosh (I) | Jack McVeigh | Fabijan Krslovic |
| 5 Centre | Will Magnay | Jarred Bairstow | Jock Perry (DP) |
Battles for position
What intriguing about this team is in the 2/3/4 spots, as there is several players who can play across these positions can shoot from outside, crash the boards and defend taller opponents.
McKintosh is an undersized 4 but will get a lot of minutes at the in this role due to a lack of size with the JackJumpers roster and his athleticism. So McVeigh, McDaniel and Steindl will be jostling for a starting role and strong minutes off the bench. However, I think matchups will play a big part in who gets minutes each night.
Nikita Mikhailoviski off the bench?
Mikhailoviski will be an interesting one for Roth, he is a fairly unknown quantity and it will be fascinating to see how his skill set transitions to the NBL. As with most Next Stars he will be likely be eased into the league off the bench, but as he develops he could push for a starting role by mid-season.
He has plans to nominate for the 2022 or 2023 NBA draft where at his height of 6’7″ he would be looking at shooting guard/small forward role. So we would expect to see him playing across those two positions, work on his outside shot, defense and also work on his frame to show NBA scouts he compete on the glass (listed at 89kgs).
Lack of size
The glaring weakness in this team is their lack of size. Yes basketball has come a long way in the last 20 years, we are in an era of “position-less basketball” and “small-ball” lineups, but the big men still play a huge role in today’s game.
The JackJumpers are fortunate to have one of the premier big men in the country, Will Magnay, line-up this season. However, from there its is a bit of drop off when looking at potential back – ups – Krislovic (203cm), Bairstow (201cm) and Perry (216cm).
Although he is due for another breakout year, Will Magnay has never been a high-volume minutes player. His recent NBL form saw him average 22 minutes per game with the Bullets in 2019 and was slightly down to 19 minutes with the Wildcats at the end of last season 2021. His G league season with the Erie Bay Hawkes in 2021 he clocked up 22 mpg across 10 matches.
Despite coming back from off season foot surgery, we’d like to think he’d be good for 25 minutes per contest. I don’t think they would want to push him any more than this, as any injury would be catastrophic for the JackJumpers. It hard to see how they would handle the likes of Isaac Humphries, Duop Reath, Nate Jawai, Jordan Hunter, Lual-Acuil Jr and Sam Froling.
