Looking forward to this one. Rills back in the league, patrolling the sidelines. Baynes on debut. Perth wanting to prove they are a top 4 team, and Brisbane wanting to show they should be considered also.

Yes should be the best game of the round. I'm leaning towards Brisbane in Perth, so that’s suicide for Brisbane.

Carn the bulliez

Should be a Rillie good match

Finally!! From now on the Red Army will be standing until our opponents score.

Well they didn't have to stand long.

Bullets jerseys. White numbering/player names contrasts poorly against yellow on broadcasts.

RIP Cats

Norton should not be starting over Travers

Travers should start over Blanchfield, not Norton

After that hot start Brisbane passing like it's div 4 under 14s

Rather Im Pressive cats

Sobey dragged, defensively horrible.

Cotton's playmaking may have gone up a level

Cotton still unstoppable
Playing Walker and Cadee together is bad coaching
Enjoying the Gibson, Hooley commentary
Rillie certainly looks a good fit as coach of Perth
Brisbane looking disjointed
Hopefully Brisbane can change it up in second half.

Liking the 48 points a lot, but the D was my favourite thing that half.

LOL, Gibson and Hooley with the same haircut.

Liking the look of Thomas for Perth. Seems to know his role and high IQ.

Man it's so good to see Baynes back in action again

I'm glad the NBL has come into the 21st century by synching the game and shot clock in the stadium to TV score graphic

I'm confused... hasn’t it always been for proper NBL broadcasts?

For preseason it isn’t and it’s extremely noticeable

Brisbane glad Walker playing for Brisbane.

Is it just me or is the camera zoomed in closer this season? Also not liking the huge scoreboard at the bottom, unnecessary and takes up too much room.

Damo is right, to many rotations by Brisbane

Jesse Wagstaff's play is a blight on the game

Another season, same disappointing Brisbane. Sigh.

Cadee such a waste of talent. He is what he is a career underachieving role player. Perth looking ok I guess but still have improvements in them.

Yes Brisbane always promise so much and wet there pants.
Will bullets regret letting CJ go by seasons end, JD show nothing in adjustments today.
Perth back on track.

Cadee was a very average junior player, he had the right connections, and yes he's turned out to be a bench player of reasonable standard. At a guess a few other players might have thought they deserved a shot but missed out.

I came into the game feeling like Bullets were my tip to win the title And crikey that start looked ominous, Krebs with two triples and then didnt score again spoke volumes to me (it felt like they hardly got him another look).

Webster off the bench looks a great move and i was worried that he's think himself as too much of an alpha but he delegated to Cotton more than he maybe should but was still bloody awesome and he seemed way more focused than when we last seen him in the league.

Manek looked so bloody slow at the start (Gak on the fast break before first timeout of the game) as it looked like he was running up a sand dune... his second half should give him confidence.

Cotton was amazing as ever.

Bullets really looked to be missing something, not sure how they will look in 2023 when Sobey is fully fit and Baynes has worn off all the rust, really wanted to see what Gak, Mitchell, Johnson and Stattman could deliver but felt underwhelmed with the lot of them.

Did Harrison get any court time, was he injured as it felt strange giving Froling so mucb game time after how he played the last he wore a Bullets jersey

I came into the game feeling like Bullets were my tip to win the title And crikey that start looked ominous, Krebs with two triples and then didnt score again spoke volumes to me (it felt like they hardly got him another look).

Webster off the bench looks a great move and i was worried that he's think himself as too much of an alpha but he delegated to Cotton more than he maybe should but was still bloody awesome and he seemed way more focused than when we last seen him in the league.

Manek looked so bloody slow at the start (Gak on the fast break before first timeout of the game) as it looked like he was running up a sand dune... his second half should give him confidence.

Cotton was amazing as ever.

Bullets really looked to be missing something, not sure how they will look in 2023 when Sobey is fully fit and Baynes has worn off all the rust, really wanted to see what Gak, Mitchell, Johnson and Stattman could deliver but felt underwhelmed with the lot of them.

Did Harrison get any court time, was he injured as it felt strange giving Froling so mucb game time after how he played the last he wore a Bullets jersey

Webster, if he stays on track and doesn't bail, looks like a perfect fit. Pure scorer that can give Cotton a good rest and keep him fresh for end of season.
Was surprising to see Travers off the bench. Suppose he is most versatile so can fit in replacing anyone. Massive stretch to say he's a point guard though.
And if Manek can get his shooting going, it could really open up the offence.
Rillie looked good as well.

Who would want the assignment of stopping Bryce Cotton? I do get sick of the NBL hero worship of him sometimes, but today's game justifies it. He changes speed and direction so effortlessly and if you drop your guard for a second he's putting buckets on you. Definitely a guy that we're lucky to have in the league, and who could quite easily be somewhere in the NBA.

Bullets look much the same as the team we're used to seeing - talented but lacking punch. They're still a bit underdone with Baynes and Sobey coming back to form but nothing I saw today suggests to me they're a contender this year.

John Rillie has Perth playing Wildcats basketball again and expect Ws to be hard to come by for opposition teams out west once more this season.

Am I justified in my feelings about Tyler Johnson, I thought with Sobey being underdone and with some in the media suggesting he could be MVP contender that he'd take the opportunity to show that this is his team and lead from the front and set up team mates and really earn the trust of coach JD but it felt like he was in and out of the game (he actually looked way too much like Cadee from side on - hopefully he doesnt sell shirts too) that when Sobey is fit that Tyler wont have the ball in his hands during crunch time.

Webster looked pretty good despite missing some layups that he makes in his sleep so he will keep getting better.

Brisbane have talent t9 be much better than they were today.
I'm surprised they didn't run many (any?) pick n rolls, or feed Baynes more in the post to score it pass from - at least as a go to when nothing else was working much.
They did miss s lot of shots that should drop in future games.
When they start seeing the shots go in and get some fluid chemistry they could be very good.
Credit to Perth's defense, it was smothering and had great movement.
I respect wagstaff's game and his IQ, but gee he flops too much in drawing those offensive fouls.

Cotton is pure class and the Wildcats as a team are going to love playing under Rillie

Definitely way more zoomed in. Too much for my taste TBH.

Previously they were required to keep the shot clock units visible, which left them way too wide most of the time, but today it was difficult to follow the play and they were panning way too much.

"Definitely way more zoomed in"
Oh that's what it was?
I was getting almost dizzy at times watching and I couldn't figure out why, but I felt something was off.
Thanks for clarifying.

Sobey was really bad today, one stage he had about 3 turnovers in a row and really killed the Bullets run.

Yeah, production looks to have taken a backwards step - worse camera work/zoom/movement, worse score bug that's unnecessarily big and the stats part hardly updates and often displays out of date stats. Graphic package is worse generally.

No studio, no camera to see the lead commentator or world cup style with Casey/Bennett.

New overtime studio is worse too.

Just very bleh step back.

I heard that Devlin managed to get under Baynes skin and exchanged words with him

New coach, new season, Bryce Cotton is still Bryce Cotton

Wagstaff like Barlow proving he still belongs

Thought Perths defensive intensity was better than most other teams this weekend. Good win

Other than Baynes, Johnson and Sobey, do Brisbane have anyone who would make the starting 5 for Adelaide, Sydney, SEM or Perth?

Some of those bad passes tonight from Brisbane leading to either turnovers or just completely shutting down fast breaks were legit some of the worst I've seen in a professional game of basketball. Cotton was his vintage self offensively but man, Brisbane aren't beating anyone with how they played tonight after their initial offensive flurry. Perth obviously deserve some credit, but at the same time Bullets players were throwing passes either 6 feet wide of targets or directly to the Wildcats.

I have long respected Baynes as a basketballer but in watching his interviews since he joined the Bullets and today's press conference and he is such a quality person (easily in the Gaze or Mills class) and his enthusiasm and joy is Daniel Ricciardo type infectious.

I couldnt have been happier to have the Big Banger in the NBL but I am absolutely wishing him every success going forward and I think the Bullets will be my second favourite side this year.

Yeah, let's pin the whole of Brisbane's season on their very first game....in Perf.

Calm down guys, there are 27 games left.

Good luck to Devlin trying to get under Baynes' skin. The guy is having too much fun to allow a tool like him to get under his skin.

Devlin is possibly the biggest tool out of all of Australian basketball fans.

I'm not writing them off yet but there's serious question marks

Other than their "big 3", who would be a chance of starting 5 on the other championship favourites?

In other words, do they have sufficient depth of talent

Even the big 3 have questions. Baynes is almost 36 and coming off a 12 month layoff with an unusual debilitating injury. Johnson's career trajectory is down, down down. I'm not sure why but that's a worrying sign. Sobey missed most of last season and had a poor year shooting 28% from 3, and he's now 32

They're a team with tremendous potential upside IF Baynes can play like the MVP big many expect to see, and IF Johnson cah illustrate why he used to average 13ppg in the NBA, and IF Sobey can recapture his 2020/21 form and IF their other guys can sufficiently play roles

But that's a lot of IFS

It's a lot of ifs, after watching the first game, will the coach be up to it, I didn’t see anything that tried to stop the cats run. Sobey will have to up his defence as well as what he did was worse than Cadee.

The biggest issue for Baynes imo, is that if he gets fit and excels then he's headed back to the nba.

He could get picked up mid season by a playoff contender looking for experience, like Bogut going back to GSW late in the 18-19 season