Perplexing fire in my opinion. Must be more behind the scenes we don't know about.

Honestly thought he did enough with what he had to work with to be given a second year.

Olgun did say he is expecting a HC musical chairs this off season.

Olgun reporting this now too. Would've given him another season personally

Schueller didn't do enough in his 2 years in the job. Perhaps CJ will apply again?

Link to presser HERE :https://www.brisbanebullets.com.au/news/brisbane-bullets-announce-coaching-transition-ahead-of-nbl26

I am surprised, an internal review always brings this possibility but with injuries this year I suspected he was going to be given the next season.

Candidates? I don't see a current BNE assistant jumping into the role. Stability sorely needed however.

Greg V was the head coach between wonder if he will be considered, the theme is losing aussie coach gets replaced by unknown American.

A review was always going to bring the possibility along with a new ownership group.

Tough season with glimpses of a play off bound team in the future.

I had doubts about Schueller after the Sobey dramas. The way he spoke about Sobey (even if the decision was entirely the right one) was a little off-putting.

But then, the Bullets had a great season. Considering the injuries they had, finishing 12-17 was an impressive result. They were 9-8 at one point.

Absolutely nobody expected a 33 year-old Prather, with his surgically repaired many times over body, to be playing like an MVP candidate down the stretch of the season. Nobody thought Norton had that much left in the tank. Harrison won most improved. Deng Adel- while he was on the court- showed more than his previous NBL stint.

Overall, that season was a success and a step in the right direction for the Bullets franchise. Perplexing to read he's gone.

Obviously we don't see what happens behind the scenes. We don't see Schueller day-to-day.

But face value this is a head scratcher of a decision.

I wonder if Prather suspected this was coming when he re-signed for next season?

"Greg V was the head coach between wonder if he will be considered"

That's what I was wondering will they give Vanderjagt another go now?

Doesn't seem right, he wasn’t that bad, his team were hardly top shelf, while Prather performed, lots didn’t. Where is Rocco in all this ? You need talent to win and bullets didn’t have a lot, but they competed.

I've always thought of Schuler as one of those coaches that thought his system was amazing and he could plug any players into that system and win, he went and signed all those end of bench journeyman...

Brisbane only became competitive when he tightened the rotation…

Maybe Forde to Brisbane? Atleast he fills his bench with upside guys for the most part..

So where to from here for a Coach ... pls not another American ?

Does anyone think Gleason may venture to the Sunshine state and maybe bring BC with him ?

Two down, Forde and Scheuler, two to go if Olgun is on the money. Who's next, any guesses or rumours.

Gotta say Wells will follow

This has been coming for close to 3 months.

Wells has already been confirmed as returning

Would sixer consider JS as a local to help with connecting to bring home local products.. forded to Brissy be worth a thought.

IMO. Dreadful call. The firing of the HC who gave them a far better record than expected is very hard (for me) to fathom.

After an injury plagued 2024/25 season, which denied the Bullets any chance of success, Brisbane now has a roster worth keeping, with minor adjustments, to start the 2025/26 season. They now have a trio of top-quality imports, plus 8 or 9 locals who deserve another go-round with the team. Out of this (almost)ready-made team for the new season only 1 (or 2) signatures are missing. No-one seems unhappy there. All, with Schueller steering the ship.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

So...

Where/how did he fail (systems, offences/defences, discipline, anything else?)? Who would have done any better and how would they have done it?

Would like to hear what the club expects from a new coach (new systems, new offences/defences, discipline, anything else?).

Are we getting Gleeson? (Now he might be worth it!)

The Bullets under Schueller went 7th last season and then 8th this season, this news should hardly be a surprise. He doesn't look too flash now either giving Sobey a big boot on the way out, banging on about culture and now sacked.

I think there's plenty broken at Brisbane, imports can be replaced by other imports, much of the commentary out of Brisbane was "we’ve picked up this import because he’s gonna be good next season" or “really good in the back end of the season”. It’s just like a weird mindset you need imports to be producing straight away, winning clubs replace imports who aren’t “ready”.

The best local is Harrison, followed by Norton and Rocco who is technically a next star, then it’s a bunch of journeymen the best of which is probably McDaniels.

There’s also the tendency to recruit injury prone players...

Coach Kop is almost certain to be gone - he probably arced up about the shit sandwich he was handed around Tacko.

King, Vickerman and Roth are secure.

I suspect Rillie will be escorted out if it means that Perth keep Bryce.

(Or can get Gleeson)

Rillie's under contract until 2028.

Tough call on Schueller. He has not had time to embed a culture, ravaged by injuries it is hard to implement what you want.

This off season for those not in the finals is proving to be fairly ruthless.

Any chance Scheuler goes to Cairns, terrible call by bullets. He was right about Sobey as well, probably just ask Mike Kelly, it wasn't till King got there that things changed, he still gets benched if makes poor decisions but he did turn it around.

Would have thought he'd gotten another year but maybe rubbed the wrong person upstairs. Wasn't afraid to upset the Prima Donnas he inherited and forced them out, maybe could have stayed quiet with his Sobey departure comments. Imports were ordinary, except for the massive surprise of Prather having a career year in his twilight years. Norton was very solid and Harrison because one of the best bigs in competition. Losing McDaniel hurt big time, Rocco didn't really develop, just a 7 3 guy that had impactful spurts, a team might take a chance late in the second round but limited motor and lacks an outside game. So I thought next year with Harrison, Norton and McDaniel (don't know about contract situations), Prather, a good reliable 2 guard and a import 4, they had a chance if they were healthy to vastly improve. Now they're in the same boat as a lot of teams have been the past few years.
Would say they're the slightly better destination than Cairns and Adelaide (Wells will still be on hot seat if he is staying, Adelaide can do normal Adelaide things in the off season so no guarantee he will definitely be back). But sacking a coach 2 years into a rebuild that was inching its way forward is a red light to a coach. And won't be Forde, will give my opinion of him in the Sixers thread. But another place for Cadee to serve an apprenticeship to an overseas coach.
Disappointing how teams become so impatient with coaches these days, it certainly wasn't disastrous this year considering the injuries. If anything it's opened up the possibility of him returning to the sidelines, maybe a good option for Cairns if he wants to jump straight back in.

I'm surprised by this. If not for the injuries, Brisbane were looking very formidable midseason. I think they could’ve made the semis the way they were going!

I dare say a lot of blushes were saved by Prather discovering his old form again 5-6 games into the season. Yes, Schueller deserves credit for taking a punt on Prather last season but I doubt anyone including the guy himself ever thought he would be a 20 ppg player again.

So there was a lot of good fortune in the Prather signing balanced out by all the bad luck they had with injuries, that an independent review has been launched to look into, with the coach now being fired.

From the article:

It will potentially lead to an offseason of changes in Brisbane.


"We do a review every season but, due to the significant spike in our injuries and the impact that that's had on our results, we’re going to bring in an independent party to review that and then use those learnings to make decisions for the betterment of the club moving forward," Watts told Newscorp.

https://nbl.com.au/news/bullets-to-launch-independent-review

Feel free to read in between the lines on that with the foreshadowing of today's announcement.

[The Bullets under Schueller went 7th last season and then 8th this season, this news should hardly be a surprise.]

I'd suggest even Trever Gleeson couldn't do a whole lot better than 12-17 with this Bullets roster and the availability they had.

BS Gleeson beat a Goorjian coached Hawks team in a SF series without Cotton!

NBL success is so contingent on context.

People saying "but they finished 8th!" Doesn't made any sense to me whatsoever.

Consider

- United's had 8 winning seasons in a row, and had a very stable group where every single player except Aliir Aliir had played for them within the past 3 years.

- Perth's made playoffs/play-in 37 of the last 38 years and has undoubtedly the greatest player of the last 20 years, in career best form.

- Sydney had an absolutely stacked team including the only 2 MVP's not named Bryce Cotton in the last 6 years. Hence their pre-season favouritism

- Tassie were reigning champs and made top 4 for the last 3 years straight

- Illawarra lost a nail biting semi final series with a very young group and brought back almost the same team

- Adelaide had arguably the most credentialled NBA player ever, at age 30, plus a superstar point guard who averaged 25ppg, a fringe Boomer shooting guard and a solid supporting cast

This was Brisbane's competition. It's a 10 team comp. A small pond with big fish

For Schueller in year 2 to take a small, losing franchise, without any notable, proven NBL star players and get decimated by injuries but still finish 12-17 is just a good result. Not just average. Not just OK. Good. Impressive.

LV read the article I posted and then join the dots.

[BS Gleeson beat a Goorjian coached Hawks team in a SF series without Cotton!]

Right, they still had All-NBL 1st teamer John Mooney (who was competitive against the unleashed playoffs version of Jock Landale in the GF), Will Magnay, Blanchfield, Norton, Steindl, Wagstaff, young Travers and Swaka Lo Boluk.... and home court advantage.

Gleeson also had 2017-18 where he had Cotton, defensive GOAT Damien Martin in his final DPOY year, Wagstaff, Steindl, Angus Brandt, Lucas Walker. Imports JP Tokoto and Derek Cooke Jr- both were good athletes, both appear to have had solid careers since, and both still playing now- Tokoto in Israel and Cooke Jr in Italy.

That team finished 16-12 and got swept in the semi finals including a 35 point loss.

This from:-

"(Yup
Yesterday

I think there's plenty broken at Brisbane, imports can be replaced by other imports, much of the commentary out of Brisbane was "we've picked up this import because he’s gonna be good next season" or "really good in the back end of the season". It’s just like a weird mindset you need imports to be producing straight away, winning clubs replace imports who aren’t “ready”.)"

The above, bit by bit:-

"imports can be replaced by other imports," (good)Imports who stick around are gold. Bullets are blessed with 3 imports who deliver much more as a team than their individual parts.

"we’ve picked up this import because he’s gonna be good next season" That's Prather, Right again.

"you need imports to be producing straight away. Bullets have 3 good imports who showed that they are more than ready (when they were healthy, together and busting up everyone they came up against until they were decimated with injuries). After what they have endured, you want them replaced?

And finally, "winning clubs replace imports who aren’t “ready”.)" As they should. Which of these 3 do you suggest is "not ready" and why.

Other than that, good paragraph!

Glad to see, nearly all the posts are pro Schueller, in this case.

While most a pro-JS, it doesn't change the fact that Brisbane are becoming more like Adelaide ... since Lemanis left it has been a shambles...

Lots of pressure of Mal Watt to earn his 'Exec of Year' title and turn this ship around...

Also no idea what is happening behind closed doors and disagree with how he handled the Sobey situation (silence would have been better), but surprised by this and think they can do far worse, and history probably shows they will.

some interesting suggestion by Brad Rosen.

Sammy Mc & CJ will come into the fray... But I am interested to see if D. Ruck puts his hand up ...

Please no Chase Buford


????

Can't imagine Sam Mc after the show from previous wasn't he then replaced by Greg V. CJ in China certainly a potential addition.

On the current staff there are two former NBL HC would they be considered or more attached to Justin and a clear plate needed.

Patrick Ewing jnr has been a Head Coach in Canada National League as well.

Would they be calling Jacob Chance?

I can't imagine this has been made without a list of names will be interesting to see. New facility and Brisbane is an attractive place to go to surely it will have a long list of candidates that are interested.

How about if the derek rucker thing to the bullets proves to be true. Any chance bullets poach PJC?
While batemon was good pre-injury, PJC is next level and a true MVP candidate. Ruck and PJC have a level of respect already, ruck was a PG so should know how to coach PJC and with Prather, Harrison plus another import next to them this could be a team to look out for next season.
A high level defensive minded four man(if Bannan does not come back as rumoured) who can hit the 3 ball or if Bannan comes back a flat out scorer in the 2-3 spot who can come off the bench to take all the second team shots(ala ian clarke/kouat noi)
If they can fill in around the edges this would be a solid roster. They already resigned Sam McD, they should try to keep smith-milner, norton and bairstow(culture) and get a next star plus some mid-level aussie talent(drmic/shaun bruce types) and they are on their way.

Schuler recruited all these injured players, Gleeson wouldn't have, it’s a silly debate...

RobT should actually watch some Brisbane games or even basketball in general, Brisbane
had a terrible start, including the imports and were being compared to the winless Geelong team from the late 80’s, search for the thread.

Well Olgun reckons there will be a coach merry go round and only Forde is sitting on one of those wooden horses at the moment. Forde would unearth talent and construct a competitive roster and would have significantly more $$ to do so.

Could it be a swap of locations. JS to Cairns. Forded to brissy with bigger $ budget. Both are career coaches. One still building resume. Might be worth keeping eye on.

That's just a dumb comment about Schueller recruiting injured players and Gleeson wouldn't. Not like the players had Embiid like history and Gleeson certainly had injured players in his time. The injuries were coincidental and Schueller did a good job handling them. The selection of imports were dodgy, that could be argued, even Prather was a surprising signing but he turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I would say that's why they had a bad start, imports were very inconsistent.
And Forde has something lined up overseas, unless he gets a ridiculous offer why would he say he's helping what would be an opposition club in Cairns finding their new coach.
Be surprised, but maybe Ewing senior could be a surprise candidate. Has plenty of experience and would be a good bit of propaganda for the league.

Yep, Yup. "Brisbane had a terrible start, including the imports and were being compared to the winless Geelong team from the late 80's, search for the thread." No need to. I agree. It shows that Schueller is the best man(HC) for this team, in my eyes. He actually got that roster together and firing so well that many were forecasting finals appearance.

Anyhow, that's done now. Lets see who gets the reins, for the next 2 yrs or so.

"Disappointing how teams become so impatient with coaches these days, it certainly wasn't disastrous this year considering the injuries"

Maybe my memory fails me - haven't there been a couple of clubs recently make midseason changes for the better.

Didnt Illawarra get rid of a guy who wasnt effective Head Coach for someone who is. Didn't SEM Phoenix get rid of another ineffective Head Coach (nice bloke how could they) and put in someone who could do a better job.

Bullets looked disjointed for most of the year, much of it was coaching related, dumb rotations, best players wife hating on the coach during broadcasts, a 7ft centre who was left floating around the 3 point line and a team who wouldnt even pass him the ball. A coach doesnt need 6 assistant coaches, what a joke, clean them all out. Hard to have respect as a coach when you kick a player leaving the club.

JS was supposed to be able to develop players and with his contacts and connections would be able to recruit the best Aussie young talent coming through. Did this happen?

Bullets need a Head Coach who is media friendly (attention), fans can attend the game knowing that the coach and players are going to give their all, who can game coach and get the most out of their squad. The NBL isnt a coach training league.

There are a bunch of Aussie (Kiwi) coaches coaching in Asia, even a WNBL coach who should be considered.

The size of the coaching pay packet may rule out many decent experienced coaches.

Being head of Jnr national and state teams where you are handed the most talented players of your age group is a lot different to being someone who can actually develop and recruit young talent, recruiting especially since they don't have to put up with you as it effect their chances of making said teams.

You could argue his development is not good at all, Rocco has seen his stock drop off a cliff under JS

equally I think the same could be said for the DPs currently on roster.... gotta ask what JS, D.Mac & big Greg have been doing on that front ?

Where is Pero Cameron these days ?

Agree with Billy - the development coach talk for JS never fit when youre the head coach of a National or State team you don't develop you're just making the pieces fit for a tournament.

Not just Greg & DMac, they had another 2 assistants (4 in total) is there a development plan. T.Devers when he got on looked league ready but you'd argue the others not so much.

i think rotations hurt JS, lots of moments in the season he had all imports on the bench and some weird rotations, he turned to his DPs before he went to Issac White in some games which I'm sure is unlikely to make senior players that pleased.

At times Prather & Bannon seemed to not be able to exist on the floor at the same time, and the recruit of Tui seemed a knee jerk reaction and didn't add any value except in the final couple of games.

[Brisbane
had a terrible start, including the imports and were being compared to the winless Geelong team from the late 80's, search for the thread.]

Brisbane actually won the pre-season if memory serves me. Then fell away once the season proper started.

And re imports So what? Batemon turned it around, shot a 50-piece and Brisbane were sitting pretty at 9-8 and (inside the top 4?) before injuries blew it all up.

Plenty of Vickerman's highly touted imports have started poorly- Hopson, Tucker, Trimble, DJ Kennedy- all turned it around and played valuable roles down the stretch of the season. It's perfectly normal for there to be an adjustment period. Brisbane's imports collectively outperformed expectations massively- when you consider Prather.

What a nothing episode of nbl now today, Hooley had on d mac, any questions on why it took place, no just all nbl line stuff. Rubbish, at least Lowery, Gaze and one or two others say what they think or ask decent questions.

Dunkman, agree that there was no substance to the podcast but a bit harsh when you compare a "club" man's (DMac) response with the response from an uncommitted (meaning; no club loyalties they have to conform to) pair (Lowery, Gaze and one or two others) of media commentators whose job it is to comment, with bias (stir), where-ever possible.

Well said Rob

This league is very very competitive and coaches feel that heat big-time. Not many are secure at all in their roles. Justin Tatum probably has a few years security on the back of proving his credentials the past 15 months. Vickerman of course is probably the safest but he's had to coach his backside off at times to ensure United finish well placed heading into finals. Rillie similar and has few credits in the bank. Goorj looked like the game has passed him. Schuller didn't appear to do a huge amount wrong, I think he's just a victim of a super competitive environment and management impatience. Also I wonder if they may have seen him as a cheap option for 2 years while their preferred coach became available. It will be an interesting watch. The evidence suggests he did well with the vets, OK with Bannan and Harrison and as for Rocco? Schuller never looked at playing he and Harrison on the floor in tandem, so that was always reducing Rocco to 10-12 min per game. And that's really hurt his stock unfortunately. Kid has a huge future though. I also agree that "development" is rubbish when you're coaching international junior tournaments. Too much was made of that. 2 seasons though, is not really enough to see the fruits of their development work.

Coach pressure ratings.

Heading into next season:

Minimal pressure- Vickerman, Roth, Tatum, King

Moderate pressure- Rillie, Goorjian

High pressure- Wells, Kop

A championship would move any of Vickerman, Tatum, Rillie or King down a level. From moderate pressure to minimal. Or from moderate to minimal.

A poor semi final showing (say an uncompetitive sweep) would move Rillie into high pressure and Tatum into moderate pressure, but probably wouldn't move the dial for Vickerman or King.

A championship would move any of Vickerman, Tatum, Rillie or King down a level. From *minimal pressure to almost zero*. Or from moderate to minimal.

Your team is having a bad start, do you turn to a raw tall kid that runs out of steam after 5 minutes to save the season? He gets muscled out of the post a lot, can't space the floor and really is just good for putbacks ATM. Just because he's 7 3 and can walk and talk at the same time, not for long though, he's got too much hype. If Taco was coming through the system he'd have the same hopes.
Currently he's not good enough for extended minutes, just like most next stars. Certainly can come on and change a game with his size, but no team in the league is building around him, including Cairns. He's basically Luke Schensher, needed to go to college for a few years and develop there. If he was good enough don't you think a semi desperate Schueller would have played him more.

Schueller been treated very harshly. My opinion. Another year and then ok not happy sack him. But 2 with squad plagued with injury. Clubs need to stick tough sometimes. 3 years is a min sample size and yes agree should be same for Wells before people arched up again. Give these guys opportunity to build. Stability builds bridges. Perth stuck tight with Rillie despite the restlessness of the hawkers looking for a cheep feed.