Phoenix "Close" to Filling Final Roster Spot

South East Melbourne Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell says the team is “close” to filling their final roster spot for the NBL22 season.

The Phoenix have assembled an impressive squad for their third NBL campaign, headlined by NBA-experienced quartet Mitch Creek, Zhou Qi, Xavier Munford and Ryan Broekhoff.

Their final signing is likely to be an import who can add to their frontcourt mix of Zhou, Creek, Dane Pineau and Tohi Smith-Milner.

Coach Mitchell hopes to secure the final piece of the Phoenix puzzle soon to get the full team gelling together ahead of the December tip-off.

“It’s close,” Mitchell told The Huddle podcast. “We’re right there to finishing this thing off.

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“I’m glad we were ultra-patient to this point. There were times where we could’ve settled on somebody and we didn’t – it’s like, ‘no, we’ve got to get that guy that’s going to fit us culturally as well as the skillset he brings’.

“We’ve got it down to four or five names we’re really keen on. There are guys who have fallen out of the NBA right now that you’ve got to add to the whiteboard and dip your toe in the water and ask the question.

“We’re excited and hopefully we’ll have something real soon.”

The Phoenix’s official pre-season preparations got underway at the State Basketball Centre last week.

It was the first time the team had formally trained together since their thrilling semi-final defeat to eventual champions Melbourne United.

Mitchell explained how he plans on using the team’s first finals run to inspire the group heading into the new season.

“I haven't gone through the film of game three yet,” Mitchell said.

“I've watched patches of it and it's really just through doing individual stuff, but not the game from start to finish, I want to save it. When we get our full crew here, I want to watch it together with the team.

“I also want to watch game two with the team because I think there was a level of intensity that we played at…I felt like it was the first time we were at a level that we need to be at to be a championship calibre team.

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“I want to share those moments with the team, so I've held off on really going through those games to this point.”

Mitchell believes the Phoenix need to take lessons from those two games to take care of their unfinished business.

“I know that we've reached a level as a club that we need to build on, we need to bottle and harness, and that's got to be the baseline for us moving forward,” Mitchell said.

“We've talked about that this week as a group, and I think there was a general consensus amongst the returning players that it was a bit of unfinished business for us.”

South East Melbourne tip-off their season on December 4 against the Illawarra Hawks at 5:30pm AEDT at John Cain Arena.

Phoenix Media (18/10/2021)