Stu Lash surprise may be NBL's biggest gamble

The Brisbane Bullets just bought the ultimate lotto ticket.

There’s been many words tossed around from past players and coaches on social media, the media and even fan groups since the Bullets announced their decision to hire Senior Basketball Advisor Stu Lash as their new head coach.

Surprising, shocking, out of the blue and much, much more.

But the one that sticks out the most to me is … it’s a massive GAMBLE.

The city of Brisbane may have a new casino but I thought the decision makers at the Bullets were done being players at the poker table.

Having made the playoffs just once since their return to the NBL in 2016, Brisbane’s decisions have been reminiscent of someone addicted to a game of chance since Andrej Lemanis departed at the end of the 2021 season.

Hiring Sydney Kings assistant coach James Duncan was a gamble. One that went horribly, firing him five games into his second season.

Hiring Melbourne United coach Justin Schueller was a gamble – even though the Bullets made improvements under the two-time championship deputy with Melbourne United. He was shown the door two years into a three-year contract.

Both had one thing in common. No head coaching experience at the NBL level.

And despite being agonisingly close to a play-in appearance in the past two seasons under Schueller, hopes were high for Bullets fans as the club, boasting a “win now” message, started an extensive coaching search looking to change the fortunes of a franchise known for its recent mediocrity rather than the glory days of the mid-to-late 1980s and 2007.

Boy did the quality coaches come out of the woodwork. Two-time championship coach with the Kings in Chase Buford was reportedly interested but the Bullets weren’t. Then two of the finalists included former New Zealand Breakers coach Paul Henare and David Gomez, who is coaching the Toyama Grouses in Japan.

Around the NBL community, the coaching fraternity and probably the basketball scene in general, you’d struggle to find a man with a better reputation than Henare.

The current coach of the Shimane Susanoo Magic in Japan was the saviour in waiting right in front of the eyes of the Bullets hierarchy.

“How did they not hire Henare?”

“Paulie (Henare) would’ve been the perfect fit for what Brisbane need.”

Those are just some of the messages I’ve been sent from prominent NBL figures in the past three days.

Henare is someone who commands respect, has the technical and tactical knowledge for the elite level but also the one quality he has more than anything, speaking to people who know the New Zealand basketball legend, is he’s a culture builder.

Something that is a must to succeed in the NBL. Look at the Illawarra Hawks. Justin Tatum is all about culture, which is a word thrown around too much sometimes in sport but it is necessary.

What is the culture at the Brisbane Bullets at the moment?

The Bullets haven’t had a clear identity since their return almost a decade ago. Maybe they did a little bit under Lemanis, but it was hardly one that had Brisbane basketball fans eager to spend their hard-earned money to turn up.

On top of everything, there’s no doubt choosing Henare would have had a positive impact on Brisbane’s Kiwi players, such as Tyrell Harrison and Tohi Smith-Milner. And given southeast Queensland’s strong Polynesian community, you probably make the Bullets bandwagon more attractive to more fans as well.

David Gomez is not well-known in Australia, but the Spanish coach took a Shiga Lakes team featuring Australian Brock Motum to the Japanese B2 championship last season before moving to Toyama.

Motum speaks of Gomez as a Josh King type. Not a bad comparison, considering King led the South East Melbourne Phoenix to the playoffs after looking like cellar dwellers before firing Mike Kelly.

So considering the “win now” message out of the Bullets and the quality of candidates they spoke to in the coaching search, throwing them to the side and choosing from within with the appointment of Stu Lash could go down as one of the biggest gambles in NBL history. Especially considering the extensive search for a new leader stretched all over the globe, only to then choose from within the club's four walls with someone who started the process as one of the chief decision-makers.

Lash has no head coaching experience at the professional level.

Yes, he has a long history of involvement in the NBA, serving on George Karl's staff at the Denver Nuggets, where he started in the video department before transitioning into an assistant coaching role.

His time was mainly spent in front office roles, where the relationships side of basketball or sport is essential. In his introductory press conference, Lash stressed how much relationships and communication would be as he starts his first professional head coaching tenure.

“My values are family, wellness, work. If things don't fall into that box, it's not for me. I'm on no social media, I'm hardly online, everything I do goes into those,” he said on Thursday.

“Who I am as a person will translate into who I'm going to be as a coach. Leadership, empowerment and communication. My leadership with the playing group, empowering our coaching staff.

“I think the role of the head coach has evolved over the last few years, you know, with the way you have to treat professional athletes as grown men and understanding who they are as people so you can really tap into them and get the best out of them.”

Yes, in the modern day of professional sport and basketball, relationships and being a quality man manager is more essential than ever. But doing it in a front office role, compared to being the man in the fire, on the sidelines, when it’s you who’s accountable for everything that happens on the court is a completely different set of circumstances.

What’s your demeanour going to be when the chips are down and you’re trailing the defending champion Illawarra Hawks by 20 on the road in your second game in three days? What is your message going to be?

Those are the questions that Lash will be faced with when the NBL26 season tips-off.

One thing you do get from the 48-year-old New Yorker after meeting him and hearing his responses to some tough questions after the shock announcement, is a man who seems up for the challenge.

“I wish we played tonight. I'm ready to go. Excitement is high. The energy is there. I'm just hungry to compete,” Lash told reporters.

In recent seasons, especially under CEO Malcolm Watts, membership is up, attendance is up, merchandise sales are up and attendance is up – the Bullets were selling out Nissan Arena even when they were at the bottom of the ladder and obviously attendance numbers have increased with the move to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. The attendance, despite their ladder position, was something that led Australian basketball icon and Sydney Kings co-owner Andrew Bogut to call the Bullets a sleeping giant.

But the one thing they need to cap all of that off – on court success.

Brisbane sports fans follow a winner unlike anyone else around the country. Win and the people turn up. Lose or don’t compete, and they will be happy to stay home. And it’s that need that makes Lash’s appointment even more of a gamble but one that Watts is happy to stand by.

“I made sure that I was ultimately accountable,” the chief executive said at the press conference.

“Where we've landed, I think through the process, has been the right decision and we'll stand by it.”

The decision wasn’t a popular one amongst Bullets fans, as shown by the posts and comments in fan groups for the club and even messages from season ticket holders to myself. The mood is sombre at the moment and despite having a core of Casey Prather, Tyrell Harrison, Sam McDaniel, Mitch Norton and Tohi Smith-Milner under contract, along with import guard James Batemon where there is “mutual interest” in a return, a way to bring back the fans – make a splash in free agency.

The Bullets have missed out on NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova who would have been the perfect man to lead the club's change in identity. So, with him off the market, who do they go after next?

One thing’s for sure, the Bullets management and ownership are still players at the casino. But will they hit the jackpot with Lash and make a long-awaited return to the playoffs? Only time will tell.