A lot of credit for the Adelaide 36ers’ seven-game win streak is going to stars Bryce Cotton, Zylan Cheatham and Isaac Humphries. And rightfully so, with the trio scoring 55 of their team’s 93.2 points a game.
But another key piece has been Dejan Vasiljevic, who has adjusted to his new Sixth Man role with true professionalism.
Since the two-time NBL champion has moved to the bench, Adelaide is 7-0. During that span, Vasiljevic is averaging 10.3 points and 2.7 triples a game.
“It’s just understanding what the role actually is. Obviously, I still do believe I am a starter on any other team. But when you’re playing such good team basketball, it’s all about what you have to do to win. My role is come off the bench,” Vasiljevic said on Wednesday’s episode of NBL Now.
“It doesn’t matter if I score zero points or 20 points, rather just doing whatever you can to get the job done.
“I’ve won in this league before and so has Bryce, so we’re kind of leading the charge of what it actually takes to win.
“It would be awesome that in four months time when March rolls around that we can sit here and have another NBL Now, talking about how the Adelaide 36ers won a championship.
“That will be because everyone played their role to the tee.”
While admitting it wasn’t necessarily easy to adjust to this new role, the Canadian-born 28-year-old compared himself to one of his former championship teammates in Sydney.
“After the first two or three games that I came off the bench, I just kind of thought of Ian Clark,” Vasiljevic said.
“When Ian Clark was with us at the Kings, like he had no ego. He just came in and was prepared to do whatever he had to do to win.
“That’s the mentality I’m kind of going with right now.
“Obviously he’s won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in the past. It would be cool for me to also hold that award but the championship part is the bigger picture for me.”
Vasiljevic’s 36ers travel to Canberra on Wednesday night to face the Sydney Kings from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.
