Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie conceded his team is being affected by the absence of their point guards after they opened their season with a 21-point loss to South East Melbourne Phoenix.
And his admission came after Phoenix coach Josh King revealed he had emphasised the importance of applying defensive pressure on a Wildcats side without either of their dedicated ball-handlers to his players.
Perth only signed American veteran Brandon Knight on the eve of the season, and the 34-year-old watched his new side suffer a 100-79 loss at RAC Arena on Saturday night as his preparations to come to Australia continue.
Meanwhile, Jaron Rillie — who showcased an ability to run offence in his first professional season last year — is sidelined by a calf injury.
Rillie said the absences were not ideal in the short term, but he hoped increasing the play-making burden on the rest of their roster would prove beneficial for their development.
“I’ve got to coach the team that I have available. Us as a group, we can only manufacture what we can with the bodies available,” Rillie said.
“As you saw (on Saturday), we had some periods where we functioned great, but then there are moments where having a point guard that understands what the game needs in that moment would be helpful, but that’s not who we are.
“We need to continue to grow and move forward. Different guys get different experience at understanding what this is about now.”
Without Knight and Rillie, Elijah Pepper was the main Wildcat tasked with advancing the ball into the front-court, but had to do so while regularly facing full-court pressure from a Phoneix press led by NBA draft prospect Dash Daniels.
King said he was pleased with how his side disrupted the rhythm of Perth’s “really good guards”.
“(Anthony) Dell’Orso, it was his first game, but he’s really talented, and Pepper’s really talented, so we wanted to try and wear them down,” King said.
“It is something we talked about, just not letting them get any easy opportunities.”
Much of Perth’s play-making responsibility on the night fell to star forward Kristian Doolittle, who completed a line of 25 points and six rebounds by dishing out seven assists to go with only one turnover.
When asked if his side would now lean even more into Doolittle’s ability to act as a distributor, Rillie said they were conscious of not overburdening the All-NBL First Team member.
“Doo’s role, his abilities, it doesn’t really matter who’s on the floor,” he said.
“We’re asking a lot of him to do that on a regular basis, when we’re asking him to defend, rebound, run offence, score — that’s a lot to ask of one guy over the course of 30, 35 minutes in a game.
“We need to find ways that we can allow the game to be a little easier for him.”
