{"id":417538,"date":"2026-01-16T19:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/417538\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T19:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T19:40:10","slug":"the-ultimate-professional-primed-to-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/417538\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe ultimate professional\u201d primed to deliver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide coach Mike Wells says it remains unclear what role, if any, new signing John Jenkins will play in Sunday\u2019s top-of-the-table clash against the Phoenix, but he has no doubts about the NBA veteran\u2019s ability to deliver when called upon.<\/p>\n

Jenkins will link up with his new teammates in Perth on Friday night, just 11 days after his last competitive outing with Romanian club CS Valcea 1924, arriving match-fit and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season has been unique. We need to see where he is physically, how he meshes, and make sure he\u2019s ready,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a high-quality opponent and I don\u2019t want to put him in a negative position. We want him ready before we put him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wells has previously worked with Jenkins during Team USA World Cup qualifying windows and knows exactly what level of preparation to expect from a player with 179 games’ NBA experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to see the ultimate professional,\u201d he said of the 34-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll fit our group on and off the court. He has an elite ability to shoot the ball, but he does a lot more than that. I\u2019m excited about mixing him with the group and we\u2019ll see how it looks over these next nine games.<\/p>\n

\u201cA true professional is never out of shape, takes care of their body, and knows everyone else\u2019s job as well as their own. He\u2019s played 14 years as a pro in a lot of different systems. He\u2019s played in FIBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a league he\u2019s wanted to play in. The timing worked. He\u2019s been playing, which is key. He hasn\u2019t been sitting in the States doing one-on-one workouts. I expect him to get his feet under him really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Jenkins joins the squad following the mutual departure of Troy Brown Jr, arriving at a time when the 36ers sit on top of the NBL standings.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s clash with the Phoenix looms as a major test, but Wells insists it is being approached like any other game on the schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in first place now and we\u2019ll be in first place after this game. This is game 25. You have a 50\/50 chance to win by controlling your energy and attitude. It won\u2019t define our season whether we win or lose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe break honestly came at the right time for us. I felt like the wear and tear of the season wore our energy down a little bit. That\u2019s kind of what you saw against Tasmania. You give them full credit for what they did, but a couple of days off helped us reset and recalibrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got back to some basics, had a few practice days in a row where we were focused on ourselves and not thinking about the scout so much. Then you start thinking more about the scout. I think it\u2019s been a good week of preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the 33rd game of our journey. We\u2019ve done our work. If you take care of the things you\u2019re supposed to take care of, you\u2019ll end up where you\u2019re supposed to be at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide coach Mike Wells says it remains unclear what role, if any, new signing John Jenkins will play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-417538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}