{"id":695779,"date":"2026-05-26T13:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695779\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T13:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T13:54:13","slug":"gleeson-eyes-defensive-overhaul-in-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/695779\/","title":{"rendered":"Gleeson eyes defensive overhaul in Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He may have only been appointed less than a week ago, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbl.com.au\/news\/trevor-gleeson-adelaide-36ers-coach\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">new Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Trevor Gleeson<\/a> is already making plans about how he is going to improve his roster for next season.<\/p>\n<p>The 36ers have retained a large number of their core players that went to the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL26 Championship Series, including Bryce Cotton, Zylan Cheatham, Flynn Cameron, Isaac Humphries, Nick Rakocevic, Isaac White, and Ben Griscti.<\/p>\n<p>They have also added NBL26 champion Bul Kuol to their squad from rival the Sydney Kings. <\/p>\n<p>Five-time NBL championship-winning coach Gleeson knows his team need to improve on the defensive end to take the next step.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defence has been a little lax, and you\u2019ve got to have a strong defence to get you through some adversity &#8211; injuries or bad patches,\u201d Gleeson said to 36ers Media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s an area we\u2019ll need to tick the box [in Free Agency].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Bul Kuol will help with that, but he\u2019s not going to be there until Christmas [because of his knee injury], so there are three months in the season he\u2019s not going to be there, so that\u2019s going to be a big focal point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to get some role players who are happy to play their role and contribute to the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got some fundamental sound pieces to build from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just need to add some other pieces to complement each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gleeson, who explained he used to support the 36ers during the 1980s, is excited about where the club is situated, both on and off the court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdelaide has built itself up to one of the premier basketball destinations in the NBL. It\u2019s a credit to everyone involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve built this team. It went close last year, but there\u2019s no guarantee that we\u2019ll go close next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got to build something new and strive for excellence to get that championship trophy lifted up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two-time NBL Coach of the Year Gleeson is expected to arrive in Adelaide ahead of the fast-approaching 2026\u201327 season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779803653_241_69d47a153353ed2bdf7cd807_Article Banner_1920x250 (1).jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may have only been appointed less than a week ago, but new Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Trevor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-695779","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\/695779","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=695779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}