Despite their indifferent start to NBL24 the Perth Wildcats established themselves as one of the teams to beat at the back end of the regular season, and with the re-signing of Kristian Doolittle the same roster, largely, looks set to go around again in NBL25.
Doolittle was announced to have signed a one-year contract extension with the Wildcats following a strong debut campaign with the club, during which he was frequently raised as a Best Defensive Player candidate.
The Wildcats are far from the only club to have taken a head-start on their off-season roster build, but ESPN’s Olgun Uluc says the deal to re-sign the fan-favourite was completed some time ago.
“It’s a one-year deal for Doolittle to stay, talks have been going on basically as soon as the Wildcats knew Doolittle was a really good fit with Bryce Cotton and that team,” Uluc said on NBL Overtime.
“I’m told this was agreed to weeks ago. They wanted to wait until the season ended to announce it, and they keep someone who I think really developed into a star of the NBL, and someone who I think is a star in his role on this team.
It’s really difficult to find imports who can be a connector and be really good role players – I say role player, that’s maybe diminishing him a little bit – but really good fits next to Bryce Cotton and they get to lock him in for one more year.”
The Wildcats now have just three players – Jesse Wagstaff, Jordan Usher and Kyle Zunic – off contract heading into next season, while they hold team options on both Corey and Tai Webster.
Alexandre Sarr is under contract for next season, but will almost certainly be taking his talents to the NBA as one of the top selections in the upcoming draft.
Uluc says Perth will likely be searching for just one import to round out their roster once situations with Wagstaff and the Websters are sorted out.
“The sense we’re all getting is he (Wagstaff) does have a desire to come back for at least one more year. If you look at that roster and the two team options on the Webster brothers, I expect right now and the feel is they’ll pick up Tai and more than likely won’t pick up Corey,” Uluc continued.
“Let’s say Wagstaff comes in for that Webster team option I expect them not to pick up, that’s their entire roster full except for one import … I don’t expect Usher to be back.
“That’s what it looks like the Wildcats are going into free agency with unless they do a situation like they did with Todd Blanchfield and Mitch Norton, maybe buying out a contract, but it looks like their roster is largely done heading into free agency.”
