Keepin' up with Caitie Jones: NBL1, Germany, WNBL?

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Australian basketballer Caitie Jones has always dreamed of joining her mum Julie Parker as a WNBL player.

It remains her goal, but she has instead committed to another season in Germany to keep developing.

More immediately, she wants to win the 2025 NBL1 East Women's title with the Albury-Wodonga Bandits.

"This year, it (WNBL) wasn’t happening unfortunately," Jones told basketball.com.au.

"Or actually, not unfortunately in the sense that I opted to go back to my same German team for a second season.

"I had a really great situation with the coach there — he was a really good development guy — and I saw my game grow under him in the nine months that I spent there.

"I ultimately decided that I didn’t want to pass up the chance to play for him for a full season, so I thought I’d give it one more go in Europe, play under him and develop under his experience, and make the most of that situation.

"Then after that, my eyes were on entering the WNBL next year, but this step to NBL1 East felt like it had helped my case for sure."

Her mum Julie Parker is a former Perth Lynx player and it was a goal for mother and daughter to be able to say they both played in the WNBL.

But Jones doesn't want to make that leap until she is 100 per cent ready.

Everything she had done to know has been with an eye to helping her development and growth as a player — starting in the SBL (now NBL1 West) at the Warwick Senators before finishing high school and then attending the University of Idaho.

She returned to the Senators and played in the 2019 Grand Final team. Her next development step was to play overseas.

Jones haS done that the past three years — firstly in Egypt, then Luxembourg, and Germany. She had such an enjoyable time in the DBBL at BC Pharmaserv Marburg once Jose Araujo took over as coach that she wanted one more season back there, confident it would leave her fully prepared to enter the WNBL should an opportunity open up.

Jones is playing her first season outside of Western Australia with the Bandits and she was in career-best form with a focus over the next two months on trying to win a title and make it to the National Finals in Canberra.

Spending one more season in Europe

Jones plays a fearless style of basketball, the lightning-quick guard unafraid of physicality and attacking the paint against bigger bodies.

She is equally fearless in chasing her dreams. Jones attended Idaho for two years, and when looking for a first overseas professional opportunity, was willing to enter a challenging environment to play in Egypt for El Tayaran.

She continued to juggle playing in Europe and NBL1, joining the Lakeside Lightning in NBL1 West for 2022 and 2023, and in between played in Luxembourg with Musel Pikes. Then, after her standout 2024 NBL1 season with the Lightning, she went straight to Germany to play with Marburg — and that leap to the DBBL helped her development enormously.

Jones wanted to challenge herself outside of NBL1 West and is now putting up career-best numbers at the Bandits. But said she looked forward to one more season back in Germany once the NBL1 season was done.

Wanting to make the best go of WNBL

A big part of the reason Jones decided to return to Germany for the 2025–26 season rather than chase her WNBL dream immediately was because she had a vision that once she joined the league, she wanted to stay for a long time.

She felt she had improved tremendously in her first season in Germany and was confident of further improvement to be ready for any WNBL offers that might come her way.

"When I thought of entering the WNBL, I wanted to do it when I was absolutely 100 per cent confident in my preparation so that I could join a team and remain there," Jones said.

"I wouldn’t have wanted to just be a one-hit wonder — I would have wanted longevity. So I decided that if I had my way, I wanted to keep developing in Europe and then hope a WNBL chance opened up.

"That didn’t mean I was forever finished with Europe or anything, because you never know what might happen.

"But if I was going to have a run at the WNBL, I wanted to do it with the best possible base so I could make an impact and hold my ground once I got there."

The ultimate goal: play WNBL

As a junior, Jones knew her mum played in the WNBL and she has dreamed of doing the same. Everything she's done since her first senior game with the Warwick Senators at 16 has been geared toward that.

While playing with her hometown Perth Lynx would be ideal — especially with the increasingly limited time she is spending at home — realistically, there wasn’t a WNBL team anywhere in the country she wouldn’t be happy to join.

"I wouldn’t have just defined it as saying playing for Perth was my goal, although I’d say eventually I’d love to see myself playing for the Lynx," Jones said.

"But I would have been open to any WNBL opportunity and that was what I would have jumped at. I wouldn’t have had a preference where — I just wanted to be in the league and that would have been my ideal jump situation."

Joining mum as a WNBL player

Mum was a fine basketball player in her own right and a groundbreaker as part of the early years of the Perth Breakers/Lynx in the WNBL.

At no point, though, did Jones' mum push her to follow the same career path. Instead, she had been her greatest supporter — and one day for the pair to say they both played WNBL would be something special.

"I think definitely it was something I wanted to be able to say that I’d done just like mum did — and she would have liked that too — but she’d never have wanted it to happen just so we could both say we played WNBL," Jones said.

"She just wanted me to succeed in whatever way I’d liked to, but I would definitely have taken a lot of pride in being able to say that I’d followed on from what she’d done."

New experience with Albury-Wodonga

Jones has never been afraid to challenge herself with new things, including going to college at Idaho for two years before Covid ended that prematurely.

After playing her whole career at the Warwick Senators, she shifted in NBL1 West to the Lakeside Lightning — and that was when she really started pushing herself.

Playing and living in Egypt could be daunting for anyone, and it was for Jones but she made the best of that situation in her first overseas opportunity.

It led to opportunities in Luxembourg and Germany.

Returning to Australia in 2025, she felt the best way to continue to grow and push herself was to play on the east coast. She joined the Bandits, where she shone in the fourth-placed team while adjusting to a new lifestyle.

"Obviously I’d never lived in the country before — I’d always been a city kid — but I really enjoyed it," Jones said.

"There was a good community around the Bandits, just being in a border town and with the combination of two separate junior clubs feeding into one team. There was a good pool of players and a good group of juniors coming up to fill our bench. I loved being involved with the club. Living-wise, it was a little different in the country. There was a little less to do, but it was a really good experience."

Playing year-round, all over the world

It was lucky Jones played with boundless energy and enthusiasm, and that she approached life away from the court with the same gusto — because it had been a non-stop, hectic life. There had scarcely been a break from her Lakeside season in 2022, leading into playing in Egypt, then coming straight back to the Lightning in 2023, followed by Luxembourg, and then straight to Germany after her 2024 NBL1 season.

Then it was virtually straight from Germany to Albury-Wodonga earlier in 2025 — and as soon as the NBL1 East season ended (unless they reached the National Finals), she would be right back on a plane to Marburg.

It was a hectic schedule, but the 24-year-old wouldn’t have had it any other way.

"I was seeing Perth less and less every year, which was sad, but I thought I was taking steps in the right direction for sure," Jones said. "Obviously I would have loved to be able to do what I do only out of Perth, but everyone had to find their path and I hoped that in turn it could lead me back home soon enough.

"I enjoyed being away though. Experience-wise, you could play all your years in the West and be a great player and have a great career, but I would have regretted never leaving. The experience part had been the best bit — and living in different places, for sure."

Career-best form right now

Not only did Jones enjoy the new experience of living regionally in Albury-Wodonga — her game was thriving too, and she was in the form of her life in the NBL1 East season.

Jones slotted into the point guard role with imports Brynn Masikewich and Riley Lupfer helping her set up plays. She delivered 25.3 points, 6.1 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game while shooting a career-best 40 per cent from three.

"At NBL1 level, yes, I would say this was the best I’d ever played for sure," Jones said. "I think that was a credit to moving back into the point guard role at the Bandits after I was a bit more on the wing at Lakeside last year. Not that there was anything wrong with that — I enjoyed the wing — but I had a few more possessions with the ball in my hands to create for others. That was the reason why my assist numbers especially went up. I also had a great pool of teammates hitting shots for me too — that always helped."

Championship aspirations with Bandits

Not only was Jones enjoying her personal form with the Bandits, but she also saw no reason why they couldn’t aim to win the NBL1 East championship and make it to Canberra for the National Finals over the next two months.

The Bandits sat in fourth position at 11-4, having won their past three matches, including a 40-point outburst from Jones against the Sydney Comets.

With Albury-Wodonga being the last team to beat the league-leading Manly Warringah Sea Eagles and having already knocked off the Norths Bears, Jones liked how they were shaping up.

"I didn’t know why, but I just had this feeling of confidence that we could make it all the way and win the East," Jones said. "We were in a really good position still inside the top four — which we hoped to solidify over the last three weeks of the regular season — and then we could compete with those other top four teams. We’d already beaten two of them.

"I thought the odds were in our favour in terms of being prepared, and I just believed they would be good contests. It was a tight race, and in my opinion there wasn’t a clear standout team — not just in the top four but across the entire top eight. Even a team like Sutherland could still sneak in.

"In terms of our team, though, I had full confidence in us making it all the way — and I looked forward to potentially getting to the National Finals in Canberra."