Cotton calls Harrell’s exit 'sliding doors moment'

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Adelaide 36ers superstar Bryce Cotton has described the clouded departure of former NBA Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell as a "small sliding doors" moment for a potential fringe NBA player to test themselves in the NBL.

Cotton told SEN Adelaide he expected the 36ers search for a new import would start in the US ahead of NBA training camps.

“I would assume that they gotta come from America — but outside of that I have no idea," Cotton said.

"There’s so many players — there’s so many small sliding-door moments right now where the NBA’s gonna start making some cuts I guess fairly soon — definitely within the next month — but that might be a good window to where you can catch some heavy talent.

"But if not it's a matter of kind of pulling a rabbit out of the hat, ’cause this is a very tricky window right now."

The 36ers had been navigating issues with Harrell regarding a drugs violation while playing in China earlier this year, and pulled him from the exhibition game against Panathinaikos in Sydney last Sunday where he was replaced by Vrenz Bleijenbergh.

Harrell then posted a farewell message to NBL fans: "glad I can say I got to play in the NBL. I appreciate you guys thanks for letting me experience what down under life was like! Thanks for having the monsta goodbye and blessing to all!"

Cotton said the controversy happened so quickly, Harrell and his teammates all struggled for clarity.

"I can’t really talk too much about what happened with Trez ’cause I don’t actually have all the information — everything has happened very fast," he said.

"But in regards to our team, it’s gonna be something that we’re gonna have to do to try to find a player that can obviously match what Trez brought to us.

"But at the same token, I know it opens up a little bit more opportunity as well for Ice — it’s basically a next-man-up mentality.

"It’s very unfortunate, what’s happened — it’s out of all of our control but we gotta focus on the game that we have coming this week and make sure we continue to build off of the benchmark that we set in Sydney last weekend.”

Cotton said he was thrilled to suit up for the 36ers for the first time in the exhibition clash against EuroLeague giants Panathinaikos.

“It felt great, man," he said.

"It felt like it’s taken forever — to finally get that first game out the way, I was just excited to be out there with the guys.

"And I think considering the circumstances of — I think me, Ice and Kenny’s first time out there — I think we gelled very well as a team for the majority of the game.”

The Sixers play their first game of NBL26 on Sunday against the Brisbane Bullets in Adelaide.

NBL26 Round 2 Fixtures

• ‍Thursday, Sept 25 – 7:30pm
  Melbourne United (MEL) vs South East Melbourne Phoenix (SEM) – John Cain Arena‍
• Friday, Sept 26 – 7:30pm
  Cairns Taipans (CNS) vs Brisbane Bullets (BRI) – Cairns Convention Centre‍
• Saturday, Sept 27 – 5:30pm
  New Zealand Breakers (NZL) vs Perth Wildcats (PER) – Spark Arena‍
• Saturday, Sept 27 – 8:00pm
  Illawarra Hawks (ILL) vs Tasmania JackJumpers (TAS) – WIN Entertainment Centre‍
• Sunday, Sept 28 – 2:30pm
  Sydney Kings (SYD) vs Cairns Taipans (CNS) – Qudos Bank Arena‍
• Sunday, Sept 28 – 4:30pm
  Adelaide 36ers (ADL) vs Brisbane Bullets (BRI) – Adelaide Entertainment Centre