D-Ruck goes scorched Earth: 'I hope they lose all their games'

Last updated: September 14, 2026.
Tana Kopa is on the chart from 6 September, on Peter Brown's instruction and the club's own signing release, which calls him a West Australian guard signed as a development player on a two-year deal. He was named in this note rather than placed until now because no position had been published. The column is ours, not the club's: the release says guard without saying which, and the point-guard column is already three deep, so he is shown at shooting guard.
Brandon Knight fills the point guard slot Perth had been holding all pre-season, and completes the roster. The Wildcats signed the 34-year-old on 14 September, days out from the season, ending a pursuit that began 18 months earlier when he was first linked to the club as an injury replacement for David Duke Jr. He was the eighth pick of the 2011 NBA draft, out of Kentucky, and played 451 regular-season games across a decade for Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Houston, Cleveland and Dallas. He takes Perth's third import place alongside Dylan Windler and Kristian Doolittle. Last season he averaged 18.0 points and 6.3 assists in 20 games for Mets de Guaynabo in Puerto Rico, the club Bryce Cotton also played for. Jaron Rillie is still recovering from hamstring surgery, which is why he sits behind Knight rather than beside him.
Jimmy Whitt has signed as a nominated replacement player on a one-year contract. The 6ft 3in guard arrives from the Gold Coast Rollers, for whom he averaged 22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists a game before they swept Ipswich 2-0 in the NBL1 North grand final series. He is named here rather than placed in the rotation because the club has not given a position, and he carries no import marker because his classification has not been stated. Blake Nielsen has had a reconstruction on a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and the club expects him to miss the entirety of the 2026-27 season, so he moves from the depth chart to the note; he remains a development player on the roster and neither he nor Whitt counts against the eleven. Marley Sam has a sprained ligament in his wrist and will be reassessed in two weeks, a timeline that keeps him available well before the season opens, so he is still projected as the third-string point guard. Angus Brandt fills the back-up centre spot this chart previously carried as an unfilled local slot; his depth position is our projection, not the club's. Anthony Dell'Orso, signed for three years out of the NCAA, is projected to start at shooting guard ahead of Elijah Pepper. Knight’s own placement is not a projection: Peter Brown and the club both name him as the starting point guard.
3 of the 13 players shown are imports; 2 of the 13 players shown are development players; 1 of the 13 players shown is a player carrying an injury.
The roster is full: all 11 contracted spots are taken. 13 players are shown above; 2 development players sit outside that cap and do not count against it.
On the roster but not projected in the rotation above: Jimmy Whitt (nominated replacement player); Blake Nielsen (development player, out for the season).

Positions run across the top and depth runs down, so the top row is the projected starting five. A dash means no player is currently projected in that slot. Where a club has not named a position, the placement shown is our reading and the detail above says so.