'Wipe your *$%& with it': Ruck slams Perth over Bryce

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NBL legend Derek Rucker has taken aim at the way the Perth Wildcats handled Bryce Cotton's free agency as the five-time MVP and arguably the greatest player in franchise history prepares to return to RAC Arena for the first time as an Adelaide 36er on Sunday.

"If I'm Bryce, I would have said 'hey, take this timeline, write it down on a piece of paper and wipe your arse with it'," Rucker declared on the latest edition of 'Cut to the Jase' with Jason Cadee.

It has been well documented the Wildcats gave the three-time NBL champion a timeline to commit to the Wildcats during the offseason, which was something Cotton wasn't willing to meet and instead wanted to take more time to make a decision.

Cotton, 33, deciding to switch allegiances to join Adelaide, Perth's traditional rival, was met with fierce reactions from many Wildcats fans as well as the West Australian newspaper, which published a headline labelling their former star 'The Lying King'.

While Cadee and Rucker both said they hoped the Red Army gave Cotton a standing ovation, both believed there would be some boos throughout RAC Arena.

"You only have to look online to see the high quota of morons in society now," he added.

"There's going to be someone out there in Perth that's like, they feel like Bryce personally aggrieved them, so that they can come out there and just boo the hell out of him on Sunday," he said.

"Someone is going to be really angry and there will be people who have been swung over from being 'we shouldn't have let Bryce go' to seeing some hope with this new group and saying 'yeah we didn't need Bryce because now'.

"There's so many different factors. It's just not like, we didn't want Bryce to go, it's a little bit muddier.

"Now, I would say it's going to be about an 85/15 split, people better get up, if there's more boos, Jason, I'm going to eviscerate the Red Army on TV."

WATCH CUT TO THE JASE IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE

Cadee said the Wildcats' Red Army would be smart not to boo Cotton, or it may work against them with a vintage performance.

"If I'm Perth, I probably don't want the crowd to start booing Bryce. I'd rather them cheer him so he feels like love if they start booing (it could be bad)," Cadee said.

Rucker agreed and said there was certain people in NBL history you should not aggravate

"Let's talk about guys you do not want to boo in NBL history," Rucker said.

"Cotton, Chris Goulding don't boo him, don't boo Shane Heal and don't boo Lanard Copeland.

"They're going to make you pay in a way that that is not going to be good... I would love to be in this situation if I was Bryce going back to Perth, I mean it's not like he doesn't feel comfortable shooting at RAC Arena."

Cotton has almost been in career-best form since his move to the 36ers, leading Mike Wells' team to an 11-3 start for second on the ladder, with averages of 27.1 points and seven assists per game while shooting the three at 42%.

"I always think a bit of your basketball soul erodes when you change teams, but this guy, he either doesn't have a soul or it's just built out of like rock because could you make the case that he's been maybe a better, more complete player this season," Rucker said.

"There were a lot of questions over can he play the point? He's been pretty good. I think he's gotten better since, say, that Sydney game, and I know Mike Wells made some conceptual adjustments so that when they see those hard traps when they see the hard shows and all that, Adelaide now know what to do.

"But I think Bryce's floor management has been really good considering that he hadn't played this much point guard in a in a long time."

Cadee and Rucker picked their mid-season awards on the podcast with both saying Cotton was a short favourite to win his sixth MVP, closing in on the great Andrew Gaze, who has seven.

"Bryce is chasing Drewie (Andrew Gaze) now, that's all that's out there now for his all-time greatness,"Rucker said.

"Yeah, he can add more championships, he could maybe add playing for Australia and then winning eight MVPs. Those are probably the two big things that Bryce Cotton (can do) in terms of you talk about legacy and going down as the greatest ever.

"Andrew Gaze has got seven MVPs, Bryce has five... and at 32, 33-years-old, he's not slowing down, man.

"Eight is really on the cards."