'Bryce stopper': It's all Kings' men but X-Factor emerges

• ‍Why Kendric Davis should have won his first MVP‍
• 'Craig, Torrey Craig': Title X-Factor clamps Cotton‍
• 'Bromance is over': Bryce vs KD rivalry to explode

First, it was Gerald Wilkins as the “Jordan stopper”, then it was Ruben Patterson as the “Kobe stopper”, and now it’s Sydney Kings import, Torrey Craig, who will be part of the Kings platoon given the job on Adelaide 36ers superstar Bryce Cotton in the NBL26 Grand Final Series starting today.

Craig, 35, hasn’t been dubbed the “Bryce stopper”, but he was brought in when one of the league’s best defenders, Bul Kuol’s season ended with a knee injury mid-NBL26.

NBA veteran and NBA Finalist Craig was the NBL Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 before going to the NBA.

Game 1’s hype focus will be on Cotton vs Kendric Davis — one and two in the spicy MVP voting — but it will be the job Craig does on Cotton that will decide the five-game series.

But as Wilkins found out against Michael Jordan and Patterson against Kobe Bryant: Jordan took it personally and dropped 43 on Wilkins and the Cavaliers; and Bryant averaged more than 29 against Patterson’s teams at a time when average NBA scores were in the 90s.

Craig, who is a veteran of 538 NBA games, is 1.96cm and 100kg, and Cotton is 1.82m and 76kg. That’s a 14cm, 25kg advantage on top of Craig’s 6’11 (2.11m) wingspan.

Elite size matters, but Craig will need every bit of it as Cotton chases another title after winning his sixth MVP award.

Bryce Cotton NBL26 By the Numbers

• Scoring jump: +2.8 ppg vs career — elite high-usage offensive year.
• Playmaking leap: +2.9 apg — almost three more assists vs his career
• Efficiency bump: +1.9% FG and +1.4% FT vs career.
• Workload spike: +2.8 minutes per game — minutes are up because he makes the 36ers go.
• Defensive activity: +0.3 steals — more minutes correlate to an increase in steals.
• Turnovers rise: +0.8 — natural trade-off with more minutes and more assists.

Craig has gone up against Cotton, 33, once this season. He arrived for the January 22, 2026 clash against the Tasmania JackJumpers and then three days later laid down a marker, pouring in 26 points, and pulling down eight boards in Sydney’s 106-101 win. Cotton won the scoring title with 26.2 points per game. He scored 17 points on 41.7% from the field, almost four per cent down on his regular season average.

In four games against the Kings, Cotton has averaged 16.3 points and 36% from the field, which is his lowest against any club in NBL26. Seven-time NBL Coach of the Year Brian Goorjian has multiple options to send at Cotton, including Craig, Makuach Maluach, Jaylin Galloway and relentless NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova.

Don’t forget, Dellavedova spent a ridiculous amount of time chasing around Golden State Warriors’ “Splash Brothers” Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the NBA Finals.

“He [Cotton] is an incredible basketball player, and if you don't do something about that, you're not going to win the series,” Goorjian said.

“He [Delly’s] a definite factor [in limiting Cotton]. We've played them four times, and the last one, we didn’t have him or Bul Kuol as our primary guy.

“Delly's been incredible, and all that's been talked about prior to how we've moved forward.

“You look at the last series, and you look at a guy like [Kristian] Doolittle, who is 6'8", 240, and he was our answer.

“[Or others like Nathan] Sobey or Bryce Cotton, these are all great players, the all-NBL players, and he has been heavily involved in that [being the defensive answer].

“He did a phenomenal job in Game 2 and was instrumental in that, so having him with you as far as executing your game plan offensively and defensively is huge, and he'll be a key part of it.”

Read: Goorjian has options.

Tactical Tale of the Tape

Craig Advantages

• Defensive versatility – can switch 1–4
• Efficient catch-and-shoot spacing
• Physicality on drives and rebounding

Cotton Advantages

• Elite pick-and-roll shot creation
• Deep three-point range off the dribble
• Playmaking volume and clutch usage
• Tempo control in half-court sets

Series Matchup Dynamics

• Craig is likely to spend stretches as a primary Cotton defender in switches.
• Kings will try to force Cotton into contested pull-ups late in the clock.
• Adelaide will hunt cross-matches in transition to avoid Craig’s length.
• Foul pressure on Craig could impact Sydney’s wing depth rotations.

The Analytics

This is not a like-for-like matchup — it’s a system vs star confrontation.

• Craig’s value rises when Sydney plays fast and spreads the floor.
• Cotton’s value rises when Adelaide slows games and runs half-court actions.

If Craig and the platoon Goorjian sends at Cotton holds him to below 43% shooting, Sydney’s probability of winning swings significantly.

“The biggest threat is just how talented they (Kings) are,” Cotton said on SEN earlier this week.

“They love to play off talent, so we have to understand there are going to be certain guys that want to play one-on-one, and we’re going to have to make it tough for them. Because once they see one or two easy baskets flow, that’s when they can start taking the heat-check threes and all of a sudden they’re feeling really good. So we need to try to eliminate those.”

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NBL26 Championship Schedule

Game 1
Sydney Kings vs Adelaide 36ers
Saturday, March 21 – 7pm AEDT
📍 Qudos Bank Arena
📺 ESPN & 10 Drama

Game 2
Adelaide 36ers vs Sydney Kings
Friday, March 27 – 7:30pm AEDT
📍 Adelaide Entertainment Centre
📺 ESPN & 10 Drama (Sydney & Adelaide)

Game 3
Sydney Kings vs Adelaide 36ers
Sunday, March 29 – 2:30pm AEDT
📍 Qudos Bank Arena
📺 ESPN & Channel 10

Game 4 (if required)
Adelaide 36ers vs Sydney Kings
Wednesday, April 1 – 7:30pm AEDT
📍 Adelaide Entertainment Centre
📺 ESPN

Game 5 (if required)
Sydney Kings vs Adelaide 36ers
📍 Qudos Bank Arena – Details TBC
📺 ESPN

“Me and DJ are going to have to make sure we share our wisdom and our perspective throughout this series because we’re the only guys on the team that have won championships,” Cotton added.

“All of our experiences are going to be useful knowledge to the team, and even reminders to ourselves of just kind of staying calm, staying in the moment, no matter how things are going.

“But it’s an exciting point — the rest of the league is done, guys are back home, and now there are two teams left.”