Michaels embracing point guard life with Wolfpack

Bryan Michaels has been excited by the challenge to grow his repertoire as a point guard this NBL1 West season with the Joondalup Wolves having already proven what a scoring threat he is, and hopes that only makes him more valuable the rest of his career.

Mention the Michaels name to many West Australian basketball fans and Bryan's father Dwayne (Dewey) will bring smiles to plenty of faces for what he did as a championship winner at the Wildcats in 2000 along with also playing in the then SBL at the Perth Redbacks and Rockingham Flames.

Bryan is happy to embrace his father's legacy and gets a kick out of the way he's so fondly remembered, but at the same time he's making his own mark and what he's doing this season with the Wolves has been tremendous.

Having already proven himself a terrific scorer in previous stints at the Lakeside Lightning and Warwick Senators along with in the New Zealand NBL and in NBL1 Central following his college career, it's this point guard role with the Wolfpack that's opened up Michaels' eyes further.

Playing as a point guard this season

Whether it was in college at Concordia in Portland, Oregon or in that first SBL season at the Lakeside Lightning or in his play since in New Zealand, at the West Adelaide Bearcats or last season with the Senators, Michaels had well and truly proven what a scorer he could be.

He just had that natural scorer's mentality where he never saw a shot he didn’t like the look of or that he wasn’t happy to take, and more often than not it would work out well and he could hit the three ball at a good clip, had a mid-range game, and could also take the ball to the rack.

However, when Wolves coach David Morrell put in the call for this 2023 season and said he wanted Michaels to be his point guard, the 27-year-old jumped at the chance.

"When I was first recruited to the Wolves they wanted me to come in and be a point guard, and lead this team," Michaels said. 

"I knew that there was going to be a lot of hungry mouths with a lot of talent on the team even though I didn’t know who was going to be on the roster at that time. 

"But just knowing the club and the history of the club, and who they bring in, I knew we were going to have a lot of talent and offensive threats. 

"I completely embraced that role of distributing the basketball and running an offence, and being that point guard which has been one of the most fun transitions I've had to make in my game. 

"Most of career I've played off the ball in the shooting guard position so to make this transition to the one has been really fun."

Not only is Michaels enjoying the role as a point guard on this Wolves team where it's his responsibility to help ensure that the likes of CJ Turnage, Mathiang Muo, Quintin Dove and Ioannis Dimakopoulos thrive, but he feels it's making him a better player all the time too.

It's taken him right out of his comfort zone from being that two guard who can be given the ball and he just has to worry about either getting a shot up, or creating an offensive play for himself and he's got a point guard putting him in that right position to thrive.

Now it's Michaels who is that player being tasked to create for his team and to run the offence, and it's something he's enjoying more than he ever imagined he could.

"I feel like it's unlocking a new part of the game for me because you have to approach the game differently," Michaels said. 

"When you go out thinking you have to score and every time you catch it on the perimeter you are going to let it fly, it's totally different to now thinking that CJ hasn't touched the ball on a couple of possessions or Quintin is hot so he has to touch it, or finding Mathiang in transition or Ioannis just checked in so let's run a high pick and roll to get him a touch at the 15-foot line. 

"You just have to think a lot more and it's been fun to try and figure it out, and it's been a big learning curve. But I feel like so far in the second half in the season I've started to make it click a little bit, and have been really happy with the way things have progressed."

Making you more attractive to now recruit

While Michaels is focused on the immediate job at hand and that's finishing the season as strongly as possible at the Wolves and making a push for that championship he's craving, he also knows this role as a point guard should help his career flourish moving forward.

Michaels wants to be a basketballer who is able to play all-year round and is happy to do that all over the world should opportunities presents. The fact he can now be that pure scoring and shooting threat as well as a pure point guard should make him all that more enticing.

"That's only going to benefit me going forward. There is going to be clubs who need someone who can shoot at a high level or are going to need someone who can run their system, and get them through to action," Michaels said. 

"So to be able to say I've proven I've been able to score at a high clip and being that off ball scorer, and now hopefully I can say I've played the one this whole season and that I did that at a high level too. So it's only going to help me moving forward I would like to think."

2023 season so far

The numbers of Michaels look good with the 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists a game, and are even better when you consider he's doing it as a point guard with the likes of Turnage, Dove, Muo and Dimakopoulos who he needs to look after.

However, in the bigger picture, he couldn’t be happier with the new home he's found with the Wolves.

"It's been awesome. I'm really liking the Wolves and it's such a professional club," Michaels said. 

"Just the atmosphere they create at their home games and from that standpoint it's just so professional. The locker rooms are awesome, we have workouts with our coaches throughout the week and it's just next level in that regard for me to just hone in on my craft."

While Michaels is enjoying his role as the point guard on this Wolves team and feels he's only continuing to grow into it, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride from a team point of view.

A lot of that just comes down to personnel with the loss of Jonathan Wade on the eve of the season, then big man Dimakopoulos has only come in for the last five games while Michaels and Turnage are the only two players to have played all 17 matches so far.

"From a team standpoint, there's been some challenges blending in new guys. It seemed like essentially from when Jonathan Wade got hurt that we got a new player almost every week and it just took us so long to gel," he said.

"Even now, offensively I think we're the second best team in the league behind Rockingham but defensively we haven’t gelled. It just has taken a little bit for us to kind of get our groove I'd say."

Season-defining stretch the Wolves are in

Joondalup is currently sitting sixth on the NBL1 West table having scored a crucial win last Friday night on the road to the Perth Redbacks in a dramatic and nail-biting contest that even saw Wolves captain Jordan Wellsteed ejected. 

What it did, though, for Joondalup was stop a three-game slide against Perry Lakes, Geraldton and Rockingham, and Michaels is now hoping they can build on that in the run towards the playoffs.

"Man, it was a huge and we knew that what we are in the middle of now was going to be the toughest run of our season," Michaels said.

"We had Perry Lakes were No. 1 on the ladder at the time, then at Geraldton, Rocko and Redbacks, and now Warwick to come this weekend all back-to-back. We've got Kalamunda to come too and they beat us the first time we played them. 

"So we knew this would always be our toughest stretch of the season so it was honestly huge for us to get that win just to say that we can gel and match these top teams. We just had been coming up against really good teams who were really hot."

On the back of that victory last Friday night against the Redbacks, the Wolfpack take on the Senators at HBF Arena Joondalup this Saturday night in another massive game.

Not only is it crucial for the season of both teams with the Wolves currently sixth at 10-7 and the Senators seventh at 9-8, Michaels can't wait to face his former team once more.

"I think we both know going into it especially because there's that rivalry and I played there, it just adds to it definitely," he said. 

"It makes me way more excited to play in these sort of games. I'm friends with all those guys on the team and they are some of my boys, and nothing would make me happier than to give them a loss and a couple of buckets at the same time."

What keeps you coming back to Perth

While Michaels has also spent a season playing at Auckland Tuatara in the NZ NBL and also spent time at the West Adelaide Bearcats in the NBL1 Central in 2021, it's Perth that has made him feel the most home away from home.

It might be quite different from where he grew up in Montana or where he went to college in Portland at Concordia, but given what a great time his father had at the Perth Wildcats, it's always been somewhere special for him.

Michaels did begin life as a professional after college at the Lakeside Lightning back in 2018 and then had a season as a development player in the NBL at the Wildcats before a phone call from former 'Cats assistant and Senators coach Luke Brennan came at just the right time.

He made his return to the west last year to play at the Senators and then couldn’t wait to return somewhere in 2023, and was delighted to be able to make it happen at the Wolves.

"The first time I came to Lakeside it was my first opportunity really after college. There was a connection there and it was my first opportunity to get overseas and get to Australia, and I thought it was a no-brainer and wanted to make it happen," Michaels said.

"Then from there, I had an injury and then COVID had happened, and I really wasn’t sure if I would get another chance with the West Australian border closed, the 14-day quarantine and everything. 

"So I didn’t know if I'd get the chance to play again, but Luke Brennan reached out and they needed a shooting guard and wanted to know what was going on with me. 

"I was ecstatic to get that call and wanted another chance to play in this league because I just didn’t know if it was going to be able to happen again. I jumped at that opportunity, and luckily played some good basketball with Warwick and that opened up another chance for me to come back with the Wolves this year."

Setting goals for the future

Some players like to let each season take care of itself and just focus on that before worrying about what the future holds, or just like to let their basketball do the talking when teams are looking to make their next signing.

However, Michaels is different and has always been someone who likes to set himself goals and if he was to fast forward, he'd like to have NBL1 West championships, to have played in Europe and to have let basketball help him set up the next stage of his life.

"Man, I'm the most goal oriented person probably to a fault. It probably does more harm than good sometimes, but I do like to set goals," Michaels said. 

"I would say to be on a championship team so to win an NBL1 West championship is definitely high up on that list. I would say I want to play in Europe, that's high on the list and I really just want to use basketball as a platform to set up the rest of my life. 

"I know the ball is going to eventually stop bouncing and you've got to get to the next thing so I want to use basketball to set me up as a business owner or an entrepreneur or maybe even a coach one day. 

"I want to take these life lessons I've learned through basketball and apply them to some area that's going to open up more doors for me down the road. Those are what I would say are my biggest goals."

Your dad's legacy down under

Mention the Michaels name around Perth basketball circles still and the reaction you get thinking back to what Bryan's father Dewey did at the Wildcats including being part of the 2000 championship triumph.

Bryan had heard growing up about what a popular figure Dewey was, but it's only when he sees the reaction he gets when he visits like when he was in town a couple of months ago, that he realises just what a legacy his father left.

Combine that and the fact that Bryan is now able to either play with or against the sons of former Wildcats greats like Cody Ellis, Jerami Grace, Andrew Black, Ethan Vlahov and even play against Aaron Trahair coached teams, and it's all what makes playing here so special.

"It's really special. It's definitely cool and it's a big of a full circle moment for both of us," Michaels said.

"Man, it's so funny when he's here. People come up to him when he visits and just remember him as 'Big Dewey' and talk about watching him play. 

"It's just so funny to me and he made such a big impact on Western Australia and in Perth, and the community. It makes me so proud to be able to now follow in those footsteps in some way. 

"You hear from mum and dad back home about how he did play, and he was a good player and would get the crowd hyped and everything. But then you actually get to see people interacting with him and see those people he impacted, it's pretty cool to see."