NBL champion praises 'ridiculous' Cotton

He's done it before and will most likely do it again.

Yet the NBL is still in awe of the scoring greatness of five-time MVP Bryce Cotton after his 53-point performance against Cairns.

That effort was the second-best during his 10 seasons in the NBL, seeing his average for the 2025-26 campaign climb to 30.7 points per game, which is a career high.

During Monday's NBL Overtime, Pete Hooley called the three-time champion's effortless scoring nature and efficiency a 'joke'.

"[When watching] you just get to turn into a fan and just enjoy the way he [Cotton] goes about it," NBL champion Hooley said.

"It's not so much the 53 points, the scoring, it's how easy he makes it look. It should not be this easy to score the ball at this rate in the NBL or any professional league.

"Go back three years when someone scored 40, it's the biggest headline of the month, but now he's normalised it, which is ridiculous. It is a true pleasure to watch and I hope we don't take it for granted."

As 'ridiculous' as his individual play has been, Hooley's NBL Overtime colleague Damon Lowery has called for more support from his Adelaide teammates if the 36ers are going to make a deep finals run.

"I feel like they [Adelaide] can win regular season games, but can they win a playoff series?" NBL champion Lowery said.

"Can they beat Melbourne United three times in a championship series? I don't think so, but other teams possibly.

"Maybe Bryce can win a series [by himself], but we saw him [in recent years] in Perth and he couldn't do it by himself. These guys [Bryce's teammates] are going to have to stay on the right track with the right attitude.

"We hear it every year, like a broken record, that it's Bryce or bust, and we saw it in their shock loss to Sydney that there is going to come a time when others are going to need to shine."

The 36ers, who sit in second with a 5-1 record, take on league-leaders Melbourne United at John Cain Arena on Sunday.

The Indigenous Round fixture tips off at 2.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN and Channel 10.