Why Weaver didn’t need to console injured Bullet

After playing just 11 games in the past two seasons, many players would be crushed by the news of another six weeks on the sidelines. Sam McDaniel isn’t most players.

One game into his NBL27 campaign, he succumbed to a lower-leg injury. Will Weaver was ready to console him, but McDaniel was already looking ahead.

“You know, I thought that I was going to need to [console him], and then I had a conversation with him and you could just see how clear-minded he was,” Weaver said after Brisbane’s loss to Cairns on Thursday night.

“He recognises that he knows what he needs to do, and we’ve got a great plan in place, and sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”

>> Key Bullet set for another stint on sidelines

Few players have been tested like McDaniel since he joined Brisbane ahead of the 2023-24 season. In that time he has managed only 40 games, and just 11 across the past two seasons.

A shoulder injury ended his 2024-25 campaign just 14 minutes into the opener. In NBL26, an ankle injury in Round 2 sidelined him for nine weeks. This time around, a broken finger cost him the first three games, before his latest setback.

Weaver said the broken finger showed how quickly one injury can lead to another.

“You know, you break a pinky shooting the ball when somebody closes out, and it takes away your conditioning, and it makes it harder to come back and ramp up the way you need to,” he said.

“You hate it for him, right? But it really is luck.

“Like, there’s nothing about ‘Smack’ that’s, he’s not doing anything wrong.”

Weaver said the plan built around McDaniel isn’t just about getting him back on court, but about getting him back better than ever.

“I know he appreciates the support we’ve put around him, and the plan that we’ve got in place is going to return him to career-best fitness during this season,” he said.

“We’ll all be ecstatic when that comes, because we all recognise, you know, we built this team with a big part of it thinking he was going to be a massive piece.

“When that big piece comes back into the mix, we’ll all be excited.”

Josh Duach will continue to suit up in McDaniel’s absence, with the Bullets taking on South East Melbourne next Thursday.