Sydney coach Andrew Gaze wants his team to find more ways to exploit the strengths of gun centre Andrew Bogut after the prized recruit showed glimpses of his best in their 106-101 NBL loss to the Adelaide 36ers.
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Bogut (16 points, 11 rebounds), who fouled out with six points in Friday night's defeat to the Sixers, was outpointed by Daniel Johnson early and looked in trouble when he racked up three fouls in 56 seconds early in the second quarter.
After sitting out the remainder of the half, the 695-NBA game seven-footer responded with a magnificent third term, swinging the momentum the Kings' way with his scoring, rebounding, passing and defending.
That's the version of Bogut that Gaze wants to start seeing regularly.
"Slowly but surely his game is getting better, getting acclimatised to it and getting a better understanding of the rules," Gaze said.
"He was eight-of-10 (shooting) but a lot of them were gimme putbacks.
"We've got to find a way to get him more involved and exploit his skills.
"To Adelaide's credit, they did some stuff to take him out of his comfort zone but we also did some stuff to take him out of his comfort zone.
"His numbers were pretty good across the board, offensively, on the glass.
"He's an elite passer bit it's about balance and we don't quite have the balance right. He's only going to keep on improving."
As was the case in last weekend's season opener, Sydney made last season's grand finalist work hard for their victory and aside from some chequered defence - particularly in the first half - Gaze was pleased with what he saw.
"There's a lot to like but it's hard when you're 0-2," he said.
"We've got to keep this in perspective and keep moving forward."
Australian Associated Press
