Down but not out: Positivity in Plymouth despite stuttering start
Overhaul to a roster is nothing new when it comes to the Plymouth City Patriots, last season saw the team change seemingly on a weekly basis with so many players coming and going from the Pavilions.
This summer saw coach Paul James take the radical choice of bringing back the bare bones of a roster that had only won three games in 2023. At the time of writing the team has recorded one win so far this campaign, coming against the Sheffield Sharks, but that doesn't really tell the whole story with the new-look Devon team coming close against the Riders and Giants.
This new and exciting Patriots squad has, so far, played on the front foot in the early stages of games and played with a style of play that hasn’t been seen in Plymouth since.... well ever.
Last term, the focus on offence was getting the ball into Captain Elvisi Dusha’s hands and for him either knock down a long range three, or play in big man Rashad Hassan, and letting him back down a defence and posing a threat in the paint.
Towards the end of the previous campaign, this offence’s weakness was exposed. That, paired with an inability to rebound the ball on both ends of the court, lead to the Patriots giving up cheap points and then being unable to find ways to score.
This time out Elvisi Dusha isnt team’s sole ball handler with Taylor Johnson, TJ Atwood and Mason Faulkner all more than happy to take on this role. This potent style, with four players happy to play the point, leaves the others to attack the perimeter or drive to the hoop and the crash the offensive boards. This was demonstrated to lethal effect in the dying moments of the game with the Sharks seeing Taylor Johnson dealing the ball out to a free Mason Faulker, who sunk what turned out to be the game winning points.
Taylor Johnson, of course, came to the club after a glittering career in the NBL, but the signing of Faulkner and Atwood was some what of a mystery to the Patriots faithful. To say the pair haven't taken long to make themselves known in the league would be an understatement.
Faulkner is averaging 18 points a game and shooting just under 50% from three-point range, coupled with Atwood’s 17 points a game and you have the making of an offensive tandem that, outside of the bigger clubs, could be crucial to the Patriots’ play off push this season. Throw in the abilities of Taylor Johnson to seemingly make plays at any given moment, Dusha sniping from three-point range, and you have a dynamic quadruple-threat.
On the defensive end the Patriots have, at times, struggled. The Flyers games have exposed that. Since that painful night in Bristol, things have started to click into place at times. Jacob Wiley has filled the role of being the lynch pin of the team’s defence, averaging four defensive rebounds a game and, at the time of writing, is ranked fourth in the league for average blocks per game with 1.5. The Patriots also currently lead the league in blocks with 21, the all concurring Lions sitting second with 19.
Although things are much brighter with the potential for the Patriots to have the making of a very competitive team, with young and exciting players, with youth does come some downside. The team is turning the ball over far to easily and putting pressure on itself. There is also some frustration on the drop off in talent within the players coming off the bench, that is something that although fans can be frustrated with.
A club of the Patriots’ size and budget limitations means that they will also struggle to get a roster filled with seven or eight players of the quality needed to compete at the top end of the league. Time will tell if that is somthing that can change, but in the here and now, the roster will need to be greater than the sum of its parts if the Patriots are the have a sucessful season.
For a one-win team, spirits are high within the league’s most southernly club. Fans can finally see signs of a brighter future on the court, the issue has never been finding talent that wants to play for Coach Paul James but keeping hold of them once they approached by another club mid-season.
This team does feel different, with the players freely mingling with fans and the reaction after the win against the Shark,s showed a group that wants to be at the club and buy into the community that has been created in the last two years of the clubs existence.
The Patriots way has been one of a bumpy ride. Inf act, that is something that has been ingrained in Plymouth basketball for decades now. As has been seen with the Riders and Flyers, a traditional season can be one that is filled with frustrations, many lows but some great hights along the way.
Patriots fans will as always turn out in numbers to support their club, they just hope that this time they have the seeds of a team that can grow into one that will compete with teams that currently have bigger resources and budgets than their own. Like with everything only time will tell what this chapter in the league’s youngest club holds.