BIO: DJ Mitchell was born in Melbourne (VIC) while his father Mike was playing with the North Melbourne Giants in the NBL. He would follow his father as he played in Germany and France before he retired and the family returned to California. There he grew up in Fresno and attended Buchanan High School in Clovis, California where he was a three-time first-team all-conference honouree with the basketball team. He was also a all-state volleyball player at Buchanan.

Due to his mother having Irish heritage through her grandparents. Mitchell also holds a Irish passport and is eligible to play for Ireland.

FAMILY: DJ Mitchell is the son of Mike Mitchell who played 176 games in the NBL. Mitchell’s mother, Michelle Maher played professional beach volleyball. He also has two siblings, Jaiden and Myca. Myca played volleyball at Wake Forest and Howard.

NBL EXPERIENCE

DJ Mitchell made his NBL debut with the Brisbane Bullets at 25 years of age. He scored 12 points in his first game.

Although he was on the radars of multiple NBL team’s in 2021, he failed to earn a contract and instead spent his first season as a pro playing in the Netherlands. He then played for Gold Coast in the 2022 NBL1 with his play earning a contract from the Brisbane Bullets.

Mitchell joined a Brisbane squad who had finished second last the season prior and loaded during the offseason by adding Boomers big man Aron Baynes and veteran guard Tyler Johnson, who had been teammates while playing in the NBA with Phoenix

Devondrick Walker (via NBL1) was signed as a second import and local talent Harry Froling (via Illawarra), Gorjok Gak (via Europe) and Rasmus Bach (via New Zealand) were also brought into the squad to complement the returning core of Jason Cadee, Tyrell Harrison, Tanner Krebs and captain Nathan Sobey.

The Bullets off-season recruiting saw many in the media pencil them in as a top four team but with the health of both Sobey coming back from a knee injury that had kept him on the sidelines for half of NBL22 and Baynes returning to the court after a neck injury suffered at the Olympics almost left him paralysed, many questioned their ability to stay healthy.

Six games into the season and the Bullets had yet to win a game. Baynes (11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists) was far from the NBA player he was 12 months earlier and Sobey (15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.6 assists) recorded his lowest numbers for points and rebounds in five years.

Brisbane then recorded back-to-back wins, both against Illawarra. The first victory (82-56) on the back of a 17 point, 14 rebound effort from Baynes and the second (86-61) thanks to Sobey, scoring 14 first quarter points and 22 first half points, both career highs. The wins marking the first time Brisbane had won consecutive matches by at least 25-points since February 2007.

A two point victory over a strong Tasmanian team (74-72) gave them a three game winning streak, but just when things started to look positive, the decision was made to release underperforming import Walker (9.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists) and fire head coach James Duncan.

Walker was replaced by Andrew White (7.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.7 assists) and Duncan was replaced by General Manager Sam Mackinnon as interim coach, a move that lasted just three games before assistant coach and former Townsville Crocodile Greg Vanderjagt took the reins for the remainder of the season but the best of the Bullets season was behind them.

Reports of an untenable relationship between Bullets CEO Peter McLennan and Mackinnon become public and during that time, Brisbane suffered two catastrophic losses, one a 37-point loss to New Zealand which saw Sam Mackinnon suffer the biggest loss by a coach on debut since Alan Black in 1989 and the biggest defeat in the history of the NBL – a 49-point beating from Sydney. Brisbane finished second last again (8-20) with three of their eight wins coming against Illawarra, who recorded their worst season ever.

While Tyler Johnson (15.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals) was nominated for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award (won by Barry Brown Jr), it was a season of massive underachievement individually and collectively that saw a mass exodus of players at the end of the year.

During his rookie season, Mitchell had a breakout game early in the season against the defending champions Sydney, finishing with a 20 point, 10 rebound double-double effort. He also recorded a 21 point and 8 rebound performance in a loss against Cairns (82-90). Mitchell finished the season with averages of 9.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.4 assists across 26 games.

DJ Mitchell played two seasons the Brisbane Bullets. He averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 42 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.