NICKNAME/S: T Britt or Tay

BIO: Taylor Britt was born in Christchurch, New Zealand.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Taylor Britt made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 23 years of age. He scored one point in his first NBL game.

The Wildcats’ first move of the 2019 off-season was re-signing four-time championship-winning coach Trevor Gleeson (three-year deal) as well as five-time championship-winning duo Damian Martin and Jesse Wagstaff and import Terrico White. In total, six members of the championship-winning squad would return, with Wani Swaka Lo Buluk being elevated from development player to the full roster and replace the retiring Greg Hire. The team also added Dario Hunt and Majok Majok to replace exiting big men Tom Jervis and Angus Brandt (to Europe).

Perth started the season in dominant fashion (5–1), but by round 10, had taken a step backwards (8-5) following back-to-back losses. The Wildcats regrouped behind four straight wins and closed out December with a 13–6 record. In December, Damian Martin played his 300th game for the Wildcats, then suffered a left heel injury, which saw him miss the entire month of January. After losing back-to-back games to start 2020, Gleeson and the Wildcat’s decided to release Dario Hunt (8.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) and replace him with seven-year NBA veteran Miles Plumlee (9.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 1.0 blocks).

The addition of Plumlee saw Perth win six of their last seven games and secure a 34th consecutive finals appearance with a second-place finish (19–9).

In the semifinals, Perth defeated Cairns (2–1) to advance to their 15th NBL Grand Final where thanks to a big games from Cotton (32 points) and Kay (14 points and 6 rebounds) they claimed game one (88–86) in front of 11,647 rabid Kings fans.

As the team’s prepared for game two in Perth, it was decided that the remaining games would all take place with no fans in the building. Without a single fan in the building, the Kings evened the series (1-1) thanks to Jae’Sean Tate (21 points) nailing seven of his nine shots and Andrew Bogut (24 points and 14 rebounds) having one of his best games of the season.

In game three of the grand final series against the Sydney Kings, Kay (30 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists) delivered a career high scoring effort, including seven three-pointers alongside Cotton (31 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists) to propel Perth to a game three victory (111–96).

Prior to game four, the Sydney Kings chose to withdraw from the series due to uncertainties of the coronavirus and travel restrictions. With multiple Kings players based overseas, many were concerned the restrictions would prevent any return home. After a week spent deliberating, it was decided Perth would be awarded the championship due to holding a 2-1 lead at the time, securing their tenth title. As a development player, Britt would see limited playing opportunities with the Wildcats, appearing in 14 games and averaging 1.1 points, 0.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists.

2020/21
The 2020/21 season saw Britt average 0.2 points per game during a difficult year where twice the league was delayed due to Covid and team’s were forced to play eight games in Melbourne in a attempt to escape Covid related travel restrictions. Despite this they still managed to finish in second place and then magically pull through a wild semifinal series against Illawarra to then face Melbourne United in the NBL Finals.

Again, Britt saw minimal opportunities to play during the season but was part of the as the Wildcats run to the Grand Final, where they finished runners-up to Melbourne United (0-3).

Taylor Britt played two seasons the Perth Wildcats..

Dan Boyce (836 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.