Earlier this month the Adelaide 36ers signed former San Antonio Spurs swingman Brandon Paul as a replacement for Donald Sloan.
He’s set to debut with the 36ers after spending two weeks in quarantine and he joined us on the Aussie Hoopla podcast to share stories of playing overseas, his time with the Spurs and plans for his time in Australia and the Adelaide 36ers.
The 29-year-old Illinois native started his professional basketball career in 2013 after a standout NCAA career at the University of Illinois. Paul was a two-time All-Big Ten selection at Illinois and was just the second player in school history to compile 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 steals. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard averaged 16.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists as a senior for the Fighting Illini.
He spent a few months as a professional with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ NBA Summer League team before signing with Nizhny Novgorod in Russia for the 2013-14 season. He then had further stints in Europe with teams in Spain and Turkey before signing a deal to play with the San Antonio Spurs.
The 193cm guard was one of the stronger performers in the 2017 NBA Summer League averaging 15 points, five rebounds, and just shy of three assists. The San Antonio Spurs subsequently signed him for the 2017-2018 NBA season where he played 64 games.
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In his first month playing with the Spurs Paul was required to step up in the absence of All-Star Kawhi Leonard and starting point guard Tony Parker who were both out due to injuries. In his first month (October) he averaged 5 points and shot 66 per cent from the field and incredibly 63 per cent from the perimeter.
Greg Popovich described the swingman as intelligent, skilled and reminiscent of former San Antonio Spurs star Bruce Bowen.
He scored a season-high 18 points going up against Kyrie Irving in a loss to the Boston Celtics on Oct. 30 and averaged 2.3 points and 1.1 rebounds, in 9.0 minutes a game for the season.
After a year with the Spurs he played in both the G-League and China’s CBA before agreeing to play in Australia for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Listen to Aussie Hoopla podcast on the links below.
Topics include;
- Brandon’s quarantine routine (2:00)
- Thoughts on the Adelaide 36ers (8:00)
- What he thinks he can bring to the 36ers line-up (9:00)
- Growing up in Illinois and attending the University of Illinois (11:00)
- Lessons learnt from his basketball mentor and 3-time NBA champion Dickey Simpkins (14:00)
- Memories from playing at the University of Illinois (16:00)
- The impact his family had on his basketball journey (18:00)
- Going undrafted in the 2013 NBA draft and his experiences playing in Europe (19:00)
- The role Brett Brown played in bringing Brandon to Australia (24:00)
- Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich and Patty Mills stories from playing with the Spurs in 2013 (25:00)
- Finishing up with the Spurs and playing in China (35:00)
- What his role will look like with the 36ers (40:00)
- NBA plans for the future (42:00)
- The biggest mistakes he made during his career and what he learnt from them (45:00)
- Career highlights (46:00)
All of this and a whole lot more…
