NICKNAME/S: The Process

BIO: Daniel Trist was born in Wahroonga (NSW) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Norths Bears. Trist received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2011. He spent one year there and played for the program’s state league team.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Daniel Trist made his NBL debut with the Melbourne United at 26 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

As a rookie, Trist appeared in 12 games, averaging 1.5 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 0.1 assists as the United finished with a record of 18-10 and in second place during the regular season.

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX
2019/20
In 2019, Trist joined the league’s newest franchise, the South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Phoenix signed Simon Mitchell as their first head coach and shortly after added Boomers and fringe NBA talent Mitch Creek as their marquee player. South East Melbourne then built a core group playing group with Ben Madgen (via Europe), Kyle Adnam (via Melbourne) and Adam Gibson (via Adelaide). Imports John Roberson, Tai Wesley (via Melbourne) and Devondrick Walker (via state league) were later added to round out the squad.

South East Melbourne’s first game pitted them against cross-town rivals Melbourne. In the first game between the two franchises, tagged ‘The Throwdown’, the Phoenix were able to topple United by three points (91-88) after making 12 of 23 from downtown. The team’s high-octane perimeter shooting would set the tone for the rest of the season, with the team leading the league in points per game (95.4 ppg).

The win came at a cost, however, with Tai Wesley, after scoring eight rapid points, suffering a hamstring injury in the first five minutes of the game, which saw him out of action for the next ten weeks. Import Jaye Crockett (8.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steals) was brought in as an injury replacement during his absence.

Following their Round 1 victory, the Phoenix would keep it rolling, knocking over the Bullets (113-93) and the Hawks (106-102) at home, tipping off their inaugural season with a handsome 3-0 record. Despite the Phoenix taking home victories against relatively good team’s, their first real challenge came in Round 4, where they would play their first away game against Perth. Although the Wildcats’ star duo of Bryce Cotton (16 points) and Terrico White (17 points) started poorly, Perth delivered South East Melbourne their first loss (79-110), ending their season-opening winning streak.

After their trouncing in Western Australia, victories would become a rarity. The Phoenix would go down to the likes of the 36ers, the Kings and twice to United, and after coming into the mid-way point of the season, the Phoenix was the definition of average at this point.

Sitting just outside the top four with a record of six wins and six losses. It was also around this time the Phoenix chose to move on from import Devondrick Walker (7.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 assists), who, after suffering a fracture in his left foot playing in a Perth pre-season game two years earlier, wasn’t able to deliver the production he was able to beforehand. Keith Benson (5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks) was signed as his replacement and thought he was a much bigger body, wasn’t able to add much more to the stat sheet.

While South East Melbourne were forced to rely on Creek (20.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.2 steals) and star import John Roberson (20.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 5.5 assists), the next ten rounds would prove to be anything but smooth.

Across the next 16 matchups for South East Melbourne they would go on to accumulate a lacklustre 3 wins and 13 losses, while also finishing their campaign on a eight-game losing streak. With 20 rounds of basketball completed, the Phoenix (9-19) would finish second last.

Trist would see action in 23 games, averaging 3.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.5 assists.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS
2020/21
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020/21 season start date was delayed until January 2021. As a result of the pandemic, the Breakers were forced to commit to being based in Australia for the majority of the season. They hosted a number of games as the ‘home’ team in Tasmania and only returned to play their last seven games in New Zealand in late May.

New Zealand had added Brisbane Bullets star import Lamar Patterson and Colton Iverson as import players, while Tai Webster returned to the team, having left in 2013 to play college ball for Nebraska. The Breakers suffered another blow when its leading scorer Corey Webster sliced a nerve in his hand while cutting a avocado with a knife in his kitchen and would miss the first month of the season.

As would be expected from a team playing their first 29 games on the road, wins were few and far between. After narrowly losing to Adelaide in overtime in their first game, they would win only one game (a six-point win over Cairns) in the first eight contests. The sluggish start saw New Zealand release Lamar Patterson (10.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.8 assists), who had injured his knee against the Hawks on February 22 after just six games. In his previous two seasons with the Bullets, Patterson had averaged 19.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists and twice been named a NBL First Team All-Star, but his form for the Breakers was far from his previous stints in the NBL.

With Patterson removed, New Zealand added Jeremy Kendle as a short-term replacement and saw a marked improvement, going 3-1 over the next four games.

Due to losing numerous players to injury and personal issues throughout the season, Robert Loe (20 games), Thomas Abercrombie (9), Corey Webster (8) and Tai Webster (7), the team added Australian guard William McDowell-White (7.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5 assists) as a nominated replacement player for the injured Corey Webster (13.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists) and Levi Randolph (14.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.1 steals), who signed as Patterson’s replacement, which also resulted in the release of Jeremy Kendle (7.0 points per game).

The Breakers sat at the bottom of the ladder on a 4-9 record after their first 13 games prior to the roster changes, which made little difference in the win/loss column. The team also losing five of its next six games. Whilst Webster returned from his hand injury In February, on March 13, he was ruled out again, this time a knee injury keeping him out for four weeks.

The Breakers’ faced additional adversity with COVID-19 forcing them to continually move from city to city, attempting to find places where there was limited COVID impact to be able to play their remaining games. A COVID-19 window saw the team able to return home and play their remaining seven games in New Zealand, where they went 3-4 to finish the season.

Tai Webster (17.2 points, 5 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.2 steals) would lead the team in scoring alongside Finn Delany (16.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.2 assists), who delivered a breakout season and was named club MVP after boosting his scoring from 12 points per game the previous season.

Trist would average 1.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.2 assists over the course of the season, while the Breakers finished second last (12-24).

Daniel Trist played three seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Melbourne United, South East Melbourne Phoenix and New Zealand Breakers. He averaged 1.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.2 assists in 57 NBL games.