Bristol Flyers head coach Andreas Kapoulas is hopeful season MVP candidate VJ King can return from injury in time for their big play-off match-up against Manchester Giants.
Star forward King, who is in the top five points scorer in the British Basketball League (BBL) this season with 18.2 points per game, missed the last few weeks of the regular season after picking up a calf strain in a 90-82 defeat to Caledonia Gladiators in Glasgow at the start of April.
With the team set to tip off their post-season campaign on Thursday night, Kapoulas told BristolLive the American had been following rehab protocol with the club’s medical team.
“It’s kind of a day-by-day process, but we are hopeful that he will be able to play for both games," Kapoulas said. “We’re hoping he’s to be able to practice fully and with everything going well, we will be able to see him suited up for Thursday’s game.
“VJ has made a case to be, not just our most valuable player, but one of the league’s most valuable players. He has played really well this year, he is a vital part of everything we do on the floor.
"We have our depth, if we are a man down someone else has to step up and guys have done that. But certainly, going into a match-up like that against Manchester, which is a very athletic, skilled and experienced team, you want to have everyone playing, and certainly having VJ back would be a great boost for our team.”
The Flyers have battled on gamely without King, and head into the post-season with momentum, having completed a record-breaking season concluding with a three-game win streak.
Not only did the club secure third-place in the BBL league table, their highest regular season finish since joining UK basketball’s elite division in 2014, they also set a franchise record for most wins in a single season, with 25 victories. Along the way, the Flyers had their best-ever start to a season after winning their opening four games, while they also went on a record streak of seven consecutive victories this year.
Their reward is a first round play-off match-up against the sixth-seeded Giants. The two-legged tie, which will be decided by aggregate points scored over both games, is first in Manchester, with a sold out return leg in Bristol, at SGS College Arena in Stoke Gifford on Sunday afternoon.
Despite being “proud” of all their achievements this season, Kapoulas insisted he and the players felt “the job is not done”, and said they were targeting a run to the BBL’s show piece event, the play-off final at London’s O2 Arena, on May 14.
Standing in their way are a team they have lost their last two games against, but they did beat on the road at the National Basketball Performance Centre earlier in the year, as well as at SGS, in a thrilling one-point win on the opening night of the season.
Among Manchester's ranks are guard Dirk Williams and forward Tajh Green, who are the top two scorers in the BBL this season, while the Giants also have veterans such as two-time BBL MVP Rahmon Fletcher on their roster.
Kapoulas said he was expecting a “fast-paced” game from Manchester, adding that his players would need to be wary of their opponents’ “very dangerous” transition offence and scoring ability from the three-point line.
“They have multiple guys who can get hot. So when you play a team like that who can go on runs, which has certainly been the case for the last two games we played against them. So for us it's going to be very important to manage the game the right way, and be able to limit those runs. They provide a lot of challenges.”
The match-up rekindles memories of this time last year, when the Flyers faced off against the same opponents at the same stage of the play-offs. A clutch, game-winning jump shot from point guard Mike Miller and a huge block on the other end of the floor by centre Malcolm Delpelche in the last play of the game sealed a memorable two-point victory for Bristol on aggregate.
Both players are still regular starters for the Flyers, and coach Kapoulas said while there had been some discussions among the group about last year’s heroics, their focus was now firmly on the next game.
“Certainly they have made references. From Manchester’s perspective, they have a different coach, and a different set of players, so it’s not necessarily the same match-up. But I think it is that experience that matters the most.
“It was the great moment for the club last year, the shot that Mike hit and the block that Malcolm did on the other end - those two plays were two of the best in Flyers history, given the importance of that particular fixture.
“Obviously players talk about stuff like that, we all remember that moment, it was an incredible moment. But we are fully aware the past is in the past, and the most important thing is what lies ahead of us in the next couple of days.”
The BBL post-season has a very different structure to the NBA play-offs, currently underway in North America. In the UK, the top eight teams out of 10 advance to the play-offs, which are effectively considered as a separate competition, while across the pond they are the main event.
At the start of the 2019/20 season, the BBL previously announced plans to change the format of the first two rounds of the play-offs to a ‘best of three’ series, more in line with the ‘best of seven’ match-ups played in the NBA. When that season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and play returned with the 2020/21 season, the league announced it would revert back to the current system, with no official explanation provided.
Kapoulas said that while the aggregate score system had “worked well” for the Flyers in the past, he thought a move to a ‘best of three’ series format would be “a very positive step”.
“Obviously this is the current competition format, and it is what it is, we have got to play it. But certainly moving forward it would be really good for the league to have a ‘best of three’ series. There is an excitement that comes with play-offs, and I would be in favour of that.”
Kapoulas has led the Flyers and its previous iteration, the Bristol Academy Flyers, for the past 18 years. While the stats would suggest the current squad might be the best team he has coached during that time, Kapoulas insists “every team is different”.
“You can not take away some of the performances in previous seasons and some of the teams we had. I have been asked a few times to compare teams and every team is different. Certainly, we have a great group of guys that want to play for each other, it has been real good fun.
“If you're looking just based on results, this is the highest finish we ever had and the most wins, so people can draw their own conclusions just based on that. Every group is different but certainly I think this year’s team has been a joy for fans to watch and certainly the results speak for themselves.
“It’s exciting at this point of the season, this is what you are playing all season long for. I think for us it is the excitement of being in the play-offs, and we are enjoying being around each other. We want to be around each other for as much as possible, we don’t want this to finish this week. We’re hopeful that we can be practising and playing next week.”
