PERTH Redbacks coach Nik Lackovic has reason to be excited at the thought of being finally able to get a full squad together for the first time in 2016 and he hopes his group can be at their peak heading into their return to the playoffs.

At no point during the 2016 season has Lackovic had available the full squad he was hoping to have this year with Michael Vigor, Joel Wagner, Lewis Thomas and Kyle Bowen all unavailable at one point for one reason another.

And again this weekend as the Redbacks host the defending champion Joondalup Wolves on Friday night and the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday they will be without important big man Vigor, but Lackovic hopes that relief for the rollercoaster ride of 2016 in terms of player unavailability is on the improve.

Week 18 Sunday SBL wrap

Lackovic gives Vigor a chance returning next Saturday night for the final regular season game from his foot injury to play the Willetton Tigers at Willetton Basketball Stadium, but at worst he should be right to play in the first round of the playoffs.

With Wagner returning from his own ankle injury in Perth's wins over the South West Slammers and Goldfields Giants, and Bowen now having returned from college, Vigor is the last piece of the puzzle to fit back in and his fingers are firmly crossed no one else gets hurt in the meantime.

The Redbacks are guaranteed of making the playoffs currently sitting in seventh spot at 14-9 and Lackovic can't wait to have his full squad soon available.

"We still haven’t had a full list all year yet. For us it's just about managing everybody. My concern isn't where we finished on the ladder, it's getting everyone back fit and healthy, and we are pretty confident of our ability when that happens," Lackovic said.

"It's super exciting looking forward to having our full group. We haven’t had one game this year with everyone. Kyle Bowen came back this weekend and you see what he can do is glimpses, Tyler Viskovich is giving us something off the bench and we are getting chances into young guys.

"Hopefully with Michael returning for the Willetton game which is the goal, I'll be keen to see how we go with everybody on the floor at the same time. And the boys are excited about it. They are talking about it constantly so health is the first priority and then we worry about preparing for whoever we play."

Lackovic was glad to see Wagner return last weekend and he relented to play him in both games against the Slammers and Giants for his first minutes on the court since injuring an ankle in a win over the Perry Lakes Hawks back in Week 14.

"I wasn’t going to play him on Sunday but he only played 20 minutes in Bunbury which is what we wanted to limit him to," he said.

"He came here on Sunday morning full of beans and wanted to play so we said we'd play him 20 minutes again and that's what we did. He is just a great leader.

"The guys really look for him in so many different areas on the floor and his presence, posture and experience are so important. We're just managing him and getting some run into his legs now."

Vigor has now been out since going down during the Redbacks' loss to the Tigers back on June 25.

While he is no chance to return this weekend against the Wolves or Lightning, Lackovic is confident he could play against the Tigers in the final round and if not then certainly in the opening week of the playoffs.

"He should be fine. It's a week by week or day by day proposition with the foot. We will try and get the moon boot off within the next week and then we'll take a look at which game we bring him back for," he said.

"It may be the last game of the season or it may be the first round of the playoffs. The boot is just a precautionary thing to keep weight off his foot. By all accounts it's healing well but we just need to get him to stop running around with the moon boot.

"He is hungry to get out there but he is doing an amazing job with our young guys in being another set of eyes and ears for me. He has grown so much as a player but he is now a terrific leader.

"One of the areas we've improved massively in this year is our leadership with Joel, Michael, Ben Smith, Lewis and Jourdan. All those guys have been phenomenal."

The Redbacks now finish the season with home games against the Wolfpack and Lightning, and away to the Tigers which will decide where they will finish and who that quarter-final opponent will be.

Lackovic is looking forward to seeing where it all falls but really as long as he gets to enter the playoffs healthy, he isn’t too concerned on the finishing position or the opponent.

"It's going to be a pretty interesting finish to the season and there's so much still up in the air. We just want to be playing well with good momentum and whoever we match up against in the first round we're happy with because we will just focus on things that we can control," Lackovic said.

"We can't control where we're going to finish or who will be playing, so we are just focusing on what we can control. But for now we have Joondalup to prepare for on Friday, then after that we will get ready for Lakeside and then wherever the basketball gods allow us to finish and against what opposition, then we'll just focus on the next goal."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin