Rillie hopeful of full roster availability in Vegas opener
4 Sep
1
min read


Recruits Keanu Pinder and Hyrum Harris are in the mix to make their Wildcats debut against the G-League Ignite after crossing from Cairns Taipans and Adelaide 36ers respectively during the off-season.
Harris joined the squad on Monday after finishing up his FIBA World Cup duties with New Zealand in Japan, while Pinder's workload has been managed throughout the off-season.
Rillie was excited to have Harris around the group for the first time since signing after being impressed by his efforts for the Tall Blacks.
"We'll manage him but he'll certainly be playing, I'm sure he's hungry to get out there and join his new team," Rillie said.
"We're excited to have him and what he brings and at the tail-end of the World Cup, he got to play some meaningful minutes and did a really good job."
Rillie said New Zealand veteran Corey Webster was "ready to go" for his first game of the pre-season and felt Pinder was looking good after an interrupted few months on the injury front.
"I feel like we'll have a full roster participating in Wednesday's game," Rillie said.
"Corey is ready to go and has been practicing, Keanu has had a disrupted off-season but looks pretty good and hopefully he'll be available for Wednesday as well."
It comes as ex-NBA coach Mike Dunlap was welcomed into the group as a guest coach for the next few days.
Dunlap coached Rillie at Adelaide 36ers and stalwart Jesse Wagstaff at Metro State University.
"It's great that he got re-united with Jesse, your college coach is very influential in your career," Rillie said.
"I also played for Mike in Adelaide. Having him around the coaching staff to observe and give us some good pointers will be very benefical for us."

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