How to sign an Opal: Inside Bendigo's pitch to Borlase

• ‍Olympian Isobel Borlase was Bendigo's first-choice replacement for Sami Whitcomb who has signed in Europe
• Spirit GM Daniel Jackson said the seasons Whitcomb and Veronica Burton had played a role in Bendigo's pitch to Borlase
• Perimeter shooting and initiating offense are two areas the Spirit will focus on with the young gun next season

A gaping hole was left in the Bendigo Spirit's aspirations when Sami Whitcomb announced she was leaving the WNBL to take up the offer of a lifetime in Europe.

Whitcomb was not only coming off the back of her best individual season in Australia, but one of the best seasons in league history — having won the Suzy Batkovic Medal for the WNBL's Most Valuable Player, being named in the All-WNBL First Team, winning her first WNBL championship and also claiming Grand Final MVP.

Yes, the Spirit boasted a star-studded roster full of veterans as well as another WNBA talent in Veronica Burton. But Whitcomb brought the star power Bendigo needed to go all the way and break their 11-year championship drought.

Now, Spirit general manager Daniel Jackson has taken basketball.com.au inside how they were able to replace one of the all-time great Opals and WNBL stars with rising star Isobel Borlase, who has the potential to reach and even eclipse the heights of her predecessor.

"Losing Sami was always going be difficult for us, because of what she did for our team and club as a whole," Jackson said.

"When we scanned the market, we always try and look for Aussies before imports, we'd go for someone from overseas if we needed to, but the best two guard available was Issy (Borlase). At the time when we thought about her, there was a lot of uncertainty in Adelaide, so we thought she was probably more gettable than she used to be.

"We did our homework on her and then when we got the chance to speak to her and her agent, we were able to find out what her plans were, what they were looking for, and we figured out how we could help with the next level of development her and her game."

Despite Whitcomb already being a polished product on the floor, she was able to have a career-year under Spirit coach Kennedy Kereama, while Burton was able to improve from a solely defensive talent to a dynamic offensive contributor — something she has taken into an impressive start in the WNBA with expansion franchise, the Golden State Valkyries.

"I think people as well as Issy and her agent were able to see the impact our club had on people like Sami and Veronica (Burton)," Jackson said.

"The scouting report on veronica was that she was a bit underdone offensively and a bit raw on that end of the floor but the progress she was able to make was really impressive and by the time she got back to the WNBA, she was able to make the impact she's having now with Golden State.

"That was all part of the pitch to Issy and how we could do that with her to get her to the WNBA and have a great impact over there.

"Watching her from afar, I think the first thing that stands out is you see how strong she is, which is rare to see for someone her age. Once she gets in the lane and puts her shoulder into you, it's game over and she's really good finisher. Her future is incredibly bright and if you think about it with her age, if she went the college route, she would only be going into her junior year which is incredible."

The 20-year-old Borlase has already shown she is a star in the WNBL, previously winning the league's Sixth Woman of the Year and Breakout Player of the Year for the 2022-23 season, but Jackson also shared how the Spirit could help take the 20th overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft's game to the next level and what areas of development they were focused on for the upcoming season.

"What we talked through in her proposal, the first thing which will be a difference maker for her is ability to shoot the ball. We think she's a good shooter but the stats last season probably didn't support how good a shooter we think she can be," he said.

"If we can get her shooting from the perimeter up to around 35% and she can be a knockdown shooter for us, similar to what Sami did, it'll be huge for her and us as a team.

"The next thing was continuing to work on her playmaking — coming off on-ball screens and that sort of thing. If you look at Adelaide last season, they had plenty of ball handlers, so Issy probably didn't get the chance to do much of that creation, whereas we think we need to get the ball in her hands and let her initiate offense and make plays."

Jackson admits luck played a role in the championship roster Bendigo were able to put together last season, especially in the addition of Whitcomb, but believed the club's newly found identity as well as the qualities of their head coach and skipper in Kelsey Griffin also played major roles in their recent success during free agency periods.

"We've been able to establish a bit of an identity, where we are a place you can come and focus on basketball without distractions. If you want to come and get better, you can come do it here with a coach, who will put everything into developing your game but also who will play kids and help the people around you develop as well," he said.

"The coach is more than half the battle when trying to attract players to your club. Kennedy is a great coach, who we have a lot of confidence in, but more than that he's a person that cares about the people and players he coaches.

"He works his ass off and he's willing to put the time in, that's a really good combo to have in your coach. He's an absolute basketball junkie, he spends a lot of time away from his family, who he cares so much about and I think a lot of players relate to that.

"I didn't think he got the credit he deserves last season because of the veterans and talent we had.

"It's harder to win the second championship than it is to win the second. So for us, it was important to show we can bring in someone else after getting a little bit lucky with Sami last season.

"But on top of that, we have someone like Kelsey here, who is really the anchor of everything we do. Having her who can talk to players we want to bring in is huge and a player that others still want to play with. We don't know how many years she has left playing, so it's really important for us to continue to bring in players around her to help her be successful.

"Also, we want to continue to be a team that Bendigo is proud of but also a team for the whole of regional Victoria."

See our full and updated WNBL roster tracker here.