Tasmania JackJumpers coach Scott Roth discusses the team's off-season plans for the 2026-27 NBL season, including contract negotiations, tough decisions on star players, and his disappointment with the recent season's performance marked by injuries and setbacks. Roth confirms he will return despite speculation about overseas opportunities.
'Each game is refereed differently' | 01:00Tasmania JackJumpers head coach Scott Roth says the club’s off- season planning is already underway as preparations begin for the 2026-27 NBL season, with contract talks progressing for several players while others remain undecided.
Tough calls also loom on several star players as the club weighs decisions aimed at ensuring long-term success, even if it means parting ways with some veterans.New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. It has been two years since the JackJumpers created sporting history by winning their first NBL championship. Since then, the club has finished seventh and sixth in the following seasons, with both campaigns disrupted by injuries and setbacks. Roth, who has one year remaining on his contract, confirmed he will return for NBL27 despite speculation he could be lured overseas. The veteran coach spoke on this morning, providing an update on the club’s roster plans while admitting he was “disappointed” with how the season unfolded.“We should have been better in some of these areas, especially early on. We could talk about these injuries all we want, but there’s eight other teams, two teams I think really got unscathed with injuries. But there’s eight other teams that went through injuries too, and we didn’t navigate that very well. And that started off with some of these injuries, and then it just magnified over the course of the season to where within 72 hours we lost four guys. So the record is just not good enough.” MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 05: Scott Roth, Coach of the JackJumpers speaks to players during the NBL Play-In Qualifier match between Melbourne United and Tasmania Jackjumpers at John Cain Arena, on March 05, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. “But the fight to continue to stay with our values, when many teams would have just folded and said, ‘the hell with this, it’s not worth it’, and have inside locker room problems, or front office problems, or bickering, or whatever it could be, the entire organization just doubled down and continued to work as hard as we could. And we won enough games to get to where we needed to get. And then we probably scared the hell out of Melbourne in that game that we played” Roth also addressed the status of big man Will Magnay, who has spent the past five seasons with the club but has struggled with injuries, missing nearly half of the JackJumpers’ games during that period. Get all the latest basketball news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail.“Magnay, he’s just had surgery two weeks ago. He’s asked for a few weeks just to have some separation time, which is normal for most of these players.” “Obviously, you know, the unfortunate thing with Maggs is he’s played 56% of all of his games in the last five years. And so there has to be some give and take in the contract of what the liability is for us, again, moving into another contract with him. And that stuff has to be negotiated out and we’ll have conversations with him in those areas and see if there’s a happy medium or not.” “In the meantime, he’s obviously fresh off the surgery and not doing anything till June. So will eventually reach out to his agent, he has reached out to his agent and they’ll have conversations back and forth and see if there’s some kind of happy medium there that gives us a bit of a break of what has transpired uh over the last five years.” Magnay has averaged 9.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks during his time with the JackJumpers. While he remains a valuable piece for the club, negotiations may hinge on finding the right balance given his injury history. HOBART, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 03: Will Magnay of the JackJumpers talks to referee during the round 15 NBL match between Tasmania Jackjumpers and Melbourne United at MyState Bank Arena, on January 03, 2026, in Hobart, Australia. Roth also discussed star import Bryce Hamilton, who made an impressive NBL debut before his season ended early with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. In 27 appearances, Hamilton averaged 18.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists. Roth said the club would be willing to assist in Hamilton’s rehabilitation if he returned, but any deal would need to be long-term. “Absolutely. So we’re definitely in talks about what that would look like long-term, not just for coming back. So it’d be something where if we could bring him back and help him with his rehab in July and hopefully by December he’s ready to go and then we actually put him on the roster.” “But it’d have to be a long-term deal for us. We’re not gonna get him all the way to that point and then only play for us 15 or 20 games maybe, and then he’s free. So we’re having those conversations with Bryce and he’s a hell of a kid more than anything else and it’s just a shame that that transpired with him.” ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 09: Bryce Hamilton of the Jackjumpers during the round 16 NBL match between Adelaide 36ers and Tasmania Jackjumpers at Adelaide Entertainment Centre, on January 09, 2026, in Adelaide, Australia. Two players Roth is particularly keen to re-sign are Sean MacDonald and Majok Deng, both key contributors during the JackJumpers’ championship season. “Sean and Majok are both guys that we are currently in conversation with and hopefully getting them across the line within the next week or so.” “And with Sean, and I’ve always said with Sean, he’s just going to play. Whether he starts or 25 minutes, he’s always going to be in that mode. Last year was, I think, the sequel of that. But we’ll see how it goes with them” MacDonald missed the entire 2025-26 NBL season after rupturing his ACL last July while playing for the Boomers in an exhibition game against the University of Colorado. Despite the setback, Roth is eager to bring him back for a fifth season with the club. “He’s still going into his eighth month of rehab and all that stuff is being evaluated, but him being back on the rosters is really important.” HOBART, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 5: Sean MacDonald of Tasmania JackJumpers during the round 15 NBL match between Tasmania Jackjumpers and South East Melbourne Phoenix at MyState Bank Arena, on January 5, 2025, in Hobart, Australia. Roth also spoke about imports Tyger Campbell and David Johnson, both of whom had solid debut seasons with the JackJumpers. “They love it here. They won’t leave, which is fine. But Tyger leaves on Monday. He’s deciding if he’s going to go to Germany or not or go back home. he was obviously a very quick turnaround stop gap when all of sudden this stuff happened with Sean . And he came in and I think he got his feet underneath him later in the season.” “So we’ll wait on Tyger, and then DJ, he is definitely a guy that we think that can help us. But he’s got to reshape his body and do some things also. And so we’ll have conversations with him. He loves it here. The role that he ended up being in is not quite the role that we wanted him in. We wanted him in for 20, 25 minutes to give you a spark off the bench in the shooting, which I don’t think is really in his wheelhouse for the long term. He can do it, obviously, but if we get him back in that kind of role, I think he’ll be dynamite.” The JackJumpers’ off-season is now in full swing, with Roth and the club focused on securing key pieces as they begin building towards another championship push next season.
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