Pepper the perfect piece for the Perth Wildcats NBL25 season

Elijah Pepper joins Perth for NBL25, adding spice to the offence of the Wildcats and could give them the offensive combo that they were missing last season and earn them another championship.

The Perth Wildcats finished the regular season in second place on the ladder but failed to reach the final, crashing out against to eventual Champions the Tasmania JackJumpers in three games. 

The Wildcats had no problem scoring last season, ranked third in the league averaging 93.5 points per game. NBL24 MVP Bryce Cotton led Perth and the league with 22.9 points per game, however, their issue lies in that the next best scorer for the team was Keanu Pinder, ranked twenty-sixth in the NBL with just 13.6 PPG.

The Wildcats have gone out early in the offseason to rectify that, picking up The University of California, Davis all-time leading scorer Elijah Pepper, bringing him back to his birth-country of Australia and handing him his first professional contract. It is an opportunity that the young man that was born in Shepperton, Victoria is excited about and looking to grab with both hands.

“I’m super excited and I am glad that I will have probably the best fan-base in Australia supporting, not only myself but the team and I am ready to get going there,” expresses Elijah Pepper to Josh Higgins of The Basketball Fix Podcast.

The most exciting and intriguing possibility is the combination and relationship the 2023 Big West Player of the Year and NBL Most Valuable Player Bryce Cotton will form. The Perth offence was criticised for being one dimensional last season, but if Cotton and Pepper can get going in NBL25 the Wildcats offence can go to another level.

Pepper knows all about the league’s biggest name Bryce Cotton, why wouldn’t he, and he is raring to find his role in Perth, giving the Wildcats another dimension to work with, but knows that he is going to have to come into the team and earn his merits.

“I know that I am a rookie coming in, it is like the same when you get to college, you don't just show up to college and you are the instant guy that gets the ball. I know we have Bryce Cotton who is a great player and the MVP of the league.”

“I know he got doubled a lot and if you have somebody to score and space the floor that is the easy way to get doubles off of you.”

“My goal is just to help the team in whatever way possible and whatever they ask me to do, but I believe that I could space the floor or help with scoring and help with all that and make it a lot easier for Bryce as well.”

Working alongside Cotton would be a priceless tool in the development of Elijah Pepper’s game  and learning from arguably the greatest import the NBL has seen. It is an honour and opportunity that a player growing up in the small town of Selah, Washington could only dream of.

“I am just looking forward to learning from him, he is a professional scorer. He is a true veteran and learning from him as a professional scorer and how he is able to get his buckets and get to his spots.”

“I am looking forward to getting to Perth and getting into the gym whenever I want. I am excited to just have free range to get in there and work on my craft and get better. I still have goals that I want to achieve so I am pushing myself to improve.”

The gym has always been a second home for Pepper, who won the 2023 Corby-Slater Award for male athlete of the year at UC Davis, with his work ethic outside of match day giving him the tools he needs to excel on the court under the lights. 

From when he was a little boy going to the gym with his dad rebounding for the former Hobart Charger and Central Washington University all-time highest point scorer, Pepper developed the mentality that if he worked hard he would get where he wanted to go. 

Not being the biggest guy on the court, the 193cm Pepper realised quickly that if he put the hours and repetitions in he would gain the edge no matter his physical stature. 

“My big thing is that I am not the most athletic guy or the quickest guy so I have to be the hardest working and that has always been my big thing and I basically live in the gym,” explains Pepper. 

“My big thing for me was my work ethic. I didn't want to be one of those guys who just goes to practice to get your practice shots up and done for the rest of the day. If you are going to lift you just lift and you're done. I was one of those guys who was showing up to practice early. If it is one hundred makes before practice, I am straying back and getting another fifty makes up.”