It’s not like there weren’t people out there talking this up as a breakout season for Shea Ili. The signs were all there: the performances for Wellington and for the Tall Blacks, the state of the roster, the arc of his career, the faith and trust of Coach Henare… but seriously, how good has he been!?

Last season’s Shea Ili was a fun guy to watch. He was a dude who could come in and bring some energy off the bench and play a little defence in the right matchups. There was the thought back then that he was ready for a bigger role in the team but a preseason back injury kinda ruined that idea. Ili returned to average 19 mins a night in his 17 games but he wasn’t quite the factor he could have been. 4.4 points, 1.5 assists, 1.9 rebounds, 0.8 steals. A shooting spread of 30.0% FG / 32.4% 3PT / 64.7% FT. Young player off the bench numbers, basically.

Fast forward to the current season and after a poor game in the defeat to Cairns first up, Paul Henare surprised a few people by leaning heavily on Shea Ili against Sydney with Edgar Sosa spending a lot of that second half on the bench. Ili dropped 15 points that night, helping nurse the lead with some late free throws before DJ Newbill’s game-winner. It was a new career high for the lad, who had twice scored 12 points in games last season, and once in the previous season, but had otherwise never topped double figures for the Breakers.

Well he’s got it done in three of his last four, busting through into wider NBL consciousness with his brilliant performance away in Brisbane. 23 points, shooting 7/11 from the field. He hit three outta four triples, his first giving the Breakers a 15-14 lead midway through the first quarter before he ticked it over at the free throw line and then later scored the Breaks’ last seven points of the first half. When he came back in in the third he dished a couple feeds to Rob Loe to get him going and then went back to finding his way to the rim.

Here are his game stats from the NBL season so far:

The last two games in particular the Breakers have needed Ili to do this stuff. Kirk Penney didn’t travel to either of the away games after his family tragedy (best wishes to the Penney clan) which left Ili as the sixth man. Rob Loe’s impact comes and goes and the other blokes don’t bring much experience to things which has meant good minutes for Ili but a lot of pressure to perform too. Basically the Breakers’ depth depends on he and Penney (and Loe, sure) being able to come in and score points. If that doesn’t happen then they’re looking mighty shallow. Penney’s not getting any younger. Ili hasn’t done it at this level yet. It was a valid criticism. However if Kirk’s hitting 3-4 triples a game and Ili’s performing this magic then that flawed bench becomes a major strength, especially combined with how good the two imports look – a tale for another day.

What’s Ili doing offensively that’s working so well? Bloody everything, that’s exactly it. His jump shot doesn’t come with the sexiest action out there but when he’s hitting three outta four against Brisbane then that’s something you’ve gotta worry about. It’s doubtful that he shoots 40% or anything, that’s probably beyond his abilities at that range. But combined with the other things he does, if he can keep that around 35-36% then it’s enough of a threat that defenders at least have to consider it.

Which hopefully means playing him a little tighter around the perimeter because if Ili’s got that room to attack in behind then we already know he’s got the speed to get there first and, based on his last four games, the skill to make those driving layups count. Looks like he’s really got that finger roll going, aye? Oh mate and on top of that he’s also got a mid-ranger! If you can score inside, outside and in-between then you’re more than a handful.

To be honest, it woulda been enough progression just to see him develop as a scoring threat on fast-breaks and when he’s able to dribble round picks towards the bucket. These three pointers and all these free throws are more than we had any reason to expect. You sign a development dude to a pro deal and he starts playing like an import. Who knew he had so many tools in the toolbelt?

The thing is, this stuff was all there to see in other situations. For the Wellington Saints he averaged 16.1 points, 6.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game and he saved his best for Finals Weekend as he dropped 18 on Canterbury (6/10 FG) in the semi and then a massive 31 points in the final against Southland (10/15 FG, 5/8 3PT). Needless to say he was picked as the Finals MVP after that.

And at the Asia Cup, with most of Aotearoa’s established players missing, Ili was given a leadership role and tasked with really running that offence as the starting point guard. He responded by getting picked in FIBA’s All-Star Starting Five, averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 assists, 2.2 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 54.2% from the field. Three pointers were a bit down at 4/14 but he made 13/15 free throws. His best game was probably the 19p/13a effort in the quarters against Jordan although his 14 points against Australia in the semi aren’t to be slept on either (even if a 31-10 first quarter meant NZ were never really in it).

The next step is to see him start dishing those assists about. We already got glimpses of what he can do with Rob Loe – who’ll be his number one screen-setter when he’s in with the second unit (in as much as Henare ever puts out a completely second unit – he’s pretty good at staggering). Plus he’s just that little too loose with the ball sometimes, a couple avoidable turnovers in there.

But, damn, man. If Shea Ili’s gonna be this player then we’ve gotta raise those season expectations here – the Breakers aren’t 4-1 by accident. He was already a good bet for Most Improved Player this season and now he’s the bloody front-runner and there’s open space trailing the dust cloud behind him.

TNC Breakers MVP Standings:

10 – Edgar Sosa

6 – DJ Newbill

4 – Tom Abercrombie

4 – Shea Ili

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