Corey Webster is back. It’s the biggest move the Breakers have made yet in this rather dramatic offseason, bringing back a bloke who has won three championships with the franchise, a player who was the MVP of the NZ NBL for the undefeated Wellington Saints in 2017. Webster has signed on a three-year deal.

Head coach Kevin Braswell made no denials that he was keen on getting Webster’s signature on paper and, sure enough, he’s gotten the job done. No surprises that the new coach of the Breakers would want to bring in the ex-Breakers scoring gun that he coached with great success in the kiwi NBL last year. Especially not after he’d already brought in Tai Wesley and effectively promoted Shea Ili. Jordan Ngatai has re-signed as well. All Wellington Saints heroes.

We’re probably not going to see Josh Duinker or Leon Henry but you Wellington Saints fans out there are going to have plenty to enjoy from the next Breakers season. With Majok Majok in Welly for this 2018 campaign, just wait until we see that Ili/Webster/Ngatai/Wesley/Majok five-man lineup… which obviously needs a catchy nickname, as is the style these days. 'All Saints' probably doesn’t have the right vibe. We’ll have to workshop it, people.

Hard to have any dramas about the Breakers looking towards players who’ve had great success in the local league, although that’s not why any of these blokes got their contracts. Webster and Wesley are massively proven players in the Aussie NBL. Ngatai and Ili have been paying their dues and earning bigger roles. Majok’s still a bit of a loose one… but he comes with some positive recommendations from folks who’d know so all judgement is reserved.

Where it does get a little dramatic is in how Webster was released from the Breakers 14 months ago. At the time he’d had some legal troubles following a public off-court incident, which eventually saw him avoid any conviction, and Dillon Boucher had pretty specifically suggested that his off-court behaviour had a lot to do with that divorce. Now after only one season away he’s back again.  

Corey Webster: “I am very excited about returning to the club, I have done a lot of growing as a person and learned a lot about myself and what I want to be, so I think the timing is perfect for me to come back, not only as a basketball player, but also as a man and a father. And with my son being in Auckland, I am excited for the years ahead on and off court.”

A few things on that. In his time away he’s gone and signed with Perth Wildcats only to request a release to spend the season in Europe with Israeli team Ironi Nahariya, where he played 23 times averaging 15.4 points and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 41.1% from three-point range – also winning the three-point contest at the All Star festivities. Some proper impressive numbers there and he also managed to fit in an NBA mini-camp which drew an invite to Summer League with the Dallas Mavericks, where he had a decent time of it as well. He’s currently playing in China. Lots of basketball. Some of his best basketball, even.

And we can’t ignore that about his initial release. He’d spent the 2016-17 season first playing injured and then too injured to play. His fit beside Kirk Penney hadn’t been great, though that had a lot to do with an aging Penney and a hobbled Webster. Corey was shooting 35.7% from the field and he’s a guy who generally needs a lot of shots. Not saying they cut him for performance reasons, they clearly didn’t, but they also wouldn’t have gotten rid of him if he’d been scoring close to 20 points per game again like the year before.

But he’s been away and experienced plenty since then and there’s no way that doesn’t lead to a lot of growth as an individual. Plus there’s the small matter of new ownership at the Breakers. And that other small matter of him being the best available domestic player and wanting to come back. Bugger the rest of it, that’s all in the past. The Breakers need a player like Corey Webster right now. 

Kirk Penney has retired and with him goes the team’s best three-point shooter. Webster brings range and scoring, sweet as. It’s clear enough that, in 2018, Tai Wesley is an improvement over Mika Vukona while Jarrad Weeks will bring some balance to the bench with his ability to play at either guard spot. Majok will presumably come as a sub and rebound the hell out of things. He doesn’t cover for the losses of Rob Loe and Alex Pledger but it’s obvious that the team is targeting an import big man who can make a difference.

Ili’s pencilled in to start and Webster will be there alongside him. Tom Abercrombie and Tai Wesley ought to fancy starting gigs too, though someone might need to cough that up if they sign a scoring import wing. Whoever it is, they’re going to be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate so all goods there. This is a very decent roster that’s taking shape all of a sudden. Funny how one great signing can change the whole perception of things.

Of course, it all depends on the imports. The Breakers are up to eight contracted players now (Ili, Abercrombie, Webster, Wesley, Weeks, Majok, Ngatai & Delany) which leaves three more open roster spots (plus three development spots).

Three open roster spots and three available import spots? That’s aligning rather nicely. You’d assume they try bag all three imports this time around, simply because they don’t have the depth of local talent that they have had in the past. Unless they can coax back someone like Tai Wynyard, Isaac Fotu or Tai Webster then there’s no point adding another local ahead of an overseas pro. And Wynyard’s already committed to a new college, Fotu is under contract in Germany while Tai Webster is almost certainly going to try for the NBA again after a strong season of his own in Germany.

But that’s fine, every season comes down to the quality of the imports. You have to have a genuine roster around them in order to get to the required standard but eventually it comes down to how well your star players perform compared to your opponents’ star players. And in the semi-finals last season it was Melbourne United’s top dudes who thoroughly outplayed the Breakers’ top dudes. That was the difference. That’s always the difference. So now we wait.

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