The Breakers Have Had A Change of Big Man
The Breakers are a family club, we’re always hearing that from them. They look after their players off the court as well as on it and they maintain a shared value system that ensures everyone is comfortable and thriving. Part of maintaining that family atmosphere means sometimes putting a player’s individual needs ahead of those of the team. Not in terms of any basketball situations but just it terms of, you know… life.
That’s why the team has mutually agreed to release import centre Jerrelle Benimon from his contract just three weeks after he’d signed on. Benimon had been dealing with unspecified family issues back home which had prevented him from flying out to join up with his ex-new crew, thus a replacement import big fellas was swiftly swooped upon.
It really didn’t take long. Within hardly any time at all the rumours had emerged that Shawn Long would be the bloke. 25 years old hailing from Louisiana and with NBA experience as well as three seasons of Summer League and some dominant G-League efforts too. He was a G-League All Star in 2016-17, averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds. Long will fly out to join up with the team this week.
The general rule is that you can’t judge a player you haven’t seen play, so any estimates about the value that Shawn Long will bring the Breakers comes with an asterisk. But here we have a rare situation where we can blindly compare two unknown athletes with each other, so why not do that, aye?
SHAWN LONG in the G-League: 26 MIN | 14.6 PTS | 54.8 FG% | 9.6 REB | 1.4 AST
JERRELLE BENIMON in the G-League: 34.8 MIN | 19.8 PTS | 61.4 FG% | 11.0 REB | 4.4 AST
As far as pedigree goes, the two are close enough together for it to be a pure guess as to which dude might make the bigger impact in the NBL. The worry about Benimon was that at 6’8 he’s not the tallest bloke to be guarding the rim. That fits with Kevin Braswell’s increased emphasis on mobility and pace of play but he’s also replacing the seven-footer Alex Pledger and it’s silly to think there isn’t a place for a traditional centre in modern basketball, particularly in the NBL. Like, whoever starts at the five for the Breakers is going to go up against Andrew Bogut on more than one occasion this season. Josh Boone from Melbourne is 6’10 himself and torched the Breaks in the semis last time around. This has traditionally been an excellent rebounding team and when you want to play hard and fast those extra possessions are crucial. This is a valid concern to have.
Does Shawn Long fix that? Not really. He’s about an inch taller than Benimon, coming in at 206cm. However Long does appear to be a fundamentally better rebounder. You don’t really get that impression from those G-League numbers but after averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds in his first season in the GL, he had his minutes dropped the following season which skewed things. Long’s managed to haul in the boards basically everywhere he’s been so this should be a positive gain in that potential problem area.
There is a reason Benimon was the first choice signing, though. Shawn Long can shoot the long ball slightly better (neither’s great at it) and he appears to have a lower turnover rate and more of a penchant for shot blocking but Benimon is by far the superior passer, more capable of being an all-round presence in Braswell’s dream small-ball approach. Although Long is the superior athlete so who really knows. Basically, either guy was gonna have their ups and downs, each with a whole lot more ups than downs because that’s what you look for in an import player.
Kevin Braswell: “I’m very excited to get a player of Shawn’s calibre. Shawn is someone who we saw early and thought damn, he is super talented. I know that he will help us on both sides of the ball - he is a great scorer and versatile on offense, and on defence he will alter shots and help us to throw different looks at teams. I know he is very excited to get to work and we are excited to have him.”
Sweet as. It’s a shame about Jerrelle Benimon and hopefully things work out for him and his family but there’s no reason to worry about the Breakers missing out here – they might even have gotten a better deal now, not that we’ll ever get to find out one way or the other. But this guy played a decent chunk of NBA basketball. This guy scored a few points there too, check it out.
8.2 points and 4.7 rebounds in 13 minutes per game across 18 games in the 2016-17 season, shooting 56.0% in the process. Those are extremely useful numbers, mate. Pretty similar to what Jarrett Allen did for the Nets last season, albeit in plenty fewer games.
Ah but to be fair there is a bit of a point to be made on this. See, Shawn Long did that for the Philadelphia 76ers in a season when they won 28 games, still very much in the final stretch of their four-year tanking project. The Process. During that time they exhibited heaps of fringe players who have since disappeared from the league. A few made a name for themselves and survived but plenty more are in Shawn Long’s situation. He put up the numbers but he did them in limited minutes for a terrible team… though he did get to be teammates with Joel Embiid, which is cool.
Is that enough context for now? Better hope so, I’m just cranky for the season to start, if I’m honest.
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