The NBL Cup begins in a few days, with all the teams amassing in Melbourne for a mini-tournament within a tournament. Everybody plays each other once with those games counting also towards the proper season, as well as to a points table specifically for the hub games with the top-ranking team lifting the trophy (and taking home a nice reward cheque too). No final or anything, just the ladder standings. Little bit of unease involved here as Melbourne is just coming out of a mini-lockdown, but it should be nice to get a chunk of games out of the way over the next month or so without any travel dramas.

Particularly for the Breakers given how much tougher all the travel has been for them. It’s not exactly being able to sleep in your own bed again but at least there’ll be a hint of stability for a little while during the NBL Cup. Something they could really use about now. Nobody’s given up hope of home games back in Auckland before the season is out but it doesn’t feel too likely at the present moment. Though you never know, things can change very quickly.

The Breakers have been getting a lot of love for the sacrifices that they’re making this season. Deservedly so. None of what they’re doing is easy – so it was cool to see Sydney Kings owner/chairman Paul Smith publically donate the gate takings back to the homeless Breakers when they played last weekend, cool for the Breakers accountants for sure but more importantly cool in that it seems to have sparked up a wider conversation about what the Breakers are up to. Like, genuine acknowledgement that this is not a level playing field as far as the Breaks are concerned. Very similar to what went on with the Warriors in the NRL last year. Heaps of chat about how they were keeping the game alive and what heroes they are and how everybody’s gotta rally around and support them and all those good vibes.

Hence it’s a poetic coincidence that Liam Santamaria referred to the Breakers as his ‘Warriors’ of the week in his latest NBL.com column...

Although... it was a tad self-serving in that specific situation. Because you already know that if the Warriors had simply pulled out of the comp for a season, said it’s too expensive, too difficult, we can’t make this work, see you next year... then the NRL would have just carried on without them. Such as is happening with the Auckland Tuatara who were very lucky to even keep their licence after that debacle after some rather rude kick-back from the ABL. You’re a hero if you stick it out, you’re a villain if you don’t with no middle ground? Hmm, doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Meanwhile the Wellington Phoenix are still waiting for their league to rally around them. Maybe it’s because that is a squad that trends younger, so not too many of them have families that they’re leaving behind (as if they’re not still going months without seeing significant others: partners, parents, friends, etc.). Maybe it’s because the Wellington Phoenix more than any of the other Kiwi teams in Aussie comps have been treated like second-class citizens at most opportunities so there simply isn’t that empathetic spirit to begin with. But there hasn’t yet been that systemic outpouring for their plights.

The Warriors actually did alright in 2020. Considering they sacked a coach six games in, that several of their best players were unavailable and they had to stock out the squad with loanees, that every game was basically an away game... to finish 8-12, just two wins out of the top eight, was probably above expectations. The Phoenix have not done alright. Without their home field advantage they’ve won just two of their last 13 games (crossing over the end of last season and the start of this one). They haven’t had the opportunity to add to a six-game home winning streak since March 2020 and it shows.

Off-court discomfort bleeds into on-court performance in ways that we can never understand watching from home. These are professional athletes slogging it out because they want to, because they get paid to do this, because playing sport at a high level is a major part of their identities... but that doesn’t make it any less brutal. These Aussie bubble set-ups for kiwi teams, it’s not the same thing as only playing away games but if you look at it through that lens is does maybe go some way towards explaining the struggles that we’ve seen from the Breakers and the Phoenix so far this season.

Having said all that, none of those players or coaches are making any excuses and it’s safe to say that the Breakers still should be performing a whole lot better than they have been in these first five games. Defensively they’ve been okay but offensively the arrow has swung as far as ‘disastrous’ at times. It’s been a stagnating, confusing, directionless mess occasionally bailed out by individual excellence. Such as Lamar Patterson’s fourth quarter heroics in that win over Cairns... to date the only win that NZB have mustered.

Patterson scored 13 points in the frame, leading the lads from seven points down after three quarters to a relieving victory. He got those points through a series of determined drives to the basket, making lay-ups and getting to the foul line. Plus he even made a three pointer in there. It was a genuinely thrilling ten minutes of basketball. Unfortunately that’s the only thrilling spell we’ve had from the Breakers’ top import so far. Take out that quarter of action and this is what his season stats sink to...

58 points from 13/45 field goal shooting (28.9%), including 2/13 from three-pointers (15.4%) plus 11/21 free throw shooting (52.4%)

We all know why this is the case: he’s not fit enough. And it’s not fun to watch. Patterson does have a Harden-esque reputation for being able to play his way into shape so nobody is panicking yet (otherwise he’d have already been cut). And it’s gotta be added that because of his offseason commitments playing in Puerto Rico he was late joining up with the team so add in quarantining and he’s way behind schedule. Which is mind-boggling given that the explanation for signing him over Scotty Hopson (who is now starting to get rolling for the league-leading Melbourne United) was that they wanted the roster sorted nice and early. But instead Patterson was late to link up with the team and when he did turn up he was overweight? Can’t think Coach Shamir would’ve been too chuffed with that.

With Patterson running through mud, it’s fallen upon Tai Webster to run the show and he’s done a very useful job of that albeit not at the level of efficiency you’d want from him. Ideally TW is running the ball up and then calling shots from there, rounding screens and getting penetration, kicking the ball out to open shooters. What you don’t want is him having to pop from the three-point line over and over again because there’s no motion around him and fellas are just hanging under those screens daring him to shoot.

The Breakers seem so easy to defend at the moment and there doesn’t appear to be much improvisation out there when Plan A breaks down. So Tai Webster, as one of the few dudes in this team who can create off the dribble, has had to play his own hand. Tai Webster has been reliably good... but him having taken 36 more shots than any other Breakers player through five games is not ideal (39/98 for 39.8%). Not when he’s shooting 31% from deep. TW also has more than double the total assists (25) of anyone else on the roster so that gives you an indication of how much influence he’s having to have in a team that shouldn’t be short of shooters or play-makers.

But they are short of shooters right now, jeezus. Via SpacialJam, this is the Breakers’ three-point shot chart from the first four games (so... not including the loss to the Kings in which the team knocked down a decent enough 11 of 27 triples...

On the whole, including the Kings game, the Breakers are shooting 30.1% from deep. These are the fellas who have let loose on average at least once per game...

• Tai Webster – 9/29 for 31.0%

• Finn Delany – 10/29 for 34.5%

• Tom Abercrombie – 8/27 for 29.6%

• Corey Webster – 6/22 for 27.3%

• Lamar Patterson – 3/15 for 20.0%

• Jarrad Weeks – 0/10 for 0.0%

• Rasmus Bach – 4/10 for 40.0%

• Rob Loe – 4/8 for 50.0%

The obvious drama there being why is Rob Loe not shooting more? Dude’s been starting games, he’s played more minutes than Colton Iverson so far, but that aspect of Loe’s game which sets him apart has been mostly overlooked to date. Finn Delany’s been the best of them though he does have this curious hang-up where his corner threes have been a bit crap (2/7 in the first four games) but otherwise he’s well above league average on non-corner threes. Corey Webster and Tom Abercrombie we know can be much better than this. Whether it’s bad looks down to the static offence or if it’s just a random dry spell that’ll end as quickly as it started, dunno. Corey’s got that hand thing he’s been playing through so fair play there, he also just dropped 25 points on the Kings so he’s trending in the right direction.

Notice how the more positive contributors are the local crew? The focus/priority/lack-thereof towards the New Zealand players since the current ownership came in has been a talking point at a couple of moments... right now it’s the Aotearoa natives who are holding this team together while the imports get their shit straight. Speaking of which…

Odd rumour... at least it wasn’t Carmelo Anthony this time. Norvel Pelle is a Lebanese international who played against New Zealand at the Asia Cup a few years back. He just got cut by the Brooklyn Nets this week to make room for Andre Roberson. Most importantly the Breakers do not have a roster spot available and have both imports in place. Were this to happen then Colton Iverson would have to be cut. Iverson who was signed to be a role playing import. Iverson who was absolutely unplayable on debut thanks to foul trouble. Iverson who has steadily got a little better, a little more reliable since then but who to be honest has yet to do anything that free agent centre Alex Pledger couldn’t do.

This article could go in a few more directions... but it’s only been five games. Things will get better. Dunno how much better but it will get better. It’s a concern that Shamir hasn’t seemed to be able to stamp a successful offensive identity onto this group in his second season, especially when this season removed so many of the valid excuses that he had in his first year in charge, but he did do a quality job of making adjustments as last season went along so the benefit of the doubt remains. Keep it positive. Leave it at that for now.

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