Rounding Up The Exploits Of The Kiwi Contingent In NBL21
It hasn’t always been this way. This overflow of kiwi ballers in the Aussie league, it used to be a couple of top tier Tall Blacks plying their trade across the Tasman and then a large contingent of Breakers dudes. But even though the Breakers have eased up on the local preferences of a few years back, the total numbers across the comp have only risen. Twenty different New Zealanders partook in NBL21. Twenty of them. In fact there were more blokes from Aotearoa at Australian clubs (13) than there were at the Breakers (7) this past season, how about that? The Adelaide 36ers were the only club – the ONLY club – who didn’t have a kiwi on their roster.
She was a fine old mix too with go-to-scorers and reliable role players and development lads and all sorts. Veterans of the league and guys on their first professional contracts. Some signed long term, some only popping up as injury replacements. ‘Tis a beautiful thing. Here are the base stats for the full twenty of them...
Let’s start with the Breakers and while they chose to import a lot of the depth at the franchise, their starting line-up still had plenty of overlap with a hypothetical Tall Blacks squad. Tom Abercrombie. Finn Delany. The Webster Bros (although Corey mostly played as Sixth Man this season). With Rob Loe coming off the bench. Unfortunately the Breakers season was a complete mess and at basically no point did we get to see a fully functioning NZB unit... but you know what? It wasn’t the kiwis who let them down. In fact the homegrown hombres were the ones holding the team together for the most part.
Delany’s the bloke to focus on because he was brilliant this past season, absolutely brilliant. His scoring boosted by nearly four points on last time’s efforts (which in turn were more than four points up on the year before) and once his three-point shot started dropping he was really sizzling. Dude had three 30+ scoring nights. He won NBL Player of the Week honours in Round 19. A constant threat for any rebound. But his most impressive stat might well be the 1202 minutes that he played, including two complete games and eight in which he played more than 38 mins, which has him seventh in the entire league despite not even making the playoffs. He was Dan Shamir’s most reliable option, the top performing New Zealander in the league, and someone who’ll be getting scouted rather heavily by European teams after that (maybe even an American team or two). Also this happened...
Plus he came third in Most Improved voting too. This was a star-making campaign for Finn Diesel. We’d been waiting for it and he delivered.
Tai Webster came in on a 1-year deal as a major acquisition for the Breakers... but underperforming imports (well, Lamar Patterson specifically) meant that TW was left having to take on a much bigger scoring role than he should have. Coach Shamir’s offensive system wasn’t the most fluid either so as a ball-handler who can create shots off the dribble the reliance was on Tai to do basically everything. Which he did, to the best of his abilities. Tenth overall in scoring averages even if the efficiency was lagging. You know the numbers would have been sharper (including the assists tallies) with a more well-rounded roster around him though. Not his fault. You also gotta wonder if that high usage played a part in the achilles injury that ruled him out for four weeks in the middle of things.
Corey Webster was injured at the start, having cut his hand getting at an avocado pit, and it showed as his shooting touch wasn’t quite there. He was also mostly playing off the bench to try and balance the rotations. Then other injuries popped up... and CW just never really got his rhythm. Similar deal with Rob Loe who opted out of the season after his kid was born back in Aotearoa and while he did join up with the team again later on... he then got hurt and all in all he only ended up playing in 17 games all season. But in true Rob ‘Analytics Darling’ Loe mode he was the only NZer at the Breakers with an offensive rating higher than his defensive rating. It definitely didn’t help when rotations and combinations were constantly changing around roster alterations and injuries. But you’ve already read all about the Breakers dramas over here.
Tom Abercrombie was the other one. Hyped up big time by his club as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and sure enough they managed to post their way into TA making the top three – finishing second in the voting albeit well behind winner Justin Simon (Illawarra Hawks). A truly versatile defender and also someone who never seems to get enough shots up the other end, though his 3P% was way down this season so that didn’t help. He went from 46.5% on 4.07 threes per game last season to 31.2% on 4.15 attempts this time. It was a tough season for all these dudes living away from family and home, to be fair. He did become the club’s all-time leader in games played and three pointers made at least, plus he had one of the moments of NBL21...
Nothing to say about their development players either, lovely to see the Breaks get back to using those DP spots on uplifting kiwi lads but Isaac Davidson and Taine Murray barely got a run all term despite the losing record. 17 total mins for Davidson, not even 3 for Murray. They’ve signed Sam Timmins as a DP for next time which should be cool if they actually let him play some.
Outside of the Breakers you cannot look past Yanni Wetzell who had a rollercoaster preseason as he initially opted out of the SEM contract he’d signed to take up a deal in Germany but travel complications or whatever saw him opt back in and he started every single game for the Phoenix including playoffs. An excellent shooter in the paint who is strong with good feet despite being a rookie at this level. SEM had a ridiculous 121.5 offensive rating with Wetzell out there. A delight to watch him out there shooting 55% with six rebounds per game and he was pretty bloody unlucky not to make the shortlist for Rookie of the Year.
South East Melbourne also of course boasted Judd Flavell on their coaching staff and his presence was huge in them not only scooping up Wetzell but also having Reuben Te Rangi already on the roster, signing Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’afa as a DP, and bringing Mike Karena in as an injury replacement. Karena only played 54 minutes all up, he wasn’t really there to be a key role player or anything. Still featured in 15 games though for his first taste of the Aussie NBL (he has played a couple seasons in Spain).
Mauriohooho-Le’afa on the other hand, jeepers. Look at what minimal opportunities the Breakers DPs got and then consider that IML played more than 500 minutes as a development lad including starting two games while Kiefer Sykes was out. You don’t get those minutes without delivering something very useful on the court. Le’afa’s hounding defence and ability to get to the rim kept him involved throughout and he’s since signed a multi-year deal graduating to a full roster spot. The man. And Reuben Te Rangi... what else is there to say? Defensive maestro who’ll do the dirty work without reward or complaint. He had five scoreless games, happy to let others get their shots up, whilst still playing every game and starting all but four. The main blemish being that RTR’s three point shot pretty much abandoned him all season until the very last playoff game when he hit six of them, dropping 22 points for a comfortable season-high. Better late than never... although they did still lose to the eventual champ Melbourne United.
We also had friends at the Cairns Taipans where Jarrod Kenny offered some experience on the bench there, not playing a heap but hitting his shots and being a leader for the team that finished last on the ladder. This was his third season with Cairns after three at Perth – he’s witnessed this explosion of Aotearoa reps in the league in real time. Meanwhile Jordan Ngatai was there too after being released by the Breakers and he responded by firing a magnificent 43.7% from deep on 3.8 attempts a night – nobody who took that many deep bombs shot them at a better rate. Nobody. The man’s a clever baller on both sides and he’s already re-signed for next term. No less than he deserves.
Also at the Taipans was Jordan Hunt making it a trio of the NBL Showdown champion Otago Nuggets at the Taipans. Granted, Hunt was there as a DP and only featured in five games. Not a lot to say there other than it would still have been a valuable journey for him in that environment. Then also Hyrum Harris, who was probably the leading local candidate for the Unluckiest Not To Already Be On An NBL Roster award when the season began, he popped up as an injury replacement player having been a DP for Illawarra the season before. Only played one game for Cairns though before returning to Aotearoa to tear things up for the Hawke’s Bay Hawks.
Tom Vodanovich was also released by the Breakers after the 2020 season, same as Jordan Ngatai. He was also superb at the NBL Showdown in the homeland. Initially it looked like he might not be able to translate that into a NBL21 deal but then Xavier Cooks got injured for the Sydney Kings and Vodanovich got the call-up. Next thing you know he’s bringing the energy the whole way through. Vodanovich is in such good shape these days and you can see it clearly in how he moves around the court. Plus he’s still big enough to hold his own in the paint and all of a sudden he’s a snipe-shooter too. 37.5% from 88 attempts for a forward/mini-centre is the real deal. And guess what? Just like Mauriohooho-Le’afa he’s been re-signed to a full roster spot. Outstanding from him.
Tyrell Harrison has snuck under the radar as someone who moved to Aussie in his teens and has been working his way up with the Brisbane Bullets for several years. This was the first time he really graduated to legit rotation status though and he did the business. At 21 years old he was top-20 in rebounding per game despite not playing huge minutes. Alternating between starting and playing off the bench. All in all laying down a solid case for himself at this level. You love to see it.
Max Darling signed a three-year deal with the Illawarra Hawks after returning from Croatia so obviously his progression was seen as a longer term thing, hence no need to panic that he only featured in 14 games for Brian Goorjian’s team. The vibes still seem positive. Darling showed little flashes but without a sustained run he probably lacked a bit of confidence or fluency, yet he’s now seen what it takes and he’s under contract for two more years to put that into practice. A fellow Canterbury bro, Taylor Britt, returned for another DP year with the Perth Wildcats but played less this time than last. Only 25 minutes, shooting 1/9 from the field and 0/3 from the free throw line... not that any of that really matters in such a small sample.
Which brings us to the final bloke: NBL champion Shea Ili. He won a title with the Breakers in 2016, now he’s won one with Melbourne United playing Sixth-Man-style stuff off the bench. Classic Shea Ili in other words... except that you remember the shooting problems that he had at the Breakers? Long gone. Ili shot 42% from threes this season which is miles better than his previous best of 36.5% back in 2017-18. You already know you’re going to get sharp defence and a bit of ball-handling from the fella. For him to be drilling threes as well? You don’t even need to guess that they’ve already re-signed him for the title defence. Here’s what he put down in the Grand Final series...
GAME 1: Perth Wildcats 70–73 Melbourne United
19 MIN | 3 PTS (1/4 FG, 1/2 3PT, 1/2 FT) | 1 REB | 2 PF
GAME 2: Perth Wildcats 74–83 Melbourne United
17 MIN | 4 PTS (1/3 3PT, 2/2 FT) | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 PF
GAME 3: Melbourne United 81–76 Perth Wildcats
14 MIN | 5 PTS (1/3 3PT, 2/2 FT) | 1 REB | 3 AST | 1 TO | 2 PF
Nothing excessive there but he chipped in as United swept the Wildcats to win the comp. Ex-Breakers coach Dean Vickerman leading the way there (his third ring as a head coach) while his kiwi assistant Ross McMains also got another taste of glory. Scotty Hopson obviously joined United after an excellent year with the Breakers too. So there you go.
And the takeover will only continue into next season. The feeling was that Yanni Wetzell will probably head back to Europe now that things are a little clearer seeing as that’s what he preferred all along… but then about ten minutes after this article initially went up he was confirmed on a three-year deal with the Breakers instead so how about them apples? Outstanding signing. However Finn Delany has an out-clause if he wishes to head to Europe while Tai Webster will have lucrative options too. Meanwhile guys like Vodanovich and Le’afa have graduated to full roster status and there are plenty more candidates bubbling under the surface. Including Sam Timmins who is a new addition to the crew, there are fourteen kiwis already on the books for NBL22...
Plenty more where all this came from. May the days remain ever-golden.
Alrighty, time to ask kindly if you’ll support us on Patreon, should you be so generous
Also whack an ad to say cheers, sign up to our Substack, and share an article here or there
Keep cool but care