Roster Tweaking & Other Offseason Occurrences with the NZ Breakers
It was back on July 9 that it was first reported that the Breakers had picked up Peyton Siva and Hugo Besson on import contracts for the upcoming NBL season. The pair travelled to Aotearoa some time in the subsequent weeks but it was only on August 22 that Siva was finally announced. Besson we’re still waiting for. It’s not like it was a secret but nah we had to wait six weeks for even just that first confirmation. What’s up with that?
Maybe not coincidentally, the Siva news came two mere days after the long expected release of Corey Webster. Make sure you end on the good news, is that it? Applying rhyme or reason to the Breakers media strategy is always a risky game but that’s the way they wanted it so that’s the way we’ll do this. Why has Corey Webster been released? Put simply: because someone had to be.
The current NZB regime has always been about Talent > Fit, with the idea being that we get the best possible players on the roster and then figure out the rest of it later. Worst case scenario of that was Glenn Rice Jr who was touted as potentially the most talented bloke to ever pull on a Breakers singlet yet ended up being an unmitigated disaster of a signing (who, pray tell, could ever have predicted it!?). But the midseason acquisition of McDowell-White last time was a much happier version of this philosophy. Get the guys, then make it work.
But of course there are still limits. With Peyton Siva in as an import guard to go with ball-handlers like the re-signed Tai Webster and William McDowell-White it was always going to be tricky for Dan Shamir to find a balance. There’s still only one ball to go around. Hence it’s been rumoured for more than a month now that Corey Webster had been given permission to talk to other NBL teams.
Brisbane, Perth, Illawarra, and Sydney were all mentioned. Perth would’ve been the funkiest one there because remember he very briefly signed with them a couple years back but didn’t end up playing. Brisbane would also have been cool given the kiwi big man unit that’s coming together there (Harrison, Salt & Samuel). Last season was a triumphant one for kiwi basketballers in this competition as twenty different NZers found themselves on rosters at some point or another. More than half of those were at teams other than the Breakers so in this day and age there’s no reason to be upset at someone like Corey Webster spreading his wings elsewhere in the NBL. It’s all just expanding the player pool.
However that’s not what’s happened. Webster has been released but it’s not to another NBL team... instead he’s off to Egypt of all places where he’ll play for Al Ittihad Alexandria. Quite a surprise given that Egypt are the 62nd ranked team on the FIBA rankings (compared to Aotearoa in 25th and Australia at 3rd), but then maybe at 32 years old this has nothing to do with that. Al Ittihad are one of the strongest clubs in Egypt and will have ambitions of getting into the Basketball Africa League. Having already played in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Serbia, Italy, and China before... not to mention all the Tall Blacks travels... this’ll make it four different continents that CW has played in. Can’t fault it.
This is an ideal result for the Breakers where they fix an issue with the roster without losing a talented player – a club legend – to a rival club where he might have done some direct damage. It’s also a curious one considering that whole kerfuffle the season before last where Webster wanted to be released to go play overseas in the wake of a brilliant World Cup, only to be denied. That in itself was fair enough... until the whole “worst starting two-guard in the league” comments emerged publically, something CEO Matt Walsh had apparently said to him in those talks. Walshy later clarified that, no, he only meant CW was statistically the worst starting two-guard in the league. Okey doke then. Weird way to go about defending a dude.
Webster appears to have had a good relationship with the club/ownership since then so there were no lingering hard feelings, all water under the bridge. And they did eventually release him for the second half of that season which allowed him to go to China and then Italy (awkwardly both coronavirus hotspots before most of us realised the scope of the pandemic). That was done as part of a deal to re-sign him for three more years upon his return six months later... yet one injury-plagued season later he’s been released again and the quote from Matt Walsh in the presser makes it sound like this time Webster is gone for good...
“Corey is one of the most decorated figures in our club’s history. He has been critical to the success of the club, and everyone wishes him the best for the rest of his career.”
... even though Webster himself, two lines earlier in the piece, specifically said: “I hope to return to the club in the future and finish my career for my home team.”
I dunno though, it’s hard to envision that he won’t be back in some capacity down the line and this whole saga teaches us that circumstances tend to change quickly and often. Funny thing is we were prepared from late last season for one of the top kiwi blokes at the club to be leaving but it wasn’t Corey Webster. It was Finn Delany who even the coach was saying probably wouldn’t be back. But the release clause in his contract expired without a preferred alternative coming along – this being the middle of a global pandemic and all – so there you go. As good as a new signing, as the cliche goes.
There was one other major reason why Corey Webster had to be released and that’s that with the announced signing of Peyton Siva and the as-of-right-now still unannounced signing of Hugo Besson as imports, the Breakers were at max capacity for their roster. That’s with next star Ousmane Dieng not counting towards the 11 either. There was an import spot clear and no room to use it.
Siva there’s nothing much to say, he’s a ripping player. A late-second round pick in the Steven Adams draft of 2013 (he played 24 games for the Detroit Pistons) who has bossed it in Europe for the last few years winning consecutive German championships with Alba Berlin in 2020 and 2021. He’s got a similar skill-set to Tai Webster: athletic, though considerably shorter, with great passing abilities but is not the most consistent three-point shooter. Someone who puts the team ahead of their own stats but can still score in volume when needed. A really nice addition that was first reported on the same day that Melbourne United added Matthew Dellavedova.
As has Hugo Besson, he’s a 20 year old French baller who was expected to be drafted this year but an ankle injury meant he couldn’t partake in workouts so here he is at the Breakers on a three year deal. Note that he’s not a Next Star, he’s an import. But the duration of the contract suggests that he’s being treated like a Next Star with the idea being that there’ll be financial compensation when he gets drafted eventually midway through that contract. Be that next draft or the one after.
Besson is a combo guard, someone who doesn’t hesitate to shoot and if that translates into buckets then he’s exactly the kind of player that this team needs. Useful off the dribble too by the looks. Having another Frenchman on the roster can surely only be good for Next Star Ousmane Dieng, a helpful thought given how their last NS guy struggled to settle in off the court. However Besson’s inexperience is obviously a huge risk and even more so considering that he’s taking up an import spot. Hence why somebody (Corey Webster) had to be released... otherwise there was no room for the third import and when one of the two existing imports is effectively a development dude then yeah you really wanna be able to use that third one.
This is what the roster is looking like for now...
PG – Peyton Siva (I) | Tai Webster
SG – William McDowell-White | Hugo Besson (I)
SF – Tom Abercrombie | Rasmus Bach | Isaac Davidson (DP)
PF – Finn Delany | Ousmane Dieng (NS) | Kyrin Galloway
C – Yanni Wetzell | Rob Loe | Sam Timmins (DP)
With an import to be added. Presumably a wing who can shoot and defend in equal capacity, though you never know with the Talent > Fit scenario at play.
What else has been happening? Well Tai Webster was retained around the same time as Peyton Siva and Hugo Besson were first reported. Signed him up on a two-year deal so that’s cool. Hopefully with a healthier and more balanced (fingers crossed) roster around him he won’t have to carry such a heavy load in the offence and can be his peak facilitating, selective, instigating self.
Yanni Wetzell was signed from South East Melbourne too. That was the first major move of the offseason, an impressive statement even though they really shoulda just signed him a year ago given he was literally training with the club after returning from the States due to the pandemic. An immediate upgrade at the centre position despite the commendable veteran moves of Colton Iverson last time out. Iverson set mint screens and rebounded at huge numbers. But Yanni Wetzell can actually move sideways. He’s a more versatile scorer, a solid passer, and a local player to boot. Love that signing. The Pretzell is a player, don’t doubt it.
Naturally, the Breakers being the Breakers, the media release for the Wetzell signing was all over the place. Starting with the headline: “Rising Kiwi Star Turns Back on Australia to Join Sky Sport Breakers on 3-Year Deal” ... he signed with another team is all. Chill out. Then there was this quote from Coach Shamir which strongly suggests that they were the ones who rejected Wetzell a year ago, rather than the other way around...
“Basketball is a dynamic business, and we were very open and genuine about the fact we didn’t have the right situation for Yanni last year. The dynamics have changed this year, and Yanni has also had a phenomenal season which has made things a lot different.”
Yeah either that or maybe the Breakers just aren’t that great at scouting players and realised their mistake while seeing Wetzell tear it up for the Phoenix.
Credit where it’s due though, they’ve acted to correct that mistake. One thing you cannot say about this Breakers regime is that they’re stubborn. There are way too many examples of adapting and acknowledging errors or misjudgements for that to be the case. Arguably even too many as it’s sometimes hard to get a handle on what exactly this team is supposed to be on the court. Speaking of which, here’s another thing that’s happened this offseason...
Re-signing a head coach who has failed to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons? Of course they did. The Breakers picked up his third-year option midway through his first year while he still had a losing record so why not. 2018 was the last time the Breakers made the finals. 2016 was the last time they won a finals series game. Each of Shamir’s two seasons have come with a myriad of valid excuses for the team’s struggles but at some stage we’ve gotta see some results. A firing would have been way too harsh considering everything. A contract extension though? That’s going a long way in the other direction.
Also, when did we stop using the Director of Basketball tag? Seems like it just slowly faded out of use and Shamir eventually came to be known as the head coach he always was. But as that one becomes officially official we’ve been gifted a new piece of made up terminology with Mody Moar promoted to Associate Head Coach. Rightio then. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
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