Getting Up To Date With NZ Breakers Offseason Activities Ahead Of NBL24
It’s still remarkable to think how the Breakers turned it all around so suddenly. From wooden spooners to grand finalists... and it wasn’t only on the court that things picked up either. A lot of their basketballing struggles were exacerbated by the pandemic but the reason it was so hard to see them getting back to this level was because of how things were being run beyond across the board. No need to relitigate that because it’s all been done before. The difference now is that they have a great head coach with vision who has proven that the Breakers can win games despite any lingering remnants of the dark old days.
The first thing that needed doing this offseason was consolidating the playing roster. Everything else stems from that. They’d had a brilliant campaign, come up narrowly short in the finals where they were beaten in the decisive game five, but pretty much their entire main rotation were off contract. The only lads who already had deals encompassing NBL24 were: Dan Fotu, Tom Vodanovich, Cam Gliddon, Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’Afa, and Rayan Rupert. The latter was always going to declare for the NBA Draft so make that four players signed on. Four players who ranked 4th, 8th, 9th, and 12th for total minutes across the season (IMF, TV, CG, DF in that order).
Okay, so there was work to be done. At least this year they had some genuine recruiting ability on the back of their playoff success. That competitive glow probably wasn’t necessary in getting Alex McNaught back on a three-year development player extension. Nor for coaxing club legend Tom Abercrombie back for one last season. Those deals were there for them to make, with neither player likely to bother testing the waters elsewhere.
However it definitely mattered when it came to Will McDowell-White. Damn near every team in the NBL was after his services and in particular there was real talk about him joining his hometown Brisbane Bullets. But relax, pals, for there was nothing to worry about. Trust in Mody Maor. His relationship with WMW seems to have been the clincher with the Aussie point guard signing a two-year contract, the second year being a player option.
That’s huge. We’re talking about a starting calibre point guard with a ready-made fit for this team who had some massive games in the playoffs. He had a few dud ones too, by his standards, and that high-end consistency is the next step for him in his career. Thankfully there’s nowhere where he’ll be better set to make that leap than with the Breakers and if he does then the NBA would not be out of the question. As far as the Breakers are concerned, they’ve locked in their most important domestic free agent for at least one more campaign... also ensuring they don’t need to use one of their precious import spots on a point guard.
Last season’s import trio was the main reason that the Breakers went as deep into the season as they did. Barry Brown Jr scoring clutch buckets, Dererk Pardon laying down mean defence, and Jarrell Brantley doing a bit of both. Three outta three with the recruitment there. Of course, an unkept secret with the Breakers is how they have not retained a single import player since the change in ownership. We’re at sixteen players and counting...
Rakeem Christmas, DJ Newbill, Edgar Sosa (2017-18), Armani Moore, Patrick Richard, Shawn Long (2018-19), Brandon Ashley, Sek Henry, Scotty Hopson, Glen Rice Jr (2019-20), Colton Iverson, Jeremy Kendle, Levi Randolph, Lamar Patterson (2020-21), Peyton Siva, and Chasson Randle (2021-22)
(And that’s not including Hugo Besson who was technically an import but we’ll keep it real and class him as an unofficial Next Star – those guys aren’t supposed to return – or Chris Obekpa who was cut before the season began in 2019-20)
In fairness, a lot of those imports weren’t wanted back. Some of them didn’t even last a full season. There are also some belters in there but the better the player the more options they have. This time seemed different because for once there seemed to be genuine interest on both sides to bring back all three... but in the end this time turned out not to be so different from all the other times with Coach Maor telling Stuff recently that none of Pardon, Brantley, or Brown will be re-signing. Getting all three back was always going to be a bit much to ask but one or two maybe? Nah mate. Make that 0/19 then.
Put that down to the price of success. Jarrell Brantley finished his NBL season and swiftly picked up a 10-day contract with the Utah Jazz in the NBA where he played four games before his deal expired. The Jazz weren’t a playoff team so the end of their season involved a lot of 10-day deals to try out players for the future and Brantley, who played 37 times for Utah over a couple of seasons as a two-way player earlier in his career, got swept up into that annual waltz. Hence it ain’t a stretch to imagine him doing the summer league rounds when that comes around soon.
Barry Brown Jr didn’t go the NBA way yet his post-Breakers stuff has been even more impressive. He popped up with Metropolitans 92 in France where he’s been playing alongside impending number one overall NBA Draft pick Victor Wembanyama in the French league playoffs. Met 92 beat Lyon-Villeurbanne 3-1 in their semi-final series with BBJ proving a key part of that. He’s averaged around 14 points per game coming off the bench and drilling three-pointers - including a game-winner in the second game of the semis...
Meanwhile Dererk Pardon has kept busy at Cangrejeros de Santurce in Puerto Rico. That season is nearly over although they should make the playoffs from where they are. Even still, all three of these guys will be done with what they’re currently working on by the time the Breakers preseason gets underway... but that’s irrelevant because we’ve already been told that they aren’t coming back. They’re now commanding bigger dollars than the Breakers can offer.
Rob Loe ain’t walking through that door either. He’s chosen to retire instead. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing with him and the Breakers, where he hasn’t always suited the team’s style (or been treated fairly). But Loe’s a family fella and never entertained offers from other NBL clubs – despite there reportedly being more lucrative ones than what the Breakers put on the table for him (understandable given other clubs would presumably be offering him a bigger role – whereas the Breakers shouldn’t overpay for someone who was only playing a dozen minutes per night).
Loe’s form with the Auckland Tuatara has been incredible of late so there’s no doubting he’s still got the juice, even if the defensive side of things does get trickier at the higher level. Ultimately though his heart was elsewhere so he’s declined all offers and chosen to retire from professional basketball – including foregoing a potential World Cup campaign with the Tall Blacks. Neither he nor Abercrombie, who has also retired from internationals, will be with the TBs in August. At least Izayah Le’Afa is still a good shout to make the final roster.
But wait there’s more because Tom Vodanovich has been released from his contract to take up a deal in the Philippines for some mad cash. Tommy V did actually have a very brief stint in the Philippines earlier in the year. He ducked away post-NBL finals to play for Converge Fiber Xers. In his first game he put up 39 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists... but they lost and were thus eliminated from the playoffs, hence his first game was his only game. Ethan Rusbatch also played one game for the same team earlier in the season. Not yet sure if Vodanovich is returning to the Xers or a different Filipino club. Safe to say that one game will have earned him some clout.
Thing is, that season overlaps massively with the NBL so the Breakers have had to agree to release him in order for this to work... which they have done but with the right-of-refusal to scoop him back up again if the timing works out. The Filipino season has three different competitions running from June to around March... which wouldn’t line up. But if he isn’t there for all three comps then suddenly the window opens up for him to pop back mid-season for the Breakers. That might be the best of both worlds scenario. We shall see how it goes.
Oh yeah and it was also mentioned in that Stuff article that they won’t be bringing back Sam Timmins. Add that all together and you’ve got twelve players who played for this team on full contracts last term (so, excluding their lone development player and the injury replacements) and less than half of them are coming back. Will McDowell-White and Tom Abercrombie have been re-signed. Dan Fotu, Cam Gliddon, and Izayah Le’Afa were already under contract. Maybe Tom Vodanovich will be back at some point, maybe not. But Rob Loe has retired, the three imports have graduated beyond NZB’s pay-scale, and Sam Timmins has been let go. There’s a bit of work to do from here, that’s for sure.
That work has already begun with the additions of Mangok Mathiang and Dane Pineau to pad out the roster... effectively as direct replacements for Loe and Vodanovich. They’ve also locked in their latest Next Star project in the form of Lithuanian wing Mantas Rubštavičius. Busy days.
Australian big fella Mangok Mathiang is 30 years old with South Sudanese heritage. Mathiang signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets back in 2017 after going undrafted. He only played 20 minutes across four games at NBA level but has had a tidy career in Italy, Turkey, Slovenia, and most recently Israel (another Israeli connection for the Breakers). He also played 25 games for the Illawarra Hawks last season before leaving for Israel midway through the term. Mathiang has played internationally for Australia. He doesn’t have the shooting range of Loe but he can finish around the rim and he rebounds very well.
He’s also apparently a legendary defender, because the Breakers’ announcement on their website included this little ditty: “Defensive Demon Better than Dererk Pardon Confirmed at NZ Breakers for NBL24”. That’s more typical NZB media weirdness, allowing a beloved former player to cop a few stray bullets for no apparent reason (not to mention the syntax). Coach Maor did drop a quote in there about MM being a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate in there as well (the award that Pardon was robbed for last season). Pardon slander aside, they’ve clearly got high hopes for what Mathiang can offer.
As for Dane Pineau, he’s a 28yo Australian big fresh off four years with the South East Melbourne Phoenix, having played a little bit for the Sydney Kings after getting out of college. Pineau’s best season in the NBL was his first with SEM where he averaged 8.1 points and 8.5 rebounds. Not a shooter with any range but he is an excellent rebounder, same dynamic as Mathiang. But he missed most of that second SEM season with injury and hasn’t been the same bloke since. Pineau is signing a two-year deal, while Mathiang’s is a one-year contract.
A pair of Australian big men in place of two Tall Blacks internationals isn’t especially endearing. In fact it’s annoyingly close to how the club was operating a couple of years ago. But we shouldn’t ever judge a signing until they’ve actually played for the club and Mody Maor has definitely earned the benefit of the doubt after last season’s recruitment. It’s just that the centre position is probably the most stocked for kiwi ballers in the NZ NBL right now. Tyrell Harrison, Rob Loe, Jack Andrew, and Anzac Rissetto are unavailable but Tai Wynyard, Sam Timmins, Tohi Smith-Milner, Taane Samuel, Callum McRae, Dom Kelman-Poto, etc might not have been.
The other thing is that the Breakers have not had the line on the best kiwi players coming out of college/high school lately. They missed out on past guys like Yanni Wetzell, Jack Salt, and Sam Waardenburg and now this season we’ve seen Sam Mennenga, Flynn Cameron, and Dontae Russo-Nance all link up with rival NBL clubs instead. NZB did get Dan Fotu on board a year ago although injuries have meant he hasn’t really kicked on as a pro yet. Maybe this season will be the one. Also to be fair they did bag Yanni Wetzell straight after his brilliant rookie season so perhaps the plan is more about letting them sink or swim elsewhere then pouncing on the known prospects for their second contracts.
That brings us to Mantas Rubštavičius. We’re about a week away from Rayan Rupert surely being drafted into the NBA and if that happens he’ll follow on from RJ Hampton, Ousmane Dieng, and Hugo Besson before him. If all goes to plan then Rubštavičius will be next.
As a player he’s very similar to Dieng and Rupert and he follows the pattern of targeting European prospects rather than Americans – although this bloke is Lithuanian not French like the past three. The main difference with Rubštavičius is that he’s 21 years old, a couple years older than the teenagers they’d mostly gotten before. Hasn’t really done much on the pro scene yet but he did average 19.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game at the European U20s champs last year, top scoring for the entire tournament including 38 points in a quarter-final win over France (Lithuania lost in the final).
This guy is ready to roll. He had initially toyed with the idea of the 2023 NBA Draft but withdrew his name from the hat in order to bank on the Mody Maor effect instead. All four Breakers prospects have been drafted. Rubštavičius fits the bill to potentially make it a fifth. In a season where the Next Star pathway feels like it could be as popular as ever across the Aussie league, Mantas Rubštavičius feels like someone who can come in and contribute from day one. Whether that leads to the best draft position is doubtable but it could lead to the best impact throughout the season... another trend of the Breakers has been these Next Stars getting a little bit more team-friendly with each subsequent time. In fact what do ya know: here’s an article about exactly that.
Here’s how things currently sit:
PG – Will McDowell-White | Izayah Le’Afa
SG – [import] | Cam Gliddon | Alex McNaught (DP)
SF – Tom Abercrombie | Dan Fotu
PF – [import] | Mantas Rubštavičius (NS)
C – Mangok Mathiang | Dane Pineau
Add in a third import somewhere, probably another wing or maybe a sixth-man guard scorer. Then another local player and potentially another development player or two. You can have three but the minimum is only one, which is what NZB went with last time.
Odd thing is, right now the Breakers have fewer New Zealanders on their roster than the Perth Wildcats do, thanks to the Vodanovich release. Perth have five with Corey Webster, Tai Webster, Hyrum Harris, and the two DPs Dontae Russo-Nance and Jack Andrew. They also have Aaron Young now as an assistant coach which again out-enzeds the Breakers supposing that they bring back last year’s staff of head coach Mody Maor (Israel) and assistants Bastien Cadot (France), James Reid (USA), Dan Sokolovsky (USA), and Roei Rotenberg (Israel).
Wondrous things were achieved last season in part because Mody Maor instigated a return to the Breakers’ cultural heritage as Aotearoa’s only fully professional basketball team. It’s too early to get judgemental about how this offseason is going, you’d hope they can squeeze another kiwi into the ranks but Mody Maor has earned our trust regardless. Plus it’s a long time until the new season tips off. Lots has changed in the past week alone and lots more will change before the action starts.
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