The NZ Breakers Are Ready To Repeat The Dose in NBL24
After several years of mediocrity, some pandemic-influenced and some not, the Breakers surged back into Australian National Basketball League prominence last season under the inspirational guidance of new head coach Mody Maor. After four long years without even making the playoffs, the Breaks took it all the way to the finals where they were beaten in a decisive game five by the Sydney Kings. Devastatingly close to a fifth championship... but the degree of that devastation depends on whether this was a one-off opportunity of perfect alignment or a permanent restoring of this franchise’s past glories.
In other words: Can they do it again?
That’s the task facing the Breakers in NBL24. A task that many sporting organisations have struggled with over the years – getting to one grand final is hard enough, finding a way to consistently challenge for that stage is what separates the good from the great. That’s the clay from which dynasties are moulded. The Breakers have been there before. Now they’re trying to make a home in those shining skies once again.
Given how much of their resurgence seemed to be down to Mody Maor, the most important aspect of their offseason was already taken care of with Maor under contract for another couple of years. From there it became a matter of retaining as many of the squad that took them to the finals as possible. But that proved to be rather difficult. They did lock down the very valuable Will McDowell-White, a genuine starting level local point guard at an age where he should continue to improve, though despite claiming to have interest in bringing back all three of their American imports they ended up re-signing none of them – continuing the trend of not retaining a single import player since the ownership change (19 imports and counting).
As it happens, there are only going to be six returning players from the roster: Will McDowell-White, Tom Abercrombie, Izayah Le’afa, Cam Gliddon, Dan Fotu, and Alex McNaught. And the last two of those only played a combined 95 minutes in all of NBL23. That’s half the roster gone... and the changes don’t stop there. Maor only has one of his assistants returning, Dan Sokolowsky (who recently coached Franklin Bulls in the NZ NBL). There’s a new Chief Executive in place. There’s even a new naming sponsor with the Bank of New Zealand taking over for Sky Sports. If consistency was the destination then they’ve sure missed the bus on that one.
That might not be such a problem though. The CEO thing is quite interesting because Lisa Edser was already the COO and seems to have already been acting in this capacity with former CEO (and face of the ownership group) Matt Walsh spending most of last season back home in the USA. He’s now relocated permanently... so Edser has been promoted permanently. This after a year in which the team was brilliant, the crowds were really good, the club was functioning smoothly, and there wasn’t a co-owner interfering with basketball decisions or inserting himself into headlines. As for naming sponsors, who really cares. But it does seem like a preferable thing that they’re no longer sponsored by their host broadcaster. The Breakers definitely avoided more scrutiny than they should have during the dark years and the conflict of their main sponsor platforming most of their coverage might have had something to do with that. That’s all in the past now so no dramas.
The strength of any NBL team lies in the quality of their imports. The Breakers had a magnificent trio last time, with Dererk Pardon laying down some stone-wall defence, Jarrell Brantley defending like a champ whilst knocking down shots from all depths, and Barry Brown Jr popping up off the bench to score clutch buckets again and again. None of them are coming back. In their places will be: Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Zylan Cheatham, and Justinian Jessup.
PJC is a ball-handling guard who can drive and who can shoot. He’s tiny by basketball standards, less than six foot, but he is a former Bundesliga MVP so the pedigree exists. Justinian Jessup is also a guard. An outside shooter who formerly played for the Illawarra Hawks for two seasons as a Next Star player (after already having been selected in the second round of the 2020 NBA Draft). There he proved himself a capable shooter, capable defender, and sneaky good facilitator. That was as a recent college grad. He’s not only got that NBL experience in the bag now but he’s also spent a season in Spain in between so the Breakers can reasonably expect that the 25yo is an improved version of himself. That finals defeat probably showed a need for an extra source of offence now and then, well here he is.
Last year they had two bigs and one guard within their import trio. This time it’s two guards and a big. That big being Zylan Cheatham, a power forward standing at 6’8 who has played a bit of NBA with both the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz (although most of his stuff has come in the G-League with a wee bit at Bayern Munich in Germany). This dude is super athletic and seems to have some of that same intensity that Pardon used to bring.
But Cheatham projects more as a power forward replacement for Brantley, leaving a Dererk Pardon shaped hole still in the team. That hole will be filled by Mangok Mathiang with fellow Australian Dane Pineau as his backup. A completely new frontcourt rotation with Rob Loe having retired, Dererk Pardon having moved elsewhere, and Sam Timmins having been released prior to signing with the Sydney Kings. Mathiang is the guy that Maor claimed could end up having a higher defensive impact than Pardon did and then the club’s media took that out of context to make it look like a dig at Pardon (as usual Maor was able to put out those flames with some sensible words in the aftermath).
That was a needlessly silly way to introduce him... but a lot does depend on Mathiang. In previous NBL spells, Mathiang has lacked consistency and his production hasn’t always matching his hectic energy. But Coach Mody seems confident he can get the best out of him. MM is going to play a huge role for this team and if he is indeed one of the better starting centres going around - and the DPOY candidate that his coach reckons he will be - then the Breakers will go a long way towards catching last year’s win tally. If not then... yeah dunno. There is a clear emphasis on rebounding and size with Mathiang and Pineau though, coming after a year with an undersized centre in Pardon.
It is a shame that they lost their old import trio but it’s not necessarily something they had much control over. Those guys priced themselves out of the Breakers’ range with how well they performed (Brown left NZB to go play French basketball with Victor Wembanyama while Brantley signed an NBA 10-day contract soon afterwards). Rayan Rupert was never going to return and they’ve moved swiftly to replace him with Lithuanian young gun Mantas Rubstavicius who’ll provide scoring depth on the wings as the club’s latest Next Star project. MR has had a preseason injury so he isn’t getting nearly the same scouting hype as some of the other Next Stars in the NBL24 crop. Just gotta see how he settles in. He’s unlikely to have the defensive presence or versatility of Rupert but he does shape to be a much better shooter. Sam Timmins they let go because he hardly played. Tom Vodanovich took up a gig in the Philippines but he could be back later in the season.
Rob Loe was the only departee whom they’ll feel they missed out on... but Loe’s last few years with this team have been tumultuous. Under Dan Shamir his minutes were slashed and he had a tough time of it personally with a young family during covid – which the club really didn’t seem to be very sympathetic of at the time. Again, that’s water under the bridge now... but you can see why Rob Loe maybe wasn’t enjoying his basketball as much as he used to. As to the Melbourne United u-turn, well they offered him a short-term gig while Jo Lual-Acuil Jr recovers from injury. It’s not the same thing as a season-long contract. With JLA reportedly ahead of schedule in his recovery it could even be that Loe is back in Tamaki Makaurau by mid-November. There’s nothing to it. He’s still mostly retired, he’s just cashing a couple cheques first.
All the same, there was something missing from the Breakers roster until they landed their big fish. A gargantuan blue marlin in the form of Finn Delany. Genuine Tall Blacks starter who was very good at the recent World Cup who is coming off a strong season in Germany for the beaten finalists of the German league – keep in mind that Germany just won the World Cup with a squad that had as many current Bundesliga players as current NBA players. Delany was an All-NBL dude when he left the Breakers. Now he’s back, largely on the strength of his relationship with Mody Maor, and he’s back because he feels this team can compete for a championship.
That was supposed to be it for the 2023-24 roster but something odd happened while some of the lads were away at the World Cup – Izayah Le’afa and Finn Delany made the Tall Blacks final squad, while Mangok Mathiang went close with South Sudan as did Dan Fotu (NZ) and Will McDowell-White (Australia). That odd thing was an increased presence of New Zealanders. Three NZ NBL standouts: Dom Kelman-Poto, Carlin Davison, and Max Darling. Any thought that they’d merely been brought into preseason training to make up the numbers soon dissipated as one by one they all signed contracts. DKP as a designated replacement player and Darling and Davison as development players.
Yes, for the first time since 2020–21, the Breakers have signed multiple kiwi DPs. It’s the first time at all during the current ownership that they’ve had three kiwi DPs. The flipside is that there are only four NZers on full contracts out of a 11-man main roster (with three Americans, three Aussies, and an Aussie-South Sudanese bloke)... which for a time left them with fewer New Zealanders on the books than the Perth Wildcats. But they’ve done some lovely things with their sub-roster to help balance that out.
Max Darling has been a massive prospect for a few years now but between his time in Croatia and Illawarra he hasn’t quite found that right environment to thrive (shout out to the Canterbury Rams though). But he’s big and strong and has a useful shooting touch. Carlin Davison has got a wonky shot which might put some teams off but everything else about his game is spectacular. He plays like he’s on a trampoline. Great intensity. Really good defender. He fits all those Mody Maor prerequisites. Those two are project players with the potentially to reward a team who truly invests in their development.
Dom Kelman-Poto is a little different as someone with more experience, including as a DP for the Breakers back in the day (as well as representing NZ at the last Commonwealth Games in 3x3). The key thing with him is that he has already worked with Breakers assistant Dan Sokolowsky at the Franklin Bulls. DKP is a designated replacement so, while he’ll train regularly with the team, he’ll only be available to play if somebody else is injured/unavailable. That could be a late notice thing and it requires someone mature that the coaches trust. There ya go.
Now, the Breakers do have a habit of not using their fringe players very often. Jayden Bezzant was a DRP last time and only got 7 minutes in total. Alex McNaught played 57 as a DP and that was more than either Dan Fotu or Sam Timmins got on full roster status. With an 11-man roster plus a Next Star plus three development players plus a designated replacement player... that’s 16 guys in the wider squad. Some of them are only going to be glimpsed in rare sightings. Anything these DPs get is going to be seriously hard-earned.
By the way, there are now 24 New Zealanders contracted to NBL teams with eight of them at the Breakers. We’ve never had more than 20 take the court in a single year (that was NBL21). Even if a couple of them don’t get their spotlights, we’re still on course for records to tumble.
NZ Breakers Roster For NBL24
Guards: Will McDowell-White, Parker Jackson-Cartwright (I), Justinian Jessup (I), Izayah Le’afa, Cam Gliddon, Alex McNaught (DP)
Forwards: Finn Delany, Zylan Cheatham (I), Tom Abercrombie, Mantas Rubstavicius (NS), Dan Fotu, Max Darling (DP), Carlin Davison (DP), Dom Kelman-Poto (DRP)
Centres: Mangok Mathiang, Dane Pineau
It’s actually hard to predict a depth chart out of that. They’ve played a few Blitz games but that’s been without several players with a couple of injuries limited availability. Most notably their main point guard in Will McDowell-White. Those initial line-ups have seen PJC at the point alongside Jessup, Abercrombie, Cheatham, and Mathiang.
That’s meant Delany on the bench although that could be a matter of easing him in after the World Cup. Then again, if Mathiang is starting then it would be tough to fit both Cheatham and Delany out there at once – which lends more credence to the idea of Cheatham playing lots of small ball centre. Likewise Jessup will have to come off the bench if WMD and PJC are both starting, however there could be some tasty three-guard line-ups when favourable match-ups arise... with Le’afa also demanding some of those ones. Le’afa led all NZers in minutes last NBL campaign. He’s got all the talent, it’s purely about consistency for him (as we saw at the World Cup). It’s also fair to wonder what role Abercrombie will play in what may well be his final NBL season. He is, after all, coming off the lowest points scoring season of his career (5.4 points per game on 39.6/37.7/72.7 percentage splits).
That’s enough speculation for now. The season begins on 30 September with a visit from the Cairns Taipans and that’s where we’ll begin to see how Mody Maor plans on putting this jigsaw together. Whether this squad is stronger than last time depends on what the imports get up to but it feels safe to say that it’s surely deeper than last time, with plenty more versatile options/tactics available to him. They also have both McDowell-White and Delany who honestly could both be in the conversation for the best domestic players in their respective positions. Gliddon and Abercrombie offer immensely experienced leadership. On paper things are looking pretty sweet. Soon we’ll get to see what they look like on the court.
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