A New Australian NBL Season Looms And Once Again It’s Chock-Full Of Kiwi Players
It’s been a couple of weeks since we published this yarn about the New Zealand Breakers not living up to the New Zealand aspect of their name. That article got some hefty views and plenty of good feedback. It also, understandably, summoned a few detractors. Only a few of them because most people are sympathetic to the idea that a team which supposedly represents the Auckland and wider Aotearoa region ought to show a little interest in signing players from their local catchment and actually trying to develop the game in this country. But people are allowed to have different opinions, that’s all good.
The arguments in favour of the Breakers signing Australian locals instead of New Zealand locals (this is nothing to do with imports, those guys are necessary either way) seem to fall into two categories. The first is that this is a professional franchise trying to win games and they need to sign the best available talent. Fair enough. We’re allowed to disagree with how they go about doing so but there’s no denying that, in professional sports, when you pay the bills you get to make the decisions. The second argument goes something like this: But what kiwi players are there even worth signing? There’s nobody good enough! The only ones that are, they already play for other NBL teams!
Ladies and gentlemen, that argument simply cannot be abided. Last season the Breakers gave fewer minutes to NZers than ever before (a record that they’re going to crush again in NBL25) and yet it was still the most prosperous season we’ve ever witnessed for kiwi players in that league. There were 24 New Zealand basketballers who took the court during that campaign and more than two-thirds of them were with Australian teams.
And you know what? Almost all of those guys were available to the Breakers at some stage. Shea Ili left because they gave his minutes to an American teenager. Rob Loe retired after several years of disrespect. They had a right of first refusal for Tom Vodanovich that they didn’t take after releasing him early in the first place. Reuben Te Rangi was a free agent this offseason. Hyrum Harris was one last offseason. NZB just lost Izayah Le’Afa in free agency. They’ve not made serious attempts (either that or they failed) to sign any of the top kiwi prospects coming out of college in recent years – think Yanni Wetzell, Sam Waardenburg, Sam Mennenga, Flynn Cameron... although they did manage to bring back Wetzell and Mennenga after they’d proved themselves elsewhere.
There has been one positive development since the last article. Max Darling has seen his contract elevated from a development player to a fully rostered one, filling out the final local spot in the squad. Possibly even as a reaction to fan unrest about the lack of kiwis. Granted, being the last bloke on the roster comes with no guarantee of playing time. Darling only got one minute of action as a DP in all of NBL24 so we’ll see what he musters this time – at least he’ll be eligible for every game. Of more promise is the fact they filled that vacated DP spot with Canterbury Rams sharpshooter Kaia Isaac. One of Darling’s NZ NBL back-to-back championship mates, also the MVP of the 2024 Rapid League. Isaac grew up in Australia but has dual eligibility and his younger brother Tama Isaac has represented Aotearoa at age level so no worries there. Kaia has spent the last three years with the Rams and was a non-contracted practice player with the Breakers last term. Pleasant developments.
The Breakers then subsequently completed their roster by adding American guard Matt Mooney, a 29yo veteran of the European stuff who played 21 total minutes across five NBA games with the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks; and Karim Lopez, a 17yo Mexican prospect who joins as a Next Star. Lopez is their youngest ever Next Star and will therefore spend two years with the team ahead of the 2026 NBA Draft where he is currently ranked as the top international prospect... whatever that means. The Next Star programme is chock-full of speculation presented as facts, as if anyone can predict what the draft situation will look like in two years. Let alone the Breakers or the NBL.
That means there will be two New Zealanders on the main roster of the New Zealand Breakers compared to six Australians (and three American imports plus a Mexican Next Star). Plus three NZ development players way down the bottom of the pecking order.
But here’s the thing: If the Breakers don’t really care about signing kiwi players then that’s their loss, because every other team does. So we’ll just shift the focus there instead. The Breakers have as many full-rostered NZ reps as Melbourne United does. They’re simply one club among many in a league that once again is trending towards huge kiwi participation... albeit maybe not quite as high as last season’s records due to a few departures. Tom Abercrombie has retired. Finn Delany, Sam Timmins, and Dan Fotu have taken up deals in Japan. A couple other fellas were released and probably won’t be back. There’s still time for a few late additions, maybe injury replacements or development players. Often one or two will even appear mid-season like Vodanovich did last time. Here’s what we’ve got so far...
Keanu Rasmussen – Adelaide United (DP)
Tyrell Harrison – Brisbane Bullets
Tohi Smith-Milner – Brisbane Bullets
Sam Waardenburg – Cairns Taipans
Shea Ili – Melbourne United
Flynn Cameron – Melbourne United
Rob Loe – Melbourne United
Sam Mennenga – NZ Breakers
Max Darling – NZ Breakers
Alex McNaught – NZ Breakers (DP)
Carlin Davison – NZ Breakers (DP)
Kaia Isaac – NZ Breakers (DP)
Tai Webster – Perth Wildcats
Hyrum Harris – Perth Wildcats
Dontae Russo-Nance – Perth Wildcats (DP)
Tom Vodanovich – S.E. Melbourne Phoenix
Izayah Le’Afa – Sydney Kings
Reuben Te Rangi – Tasmania JackJumpers
Walter Brown – Tasmania JackJumpers (DP)
That’s supposing you count Keanu Rasmussen, which is a slippery slope. He was born and raised in Aussie but with an NZ father, recently spending a very impressive season with the Hawke’s Bay Hawks but it’s not yet clear if he’s actually pushing to represent Aotearoa. He’s eligible to do so... but then so is Mojave King at the Breakers who was born in Dunedin with some proud Otago basketballing lineage in his whanau, yet was raised in Australia and has repeatedly said that he considers himself an Aussie. If you do count Rasmussen then it means only the Illawarra Hawks, as things stand, don’t have a kiwi in their wider squad... while Illawarra and Adelaide are the only two who don’t have a kiwi on their main roster. And it’s not like this is the entirety of NZ talent either, with plenty of ballers plying their trade around other parts of the world. Most notably Yanni Wetzell (Alba Berlin), Finn Delany (Veltex Shizuoka), Isaac Fotu (Utsunomiya Brex), and also that Steven Adams bloke (Houston Rockets).
Let’s exclude Rasmussen, just to show that the point is strong enough without having any contortions. That gives us 18 players right here right now. 12 full-rostered dudes and six more Development Players. Five of them have changed teams since last season. Five different teams have multiple NZers.
So far Kaia Isaac is the only new face amongst them but if the requirement is there then plenty more options are out there waiting for a chance. You only have to look as far as the most recent NZ NBL season. Lovely to see Max Darling and Kaia Isaac getting opportunities (assuming they actually get opportunities... the Breakers barely ever use their DPs, although there is a new coach in place now) but Taylor Britt was the local hero of that Canterbury Rams side. The team that they beat in the final, the Auckland Tuatara, had a certain Corey Webster playing excellent ball throughout. At 35yo his NBL window might be closed but you could do a whole lot worse if you need a proven scorer off the bench in case of injury.
James Moors is a fascinating option who averaged 18.0p/8.7r in nine games for Manawatu. Callum McRae is a big man with passing finesse. Tobias Cameron’s certainly got the pedigree. Kruz Perrott-Hunt is a silky shooter. Guys like Jayden Bezzant, Braydon Inger, Taane Samuel, and Isaac Davidson have been around the Aussie stuff in the past. Or we could cross the Tasman Sea for some NBL1 talent where Tall Blacks capped lads such as Anzac Rissetto, Joe Cook-Green, and Mitchell Dance have been doing their thing. Some NBL team might even ponder throwing a Next Star offer at U17 World Cup standout Oscar Goodman if they’re clever... granted he has already had offers from NCAA programmes and seems likely to follow his NBA Global Academy buddy Julius Halaifonua into the college basketball scene – Halaifonua having recently committed to Georgetown. Regardless, there’s no reason to think that the 18 (maybe 19) players onboard at the moment will comprise the final tally.
This is all just continuation of a pattern. Last season’s record sum of kiwi players included six Development Players and two Designated Injury Replacements. Seven were Breakers, including two of the DPs and an IR. 17 were at other teams (including four DPs and two IRs). Let us also not entirely overlook the forgotten man Carlin Davison who was a Development Player with the Breakers, and continues to be so, but who never actually played a single minute. He had a contract but he’s not on this list. Hopefully Petteri Koponen rates him a little higher after a superb NZ NBL campaign with the Taranaki Airs.
The Breakers barely used their fringe kiwis so it was mostly just Izayah Le’Afa, Tom Abercrombie, and Finn Delany putting up minutes for them (... and all three have since left the club). As a result, the NZB/non-NZB ratios are even more skewed when you look at games played, minutes played, and points scored. No dramas there. It merely tells us that NZ’s hoop health does not need the Breakers in order to thrive. Same as how the Warriors don’t represent Kiwis rugby league depth, and the Wellington Phoenix (and soon Auckland FC) certainly don’t represent All Whites/Football Ferns depth. They’re only one element of a much bigger ecosystem.
| Kiwis in NBL24 | TEAM | GP | MIN | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shea Ili | MEL | 33 | 880 | 341 | |
| Izayah Le'Afa | NZB | 30 | 739 | 225 | |
| Tai Webster | PER | 28 | 653 | 250 | |
| Sam Waardenburg | CNS | 25 | 652 | 242 | |
| Tyrell Harrison | BRI | 27 | 565 | 258 | |
| Tom Abercrombie | NZB | 30 | 556 | 129 | |
| Reuben Te Rangi | SEM | 26 | 529 | 150 | |
| Hyrum Harris | PER | 30 | 467 | 173 | |
| Sam Mennenga | CNS | 27 | 459 | 185 | |
| Finn Delany | NZB | 19 | 446 | 167 | |
| Flynn Cameron | MEL | 31 | 291 | 116 | |
| Corey Webster | PER | 20 | 269 | 122 | |
| Tohi Smith-Milner | ADL | 14 | 151 | 50 | |
| Anzac Rissetto | SEM | 18 | 127 | 35 | DP |
| Rob Loe | MEL | 8 | 120 | 44 | IR |
| Dan Fotu | NZB | 8 | 63 | 22 | |
| Tom Vodanovich | TAS | 9 | 53 | 11 | IR |
| Walter Brown | TAS | 4 | 8 | 1 | DP |
| Dontae Russo-Nance | PER | 3 | 8 | 8 | DP |
| Sam Timmins | SYD | 3 | 7 | 0 | |
| Jack Andrew | PER | 2 | 5 | 2 | DP |
| Alex McNaught | NZB | 3 | 3 | 0 | DP |
| Max Darling | NZB | 1 | 1 | 0 | DP |
| Dom Kelman-Poto | NZB | 1 | 1 | 3 | IR |
| [Carlin Davison] | NZB | 0 | 0 | 0 | DP |
| (Keanu Rasmussen) | ADL | 4 | 5 | 4 | DP |
| Breakers | 7 | 92 | 1809 | 546 | |
| Not-Breakers | 17 | 308 | 5244 | 1988 |
These blokes are taking care of business too. It’d be cool if Walter Brown gets a few more minutes this time around, even if his four minutes still matched the combined total of all three Breakers DPs in NBL24... but regardless we’ve gotta recognise a fella who has won consecutive NZ NBL titles and in between them won an Aussie NBL too (along with representing his nation at the FIBA World Cup during that span). Tom Vodanovich too, after he made it three consecutive NBL finals appearances with a different team each time – the only player to ever do so in this league. He won with the Sydney Kings and Tasmania JackJumpers. He lost in the finals with the Breakers. Next he’ll try make it 4/4 with SEM Phoenix.
Shea Ili was crowned the Defensive Player of the Year last season... and if you listen to his teammates then it was long overdue. This after winning Best Sixth Man in 2022. What he does defensively, the hustle and the anticipation and the intelligence and the leadership, is pure magic. The way that NBA players talk about Jrue Holiday is the same way that NBL players talk about Shea Ili. That’s his reputation. Ili joined the great Dillon Boucher in having won DPOY as a New Zealander. Next step is to try and match Kirk Penney in winning an MVP title, or Tom Abercrombie in winning a Finals MVP.
Ili wasn’t the only Tall Blacks dude in amongst the awards because Tyrell Harrison was duly rewarded for his breakthrough campaign with a shortlisting for Most Improved Player. He didn’t win it, that trophy went to Sean Macdonald instead, but his emergence was clearly witnessed. As was Sam Waardenburg’s a year earlier when he was anointed the first ever Next Generation Award recipient in NBL23... basically a revamped Rookie of the Year nod that would have been better suited remaining as a ROY trophy but nevertheless Waardenburg was still a rookie when he won it. By the way, Shea Ili (2017-18) and Reuben Te Rangi (2017-18) are both former recipients of the NBL Most Improved Award. They’re also both former Best Sixth Man winners, RTR in 2018-19 and Ili, as already mentioned, in 2021-22.
Alternatively, we can look at someone like Hyrum Harris who hovered around the league for a few years with Illawarra then Cairns then Adelaide, where he actually put up some sneakily useful numbers in limited minutes, before finally being given a bigger role with the Perth Wildcats and he just ate it up. The Wildcats were 16-7 when Harris played more than ten minutes last season. His 5.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game don’t do it justice... he made his team better when he was on the floor. Both he and Tai Webster were huge in stabilising the ‘Cats after a slow start. They were 11-4 when T.Webster logged at least 25 mins.
Plenty to like about the prominence of Flynn Cameron and Sam Mennenga in their first NBL seasons too. Straight out of college and straight into the rotations. Mennenga’s departure from Cairns will ironically help Sam Waardenburg get back to playing predominantly as a centre where he’s at his best, particularly offensively with his shooting and passing skills. It’ll be a curious fit for Mennenga with the Breakers after they recruited him nice and early in the picture then suddenly changed their coach but as always we hope for the best. Flynn Cameron is poised for a huge campaign in year two after Melbourne United lost a few players to bigger and better things. He’s just casually hanging out and learning how to be a top level guard from Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova, sweet as. Rob Loe is going to stick around for the full season this time too, how good.
And when Tasmania’s Finals MVP Jack McVeigh got a sudden NBA opportunity, agreeing to a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets where he’ll get to hang out with new teammate Steven Adams... potentially disrupting an incredible coincidence, that being how Steven Adams has only ever played one NBA game with an Australian teammate. That was Will Magnay’s lone NBA appearance with the New Orleans Pelicans back in March 2021. Big win against the LA Lakers. Adams had 12 points and 7 rebounds. Magnay subbed in for the last three minutes of garbage time... replacing Adams on the court, meaning that Steven Adams has never shared the floor with an Australian teammate in the National Basketball Association. Jock Landale is also with the Rockets, though may or may not still be there come opening day given that Adams kinda just took his spot as the backup centre.
Anyway, when McVeigh gapped it to the big time... who did Tasmania’s championship-winning general manager Mika Vukona summon at short notice to replace him? Reuben Te Rangi, of course. A man of great mana and knowledge whose influence on teammates goes far beyond what happens between minutes 1-48... though his wonky shooting decline could have caused other teams to look in a different direction. But nope. His qualities were recognised by another NBL team. Just quietly, he could have been a great presence in a Breakers roster full of unproven/inconsistent players but never mind. Instead he’s yet another example that kiwi basketball will thrive regardless of how much the Breakers care to participate in the journey. Nothing to panic about. We’re a month out from the round one and the league is once again going to be bursting at the seams with quality basketballers from Aotearoa.
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