These are exciting times for New Zealand Breakers fans. They shouldn’t be, really, after losing in the NBL Finals a few months back and seeing both their coach and arguably their greatest ever player leave at once – not to mention a change in general manager as well. Dean Vickerman, Cedric Jackson and Richard Clarke all gone, this is a team in transition.

And yet it’s all been handled so well that there’s no reason they won’t be back up there competing for titles next season without missing a step. Paul Henare has long been touted as a head coach and will make the step up now, with Judd Flavell and Mike Fitchett as assistants. Dillon Boucher, another club icon, has taken over the GM duties since Clarke’s departure for Brisbane and bloody hell if their new recruits aren’t straight outta the top drawer as well.

It started a while back in April when Kirk Penney was announced to be returning home to the North Shore. Here are some contemporaneous words on all that. The obvious problem hidden behind that wonderful news was that it was going to be very difficult to balance a rotation with Cedric Jackson, Kirk Penney and Corey Webster. As it happened, Cedric was a free agent and speculation began that he’d be on his way out (that linked article three lines up suggested as much, as well as some reasons why that wouldn’t be a tragedy). And that’s what happened. Cedric Jackson will be playing for Melbourne next season, United also nabbing Tai Wesley while they were at it. A couple key off-season signings from the team that knocked them out in the semi-finals last season, that’s one way to do it. Despite a few Brisbane rumours, Melly also got Chris Goulding back and they’ll be one formidable team in 2016-17.

Reuben Te Rangi has also left the Breakers, following his GM to the Brisbane Bullets. The Bullets are not a new team, they’re a revived one, and they’ll effectively just take the place of the Townsville Crocodiles after they opted against fielding a side this season for financial reasons. That means that instead of having to find another 11 NBL calibre players for the league, those Crocs players will instead just be shared around – though with rosters expanding from 10 to 11 names, that’s eight new players into the expanding depth pool of the NBL all the same.

Brisbane, meanwhile, have signed eight players from six different NBL teams. Te Rangi joins the likes of Mitch Young, Adam Gibson, Daniel Kickert and Torrey Craig in Brissie.

But those three were probably all let go by the Breakers as much as they were poached by others. Cedric as a trade-off for Penney, they’d need more of a passer in that position with all the other shooters, ideally one with a floor-spacing three point threat and free throw making ability – which were both such a problem for Cedric particularly in the playoffs last season. He’s still one of the best – possibly the best – player to ever feature for the Breakers but it was time to move on. Meanwhile Reuben Te Rangi had failed to take the next step in his career and will benefit from a change of scenery as he slipped lower in the NZB rotation and Tai Wesley has been directly replaced by a (potentially) better player in Rob Loe.

Yup, that’d be Tall Black Rob Loe who made a splash in the NCAA tournament with Saint Louis in 2014, averaging 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in his final season there. Highlight being 22 points and 15 rebounds in a Tournament victory over NC State (which featured current Phoenix Suns forward T.J. Warren). The SL Billikens were then beaten in the third round by the Louisville Cardinals. Loe then went undrafted (though he did get a Summer League invitation from the Golden State Warriors) before playing a couple seasons in Europe, with KAOD in Greece and then Limburg Utd in Belgium.

We Rob Loe's know how to ball! But can he get the W?? #MarchMadness
— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) March 21, 2014

Loe was part of the very first Breakers development class (which has most recently seen Shea Ili and Finn Delaney promoted to full pro contracts) and, at 6’11” with the ability to score as well, is one of the better players to come out of NZ in recent years. Alex Pledger gives them the old fashioned centre capabilities while Loe can also play PF in an oversized line-up while offering variety with his passing and shooting at the five position. Paul Henare compared him to Gary Wilkinson in that regard, imagine him but younger and kiwi.

Loe joins a squad of players that has a very significant local flavour to it. In fact with only two spaces remaining on the roster, there isn’t a single Aussie on the list. Imagine the NZ Warriors going into an NRL season with no Australians. In an Australian league. Here’s the list as it stands:

Tom Abercrombie
Corey Webster
Mika Vukona
Alex Pledger
Kirk Penney
Shea Ili
Finn Delaney
Rob Loe
Ben Woodside

Yo, wait… who’s that last fella!?

Ah yes, that would be the Breakers’ new import point guard, Ben Woodside. Let Paul Henare set the scene for you:

Henare: “When we set about recruiting a new point guard, one of the key aspects that was non-negotiable was experience. We need a player to lead us around the floor and make the right decisions in pressure cooker situations. The reputation of the club and the fact we had a willing ally in Kirk certainly helped, Ben is attracted to who we are and what we stand for as much as we were interested in him.”

Woodside is a 31 year old American who was a genuine standout for North Dakota State that nonetheless went undrafted despite an honourable mention in the All-American voting in 2009. He instead went to Europe and has played there for eight seasons across a number of countries, twice playing with Kirk Penney – first at TED Ankara Kolejliler in Turkey and then at Sevilla in Spain. The two are good buds, by the sounds of things, and not only did that play a solid part in the recruitment process but it should also show on the court. Woodside is one of only 20 players to have scored 60 points in a game against a US Division I college opponent. He’s the only one of them that needed triple overtime to do it, but that’s a footnote – that list also Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Pete Maravich and Lew Alcindor so… holy crap. He shot 30 of 35 free throws in that game, which is very nice to see given certain team-wide struggles in that area for NZB.

His three point numbers have been up and down and pretty average over his career but he did shoot 42.7% in his final year of college so we can trust that he’s got the form. And to be honest, playing next to Kirk, Corey and Tom, that’s all he needs to do. Run the floor, begin the offensive possessions and get the ball to his shooters in space. At a shade under six feet tall, we can’t expect the same dynamic stuff that the taller Cedric offered (like rebounding, for one thing) but there are others to take care of that. Woodside looks like an astute little purchase, one who’ll bring a bit of balance to the side.

Henare, again: “He is a totally different style of player to Cedric (Jackson), both are of course very good in their own right. But what Ben brings is he is a very good outside shooter and very strong in pick and roll situations and thrives in having good shooters around him, which we will have. He will play the game in a different way but will have an immediate impact on the floor.”

Paulie wanted a floor general and it sounds like he got one. The pick and roll thing will be interesting, that’s a great way to get your shooters in space, setting picks and working switches, but the Breakers couldn’t really entice teams like Melbourne and especially Perth in the playoffs last season into making the most of that because they didn’t respect Cedric as a shooter. They’d let him come around the screen and shoot, guarding the lane to the hoop instead where Ced was most dangerous. If Woodside can show he’ll punish you for leaving him free on the perimeter then the Breakers are suddenly a more flowing offense. Remember all those times, particularly when Webster was with the New Orleans Pelicans at the start of the season, when their offence was completely stagnant? That’s a large reason why that happened.

By the way, one of the guys that helped them through that early stumble was Everard Bartlett, who is still unsigned. Shane MacDonald is also still an FA but he won’t be back, while Charles Jackson is unlikely to return either, no surprises there. Having played a bit of Summer League with the Philadelphia 76ers before his Breakers stint, he returned to play six games for their D-League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers, where he averaged 7.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in 22 minutes. Playing alongside Baron Davis, no less. But he didn’t get a Summer League invite this time around and is currently an unrestricted free agent.

Right now you can look at a Breakers depth chart that has Woodside backed by Ili at PG, Penney and Webster interchanging at SG with more than a few sets, most likely, where one also gigs at PG, maybe even a little SF for Penney. Tom Abercrombie will be starting at small forward with Mika Vukona an option if they wanna play big. Vukona at PF with Delaney deputising (as well as Abercrombie in an undersized Andre Iguodala way or Rob Loe in an oversized Enes Kanter way) with Loe and Pledger the big fellas. That gives you all sorts of line-up flexibility, with Penney a good shot to be the NBL’s most over-qualified bench player. But then Henare has the luxury of being able to change things up for form and tactics, which is all a coach can ask for from his roster, really.

And that’s without the last two roster spots being filled. You can have up to three import players on your squad now with the new rules but the Breakers will only look for one: a power forward. There will also be publically disclosed salaries and a soft salary cap of AU$1.1m so it’d be tough to fit three high calibre international players on one team without being, say, the Sydney Kings – you know, a team with enough money that they can buy ad spots on ESPN AUS/NZ.

The Breakers aren’t that and they don’t pretend to be. They might try and give that last spot to a another kiwi player, perhaps one of the better guys in the NZ NBL – Henare selected the likes of Ethan Rusbatch and Michael Karena in the wider Tall Blacks squad recently. Elsewhere Bartlett, Dion Prewster, Leon Henry and Duane Bailey could all be options. Likewise an Aussie veteran in the Daryl Corletto/Rhys Martin mould is another way to go.

That Melbourne side looks really scary. The Perth Wildcats will always be there or thereabouts and the Brisbane Bullets are doing a top job of recruiting their side too. The Sydney Kings have Kevin Lisch and there are even some very unsubstantiated rumours floating about that they may try take a punt on 2013 first overall NBA draft pick Anthony Bennett – if Sean Marks’ Brooklyn Nets don’t get there first.

But safely and surely, even as they phase into a new era for the franchise under new leadership, the New Zealand Breakers are setting things up perfectly well themselves, cheers very much. Should be a fun season.