A dejected looking Tom Abercrombie of the Breakers after defeat Photo: David Rowland
Analysis - The Breakers roster for 2023-24 had so much promise but the injury-ravaged side may fail to reach the heights of last season.
Beaten grand finalists in 2022-23 the Breakers recruited well in the off-season and seemed set to battle with the top teams again.
However after spending most of this season outside of play-offs contention they just made the post-season under a new play-off system that includes the top six sides in the 10-team competition.
Wednesday night's play-offs qualifier will determine if the Sydney Kings end the Breakers season in disappointment for a second consecutive time.
Broken Breakers
Justinian Jessup, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Mantas Rubštavičius and Zylan Cheatham were among the new signings for the Breakers at the start of the season. Photo: Phil Walter
A fully fit Breakers roster was many pundits' tip to win the championship.
However, so injury-hit were the Auckland-based club that the coach could count on one hand how many games he had his full roster available in the 28-game regular season.
Having one of your stars from the previous year's grand final run, Will McDowell-White, pick up three different injuries, losing an import (Justinian Jessup) for the season after two games, having another import (Zylan Cheatham) out for two months and another import (Anthony Lamb) felled at nearly the final hurdle hurts.
Throw in injuries to a returning local talent in Finn Delany, an early season injury to Next Star Mantas Rubštavičius and niggles to others and the pain threshold must surely be at its limit.
Nobody associated with the Breakers wanted to use the long injury list as an excuse.
But the reality of the post-season grind with a weakened roster means the Breakers are very unlikely to be playing back-to-back grand finals series.
Unable to back up
It took 13 games before the Breakers won two games in a row.
They went on a four game winning streak in mid-December to 1 January but failed for the remainder of the season to win two games over a weekend.
The inconsistency cost the Breakers right until the final buzzer. Had they won their final game of the regular season - or scored one more basket - they would have been hosting the play-off qualifier instead of heading to Sydney for a sudden-death game in a venue they lost twice in during the regular season.
Banished to the bench
Breakers Dane Pineau and Cameron Gliddon. Photo: Photosport
Injuries forced the Breakers to stray from a preferred starting five but not every player was on the coach's radar.
The Breakers were criticised for looking fatigued in the second game of two-game rounds but Mody Moar seemed reluctant to bring too many players into the rotation.
In his 12th season in the NBL guard Cam Gliddon played the least minutes of his career. He averaged just eight minutes a game as Moar looked elsewhere for impact off the bench.
Despite his lack of court time this season Gliddon was still on target from beyond the arc when occasionally used in a specialised three-point shooting role.
Fellow Australian centre Dane Pineau will have expected more minutes when he crossed the Tasman to join the Breakers this season - in one game he got a total of 53 seconds.
Tall Blacks forward Dan Fotu made the starting five against the Kings in December and impressed but the 24-year-old only took the court in eight games and had limited opportunities in his second season.
Winners win?
Breakers guard Parker Jackson Parker-Cartwright. Photo: John Davidson / www.photosport.nz
American import guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright is the shortest import in Breakers' history and the player with the longest name.
Jackson-Cartwright arrived in Auckland with a winning reputation having clinched individual and team accolades just about everywhere he's played around the world.
He must of wondered what he'd walked into when the Breakers were struggling early in the season and were losing twice as often as they won.
The guard has had to put the Breakers on his back and carry them to wins several times this season. This might be a rare time in his playing career that Jackson-Cartwright has missed out on an individual award (he finished finished third in voting for NBL MVP but was named in the All-NBL first team) and a team title.
Front office back their man
Mody Maor Coach of the Breakers during the ANBL season Photo: Photosport
Two clubs (Adelaide 36ers and Illawarra Hawks) sacked their head coach during the season but Mody Maor's position was never in danger according to the Breakers front office.
The first side the Hawks played under interim coach Justin Tatum was the Breakers. At the time (round eight in November) both the Breakers and the Hawks had near identical win-loss records and were propping up the points table.
While the Hawks had swung the axe, Breakers ceo Lisa Edser was asked if the Breakers were tempted to do the same. She said they weren't.
The Hawks went on a winning run that had Tatum in the conversation for coach of the year and the Hawks finished the regular season in fourth.
The Breakers' faith in Maor paid off as they limped into sixth and the last playoff spot.
While Tatum has just been locked in as Hawks coach for next season, Maor can probably safely say he knows he'll be coaching the Breakers for a third season in 2024-25.
Nothing to win in the US
The NBA NBL crossover was first introduced in 2017. The Breakers have now played five games against NBA opposition and won none.
The decision not to broadcast both the Breakers' NBA games in the American market (or in NZ or Australia) meant not many if any new American fans were won this season either.
Playing the NBA games during round three of the NBL season, rather than in pre-season, was a further distraction for a Breakers side struggling for early season wins that no one could bring themselves to fully endorse.
The only upside to the Breakers' stateside trip was the pick up of former Golden State Warriors player Anthony Lamb who linked up with the team in America and turned out to be their leading scorer until he joined the casualty ward with a season-ending Achilles injury.
What happens now?
The NBL have introduced a new play-off system.
The road to the finals for the Breakers starts with the game against Sydney. If the Breakers win they move on to play the loser of the seeding qualifier between the Tasmania JackJumpers and Illawarra Hawks in the play-in game.
Win the play-in game and they will face Melbourne United in a best-of-three play-off series.
Win the play-off series and another best-of-five championship series awaits.
