Basketball: Breakers to-do list still includes securing imports

Following an off-season change of ownership and a change of focus the Breakers believe they are ahead of their rivals a few months out from the start of the NBL season.

Breakers president of basketball operations Dillon Boucher has a long to-do list that he has been chipping away at since March, when he got appointed to the role by the new ownership group lead by Marc Mitchell, but as the start of the season gets closer he's satisfied with the progress made.

"We're really happy with the roster we're pulling together and it's certainly starting to find some shape.

"When I compare where we're at with other teams in the NBL, I feel like we're right on track and ahead of quite a few teams.

"We'll spend some time up at the NBA Summer League (next month) up in Vegas to really try and find some some talent up there as well as working really hard behind the scenes to identify the players that we really want to have a closer, deeper look at."

On contract so far are Alex McNaught, Carlin Davison, Izayah Le'Afa, Kaia Isaac, Karim Lopez, Max Darling, Reuben Te Rangi, Rob Loe, Sam Mennenga, Sean Bairstow, Tacko Fall and Taylor Britt.

With nine of those players New Zealanders, Fall is the only import on the list.

Getting American guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright back for a third season was an option the Breakers were looking at.

"We're having lots of conversations with lots of different agents and there's been some really positive conversations with some agents.

"We're not in a rush to sign these [imports] the locals are always the ones you want to get signed as quick as possible because there's obviously fewer of them around, but with the imports there's so many around and it's about really doing your homework on them and making sure they fit in with the local talent you've got and can bring what the team needs in those specific roles that you bring them in as."

Boucher did not think they would have trouble attracting import talent.

"The NBL itself is an attractive league, but New Zealand is an attractive place to be, getting to come down here in a shorter league compared to Europe and compared to some of the Asian leagues as well, we're a shorter league and they can finish the season here and either take a break, or they can then continue and go back to Europe and play the remaining few months in Europe, or they can go to Puerto Rico, or they can go to China, there's these other leagues still going on around the world when ours finishes."

Season structure - more games, earlier start.

Reports out of Australia point to the introduction of an in-season tournament for the 2025-26 NBL season.

The tournament would be played as mid-week games and each team would play four games in the tournament, two home and two away.

Games would count towards the team's regular season record but would also have a scoring system for winning quarters and whole games that counted towards the tournament. The tournament silverware would be decided by a Grand Final between the two teams with the most accumulated points.

An in-season tournament has been part of the NBA since the 2023-24 season with the NBA Cup giving teams additional prize money and another trophy to play for. The NBL version has used that as inspiration.

The change to the NBL would mean each of the 10 teams would play 33 games in the season, up from the 29 in previous regular seasons.

Boucher could not confirm the in-season tournament before the NBL released the schedule but said "certainly keep an eye out because the league is always looking to really push those boundaries, which I love, which gives the clubs more opportunities".

More games did not mean a longer season, according to Boucher.

"It's still going to probably run around the same time. It's not going to run much longer than within what it has previously so it's not going to impact those players going abroad afterwards."

The pre-season tournament, known as NBL Blitz, will move away from the Gold Coast where it has been held for the past two seasons and head to Australia's capital, Canberra.

Last season the pre-season tournament was held in September but this season it is reportedly going to start in August.

Breakers coach Petteri Koponen was a late signing last season after the previous coach left his contract early and had a limited build-up with the team. Boucher said pre-season would be different this time.

"It'll probably be different in a slightly different way this year because we are likely to have some of our players involved with the Tall Blacks, which will be involved in the Asia Cup, so and that campaign runs quite late into August.

"So we will have to be conscious of those guys being implemented back into the group, and we're just working through what the pre-season looks like now, between where the Blitz is going to be and when that's going to be, and then also what other games we'll be structuring around that to ensure that the team has as much preparation as possible leading into that first game of the season.

Boucher said discussions were being had with other NBL clubs about more opportunities for pre-season friendlies but there were plenty of logistics to consider.

"Are we going to be playing games in New Zealand? Are we going to be playing games in Australia, or are we going to be playing games, further afield than Australia? So it's a bit of a juggling act at the moment working on what players will we have available, what dates they'll be available, and then what time the team will start the pre-season and be able to get enough prep time in."

Boucher did know that NBA games were off the table this season.

The Breakers squeezed in three games against NBA opposition the course of a couple of weeks during the last NBL season which added to the players' travel schedule and was criticised for what the benefit was.

"We have no plans to be playing in the NBA this year, but it's certainly not off the cards for future years. If it fits in with our schedule, we certainly would be open to the opportunity to have a look at it and but for the season, because of the short turnaround, we've decided that we won't be looking at an NBA pre season game."

NBA team, the New Orleans Pelicans, would be playing in Australia against Melbourne-based NBL sides in October and Boucher would be keen to see something similar here.

"If there was an opportunity to bring an NBA team to New Zealand we would 100 percent jump at it. With the fact that we've got an NBA team coming to Australia as the first step, and obviously it's going to be fantastic for the league to have two teams going up against an NBA team on Australian soil."

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