Breakers Not Satisfied With Strong Start

New Zealand Breakers import Dererk Pardon is far from satisfied with the team’s current position despite sitting second on the ladder at 6-3.

The Breakers have had an outstanding start to the season winning six of nine games. Pardon gave an insight into the grind and hard work the team has put into training to secure their impressive victories, but added the job is far from over.

“I don’t think satisfied is a good word for us,” Pardon told Stuff ahead of Friday night’s game against the Tasmania JackJumpers.

“We understand this early period had the potential to make or break our season. If we had gone into those games lackadaisical, without the right preparation, we could be having a totally different conversation right now.”

New Zealand coach Mody Maor and his coaching staff were praised by Pardon in making sure the players went into every game with a purpose and clear roles and responsibilities.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just here to make up the numbers? Well, nobody told ???? ?<br><br>Have the <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> been one of the most impressive teams in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a>? <a href="https://twitter.com/chomicide?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CHomicide</a> thinks so ?<br><br>Catch them in action once again as they take on the <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JackJumpers</a>, live on Friday from 7:30pm AEDT ? <a href="https://t.co/PFjkkdOEH3">pic.twitter.com/PFjkkdOEH3</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1592985869249650688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“This group has done a good job of just locking in. The coaches made sure we had the game plans we needed and the players came out and executed those game plans. We feel like we have done great at that so far,” Pardon said.

“We sat down and established roles from the jump.

“We made sure everybody knew what they needed to do for us to be a great team, and we try to maximise that every day. Wherever the team needs me to contribute, I’m there to do it.

“We have a lot of good guys, we make sure every day we compete, and that makes it easier for us in games.”

Pardon has built a reputation of becoming a key defensive piece for the Breakers, while also averaging 11 points, 7.8 rebounds and a 66 per cent field-goal rate.

New Zealand have had a two-week break to prepare for the remainder of the season, with their first game back on the road tonight against the JackJumpers at 7:30pm AEDT.

“It’s still super early and we still have a lot of stuff we need to improve on both ends of the floor. That’s what we took these last weeks to do – to get everybody healthy again and put in the work we need to finish out this year strong,” Pardon said.