Breakers roster build starts now

Breakers owner Matt Walsh says the building of the club’s NBL25 roster began in the moments immediately after New Zealand’s Seeding Qualifier defeat to Illawarra, and that while other members of the organisation were reflecting on the season post-game, he and Mody Maor were getting stuck into the roster construction.

At the time of writing, Walsh asserted the only player who is currently contracted for New Zealand next season is center Dane Pineau.

“After the game in Illawarra we brought some beers up for the guys and me and Mody were in the corner with his phone up looking at all the local free agents in the league, talking about imports, and part of the staff thought we were nuts,” Walsh told On the Platform.

“Our league is so unique in that the talent pool for local players and stars just isn’t as deep. It’s not like you’re playing in Europe and get to pick from all those countries, we’re picking from Australia and New Zealand. While basketball is amazing in Australia and New Zealand, a lot of players go to Japan and there are a lot of different options.

“For us, it always starts with our locals and we’ve got some very important mutual options with guys like Will McDowell-White and Finn Delany. We’re already building out our local roster considering we have one guy under contract – Dane Pineau ... we’re already going to be talking to imports and Next Stars.

“I’m not kidding when I say we were roster building an hour and a half after the game on Monday night. For us, it starts with the locals, if you look back at the championship years of the Breakers, it was because they had an incredible local core. Obviously, we have a huge hole to fill at captain with Tom Abercrombie, the best Breaker ever and one of the best NBL players ever, retiring.”

New Zealand is set to undergo a familiar roster rebuild that could even outweigh the massive player shift following the NBL23 Championship Series defeat to Sydney.

Import trio Jarrell Brantley, Barry Brown Jr and Dererk Pardon all departed for international pastures, while Next Star Rayan Rupert was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Full rostered talents Rob Loe, Sam Timmins and Tom Vodanovich also departed the club.

Abercrombie’s retirement has since been followed by MVP candidate Parker Jackson-Cartwright signing a deal with Turkish side Galatasaray, and Walsh says Maor is the person to continue to rebuild the side and take the club forward.

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“We shift pretty quickly from ‘it’s disappointing the season is over’ to ‘how do we build for next year’. I think we did a really good job, last year we had three of the best imports in the league and we had to replace them all, and that’s the nature of the business,” Walsh continued.

“When you come and play well for the Breakers and Jarrell Brantley gets offered a million bucks in Japan, we had to re-tool. I think this year we had the best import trio in the entire league, we did well, and now the focus is building from the start. While it’s always disappointing to not end the season on a win, but it’s onwards and upwards.

“This year was just as important and successful in terms of a coaching job by our staff as it was last year. Last year we were very healthy and Mody did a great job in year one. This year we had to balance a lot of different things and he did a great job.

“Most importantly he’s a good leader, the players believe in him, I certainly believe in him, and he’ll certainly be back next year.

“If it was up to me he’ll be around for a long time.”