Lowery: No pardoning Breakers' mistake

The departure of New Zealand’s now iconic import trio at the end of NBL23 spelt change for Mody Maor’s side, and without the services of Jarrell Brantley, Barry Brown Jr and Dererk Pardon, the Breakers have faltered.

Last season’s Championship Series appearance has been followed by a 3-7 start to the new season, and although they’ve played two fewer games than the currently sixth-placed Bullets, they’re two games behind.

Reigning Best Sixth Man Brown Jr and former Utah forward Brantley may have stolen most of the headlines for the Breakers over last season, but Damon Lowery believes the club should have worked harder to hold onto Best Defensive Player nominee Dererk Pardon for this season.

“Dererk Pardon? He was priority. That guy made everything tick last season,” Lowery said on NBL Now.

“They replaced Dererk Pardon and even got slick and said Mangok Mathiang is just as good. No. No he’s not. Good player, but he’s not Dererk Pardon.

“They tried to get me to buy Dane Pineau and Mangok Mathiang over Dererk Pardon ... big mistake.

“In saying that I think Mangok is a quality backup big. He’s not that guy that played a little bit of NBA, he’s not that guy form the University of Louisville anymore. We know his injury history.

“He’s a role playing backup big, they need a stud and I thought Dererk Pardon was that guy last season.”

The Breakers demise across the first half of the new season can’t solely be attributed to the playing group or to Maor. Ill-timed and unfortunate injuries have decimated the side across the campaign.

Will McDowell-White has been sidelined with two separate issues, while Justinian Jessup has been put on ice with a pelvis injury after appearing in just two games.

Derek Rucker believes the most influential of those injuries is the foot injury to Zylan Cheatham, who – at this time – is expected to return in Round 12, alongside McDowell-White.

“We had a conversation with Mody Maor and he felt Cheatham was the best player in the league. I said ‘better than Cotton?’ and he said ‘yep, better than Cotton’,” Rucker said.

“He said he defends, he passes, he’s smart defensively and offensively and he felt he was their best defensive player also.

“We saw the highlight package he can be when he’s on top of his game so that probably [is] a bigger loss than Will McDowell-White – I believe – who is obviously a significant one.

“It's unfortunate because I like how they play basketball, I like that European feel, I like how Mody coaches. I wouldn’t have wanted to play for him, but I love what he does.

“I love the honesty, I like how he holds players accountable and he’s enthusiastic. Every day matters to him but there’s some sadness when I watch New Zealand because I really want them to do well.”