Breakers need more than talent to win in NBL

BY DAVID DAWKINS

The Breakers just might become the most talented basketball team to finish bottom in their league.

The pre-season ANBL title favourites are just one place out of the league cellar and mired in a slump that has seen them lose five of their last six games to all but end their playoff hopes.

Despite their lowly position, the Breakers' roster boasts enough talent to match any team in the ANBL.

Kirk Penney is a former NBA player and reigning league MVP, Oscar Forman a current Boomer and CJ Bruton a recent one. Tony Ronaldson is an Australian all-time great, Dillon Boucher and Paul Henare are seasoned Tall Blacks and Thomas Abercrombie one of New Zealand's rising stars. Rick Rickert is a serviceable big man.

However, it takes more than talent to win.

Every basketball team has an identity.

The Breakers are a jump-shooting team that has fallen in love with the three-point shot.

They are not the first team to launch a perimeter-based assault and they won't be the last.

The Houston Rockets of the mid-1990s, Milwaukee Bucks in the late '90s and early '00s, the Phoenix Suns of the 2000s and even last year's beaten NBA finalists Orlando all rode the long ball to considerable success.

However, while they lived by the outside shot, ultimately all but the Rockets also died by it.

The Rockets' difference – in Hakeem Olajuwon – they had a post player to complement their long-range gunning.

When the jump shots stop falling – and they will – you need someone down low to get you a high-percentage shot.

For all their talent, the Breakers don't have that guy, the security blanket to turn to when they start throwing up bricks in the fourth quarter and leads quickly evaporate.

Rickert is inconsistent, Ronaldson – at times effective in the post – is more comfortable on the perimeter at this stage of his career. Forman, despite his athletic talent, has never enjoyed mixing it up down low.

Unfortunately the Breakers problems run deeper than just the lack of a post presence.

Outside of Boucher they don't have a player who can be considered an above-average defender. Their most recent fourth-quarter capitulation co-incided with Boucher fouling out.

Rickert and youngster Alex Pledger are the team's only true centres so when Rickert suffers foul trouble, or is off form, there is no other big man to turn to.

Despite the lack of size, the Breakers rebound well as a team, but team rebounding requires a lot of energy and effort, and too often they come up short on the defensive glass in the final term, giving up easy second shots.

Awvee Storey was roundly criticised and eventually run out of the NSEC for failing to step up when Penney went down with a back injury.

However, his job wasn't to replace Penney's scoring, rather hussle and rebound, qualities that would be valuable right now.

The recent addition of guard Kevin Braswell does nothing to address the Breakers' need for help down low.

The team appears to have lost confidence in itself and coach Andrej Lemanis – especially when games get tight.

In timeouts, players' attention wanders and they are often badly beaten on set plays coming out of the breaks.

The recent fourth-quarter disasters are a sign that the team is not only getting out-coached, but also out-passioned when they need to dig deepest.

The Breakers remain a dangerous and talented team, but until they can find a way to score beyond jacking up contested three pointers they will continue to break Kiwi hoops fans' hearts.

- The Marlborough Express