Basketball: Newlook NZ Breakers chasing first championship in decade

New owners in, two imports out, Kiwis return and front office leaves.

A lot has happened for the NZ Breakers since the end of the last Australian National Basketball League season.

This week, the club begins a new era in earnest.

After finishing the 2024/25 season ninth in a 10-team league, the Breakers organisation has been overhauled on and off the court in a whirlwind six months before the season tip-off against Brisbane Bullets at home on Friday, then an away game against Melbourne United on Sunday.

Things the club has left behind include the pink uniforms, NBA crossover games and a very tall import.

The club has retained second-year coach Petteri Koponen, import guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Next Star Karim Lopez and taking games around New Zealand.

The Breakers have brought back homegrown talent - on the court and in the front office - a focus on community and an academy.

"You want players who understand about winning and winning culture, but also understand that there is work to be done outside of practice and outside of games, really connecting with our youth and with our community," Breakers owner and chairman Marc Mitchell said of the recruitment process early this year, which netted several New Zealand players for the roster.

The new ownership group are not part of Australia's fastest-growing sporting organisation to line their own pockets.

"Our focus is growing the revenue and ploughing it back into the team, ploughing it back into building the fans, making sure that the players get everything they need to be successful on the court," owner Leon Grice said.

So far, so good

The newlook Breakers have already won a trophy.

Last month's pre-season NBL Blitz tournament in Canberra saw an understrength roster go undefeated across their two games and lift the Loggins-Bruton Cup for the first time.

New import American guard Izaiah Brockington, who comes to the Breakers via the NBA G-League and Canadian Elite Basketball League, was named Tournament Most Valuable Player and received the Ray Borner Medal.

Pre-season form can mean little, but last season, the Breakers lost every build-up game they played and rather than an import player standing out for the right seasons, last year, a Breakers import was suspended for the opening game of the season for his actions in the pre-season.

The Breakers played this pre-season tournament without American import Robert Baker II, who was still on national team duty, Lopez and former Tall Black Rob Loe, who were both injured, and had limited minutes out of Jackson-Cartwright, who picked up another knock to the ribs, an injury similar to that which curtailed his last season with the Auckland-based club.

Who will make tipoff

Two final pre-season hitouts against Japanese B.League teams Nagasaki Velca and Kumamoto Volters last week added another win and a loss for the Breakers, but they did it without many of the roster taking the floor.

Back tightness for Baker, Jackson-Cartwright's ribs, and illness for Reuben Te Rangi, Max Darling and Lopez left them with only seven healthy players ready to take the court for game two on Saturday in Japan.

With a quick turnaround to the opening round doubleheader in the NBL, the Breakers could be shorthanded, if some players do not recover in time to take a full part in the start of the season.

More games, another trophy and a cash prize

The format of the NBL season has changed, with the introduction of an in-season tournament called the Ignite Cup.

The tournament will be played on Wednesdays and each team will play four games in the tournament - two home and two away.

Games will count towards the team's regular-season record, but will also have a scoring system for winning quarters and whole games that count towards the Ignite Cup.

The tournament silverware will be decided by a Grand Final between the two teams with the most accumulated points.

The winning team will take home $300,000, while the runners-up receive $100,000. In a league first, 60 percent of the prize money will go to the players and the remaining 40 percent to the clubs.

Home and away

October and January will be the Breakers' busiest months with seven games each.

From 8-17 October, they will play three games at their main homecourt of Spark Arena - the only time all season they will play three home games in a row.

The Breakers will spend all of November away from home. At the start of the month, they take a game to Christchurch, and then four more games on the road in Sydney, Gold Coast, Perth and Cairns.

The other New Zealand centre that the Breakers will visit this season is Hamilton for a midweek game in early December.

The roster

Alex McNaught, Carlin Davison, Izaiah Brockington, Izayah Le'Afa, Karim Lopez, Liam Judd, Max Darling, Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Reuben Te Rangi, Robert Baker II, Rob Loe, Sam Mennenga, Sean Bairstow, Taylor Britt, Tukaha Cooper.

Predictions

The 'NBL experts' do not have the Breakers making the top four this season.

An off-season move by American guard Bryce Cotton from Perth Wildcats to Adelaide 36ers was the big talking point and the three-time MVP's decision to head to South Australia has lifted the 36ers into contention for the title they last won in 2002.

Six-time champions Melbourne United are regularly in the title discussion, after finishing runners-up in the past two seasons, and they are again this season.

The Wildcats are the most successful franchise in the competition, winning 10 titles, and despite losing Cotton, they are still expected to challenge for a place in the grand final.

Defending champions Illawarra Hawks do not have some of their winning roster from last season, but some experts believe they can win back-to-back championships.

Alongside Cotton, Kendric Davis is a player who could walk away with the MVP trophy this season. Import point guard Davis left the 36ers for Sydney Kings for the 2025/26 season.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.