Breakers boss backs players to handle relocation
It may sound incongruous given what they’re about to step into, but Breakers coach Dan Shamir feels a comforting sense of assurance about the group he will assemble in Australia tomorrow to pursue an NBL championship like no other.
In many ways the Auckland-based Australian NBL club will take a large step outside their comfort zone as they spend what will be at least the first half of the season based in Melbourne and playing all their games on that side of the Tasman.
At this stage the NBL has released only the first five rounds of the draw, but the Breakers, who open the 2021 season at red-hot title favourites Melbourne United on January 15, are committed to playing out their schedule in Australia until such a time as Covid travel restrictions ease to allow them to host home games in Auckland.
The plan – or more the hope – is that they will play the bulk of their home schedule in Auckland over the back part of the season when Australian teams will be free to come and go without having to isolate. In the
Dan Shamir Breakers coach
meantime they will set up base at a Melbourne hotel and use the nearby Sports and Aquatic Centre as their training facility. They will also have to fit in selected ‘‘home’’ games among their mostly road schedule early on (there is one in the first five rounds, likely to be staged in Melbourne).
Adding to the degree of difficulty factor facing the Breakers is that Shamir will likely have just 21⁄ weeks with his full squad to prepare for the season. The New Zealand-based contingent (Corey and Tai Webster, Tom Abercrombie, Finn Delany, Jarrad Weeks and development players Taine Murray and Isaac Davidson) fly out tomorrow for Melbourne, and will be joined there by import big man Colton Iverson, backup power forward Dan Trist and Aussie DP Kyrin Galloway, who are finishing up border isolation requirements.
The Breakers are also doing what they can to put their players at ease.
Abercrombie is being set up in an apartment with his wife and three children which allows him to commit fully. It’s a concession he is deeply grateful for.
However, Kiwi centre Rob Loe will remain behind to be with his pregnant wife (baby is due around January 1) and star off-season signing Lamar Patterson won’t join the squad until he finishes his post-season commitments in Puerto Rico where he is currently playing.
Never mind. Shamir will have four weeks in total, and five preseason games, to get his group as ready as they can be for the first-up matchup against Scotty Hopson and Melbourne on January 15. And there is a quiet sense of assurance emanating from the master Israeli coach that it’s a challenge his players might just take in their stride.
‘‘It’s going to be tough, like always, but we have a very good team I’m very satisfied with,’’ Shamir told Stuff. ‘‘A lot of coaches say that, but let’s put it this way: there are not a lot of unknowns.
‘‘Our guys are proven, they are experienced, we have a strong core that knows how we’re playing, knows our coverages, our philosophy and our system.’’
‘‘Our guys are proven, they are experienced.’’