Have hoops, will travel At a glance
Breakers fans should enjoy Finn Delany this Australian NBL season. Relish him even. If things pan out as expected, it might be the last they see of him in this league for the next little while.
It’s not that Delany isn’t happy at the Breakers. Far from it. The 25-year-old Tall Blacks power forward, about to play his fifth season as a full roster player for the Auckland club, knows a good thing when he’s in the middle of it, and is figuring on the looming NBL season being something special.
Breakers boss Matt Walsh and coach Dan Shamir have put together a highly promising roster, good enough – most pundits believe – to return the club to the playoffs after last season’s near-miss. Delany will be a big part of that as the starting power forward and a key cog in what is expected to be a formidable rotation.
Shamir, a hoops savant who has coached some of the heavyweights of European basketball, is a big Delany fan. He’d love to keep him – equally at home popping out to 3-point land, or powering it up inside the paint – on hand for as long as he could.
But he’s also a realist. ‘‘This is probably Finn’s last year with us,’’ Shamir tells Stuff in the leadup to the expanded new season which tips off for the Breakers on January 15 at Melbourne United.
‘‘It’s not only that he’s good – and he’s very good – but he’s also one of the more serious players I’ve seen. He’s a five-star professional, and part of what we do here is you give us everything you’ve got, and we help you achieve what you want to.
‘‘I’m not saying he’s going to play in a Spanish team that’s better than the Breakers, but he wants to see the world, compete against other players, and there is still room to grow.
‘‘After this season he needs to go to other places. I think he’s a Euroleague-calibre player, and he’s working his way there. I would love to have Finn for life, but he’s getting to a point where it would be good for him to move.’’
Ask Delany about his coach’s theory, and this young man from Nelson is a little sheepish. You get the feeling there is a long-term plan in place, even if he’s adamant his sole focus is on taking care of business in 2021.
‘‘Man, we haven’t even got to game one of this NBL season,’’ he protests. ‘‘We’ll see. It’s early, and I’m not able to say too much, but I’ve got ambitions, I’ve got goals . . . I’ve always been a believer: you have those aspirations but the way to get there is to focus on the now.
‘‘I do have goals to have all sorts of different experiences. I will say this: some players Dan has coached have gone on to be some of the best in the world, Euroleague MVPs and played in the NBA. He’s a good coach to play for if you want to do that.’’
In the meantime Delany likes what he has around him for the reshaped 2021 season, now with a month-long Melbourne hub added. The Tall Blacks core of himself, the Webster brothers, Tom Abercrombie and Rob Loe is a heck of a foundation, and they have had a long off-season to further enhance their well-established chemistry.
Throw in two-time all-NBL
Breakers coach Dan Shamir on Finn Delany swingman Lamar Patterson (essentially replacing Scotty Hopson with like for like), wellcredentialled import seven-footer Colton Iverson, experienced backcourter Jarrad Weeks, Aussie big Dan Trist and recently signed Dane/Australian sharpshooter
Rasmus Bach and it’s a rotation that should live with any.
‘‘We’ve played so much together, and we’ve played well together,’’ says Delany of the Tall Blacks five that Shamir pledges to play in bursts this campaign. ‘‘Matt, Dan, Mody [Maor] and the office have done an amazing job this offseason. It’s early days, but we’re extremely excited with the group we’ve got.’’
Top of that list is Tai Webster who has been lured home from a budding European career (a year in Germany, two in Turkey) to play
Finn Delany on Dan Shamir his first season of pro hoops with older brother Corey and those other Tall Blacks team-mates. The athletic point guard should be as impactful as any import in the league.
‘‘He’s dynamic,’’ says Delany of a player he came through the Kiwi
Finn Delany’s improvement as a Breaker:
■ 2016-17: 9.5 min, 3.4 points, 2.4 rebounds, 52.6 field goal percentage, 47 3-point percentage
■ 2017-18: 15.0 min, 5.1 pts, 3.4 reb, 50.0 FG%, 22 3PT%
■ 2018-19: 15.0 min, 8.0 pts, 2.7 reb, 58 FG%, 39 3PT%
■ 2019-20: 29.0 min, 12.4 pts, 6.1 reb, 47 FG%, 41 3PT%
age-group system alongside. ‘‘Tai Web is going to bring a lot to this league. He’s extremely exciting, and is a different point guard to your prototypical NBL one. He’s going to be a nightmare for a lot of teams.’’
Delany sees no issue with the New Zealand-based core of six fitting in with the new pieces during their short pre-season in Melbourne where they will be based for at least the first two to three months of the season. ‘‘Dan is a demanding coach but that’s because he’s a genius,’’ he says. ‘‘He’s coached at a very high level for decades, and the players he’s signed will fit in to what he wants really well.’’
In terms of Delany’s own game, the 25-year-old forward has been a constant improver in this league since his full roster debut in 2016-17. He made his biggest scoring jump (+4.4pts) in 2019-20 and hopes to make a similar leap in what will be a 36-game regular season in ’21.
‘‘I feel I was pretty consistent last year [12.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 40 per cent shooting from deep], but there’s a lot I want to do better – tying it all together, being a leader, helping the point guards with directing things . . . polishing off some skill stuff as well.’’
The Breakers’ relocation to Melbourne shapes as in intriguing dynamic. Delany sees pluses (reduced travel) and minuses (time away from home) but figures on one important advantage. ‘‘In the long run, having been in situations like this with the national team, it does strengthen bonds. And I like to live and breathe basketball 24/7, so after a year with no games, this is all I want to do. It will be what we make of it.’’
Covid has changed the sporting landscape, for sure. When the Breakers step on court at Melbourne United on January 15 it will be nearly a full calendar year between games. Delany had penned in some time around the NBA over the off-season, but that had to be postponed.
‘‘It has changed a lot of stuff, for better and for worse, and those crazy things that are out of everyone’s control . . . you just can’t think too much about that,’’ he says. ‘‘I think we’re in the best part of the world here. I’ve got close friends in London, New York and Berlin, and they’re really going through it. We’re going into a basketball season with fans in the crowd, and without having the worries like Europe and the NBA has with Covid all over the place.
‘‘We’re extremely lucky.’’ were wide open, and he was able to basically defend two guys on his own, he was tremendous at the defensive end of the floor,’’ Van Gundy said.
When Adams was listed by an interviewer as among the veterans who steadied the ship when the Raptors were leading, after feasting on turnover ball, Van Gundy agreed that was the case.
‘‘Probably the most surprising thing is calling a 27-year-old like Steven one of the old guys,’’ he said.
JJ Redick converted a four-point play with just over a minute remaining and finished with 23 points, and Brandon Ingram led all scorers with 24 points as the Pelicans rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat the Raptors.
Zion Williamson had a big second half for the Pelicans and finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Eric Bledsoe scored 18, as the Pelicans delivered Van Gundy a victory in his New Orleans debut.
‘‘I’d say that we fought very hard in a game that was very, very frustrating,’’ Van Gundy said. ‘‘We were turning the ball over, we were in foul trouble, not a lot was going right for us. We hung in there and kept fighting and then made enough plays and enough shots to pull away.’’
Pascal Siakam led the Raptors with 20 points. Kyle Lowry finished with 18 points and 10 assists.
The Pelicans play the Miami Heat in Miami today.
Stuff and AP
‘‘After this season he needs to go to other places. I think he’s a Euroleague-calibre player.’’
‘‘Dan is a demanding coach but that’s because he’s a genius.’’