Frustrated Penney aims to fire

Don’t worry Breakers fans, Kirk Penney is as frustrated as you are about his modest start to the new Australian NBL season.

The 35-year-old Kiwi hoops legend returned to the Breakers on a three-year deal amid much fanfare after a turn-back-the-clock season for the Illawarra Hawks in 2015-16 (20.4ppg, 3.0rpg, 3.1apg). It was seen as a homecoming fairytale for the local boy made good, and an ideal way to bring down the curtain on a near two-decade career at the highest echelons of the sport.

But so far in the still fledgling NBL season Penney has failed to deliver the consistent top-class performances that have been a default setting since he departed for the University of Wisconsin in 1999 to launch his globetrotting hoops odyssey.

And the Breakers, who have now lost three on the bounce to sit at a precarious 1-3, are the worse for it. They host the 3-2 Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night at Vector Arena desperately needing their Penney from heaven to refind his mojo, and spark a much-needed turnaround.

So far Penney has shown only glimpses of his best stuff, contributing 10.5ppg at a 38.5 percent clip through the first four games. But he is adamant a return to normal service is just around the corner. Having to sit out the pre-season with injury certainly didn’t help. ‘‘We’re all still finding our legs, our fitness, and it’s all coming,’’ he said. ‘‘There are a lot of layers to it, but we’re on the right track and what we’re going through in the locker-room is exactly what we need to go through. Personally and collectively, I feel like we’re getting better every game.’’

Penney is adamant the Breakers are not as bad as their three-game skid indicates. They could easily have won in Perth, and it was a similar story in Brisbane where a storming thirdquarter comeback was undone by a case of the wobbles over the run home.

‘‘We’re frustrated,’’ he added. ‘‘We feel like we’ve got a great group that is yet to really click. I have so much confidence we’re going to be there really soon. We’re right there, we’re not getting blown out on the road, we just need to make some good plays down the stretch, get some stops and we’ll win.’’