Hater.

He beat out Abercrombie, Crowe, various ex-NBL imports, etc.

How does the NZBL compare to the NBL talent wise? I always assumed it was somewhere between NBL & ABA level. Honest question, I have never seen a NZBL game.

Great comment anon taking into account that NZ actually beat Australia in the last series they played! All players bar Kirk play in the NZNBL too.

No Deal, it is in between in most cases. A strong ABL team (e.g., Sturt or Norwood at their peak in recent years, Eastern a few years back) would probably hold their own. Then there have been teams like the Pistons who have suited a solid starting five of ANBL players and might be hard to beat. Hard to tell for sure.

Imports vary a bit - Erron Maxey (Blaze), Jason Crowe, Justin Bailey, Rashad Tucker, Kavossy Franklin, etc have all played there as well as various other imports who've never been picked up for the so-called ANBL. Nick Horvath still gets a run there and topped their rebounding this year, whatever you make of that (given that he's no longer in the ANBL but did have decent numbers here).

On the other hand, low-minute NBL players like Tait and Behrendorff or Pledger can put up stats over there. Behrendorff played as an import when he was there, as has Forman in the past.

One thing and it's a bit of a guess is that some of the role-players seem a little less polished? I say this having watched all of maybe two NZ NBL games live so someone might jump on me for this. There were a few players there that just struck me as closer to successful social players than guys that had lived and breathed basketball through years of juniors training, state-level representation, etc.

I think that the names of the last 8 MVP's might reveal the overall standard of the NZNBL.

2003 - David Cooper
2004 - Adria Majstrovich
2005 - Lindsay Tait
2006 - Paora Winitana
2007 - Josh Pace
2008 - Jason Crowe
2009 - Phil Jones
2010 - Lindsay Tait

No, standard is much better than what that list will tell you.
Wellington this year contained 7 players that have played or are playing ANBL (And the other players --One is a commit to PITT, another just returned for Div 1 college at Stephen F.Austin)

Waikato contained 4 players that play or have played ANBL (and then you have Jerry Smith unbelievable player from Uni of Louisville, Hayden Allen who is miles better than someone like Crosswell,)

Nelson contained 5 players that have played or are playing ANBL including Grizzard, Jones, Vukona, Fitchett and Bloxham
Then throw in Dora as an import.

NBL teams can put out 6/7 very good players.

This years stars ..Jerry Smith, Abercrombie, Jason Crowe, Vukona, Erron Maxey, Dillion Boucher, Craig Bradshaw, Mike Rose, Josh Pace, Galen Young have all made noise in the ANBL + Smith who could make noise!

I mean the Pistons would have potentially beat last years Kings:

Dickel or Martin v Crowe = Crowe
Madgen v J.Smith = Smith
P.Sanders v Abercrombie = Close, im going to stay even
Dann v BJ Anthony = Equal (BJ can play)
Khazzou v Pledger = Khazzou (Pledge could match him on the boards though and he is taller than Khazzou)

A virtual NZNBL team playing as the Breakers development team won a tournament in China containing a Chinese league team, a US CBA All Star team, a Spanish Div 2 team and the woeful Melbourne Tigers from early last year.

NZNBL is between NBL and SEABL for mine, you could say a solid div 2 in Oceania.

Just adding to that, the main area of weakness in the NZNBL is the bigs, which would help Pledger dominate. Then again, so would the fact that he performed well in the NBL finals or that he was the best big man in an Oceania series that featured Nathan Jawai and AJ Ogilvy.

I think the Pledgehammer will lead the NBL in rebounding in the next 2-3 years.

If I'm not mistaken NZ has beaten Australia more than a handful of times, not bad for a population less than Queensland.
The Breakers won the ANBL this year with only 3 players that weren't Kiwis but yeah the NZNBL must really suck. It has obviously produced some pretty good international players so can't be all that bad.
What's the point in naming a B team? You play whomever makes themselves available, that is sport!
Pledger killed it in the last series NZ played against Australia, now he has 2 more years experience. I think he'll impress a lot of people in the upcoming series.

One other point is players always play better when their coaches believe in them. I think this is a point often overlooked.
Obviously in the NZ league the coaches know the NZ players and each team has their favourite sons and they get the best out of them, which is a big reason why NZ players play well in the NZ NBL and also the reason why they play well together internationally.
A great example of this is Pero Cameron, not great numbers under Joyce or Wright and limited minutes, they both didn't show much confidence in him, yet put him under Tab Baldwin or Nenad Vucinic and he is a totally different player.

But they didn't

now anon explain how you are going to get that team on the court?
beating a country of 3million on paper doesn't get you to the Olympics.

there is no doubt that Australia is the stronger country in Basketball. You have produced some amazing players and teams over the years especially an NBA 1# draft pick (arguably 2 lol).
New Zealand make do with what we have, we don't have an institute of Sport comparable to yours to breed top athletes. Sure we have the odd freak like Pero Cameron and Kirk Penney to keep you guys honest but at the end of the day the Boomers are the benchmark in this part of the world.

damn I love it when we beat you tho ;)

We don't mind beating you lot either, just quietly. I live for the day that the Oceania Championship is decided by free throws after the buzzer, just to see if anyone has the balls to throw them underarm granny style!

lol at the underarm freethrows. great to see the trans tasman rivalry is alive and kicking still. I do cheer for Australia tho when you guys are playing anyone but the Tall Blacks.
I believe that Oceania basketball is strong enough to warrant 2 spots at all major tournaments based on how strong both teams have performed of late. It would be rubbish for one of these teams to miss a tournament and then have teams like Lebanon get a spot and be complete cannon fodder.

My first impression upon reading this news was that it confirms to me that he has been underplayed due to the strength of the Breakers (or the coach's reluctance to play him).

The guy he came off the bench for was kinda handy (Gary Wilkinson) and also made the NBL first team at the conclusion of the season.
Pledger is a work in progress that is coming along nicely, no need to rush things.