Sounds like a decent signing, experienced & athletic with a huge wingspan.

Breakers team looking pretty long & athletic this season.

Saw him play at the 2012 Olympic qualifiers in Venezuela. First game against the hosts he was good in a tough game, hit threes, scored inside, boarded, blocked shots. He was tall (listed at 6'11), long, athletic and mobile.

He fell out of the rotation as the international season wore on, but after that he went to Spain and averaged 7p, 5r and 2b in the ACB, shooting 53% inside and 33% outside. He had an 11p, 7r, 3b performance against Real Madrid, and 14, 6 & 2 against Brad Newley and Gran Canaria.

He also put up good numbers in Germany and dominated Turkey's second division. I don't think he played last season, but if fit he and Pledger should be the best centre combo in the league, although he is a bit foul prone and a little inconsistent from what I know of him.

Good Signing, this would have to make the breakers the favourites.
It's also great to see another shot blocker in our league.

Looks the goods. Are they bringing him off the bench?

Also, I see lots of foul trouble in his future...

NBL refs: they do not officiate athletic imports well on the defensive end...

Agreed Mick. It would be nice to see the refs let big guys play.

Absolutely. They've got nine legit NBL-level contributors and a guy in Bailey who will work his butt off in limited minutes and seems to be improving at a decent rate.

Will Hudson signed in Belgium.

Did he play with John Gilchrist in Maryland?

Amazing the difference in their roster.

Offense = better
- Jackson creating which is what Johnson couldn't do
-Ibekwe can also score it seems
- Webster and his development (cue the haters)


Defense = massive improvement
-Jackson - best defender in the league last time IMO
-Cater - wow, opposing PGs are going to be up against it.

Rebounding = better
- We get Jackson's perimeter rebounding
- Ibekwe will snatch a lot given his 7"5ish wingspan
- Wesley averaged 9ish rebounds per game at College.

Anytime you get a team with 4 Tall Blacks players, 4 college D1 players, an NBL vet and a young and up and coming player you will be happy.

MACDUB popping the corks already across the ditch,maybe we should cancel the season and give them the trophy..(just kidding)in all fairness they will be there when the whips are cracking.

Still hard to go by Perth (considering their home court advantage is massive).

I like United. They have a nice team.

United will continue to underachieve I reckon.

Anstey genuinely has no clue.

Ship is in the harbour

Further to my earlier post, i also like Sydney's chances.

Cotter is a bloody good coach


And although their current roster is a little weak, the 36ers are also only a stud import away from been right up there.

If the Leslie rumours are true theyl have a nice starting 5. Will lack depth but hey can't play 8 guys at once.

Wilson
Gibson
Leslie
Petrie
Schensher

Websters defence has improved a ton though anon. If he is the weak link in the Breakers armour I'll live with that.
Offensively he has become an elite level player capable of getting his against the best.

Looking forward too seeing if Dean Vickerman can get all the pieces to work for him.

Holy Cow...NZB look the goods right now.

Looking the best big man line up in the league.

Abercrombie & TeRangi will play the bulk of the minutes at SF. Abercrombie is an excellent 3point shooter & TeRangi is improving

Do the Breakers have enough outside shooting?

If you look at the recent stats of their players they have decent shooting, but with Jackson and Ibekwe in for Johnson and Wilkinson they mightn't be as deadly as last season:

Abercrombie 42%
Te Rangi 42%
Bailey 37% (NZ NBL)
Carter 36%
Webster 35%
Ibekwe 33% (ACB 12/13)

Wesley will be better than Wagstaff. Wait and see.

"Wagstaff who would start on almost any other team and was the 6th man of the year."

Nope. No way

36ers - Petrie
NZ - Vukona
Melbourne - Barlow
Cairns - Trigger
Townsville - Conklin
Perth - Knight
Hawks - Forman

He would only start on one team - Sydney - over Garlepp. But even then a guy like Brandt or Duinker can play PF and would give him a good go.

People always throw that out there about Wagstaff - "he would start on any other team..he is sacrificing so much giving up a starting position and minutes by opting to stay with Perth".

I think the truth is not many other teams are interested in him as their starting PG and that is more than reasonable. I only see him shoot 3s

starting PF*

You definitely make some good points there about the quality of other PFs, but Wagstaff does a lot more than shoot threes.

He is a strong individual defender, an outstanding team defender, another ballhandling option, a capable post scorer, a good offensive rebounder, a good passer, a very good shooter and most importantly a guy who'll do anything to help his team win.

I'm sure most other teams would want him, I don't know whether he'd start, but given how deep most NBL teams are these days that doesn't really matter as eight or nine guys play a big role.

"He is a strong individual defender, an outstanding team defender, another ballhandling option, a capable post scorer, a good offensive rebounder, a good passer, a very good shooter and most importantly a guy who'll do anything to help his team win."

in my opinion you would pick Vukona, Petrie, Redhage or Barlow before him for the same reasons you just listed

Not questioning that (Worthington and Walker would be in a similar ballpark too), just saying he does a lot more than shoot threes.

Wagstaff is pretty well regarded within the league, I believe. There are a few who think the Cats are tougher when he's on court than on the bench even if he's not starting because of Redhage.

Wagstaff definitely has a lot more strings to his bow than just perimeter shooting. I don't know about starting or not, but he's very much a talented player. I think people sometimes underestimate that because they focus on some of the less sociable aspects of his play.

Wagstaff is far from a scrub but not in the same class as Barlow, Vukona, Petrie, Redhage, Worthington etc in my opinion.

Bastards keep points rating him like he is though... curse you NBL HQ!

Don't get me wrong I would want him on my team if the $ were right. Most teams would. He is one of those glue guys and is very valuable to that Perth team.

Just think he is one of those inbetween guys - not quite a starter PF and yet too good to be a bench PF.

I just wouldn't underestimate the quality of PFs we have in this league.

Different story if he was a pure SG - as it's something teams are always after.

I'd start Wagstaff over Redhage this season, he started a couple of games last season and played well in them all I think. Redhage's game seemed to decline (just look at his dream team stats for last season dropping something like $120k in value) I like a hungrier Redhage coming off the bench.

Sounds like a good pickup for the Breakers and looking forward to season tip-off