one word - Wilbekin.....

Oh and Taipans by 6

Three words Skull, he's not playing..........

Breakers are always hard at home. It would be a toss up between them and Perth over the last few years.

You would think they are running with momentum with Corey Webster in the team. Cairns really do need to get something from the starting 5 to get over the line. 75 ppg is not really going to win too many games. 28.2 ppg coming from the bench (38%) Whereas Melbourne are going 91.6 ppg and 22.4 ppg off the bench.

The Breakers with the Webster / Abercrombie combo just seem a little more exciting and the firepower seems more V12.

I'm going with the cousins from across the dutch to control this game and go 3 & 3.

Is it the Breakers fault that most of the NZ national team are happy to play for less money and play at home than chase euro's ?
The Breakers have more local players on their team than anyone. Corey Webster, Tom Abercrombie, Mika Vukona, Alex Pledger were all development players with NZ and most of the kiwis on the team are originally from Auckland. Abercrombie and Webster went to school and grew up within a stones throw of the Breakers HQ.

Most players made the national team because the Breakers developed them.
Other teams buy players, NZ develop players and sign guys called Jackson who can ball.

Great starts from Wortho, Burston and Starks.

Taipans might be ready to bounce back.

Ah can't stand Fearne anymore.

Guys get benched if they make the slightest mistake on offence.

Craig could be unbelievable if he was given some damn freedom.

Agreed Macdub. Look at Craig in the NZ League last season.

Not a fan of Vukona's captaincy/leadership. Just seems like a whole lot of yelling and hurling abuse at players. Don't know why people are fascinated with leaders like that.

Fearne to Gliddon in timeout: "go at him..he can't guard you". Play out of the timeout..airball.

Really boring game just cant get into it. Games like this need the likes of wilbekin going head to head with webster.

Something doesn't appear right with Cairns this year. Haven't had a single good performance this year I think.

The Taipans are in desperate need of some leadership, on the court and the sidelines. Don't even know if Wilbekin can make a difference tbh.

Well that's quite the pasting.

Callisto its called Wilbekin... you dont lose special players and compete the same. Starks isnt great, and Wortho isnt giving them any kind of veteran leadership. Craig had a 3point play in the first half, and all he did was look at Fearne and they had a disagreement. Basketball doesnt look fun for them.

In wonder how much influence Downer had on the sidelines and whether that's missed as well. Fearne seems to do a lot of finger pointing at his players...
Agree Kobe, when you lose a great player you might not be able to play at the same level but this team just flat out stinks at the moment - at times they don't even look like they're trying. Little things like hustle and determination shouldn't fall away because Wilbekin isn't there.

Feeling inclined to say that if no one picks up Webster, and he stays healthy, NZ win the league again this year.

Mystro, how have you felt about Breakers games this year? For whatever reason ive found the games to be a tad boring and have struggled to get into it.

I had tipped Cairns to finish second this season (Kings first) but I think they are the most struggling team in the league and they lack one thing.

Aggression, this Taipans side is soft as a marshmallow and I think Craig is the only one showing any kind of desire out there and not enough plays are called for him and Fearne keeps rotating his players too quickly (changing both bigs after two minutes playing time doesn't help anyone)

Another thing, I'm a big fan of the Pledgehammer but why is he even playing, Wynyard gives more at the moment, Alex needs to get himself fit and then he will actually be an asset to the Breakers

I'm not sure what is having more of an negative impact for Cairns. Losing Wilbiken or gaining Wortho.

They showed every Cairns timeout and in every single one Fearne was talking in really specific terms about the offence for the whole time..cut here then we backpic here and flare here etc.

Usually coaches at this level speak about defence and/or touch on little offense things in TOs - they shouldn't be re-teaching the offence.

Don't know. I saw he was on the bench with the Boomers and I believe he did some development work in Indonesia recently but aside from that don't know what he's doing.
Strange that he and the Taipans couldn't come to an agreement this year, given the influence he had in enticing college kids to join the team over the past few seasons.

Yeah I think you'll find Downer's work with the Australian Uni Games teams over the past few years might have had a fair bit to do with their recruiting of college returnees.

Cairns don't look happy right now. Fearne was really technical and structured in the timeouts - i.e talked about x's and o's A LOT in comparison to the other coaches from what I've seen so far. There's almost too much depth in the front court so tough to juggle minutes. I noticed Fearne and Craigs disagreements but looked like it fired Craig up - just need him getting more minutes compared to Weigh. Agree about Fearne resorting to old tactics which he wasn't like last year.

Yeah the Breakers games this season haven't been that pretty. No offensive flow for the most part but I guess a lot of that has been because their d has stunk. Hard to get out and run when you're constantly inbounding the ball. They haven't been finishing plays either. Not sure I've even seen them finish an alley oop play?

NZ's offence has looked horrible without Ced Jackson and Corey Webster on the floor.
Dean Vickerman should hang his head every time Perth play as Jarrod Kenny has looked a hell of lot better running the show over there than Shane McDonald has over here behind Ced Jackson. I supported Vickermans decision and was plainly wrong.
Hopefully he can improve as the season wears on because they have looked like headless chickens at times with McDonald running the show.

Lazy 35 points for Corey Webster tonight and playing small ball worked with Tai Wesley having his way on the block.

Trigger was invisible and Torrey Craig needs to touch the ball a lot more than he is if Gliddon isn't going to be the man putting the points on the board.

Starks is to Cairns what Kerron Johnson was to NZ.
He didn't do any majorly wrong or look out of his depth, he just didn't lift his team every time he touched the ball or make his teammates better like Scotty Wilbekin and Ced Jackson.

prepare the hot take cannon!

Cairns funded by the community. New Zealand with the resources of a whole country!

Player,

The wealthiest, largest and most resourced country could enter a team. But it doesn't waive the requirements under the points and salary cap.

NZ hardly has the resources of all of the country. Despite their name, a large portion of their resources come from the Auckland (North Shore region) - many of the fans live in the North Shore, sponsors money is generally from businesses who only really operate primarily in NZ, development players aren typically always taken from local North Shore juniors (Abercrombie, Webster, Wynyard, Bailey etc). I'm not based in Auckland, have supported the Breakers since they came into the league and they've probably gotten $30 for me over those 12 odd years.

Should say: operate primarily in Auckland*

If you think that team is under the salary cap you are delusional. Well maybe they are but there would be major 3rd party deals going on . And if that's where their major fan base is maybe they should play as the Auckland breakers and put a team in somewhere else! People are hating on Cairns for not having this and that. They can't afford it. They got lucky on Wilbekin because they took a punt on him out of college and got him cheap!

MACDUB - the salary cap, much like a consistent interpretation of the charge rule in Perth Arena, is a myth :)

If that's the case why didn't the Breakers simply keep Rhys Carter and Ekene Ibekwe if the salary cap isn't an issue?

What teams can afford is still an issue and the points cap is still in place.

I'm pretty confident that at least 3 teams are over the salary cap significantly - NZ not being one of them.

When I saw 'confident', I mean i'm confident that my wild speculation is on point.

"MACDUB - the salary cap, much like a consistent interpretation of the charge rule in Perth Arena, is a myth :)"

Going to be tough to beat that comment!