End of the season. Paul Henare to take his place then.

Former player Paul Henare and current Assistant Coach will assume the Head Coach role for the 2016-17 season, with former team mate and current Commercial Manager Dillon Boucher taking on the role of General Manager and managing the commercial aspects of the club.

Wow. I wonder if there are issues going on behind the scenes.

As a Breakers fan, absolutely hate this news. Probably don't want to hear what I think of Henare.

Vickerman must have been pushed - is there a correlation to the internal chemistry issues doing the rumour rounds?

This is curious news and I took it at face value that it was always going to lead into Henare taking over after the three years, especially due to the timing of the announcement...

For those of us not in the know about the internal issues rumours, what's the goss?

I've always liked Dean's time outs, and it seems that he's done well with what he's had on his team, but how much of that was set up by Lemanis?

Not being an X & O's person myself, he's given an impression of knowing what he's doing, but what do more smarterer basketball minds rate him?

At first thought, I think he'd be the perfect choice for the Kings to sign now and say "here's the team, we won't get in your way, do what you see fit..." and let him build it from scratch with the right culture... Would I be far off the mark in thinking that he's the best available atm?

If you don't mind MACDUB I'm curious as to what's wrong with Henare?

Come on then, spill please! Make sure to use "allegedly" in the statements though, to avoid any trouble :)

In my opinion, Henare is not a high-calibre coach, there are issues of professionalism (or the lack thereof) which has come to light in previous years (including one major one). In general terms, I just don't like how quickly these ex-Players move through the coaching ranks. Trained coaches who have coached all their lives are shunted.

Again, this is just my opinion. Some people love a coach, other's don't. It's an occupation open to subjective opinion.

Why would they release this info leading into a finals run? Something is up here, those rumours haven't gone away but surely it'd be easier to move disgruntled players than a legit coach which Vickerman seems to be.

MACDUB, Henare had the Tall Blacks playing some good basketball in his first year. Yes, he inherited a great program (which he helped create and build on) but he also added some defensive wrinkles which seemed to work quite well.

I thought it was too soon to appoint him TBs coach but I think I was wrong on that one.

Wife-swapping rumours aside, I agree that this seems to be bad timing for the club as its making a finals push but I also commend them for addressing the personnel changes promptly and honestly. Its the opposite of the way the Wildcats handled Bevo's departure which is still subject to derision three years later.

The alleged rumour is that a key player may have done something to anger another key player, also pissing off the playing group in the process. You could probably run analysis on their stats and social media to guess who and when.

For the benefit of those of us with tremendously busy lives, keen eyed bosses or not *quite* enough interest to troll through endless NZ Breaker twitter posts looking for cryptic clues, would anyone be kind enough to point in the right direction about this?

www.nbl.com.au/stats/whosboningwho.html

LV, details probably don't matter. The Breakers record and changing fortunes are the outcome.

I saw a couple times in time outs late in the Hawks game where Vickerman was drawing up a play, then Henare stepped in and they ran his play instead. Vickerman pretty much just said 'yeah, do that'.

Details don't matter, you're right. What matters is the $$$ I've lost betting on them!!! Haha.

The change of head coach has been in the process for sometime so do not try to read too much into that. Henara is well respected and will do a good job.

The Breakers have reached the natural stage where they have good local people capable of being the head coach, run the administration and a pipeline of quality New Zealand players. Bet most clubs would love to be in that position !

As far as I know what if's comment is fairly spot on although I have previously been of the same opinion as Macdub on Henare as a Coach but I guess it has all been a learning process and if the Breakers owners feel he his ready then maybe he is.
I can't wait for his first F Bomb tirade during a timeout.

I can't wait for the first after-game nightclub punch on that he leads :)

I think the Breakers did it all the right way, if DV was aware that 3yrs was it and then Henare was taking over as planned because he is now ready, got to admire teir professionalism... Local management, local coaching staff, local players coming through grass roots programs... well done...

The gossip is all very interesting, but I think just a coincidence that it's happening now... I'm gonna have to pay better attention to Breakers games now to see who is on the outer...

No one is banging or has banged anyone's Mrs as far as I know. More along the lines of someone has probably pissed someone off and as a result the team chemistry has suffered.

In looking at the Breakers recent performance do not underestimate the adjustments the other teams have made to slow down Webster and Jackson.

In particular Webster has been double teamed a lot - and since neither he nor Jackson shares the ball in offence it all goes to shit.

I think the question is whether the Breakers, like United had to, can adjust and regain their "team first spirit" or whether Jackson, in particular will continue to try to carry the team alone and effectively share even less the ball with the other players?

#kiwigate

Whilst I have never liked the old idea that only Americans could coach Basketball, and you had to have an imported coach to be successful. I also don't like the idea what are in effect racist policies) that you must have locally born people in every role.

Succession Planning is all well and good, but not when you push somebody out the door just to make way for a junior you have made too many promises to.

I WONDER if they have moved to lock-in local talent because they're scared of another NZ team? If so it could backfire on them.

Very strange time to announce it. Going to be very unsettling in the lead up to finals.

Given Boucher appears to be descended from Anglo/Celtic/Norman etc lineage and Henare apppears to have Pacific Islander heritage, which race are they discriminating against and/or in favour of?

Anon '040, I don't think the club or league would want to push it, but I also wondered if the league might get some publicity if it all got out. Basketball has only made The Guardian's Sport section when the old guy poured beer on Thornton and then when Delly and Bogut were labelled as dirty players. They're like bad news hyenas.

Dazz, they might want to bring in more NZ players simply to improve their marketing chances with a NZ audience.

What about a 2nd NZ team. Talk last year in NZ, after the grand final win was that there is support for another team and enough players. Opportunity for Vickerman to help set up 2nd team - would think that they could get some other players to start but another team would be interesting especially against Breakers.

It's more a case of having players & coaches that they have developed and know their strengths and weaknesses as opposed to other teams having to gamble or splash big cash.
Henare and Boucher have their numbers retired by the Breakers and command respect from all the players and the other bonus is Henare is also the Tall Blacks Coach so he gets to spend more time with the guys in his team and will no doubt run a lot of the same stuff.

Paul, not even talking specifically about NZ or even Basketball. Any company or organisation that says we will only employ locally born personnel, is foolish, discriminatory, and "racist." Although, yes, you can argue the racist part depending on how you define race.

Issac, but we're talking about staff?
Players, yes perhaps in the context of NZ, a good marketing ploy to encourage national loyalty.

Anybody got any clue where he's headed?

Bruton's role at Brissy is a curious mixture, but even if that did allow for a "more senior" Assistant, Vickerman is now a championship winning senior coach, who has now taken his team to successive GF's.

Unless he's been scouted by a "Chinese" team, or tapped for the National gig, surely Sydney must be whispering in his ear?