They gave Penney a big 3 year deal to lure him back from the Hawks.

Ins: Edgar Sosa*, DJ Newbill*, James Hunter, Jordan Ngatai

Outs: Kevin Dillard*, Corey Webster, Akil Mitchell*, Paul Carter*

Not a good offseason for a non-playoff team from last season.

When I say big I meant 3 years not necessarily financials but I would be willing to bet it was for good money too.

I wouldn't call them lacklustre.

There is still Abercrombie, Pledger, Loe with cagey vets Vukona and Penney. Penney is one of those types that can still burn you with smarts, fakes and general good mover off the ball. At his age, he still played over 30 mpg, thats impressive.

NZ should have been in the playoffs last year, so many injuries to key players, Woodside, Webster, Stockton, Mitchell. Webster was a huge loss of course.

They're in big trouble. They don't have the ability or talent to compete for even a top four spot. They've taken huge steps back. Losing Webster, Carter, Dillard and Akil. That was all their talent... They might as well not show up this year but hope they develop their young players.

Rosters rank on paper:

1. Melbourne
2. Sydney
3. Adelaide
4. Perth
5. Illawarra
6. Brisbane
7. Cairns
(Distance between Earth and the Moon)
8. NZ

It's possible they limited spending after winning championships. And the focus changed to blooding youngsters as much as anything.

Even if Penney is trending down rather than up, there would've been some allowance in his deal for them bringing a Kiwi champ home.

I think this is just a standard roster that perhaps looks limited standing against big spending Australian teams, and/or relying mostly on locals, and/or held up against past championship teams where Vukona was at his peak and Cedric Jackson was around and at his best too.

Hahaha I like that one Anon 644

Ili isn't a slouch. Delaney is developing well and then they have all their vets and a couple of imports that none of us has seen play in the flesh.

Desosa / Ili
Penney / Newbill
Abercrombie / Ngatai
Vukona / Delaney/ Hunter
Pledger / Loe

There is a lot of chemistry in this team and this won't be the first time everyone on here a written them off before they've played a game.

Injuries destroyed last season for NZ, hopefully the team is healthy throughout and can prove everyone wrong.

Looks like a future building team. Bringing in young players whilst keeping the old to create a nucleus to compete for the future.

The starters can definitely compete but the bench is very young. Going up against deep teams like Sixers and Hawks can be hairy.

Hey Pennywise,

Is the distance between the earth and the moon close to what we call daylight?

If they can defend, and that's the question mark, the Breakers are one of the title favourites for mine. Proven and rested commodities in Penney, Abercrombie, Vukona, Pledger and Loe, with quality young talent in Ili and Delany.

Playing Delany as the back-up PF allows them to play a high-energy style for 40 minutes, as they used to when Boucher and Vukona were the four-men, and gives them two players in the front court who can hit the J.

Sosa is much-improved as an international player, he scored 24p against a close to full strength Argentina at the last Americas champs, and he was a standout in Italy (averaged 19p, 6a) last year.

I don't know as much about Newbill, he hasn't excelled in Europe, but gee his senior college numbers were impressive. He won't have to be the man with the perimeter crew the Breakers have though, possibly a spark off the bench.

Talent wise they're in trouble. They don't match up against Adelaide, Perth, Sydney or Melbourne.

The Breakers roster looks as poor compared to the rest of the NBL as the Victoria Giants did to their version of the NBL.

We could be seeing 20+ point blow outs on a nightly basis.

Does anyone know where Pennywise (and a couple of others) are now?

I think he's floating

I definitely underestimated Newbill and Ili. Moving Penney to the bench and the emergence of Ili shored up their bench. Impressive move by Henare.

I think they're hanging out with the same guys that posted that Angus Brandt wasn't an NBL caliber player.....

I thought NZ would be bottom 4 mainly because I thought Newbill looked underwhelming, and that they needed an impact player with that import slot. Turns out Newbill is quality, probably better than Sosa (who I expected to be excellent). Also did not expect Ili to have a Sobey-esque leap in production.

Ili has stepped it up in a huge way.

Penney turns 37 this month and is shooting 56% from 3 this season.

Newbill has an umimpressive international resume compared to many NBL imports. He averaged 8ppg in Belgium last year. This year he has scored double digits in every single game- including 20+ twice.

Certainly they have been impressive to date. Sometimes teams just click, and become greater than the sum of the parts. It looks like that's happening.

2 years ago, I remember when United was 9-0 as well, and that all ended in tears. Last year Adelaide was 3-6 and won the minor premiership, Perth was last in late December and won the title. So I'm not getting carried away with NZ yet. Can these guys sustain their great form? Maybe, maybe not. But, an impressive start.

Sosa has been better than Newbill but not by much.

Remember when United flogged them by almost 40 in a pre-season game over in NZ? I can't believe they're where they are now. But the run will stop soon, surely. Nature of the competition. Start laying the Breakers over the coming weeks

I think the key point is no players or coaches I have spoken to are the least bit surprised NZ has started well, it's only people outside the competition.

Hopefully we have a number of teams playing really well at season's end so we get a quality playoff series. Last season there were six good teams but only one playing consistently good basketball right at the end.