You can understand Walsh's angle, to be honest. Rosters are pretty much finalised at this point, would leave a hole for them.

NZ need a second team, to much talent

Perth got Cotton back and encouraged Webster to head overseas.

Wellington team for sure but did Walsh only buy nz for the whole market?

Walsh has a point. Webster sucked big time. I wonder if that too led to Braswell falling out of favour. Braswell prioritised Webster's re-signing and promoting Ili to start.

Don't agree with all the hate. You can tell the people on here who only see the negative. If any of you had ever played you would know how much it sucks to play and have owners who degrade you and beat you verbally when you are down. Corey did not play well last year that is fair. However in a career as long as his you will have down years. Walsh is a cancer. Corey has a limited time to get paid. The Breakers are a mess. Walsh has thrown Mika, Ili, Dillon, Braswell, Pledger out. That is his prerogative. He said much worse to Corey last year. He tried numerous times to get him to walk out as he forced Ili to. They will not play Corey and have him engaged as he is with Henare. If I am Corey I just walk and have Darussafaka pay his $175k contract out. Why do fans side with the teams and the owners? It’s because you can relate to them and the envy of the players is totally real. Corey I hope you dip for Istanbul. Leave this part of the world and keep enjoying your basketball. I love watching you play bro. Kia Kaha.

"Why do fans side with the teams and the owners?"

No one is doing that, just saying Webster signed a contract so should abide by it.

How do you figure Perth paid webster?

621, half of what you said makes absolutely no sense.

Ili was forced out? Or did he walk because he knew he didn't play well and his minutes would be limited with Hampton?

On the other hand, maybe Walsh ripped into him too. He lacked confidence last year. Playing for the Tall Blacks he was massive at times. A steal for United to have someone like him playing spot minutes.

I don't know one team on the planet that would release their best domestic player for free on the eve of the season starting, especially coming off a World Cup like that. If Darussafaka wanted Webster that bad, they would offer to pay a buyout. Unfortunately they won't offer one Turkish Lira, which tells you exactly how much they actually value him (unlike the Breakers who paid a buyout to secure his services).

Webster wanted the security of a three year contract, but now that similar (on a per month basis) money is being offered in Europe he wants to terminate his deal. That's not how contracts work. If he wants out, he should have offered a substantial buyout to compensate the Breakers, because certainly a similar caliber player isn't available to them in mid-September.

Ili asked to get out of his contract. He saw how badly he was outplayed by Weeks last year (despite getting an unlimited leash to stink from Braswell) and saw the writing on the wall when Hampton was signed. The Breakers said no initially, but eventually acquiesced when Melbourne offered to pay a buyout to release him from his contract. It's a very different animal asking out of your contract in May (and having a club pay for the honours) and doing so in mid-September.

Webster's shooting makes him much easier to build around anyway in a backup role, as opposed to Ili who made under 25 percent of his 3s last year

Matt Walsh clears the air: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/basketball/news/article.cfm?c_id=21&objectid=12267700

""Just because we want to be commercially viable - which they never were before – doesn't mean we're not the culture club; but we need to be able to sustain this business.""

That's fair enough, I reckon. You put your money into a business, you want to make a return on it.

Webster doesn't know for sure if he’ll play for the Breakers this season: https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/basketball/115832591/corey-webster-i-dont-know-if-ill-suit-up-for-the-nz-breakers-this-nbl-season