While assistant coach with the Taipans, Lopez, the third coach plucked from the Australian NBL to coach the Hawks in the past six years, coached the Cairns Dolphins in NBL1 North, delivering a fast, physical and winning style of basketball.
Previously in New South Wales, he held senior roles with the Bankstown Bruins, including director of coaching, where he oversaw a player-development system that supported hundreds of athletes and helped dozens of coaches earn national accreditation.
As high performance coach for Basketball NSW, he was responsible for elite player and coach development statewide.
Kenny said Lopez is the “right leader at the right time ... a passionate, highly experienced coach who knows how to build a winning environment.”
Lopez says: “My focus is on winning and building a team our community can be proud of. The Hawks have talent, history and passionate supporters. We’ll set a standard that reflects that. We’ll defend with intensity, play unselfishly and compete for the full 40 minutes.”
Lopez will begin working immediately on roster construction, performance planning and pre-season structures.
He will relocate to Hawke’s Bay after the Australian NBL season, currently amid a 22-week regular season that will be followed by playoffs, starting at the end of February.
The Hawks also acknowledge the efforts of Gruggen, who, Kenny says, made “significant progress developing young local talent into genuine national-league contributors”.
Gruggen has also had a role with Cairns, and is currently an assistant coach with Illawarra Hawks, having shared in the side’s winning of the 2024-25 ANBL.
Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter based in Napier, with more than 50 years’ experience in journalism, more than four decades of which has been in Hawke’s Bay covering local news and sports.
