Basketball: Taking aim at hired guns

Kerron Johnson (right). Photo / Richard Robinson

Two seasons, a pair of import point guards and a couple of dramatically different outcomes.

While it would be reductive to explain the Breakers' first-to-almost-worst slide with simply the names of Cedric Jackson and Kerron Johnson, the previous two years have elucidated just how important recruiting the right import is to a team's fortunes.

The Breakers have four roster spots to fill during the off-season but it's clear every Australian NBL side will either thrive or struggle to survive depending on the value derived from the foreign spots.

For the Breakers, a lot hinges on the calibre of their point guard. Jackson won an MVP and two championships during his time in New Zealand. Johnson won 11 games.

Although that's unfair to a rookie who readily improved - there were, after all, several mitigating factors to the Breakers being deposed as champions - the disparity in results illustrates the magnitude of the decision facing coach Dean Vickerman in the next couple of months.

The recruitment process will be slow and certain, with the prolonged time frame dictated by both the trickle-down effect of next month's NBA draft and the club's determination to bring in only players who can lead them back to the top tier of the competition.

The Breakers failed in this area last season, with Darnell Lazare cut a month into the season and Johnson too undersized and callow to fill Jackson's significant shoes.

This year, Vickerman has vowed to meet in person any player the Breakers are interested in signing and myriad factors will be used to assess an individual's suitability.

While one import spot will belong to another big man to play with Alex Pledger, certainly a role of consequence, it's the recruitment of a point guard that holds more prominence.

Experience and size will be prerequisites in this search.

Johnson, in his first year out of college, failed to command games the way Jackson could and it didn't help that he was 6cm shorter.

Jackson is on the Breakers' radar again, available after an unhappy stint in Slovenia, but if his return cannot be negotiated, Vickerman knows exactly what he's looking for.

"We've set our criteria about what we want from that spot and we'll be really strict with that," he said. "Especially with the development of Corey Webster and him playing more at the two-spot, we need that size."

Then there is the criterion the Breakers hope will separate a seventh-placed side from a champion. James Ennis might have missed the MVP award but, as the best player on the best team, ensured Perth were title favourites from the season's opening tip.

"When you look at the greatest imports who have played in our league, it's been the ones who have had the ability to make their local talent be the best that they can be - and then the ability to know when it was time to take over a game," Vickerman said.

"That's the mentality we've got to try to find in a great point guard."

That search began in earnest the moment Johnson was released last month.

The Breakers possess a growing list of names, with the club in constant contact with their US-based scout, having also touched base with a couple of NBA teams.

"We let our scout know exactly what we're looking for and what we can spend," Vickerman said. "We also have agents who touch base with us daily, some we've worked with before and some new ones.

"It's really just looking at what their players are doing in the off-season, who's in good form and who fits the criteria we're looking for."