Basketball: Adelaide signing boosts Breakers' strike power

Oscar Forman has left his home team the Adelaide 36ers to join the Breakers. Picture / Dean Purcell

The Breakers have signed Adelaide forward Oscar Forman and are on the verge of securing another American forward in a serious beefing-up of their offensive power.

Contracts for the pair are with the ANBL for approval and the club will announce the deals this week. They also have another Australian also in their sights as back-up point guard for captain Paul Henare. Aaron Olson, Ben Pepper, Mika Vukona, Rich Melzer, Tim Behrendorff and Henare have already been secured.

Talks continue with last season's bench guard Ben Thompson but he will be pushed out if the other Australian signs. The last of 10 spots on the roster will go to a New Zealander, not least because of salary cap restraints.

Forman, 24, is Adelaide-born and bred and has played 151 games for the 36ers since the 2001/02 season. At 2.03m, he is an outside shooter with a 47 per cent success rate from three-point range, averaging 11 points and five rebounds a game last season.

Coach Andrej Lemanis said Forman's height gave attacking options.

"It is a good endorsement of our club that an Adelaide boy who might have stayed with them as a one-club person has chosen to come here and develop his game and push for the Australian team."

The Breakers tried for AIS star Joe Ingles but he chose to join the new Souths Dragons franchise in Melbourne.

Lemanis flew to the United States yesterday to attend the Portsmouth Invitational tournament, to meet agents the Breakers deal with there and to see New Zealand college players, including Craig Bradshaw and Thomas Abercrombie, both viewed as future prospects for the team.

He also hoped to catch up with Sean Marks, who is also considered a chance to play for the club once his US career is over. Breakers chief executive Richard Clarke said Marks had expressed a desire to put something back into New Zealand basketball and the club would stay in touch with him.

Former Breaker and new Tall Black Casey Franks has signed with the Wollongong Hawks.