Basketball: Breakers' break-ups unlikely

The Breakers will keep the majority of their roster on board for next season.

Player reviews begin this week, but coach Andrej Lemanis made it clear after their last game that he wanted to retain the core of the side that has just come right.

Only centre Ben Pepper is signed for 2006-07. Some of the others may wish to test their value on the open market but players from teams that finish near the bottom of the table are not going to command top dollar.

Lemanis wouldn't talk about who might not be there next season.

"I owe the players the courtesy of talking to them first," he said.

But he wants the negotiations over quickly so the Breakers have the core of their team determined before other franchises are allowed to make approaches when the free-agent list is released two weeks after the grand final playoff is finished in mid-March.

Lemanis said they had had a good learning experience and he took heart from the improvement of individuals and the group as a whole and from the drive they had shown to turn around a losing streak. "I think we're in a pretty good place to launch for next season."

The players understood his systems and, in one hint of who he will keep, he said the Tall Blacks who were late to pre-season training would fit more neatly back into the fold after returning from the world champs in July this year.

The Breakers' Tall Blacks are captain Paul Henare, Aaron Olson and Lindsay Tait, with Mika Vukona on the fringe. It is highly unlikely Lemanis would want to lose any of those.

Forward Rich Melzer proved a real find as late-coming import. He had a bad start when he gashed his knee and it got infected, forcing him to miss a run of games, but he really showed class towards the back end of the season. They will want to keep him and he apparently wants to stay.

The other import, Brian Green, is not such a certainty.

Though he gels well with Melzer, he has been in and out during games. He can certainly score and when the pair fired, the Breakers invariably won.

His retention might depend on the money asked and who else is available.

So there might be just the one change in the starting five of Melzer, Green, Pepper, Olson and Henare.

Of the bench players, Tait, Vukona and back-up centre Tim Behrendorff look to have an assured future. That of Ben Thompson may again depend on the money and the balance wanted in the squad.

Development player Brent Charleton, who played few minutes this season, is likely to be retained as he has showed determination in trainings.

"I think it's vitally important that we keep the core together," Lemanis said. "To let them go and then start over again doesn't make sense to me."

He said the team improvement came as the players started to understand his defensive concepts, because they got more comfortable with each other and trusted each other more. The signing of Green changed their game, allowing Melzer to play a role with which he felt more comfortable, anchoring their defence and opening others on offence.

A boot camp in December hardened their resolve and brought a change of focus.

They went from looking constantly at what was going wrong, to finding what they were doing right and building on that.

"We went into these last two games expecting to win," Lemanis said after their second defeat at the hands of the Tigers. That was a big change of mind-set from the start of the season. He was proud of the players and the way they had refused to fold once their playoff chances were gone.

Lemanis is signed for two more seasons. It is unlikely there will be changes below him, as the efforts of assistants John Dorge and Wayne Brown are appreciated.

The weekend's final-round games have determined finishing places and the playoff schedule. The Sydney Kings lost again but are minor premiers with 26 wins and five losses, the Tigers finished second with 25 wins and both those sides have a week off while quarter-finals are decided.

On Wednesday Brisbane (sixth) hosts Perth (seventh) and on Thursday Cairns (fifth) hosts Hunter (eighth) in elimination games. On Friday the Wollongong Hawks (third) host the winner of game one and on Saturday the Adelaide 36ers host the winner of game two.