On Sunday, Lemanis will bring up 200 games in charge of the Breakers when they tackle the Taipans in Cairns. He will become the 19th coach in ANBL history to achieve the milestone but is significantly ahead of any previous Breakers' coach given the club's turbulent early history.
Inaugural coach Jeff Green was ditched midway through their first season after only one win in 11 games. His replacement, Frank Arsego, lasted a little longer but was fired at the end of the following season after finishing last of the 11 teams and following revelations of ructions within the camp.
Fast forward six years and the Breakers are defending ANBL champions and one of the best clubs in the league. Only recently they played in front of 6900 people at Vector Arena in the biggest crowd for a basketball match in this country.
It's not all down to Lemanis - there are significantly more factors at work - but he has overseen a period of unrivalled stability and success and, crucially, lured a number of very good players to Auckland.
It started in 2007/08 with the likes of Tony Ronaldson, Phill Jones, Rick Rickert and Kirk Penney and continued with CJ Bruton and Gary Wilkinson. Add in the returns of foundation players Dillon Boucher and Mika Vukona and development of youngsters Tom Abercrombie and Alex Pledger and they assembled a championship-winning side.
Lemanis was immediately rewarded with a new four-year contract after that historic title - the first by a New Zealand side in a professional Australian competition - and his challenge now is to bring sustained success.
"I'm reading a book at the moment called The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, which explores what makes champions and champion teams,'' Lemanis explains.
"It talks a lot about the difficultly of sustaining that desire and passion to climb the mountain again. The first time winning is new. But once you have experienced that, can you do it again? It's overcoming those challenges that determine the difference between one great season and becoming a champion club. That's the challenge for us now. It's exciting.
"With the new kids coming through, that's what keeps it fresh and exciting. We have changed a lot from last year. It's good we have been able to bring in some fresh blood and some people with the passion to do it who weren't part of it last year.''
Some of that was circumstance. Paul Henare retired, Kevin Braswell was injured and Corey Webster suspended for a second drugs offence. But the biggest loss was Kirk Penney who is playing in Spain.
In their place have come the likes of Cedric Jackson and Daryl Corletto as well as advancement of Leon Henry and Josh Bloxham.
The Breakers are fortunate being the only professional basketball side in the country, in the same way the Warriors benefit. The best young players want to play for the Breakers and the club are committed to filling their roster with Kiwi talent first.
"One of the proudest things we have done in my time here is the academy programme and we have those juniors flowing through,'' Lemanis says as he watches the likes of Isaac Fotu, Dion Prewster and Bloxham practice. "It's exciting. That is the thing that will hopefully make the club strong for the near- to long-term future.
"We plan for the future and look at what the team is going to look like next year and the year after. That's the only way clubs can move forward.
"You see it all the time with teams. They are so short-term focused they often sacrifice the future for now and, even if you win one year, it can go down the toilet the next year and you have to start building again. Certainly here the approach is trying to be in a position to challenge for a championship every year.''
If he can do that, Lemanis might be at the Breakers for another 200 games.
