New Zealand Breakers players celebrate winning the Ignite Cup final against the Adelaide 36ers. Photo / Photosport
By Felicity Reid of RNZ
The New Zealand Breakers do not want to get left behind in the Australian National Basketball League, as other cashed-up teams lock in tested talent and inject rising stars into squads to chase championships.
The dust had barely settled on Dillon Boucher’s first season back with the Breakers before the president of basketball operations turned his attention to where improvements needed to be made for next season.
Finishing seventh in the 10-team league in the 2025/26 season was not what Boucher and the new ownership had in mind when they linked up with the organisation in March last year.
Reaching the final of the Ignite Cup was a bright spark in the season and they secured the prizemoney by winning a close game, something that the team struggled to achieve during the regular season.
A “rebuild” and “trying to bring in a level of professionalism and standards that we want to live by” was what the club had set out to achieve, Boucher said, but while they had improved off the court, the club was ultimately judged by what happened on the court.
“I would be lying if I said we didn’t want to be in the playoffs this year and I believe we should have been and could have been. So from that perspective, it’s disappointing,” he said.
“We’re already starting to have one eye on next year and how we’re going to build for next year and where we fell short.
“We’ll do a lot of off-season strategy on working out where we failed this season and where we need to get stronger.”
Boucher said every area of the organisation – front office, support staff, coaching staff and players – would be under scrutiny.
The Breakers won big and lost big in the 2025/26 season and had a habit of capitulating in the close ones.
Across the season, the Auckland side won three games by 29 points or more, including a 42-point victory over the Illawarra Hawks in October.
They lost three games by 30 points or more, including a 41-point loss to Sydney in January.
In the close ones, the Breakers lost six games by four points or less.
Second-season head coach Petteri Koponen acknowledged consistency was a problem.
“We showed some really good stretches throughout the year, we had some upset wins and some bad, heartbreaking losses ... we improved from the last year but at the same time, I think the league got better also.”
Koponen said they needed to find the “margins” for improvement on and off the court if the Breakers were to contest the post-season next season.
It was a sentiment echoed by NBL Most Improved Player nominee Sam Mennenga.
Mennenga averaged a career-best 17.2 points per game and 6.8 rebounds in a season when the Breakers relied heavily on the big man, who spent a stint sidelined with a wrist injury.
“There’s always things you want to change,” Mennenga said.
“I think that there is a lot of improvement that can be made and there is [sic] lessons that can be learnt.
“There is a lot that we can take away to progress and improve, even just the day to day principles and standards that you set to win.”
Boucher was also on the same page.
“We’ve shown week-in, week-out that although we haven’t been consistent, we’ve been able to challenge teams and push teams and certainly compete.”
A focus on bringing New Zealand talent home was part of the ownership’s direction when the new group took over.
“We will always try and recruit New Zealand talent, but at the same time made it really clear that we are there to win and we need to win games,” Boucher said.
“So if there’s better talent that’s outside of New Zealand, then 100% we’ll be talking to talent outside of New Zealand.
“We always want to try and develop within, give opportunities to New Zealand players, but those players have to be able to fill the role better than someone else from, say, across the Ditch or overseas, somewhere else.”
Including development players, the Breakers had 11 New Zealanders of varying experience levels in the NBL involved with the roster.
Koponen’s future after two seasons at the club is not yet decided. Neither are the contracts of the majority of the playing roster.
The 37-year-old coach was coy before the final regular-season game about whether he would return for another stint in the NBL.
“Everything is always open in this job but we’ll see. After the season, we sit down and see what is the plan moving forward and how we can progress as a club,” Koponen said.
Boucher said all coaching staff appointments would be reviewed in the off-season and whether they returned would depend if the coaches wanted to return and if the club “had the ability to bring them back”.
Only three players – including import Parker Jackson-Cartwright – were under contract for next season and between now and when free agency began in two months, Boucher wanted to have a couple more locked in.
“At the moment, we don’t have a huge number back next season, but it’s almost purposely done to be able to start again from scratch.
“Some of the players are on existing contracts that were there before we started. Some are brand-new contracts. So for us, it’ll be what are the key pieces we need to be stronger next season.
“Some guys really put their hand up towards the end of the season, knowing that their contracts are going to be up for renewal. And some guys seal the fate for themselves with either performances or how they behave and things like that.”
Part of running a fine-tooth comb through the roster and deciding where improvements could be made was a decision about getting another Next Star.
Mexican teenager Karim Lopez spent two seasons with the Breakers under the NBL’s Next Stars programme and will be part of the NBA draft in May.
Lopez is a hot commodity, predicted to go high in the draft, but he also left a good impression on the club that helped him develop as a professional player.
The forward ended the 2025/26 season with an average of 11.9 points per game and 6.1 rebounds.
“Definitely wouldn’t say no to a Next Star and certainly looking at what’s out there at the moment,” Boucher said.
“We’ve been able to get great service out of Karim and I think if we could have someone of his ability, again, put in front of us, then I would certainly be open to looking at what that looks like.”
Having a Next Star on the roster allowed a club to have 12 contracted players rather than 11.
“So it is one extra player, and that’s great when you’ve got injuries to have 12 players, but also to be able to keep 12 players happy and being able to play them on a regular basis is really difficult for a coach to do.
“Some teams load up their starting five and their bench is not so strong and they can come undone when you have injuries. And then you sometimes have a really deep bench of seven guys that can really play ball and they’re all pretty even, but unfortunately in a game, someone has to miss out on some minutes here and there.
“Those pieces are really hard to try and juggle and for us right now, what we can control is where we think we need to improve, and then it’ll be going to market and seeing like how we can improve, what players are available, who are free agents, those sorts of things are really important.”
– RNZ