Source: Radio New Zealand
NZ Breakers looking for new coach after parting ways with Petteri Koponen after two seasons. Blake Armstrong/Photosport
The off-season coaching turnover in the Australian NBL reached new heights when two more teams joined the recruitment process for a head coach in recent weeks.
The New Zealand Breakers have been working to secure a replacement for Petteri Koponen since late February, when it was announced the Finn would be departing the club.
In his two seasons with the Breakers, Koponen won the Ignite Cup, but twice finished near the bottom of the 10-team league.
Koponen said he was after a new challenge.
The Auckland-based club has yet to announce who will take the reins but it is an increasingly competitive market with the Cairns Taipans and more recently Melbourne United and Adelaide 36ers also seeking a new coach.
The Taipans parted ways with Adam Forde in the coaching role in February but he remains with the club in a remote role.
Former Breakers coach Dean Vickerman left United after nine seasons to head to Japan, where he will replace another former Breakers coach, Mody Maor, at Nagasaki Velca in the inaugural B.League Premier next season.
A day after Vickerman’s announcement 36ers coach Mike Wells exited the NBL to return to the United States for family reasons. Wells had signed a contract extension through 2028 with the 36ers a week before changing his mind.
Wells has since signed with an American college as an assistant coach.
The drawn-out search appears more a reflection of the competitive coaching market than any lack of urgency from the Breakers.
Tall Blacks coach and Breakers assistant, Judd Flavell, had the experience to be considered for the top job after 17 seasons in an NBL assistant coaching role across two clubs, but he was another coach snapped up by Japanese basketball with the Shinshu Brave Warriors.
Tall Blacks coach Judd Flavell was considered a strong option to take over the NZ Breakers, but he will take up a role in Japan. Andrew Skinner/www.photosport.nz
Reports out of Australia suggested the Breakers were close to getting Canada’s national team coach Gordon Herbert, considered to be “one of the most accomplished coaching figures in international basketball.”
Herbert had coached Bayern Munich in the EuroLeague for a year and a half before a mutually beneficial parting of ways in December. The club was on an eight game losing streak when Herbert left.
But five days after first reports of Herbert’s links to the Breakers the same Australian publication was saying the deal was off was with the Breakers.
The Breakers have had nine head coaches in 23 seasons and president of basketball operations Dillon Boucher said the next coach would come from a global search and would need to be capable of taking the Breakers to the top of the NBL rankings.
Despite not having a coach locked in, the Breakers have signed four players since Koponen’s departure and already had three players – import Parker Jackson-Cartwright and New Zealanders Izayah Le’Afa and Reuben Te Rangi – on the roster from last season.
Star forward Sam Mennenga re-signed with the club on a two-year contract in March, two-time NBL champion Dejan ‘DJ’ Vasiljevic was signed on a one-year deal in April from the Adelaide 36ers, guard Preston Le Gassick was signed from the NBL1 in May and days later Tall Black small forward Carlin Davison re-signed with the club on a new one-year contract after coming up through the ranks of being a development player with the Breakers.
“We will integrate our homegrown talent with international player depth and experience, to provide the competitive edge needed to bring more silverware home to Aotearoa,” Boucher said.
The Breakers have a recent history of making coaching changes late in the off-season.
Koponen joined the Breakers in July 2024, three months before the season tipped off, after Maor quit in May 2024.
Maor took the top job in May 2022, stepping up from an assistant role after Dan Shamir quit with a year left on his contract.
As the countdown to the 2026-27 NBL season continues, new coaches will arrive at clubs with either a couple of roster spots to fill, or in the case of Cairns nearly a whole roster to build.
The tip off details for the upcoming season is expected to be released next month.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand