Hoops

Wilkinson and Lemanis take NBL awards for January

No advantage dollar wise, it's the living close to family advantage for players and their wives and children and the fact they are all loyal Nzers apart from the 2 imports and Bruton playing for the only Nz pro basketball team.

What's the relative cost of living in NZ, to Oz? Does being paid in AUD$ and living on NZ$ an advantage?

SRT070 hit the nail on the head.
The Breakers Academy is a big reason why NZ is under the cap, they develop their own players and give them a shot instead of paying big dollars to try and fill gaps. Also the players they develop have loyalty to the club for getting the chance to live at home in NZ and get paid to play basketball and in turn don't quit the club in search of more dollars at another Nbl club.

Big Marty, its because his team whoever it may be isnt the team at the top. so any other team which is better has clearly broken the salary cap and are "buying" their ring. seriously its pretty pathetic to read that, it appears like a massive jealousy thing.

Always interesting that the first excuse to be raised about a top flight team is "They're being paid too much" or "the team HAS to be over the salary cap".

Why can't a team be under the cap AND actually be a good team?

Penney doesn't play NBL for the money Fizzle, if he did he would still be in Europe playing Euro League as an Import on big $$$.
He plays in New Zealand because it is home and the professional team he plays for is based near to where he grew up.
When he was trialing for the Spurs and they already had guys on guaranteed contracts in his position he joked to Pop that he would buy out their contracts.
Sure he is the highest paid Breaker but do not think for a second that he is all about the money.

Fizzle, like ive said before Webster,Abo,Pledger, Vukona, Henare, all get paid to play in the NZNBL. They would use the breakers money as secondary income.

Both deserved winners. Andre is a wonderful tactical coach Fizzle & look how hard his players play for him. Wilkinson got a bath from Crosswhite in Cairns last Sunday but was unstoppable when Crossy ejected.

teams that come first and lose in the finals can generally be over confident but finals do weird things to teams. once a title is on the line it doesnt matter where you are in that top 4, every team seems almost completely brand new and appear to bring different games. i would like to see NZ win it though for sure. dont want perth going up to a 6th title

Mystro

Never say 'never ever'. Better teams with better regular season records have lost the Grand Final, such as:

-South East Melbourne Magic in 1998 - Only lost 4 games in season, and won seven more games than the second placed and eventual champion, 36ers;

-Victoria Titans in 2002 - had won four more games in season than equal second placed Perth, and eventual champions, 36ers; and

-Sydney in 2008 - Only lost three games in season, and won five more wins in season than second placed and eventual champion, Melbourne.

Ok, all three teams folded shortly after that, so maybe you have a point. You better hope and pray that you do win it.

Interesting fact: only two runaway minor premiers (that is, teams winning more than three more games than the second placed team) have gone on to win the championship, against the three losing teams above. The two successful teams were the 1986 Sixers (5 game advantage over second, Perth), and then Perth in 1991 (5 game advantage over second placed Eastside Spectres). So coming first apparently doesn't count for much!

agree No Deal. And by the same token, if they cannot do it this year with this team, they are never ever going to do it.

It's hard to mount a decent argument against Wilkinson receiving the award...

Surely Westover would have gotten a vote or two??? Maybe the NBL in their foresight removed him from the list?

There won't be any weak excuses from me. NZ have been great all year. If they win it they definately deserve it.

So because the Breakers have a loaded roster that the Breakers own Academy has produced over the years, the players must be overpaid. You'll find that the Breakers Roster has the same salary cap the Sixers and the rest of the League work with. If you have any proof otherwise, post it up Fizzle.
I can't wait to hear all the weak excuses if they win the comp this year lol.

Can't really argue with that - Wilkinson has been huge for NZ in the last month, and helped them get away with wins in a few games they should have lost.

No votes for Westover for coach of the month?!? :-)