Pistons Chug Into Season
Tagged in: NBL
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Waikato Pistons coach Murray McMahon speaks for almost all coaches around the Dominion Finance National Basketball League, when he sighs “I wish we could’ve had everyone here two weeks ago”.
And he will have to continue to be patient another week or two.
The Pistons – runners-up in the 2007 regular season with a 13-5 record, before a semifinal exit – have assembled a formidable veteran roster likely to garner some pre-season favouritism votes.
Only problem for McMahon is the bulk of his rotation has yet to arrive at the Pistons Workshop.
Tall Black captain Pero Cameron will arrive later this week, as will former New Zealand Breaker and Australian NBL MVP Brian Wethers.
Mike Homik will land in the Motor(head) City after the Perth Wildcats get eliminated from the ANBL playoffs, Cameron’s Gold Coast Blaze team-mate Jason Crowe is likely two weeks away, returning to the USA to attend to business interests, and Ben Hill will join the squad in late-March after a stint in Iceland.
That has left McMahon – in the second year of his current stint with the Waikato franchise – to run trainings with just veterans Prem Krishna and Puke Lenden, Ray Cameron, returning Hamilton products Jamie Barnett and Muka Silver, and a wider training squad.
“It’ll be difficult for the first couple of weeks with these players coming in late,” McMahon said.
“We’re running some similar things to what we ran last year and these are pretty experienced players so they should be able to pick it up quickly.
“The players here will have to gel with those players and they’ll also have to gel with each other. I wish we could’ve had everyone here two weeks ago.”
The Pistons will be one of four teams sitting out the first round, playing their season-opener against the defending champion CPS Nelson Giants under the national TV spotlight in Te Awamutu on March 6, and should have all bar Hill suited up by then.
Wethers was the major off-season buy – replacing Kevin Smith, who was snapped up by the Easy LPG Bay Hawks, in the second import slot – and will form an explosive one-two scoring punch with Crowe and a tough perimeter match-up for any team.
Wethers, who was Australian MVP with the Hunter Pirates in 2004-05 and had a successful half-season with the Breakers in 2006-07 before injury ended his season, has most recently played in China, where he average 23-plus points per game.
Crowe, who averaged 16.8 points per game for the Blaze, will take over at the point from the departed Luke Martin, with Krishna, and possibly Pero Cameron at times, taking over ball-handling duties.
Losing their naming rights sponsor last month meant the Pistons could not afford to re-sign Martin, their point guard of the previous three seasons who eventually signed with the Century City Wellington Saints.
“They’re both quality players, with a good background,” McMahon said of Crowe and Wethers. “Jason’s had a bit of a shooting slump but he’s had a concussion apparently, so you can understand that, and Brian Wethers is a proven player, so we expect them to anchor our side.
“I’m happy with the squad we’ve got. It’s solid and we hope to build on what we did last year.
“It’s a good balance and it’s good people who genuinely like to play the game.”
A concern area could be the Pistons lack of genuine height – with 2.04m (6ft 8in) Homik the team’s tallest – and ability to protect their own boards and defend against dominant opposition bigs.
“The rest are 6ft 5in and 6ft 6in and that’s pretty average these days.
“If our technique is right we shouldn’t have a problem. We’ll certainly be doing enough work that we’re capable of controlling our won defensive boards.”
Although vulnerable in the early rounds, the Pistons do have three home contests to start, and have one of the toughest finishing schedules, with five of their last seven games away from the Waikato.
Waikato Pistons
2007: Beaten semifinalists, second (13-5) in regular season
Coach: Murray McMahon
Assistant: Steve Agnew
Imports: Jason Crowe (USA), Brian Wethers (USA)
Returning: Crowe, Pero Cameron, Ray Cameron, Ben Hill, Mike Homik, Prem Krishna, Puke Lenden
Additions: Wethers, Jamie Barnett (Otago), Muka Silver
Losses: Luke Martin (Wellington), Wai Cheung, Jeff Niwa, Kevin Smith (USA – Bay Hawks)
