Wethers To Waikato
Tagged in: NBL
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Ian Anderson, Waikato Times
The Waikato Pistons may have secured the best import pairing the National Basketball League has seen for many seasons.
But their chances of securing a title may rest on how much support the pairing of new signing Brian Wethers and the returning Jason Crowe get off the Pistons’ frontcourt.
Pistons boss John Davey said the franchise was delighted to secure Wethers, who was the MVP of the Australian NBL in 2004/5 with the Hunter Pirates. The 27-year-old American also featured for the New Zealand Breakers the following season before a knee injury.
However, by deciding to go with a small forward/shooting guard in Wethers and a point guard/shooting guard in Crowe, the Pistons are likely to be under-manned in the tall timber.
A lot of responsibility will again rest on the broad shoulders of Pero Cameron, who will be coming off a full season with the Gold Coast Blaze.
Centre/power forward Mike Homik is expected to return to the Pistons for the 2008 NBL season after being a bit-part player in the Australian league with the Perth Wildcats while Ben Hill is also likely to front after a season in Iceland.
Wethers has recently been playing in China and Davey said the Pistons picked him up at an opportune time.
“We’d originally signed a guy called Nate James, who used to play for Duke University.
“Then out of the blue his agent rang and said he’d just been offered an assistant coaching role at Duke and we weren’t going to stand in the way of that.
“Then another agent offered us three players, all outstanding, and one of which was Brian. Coach (Murray McMahon) agreed that Brian was just the player we were looking for.”
Davey said Wethers did have an out in his new one-year contract with the Pistons, last year’s beaten NBL semifinalists.
“We agreed that if he gets a great offer from Europe this month we will release him but it’s not likely with the European leagues in progress.”
Davey said the Pistons have also grabbed the services of two former St John’s College players.
Muka Silva has spent time in the Melbourne Tigers development programme under the guidance of legendary coach Lindsay Gaze, while Jamie Barnett has represented the Otago Nuggets and returns to complete a law degree in Hamilton.
