William McDowell-White is ready to take another leap.
The Australian point guard's 2022-23 NBL season saw him put up career best numbers and have a monumental impact on a New Zealand Breakers team that was effectively one quarter away from a championship.
That led to him becoming among the most sought-after free agents, a process he put an end to on Wednesday, putting pen to paper on a new contract -- a two-year deal, sources told ESPN, with a player option on the second year -- that would keep him with the Breakers.
The re-signing was a look into McDowell-White's mindset going into next season, and the heights he has a desire to achieve.
"I quite enjoyed running a team this year, and I wanna take that even further," McDowell-White told ESPN on Thursday, "I hopefully want to recreate what we did."
"I want to take on more of a leadership role, and the next thing is putting it together for a whole season. I've always had it in patches; I'd have a good couple of games, and then a rough two or three. Now, it's just about putting 10 to 12 games together, and maybe having one or two off nights, and then back to the 10 or 12. Just putting it together for a long period of time is the next step."
As soon as free agency began, McDowell-White had significant interest from across the NBL; as a local point guard who demonstrated he could lead a team to a Championship Series, the 24-year-old's value was understandably extremely high, and teams were going all out for his signature.
McDowell-White averaged 10.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game over the course of the regular season and playoffs with the Breakers, shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 30 percent from downtown. Those numbers increased in the Grand Final, where he averaged 13.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game over the course of the Championship Series against the Sydney Kings.
The Perth Wildcats entered the race with the intent of creating a big-three with McDowell-White, Bryce Cotton, and Keanu Pinder, while the Tasmania JackJumpers effectively put a pause on the rest of their free agency in order to focus on the point guard.
McDowell-White would be the starting point guard on practically every team in the NBL, but his priority was his evolution as a player -- going from just a great starter to one of the league's elite players, which is what his recent trajectory suggests he'll do -- and, in his mind, the best chance of achieving that was to stick with the Breakers. That's because staying with the Breakers meant remaining under Mody Maor's wing.
"Honestly, the biggest factor was Mody," McDowell-White said.
"We'd built something pretty special over the last couple of years. Just the way he's developed me personally over the years, it's been really cool. I've seen over the past year, me growing in confidence, and now it's just about putting it all together. With what I've built with him, I have the most trust in him, and belief that we can take another step.
McDowell-White says he's always had a "father-son" type of relationship with Maor. The Israeli-American was an assistant coach under Dam Shamir when he first arrived at the Breakers, and took McDowell-White under his wing when the guard signed with the team in 2021. Since then, they've climbed the ladder together. Maor would ultimately be elevated to head coach, while McDowell-White was entrusted with the reins of the team as its starting point guard.
There's a real sense that McDowell-White is an extension of Maor on the court, but that connection was largely built off the hardwood.
"The biggest thing is it's not all about basketball," McDowell-White said about his relationship with Maor.
"He's always asking how everything is, family, whatever it is. We'll go out for lunch, talk about things that aren't all to do with basketball, which is always refreshing from a head coach. People like to think it's always business, business, business, but he's all about the person as well. It's always been like a father-son relationship; he's always been the hardest on me, ever since I got there. He just really cares, and it goes a long way."
With his free agency now out of the way -- a process he described as "stressful" -- the next question is what sort of leap McDowell-White could make. He'll head to Los Angeles in May to continue working on his game, and there will almost certainly be NBA Summer League opportunities for the taking. An NBA training camp invite isn't out of the question either; nor is a spot in the Australian Boomers squad ahead of the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
McDowell-White is a big point guard who excels in pick-and-roll situations, and is probably Australia's best live dribble passer not in the NBA, so his ceiling -- especially at just 24 -- is naturally extremely high. Those larger goals will exist, but front of mind for McDowell-White is running it back with the Breakers, and doing one better than last season.
"For me, it's just about getting these guys back to the finals," he said.
"I remember Game 5, as soon as it finished, I just thought, damn, it's gonna take so much to get back here, but I'm excited. For me, that'll represent what I did individually. I want to get this club back to where they were, back to the glory days; that's the biggest thing for me this year. We have Mody, who's going to lead the ship, so I think it's gonna be another big year."