Olgs' Notebook: Inside the strategy the Breakers are using to defy the odds

Every week, ESPN's Olgun Uluc runs through what's catching his eye across the NBL, and takes you inside the conversations trickling around the Australian basketball ecosystem.

The strategy the Breakers are using to defy the odds

The New Zealand Breakers are doing things a bit differently amid their surprisingly effective start to the season.

They've just moved to an unlikely 4-2 record under new head coach Petteri Koponen, after an extremely impressive win over the Sydney Kings on Sunday, so it's worth noting one of the primary tactics they've leant into.

One of the unique things they've implemented this season is 'tagging up', a concept developed by Australian coach Aaron Fearne - a one-time NBL Coach of the Year with the Cairns Taipans, and current head coach of the Charlotte 49ers' men's college basketball team - where all five players crash the offensive glass while matching up with, and staying on the high side of, the player who was just guarding them.

The idea is to give your team offensive rebounding opportunities, while containing an opponent's transition game.

It's a concept that's growing in popularity. The Finnish national team has been tagging up for years, so then it was no surprise that it's a tactic the Memphis Grizzlies started implementing when they hired Finland-native Tuomas Lisalo as an assistant coach.

The Breakers have been a good defensive transition team over the past few years, but ranked dead last in offensive rebounding percentage - 23.8%; significantly below the league average - during the 2023-24 season.

"We were the worst in the universe," Breakers assistant coach Daniel Sokolovsky told ESPN. "We were a historically bad offensive rebounding team."

Sokolovsky tagged up when he was a head coach with BKM Lučenec in Slovakia so, when Koponen joined the Breakers, there was a mutual desire to utilise it with this group.

"We came in singing the same tune," Sokolovsky said.

"We were a historically bad offensive rebounding team. We don't have a wealth of talent, so we want to win the possessions margin. How do we create more possessions? We want to shoot a lot of threes anyway, so these are the best opportunities to tag. Raise of the shot, so it's very clear when shots are going up. These generate long rebounds.

"When you execute tagging up with any discipline, you're matched up from the moment of the rebound. It may not be your perfect matchup, but you have a body. You're not supposed to run past your guy, you're not supposed to crash from the baseline. There are some very clear rules we're still internalising, but there are a lot of benefits to tagging up. Made basket, you're in a position to press full court... We do not have the desired consistent level of aggression we want out of it yet, but it's helped us take a step in creating extra possessions and offensive rebounds, especially crucial ones late in games."

It was particularly effective against the Kings on Sunday. The Kings entered the game with a league-leading transition frequency of 16.5%, which was cut down to just 10% against the Breakers. Brian Goorjian's team has a wealth of athletes who can push the break and fill the lanes on the wing, but their ability to grab-and-go was diminished by the Breakers' insistence on tagging up.

"We just wanted to take the sting off their first wave," Sokolovsky said.

"Not allowing Xavier to get the rebound and find a head of steam, which I think we found a lot of success with. Every time you land with your rebounder, there's somebody in front of you. It's hard to just take off. That bust-out dribble has less heat on it. There's no clear open pitch-ahead because everyone is running with somebody."

The Kings were also missing Jaylen Adams, their starting import point guard who's one of the team's most effective initiators in the half-court.

In the Kings' first two contests of the season, they averaged 22 points per game directly out of the pick-and-roll. That dropped to 15.8 points per game over their last seven contests, where Adams was either out or not fully healthy. The frequency of pick-and-roll plays also dropped from 14.2% over their first two games, to 7.5% over their last seven.

So, the Kings' ability to be effective in the half-court was already diminished by Adams' absence, and the Breakers - who already entered the game giving up the second-least amount of transition opportunities - knew they could exploit that.

"When you do it really well, you can have your cake and eat it too, as far as crashing and trans D," Sokolovsky said.

"That's what most of the NBA has figured out already. There's been a big philosophical shift; there's been a lot of research around the number you send not necessarily having a detrimental impact on trans D, because everybody has to stay to box out."

The big beneficiary of the system may end up being the Breakers' Next Star, Karim Lopez, who had the best game of his young NBL career against the Kings.

Lopez finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds (5 offensive), one assist, one steal, and one block, using his size and athleticism extremely well when crashing the glass, while playing an ideal complementary role on the offensive end alongside the advantage creation of Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

"Anything that has to do with physicality and athleticism, it's gonna be favourable to him," Sokolovsky said of Lopez.

"Every instinct he's had up to this point has been: hey, kid, you're a freak athlete, just go get it. So, he's swimming past guys, he's running baseline, he's blasting through people to get to the glass. Well, if you just react faster and just wedge this guy under the rim, you're gonna beat him to the ball anyway. He had five offensive rebounds against Sydney; three of them are good technique, and two are just him being a special athlete and he got away with some bad behaviour.

"Once he figured out the rules, he realised he could get just as many - if not more - offensive rebounds this way, and he doesn't have to worry about transition. Have your cake and eat it too. When you ask players over time, they say it's the simplest system they've ever done. It's just totally opposite to what they've been taught from childhood."

Play-type data courtesy of Jordan McCallum 

Naar to Brisbane heating up

We flagged this in last week's Notebook, and things have since developed.

Emmett Naar is in advanced talks to join the Brisbane Bullets as an injury replacement for Sam McDaniel, sources told ESPN.

The pass-first point guard most recently played for Mackay in the NBL1 North - alongside Bullets guard, Isaac White, averaging 8.5 points and 9.2 assists per game, helping lead the Meteors to a conference championship.

Naar - who turned 30 in July and whose resumé includes a storied career at Saint Mary's - had his most recent stint in the NBL back in the 2021-22 season with the Illawarra Hawks.

Flynn Cameron stepping up

There's always a silver lining to injuries.

In the moment, of course, they suck. For Melbourne United, losing Shea Ili to a short-term calf injury is a huge blow, with their best point-of-attack defender and a key initiator on the sidelines.

It's a chance for others to step up, though; and, if they do, it could create more opportunities for a team moving forward.

That's what we saw from Flynn Cameron over the course of Round 6.

The 24-year-old had moments to start the season, but never really strung multiple quality games together, largely due to the lack of opportunities; that's what happens when you play alongside Ili, Matthew Dellavedova, Chris Goulding, and Ian Clark.

Cameron started against the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday, and finished with 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists, shooting 8-of-13 from the field. He also had the job of neutralising Tyler Harvey, who would shoot 4-of-14 over the course of that game. Cameron followed that up with 18 points and 10 rebounds against the Taipans on Sunday, while containing Rob Edwards, who fouled out in less than 20 minutes, scoring just five points on 2-of-8 shooting.

"Tyler's one of the most talented scorers in the league," United head coach Dean Vickerman said on Thursday.

"I thought Flynn's connection with him, and making it difficult for him, was a big key."

Vickerman continued the sentiment after Sunday's game: "Edwards has been playing at a pretty elite level and, again, Flynn Cameron had a weekend of Harvey and Edwards. He really performed a great defensive job over the weekend."

Over the years, Vickerman has often tasked Ili with locking up opposing two-guards; making early connection, denying them catches, and, effectively, just making life unbelievably difficult for them. That task was assigned to Cameron, who, at 6'5 with an underrated athleticism, has the potential to do the job really effectively.

"It's pretty awesome," Cameron said of being given that task.

"Coming in, making an impact defensively. We have elite scorers in the league, so just being able to make an impact on the defensive end... it's a privilege."

Cameron's father - credential Kiwi coach, Pero Cameron - texted him before the Hawks game on Thursday: "Play some good defence."

He did, and that's opened up a unique option for Vickerman going forward.

"There's some point guard in him," Vickerman said.

"But I think he's a true combo guard that's really important to this league. If they deny one of those two point guards, then he's creative enough and his ball-handling is good enough to go get us into offence. My feel is he's just a true scorer; he has a great scoring feel. Now, you add the defence to that, he becomes a really elite player."

Dyson Daniels: professional pest

It's early, but Dyson Daniels is slowly but surely making his case as an NBA All-Defensive player.

The defensive potential has always been there - with his 6'7 frame, 6'11 wingspan, and ability to slide and stay in front of any and all offensive players - but he's getting a real opportunity to demonstrate it with the Atlanta Hawks.

Through his first three games with the Hawks, Daniels leads the entire league in deflections, with 7.0 per game, to go with 2.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.

Daniels is particularly important to this Hawks team alongside Trae Young, who's one of the league's smaller and less effective defensive guards; Quin Snyder needed an elite point-of-attack defender, he now has that in the Australian.

Daniels' Olympic campaign showed some development on the offensive end, too - as a secondary playmaker and off-ball scorer - and he's carried that over to start his stint in Atlanta, averaging 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game thus far, while shooting 33.3 percent from downtown.

This is something we'll undoubtedly be tracking over the course of the NBA regular season.

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