<
        >

          Olgs' Notebook: How can the Breakers use Fall defensively?

          play
          Cotton takes over in Wildcats' win over Breakers (1:46)

          Bryce Cotton scores 59 points as the Perth Wildcats beat the New Zealand Breakers in a high-scoring affair. (1:46)

          • Olgun Uluc, ESPN Basketball Insider
          Dec 2, 2024, 02:39 AM

          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.

          Cotton enters esteemed company

          He was already regarded by some - most? - as the greatest import in NBL history, but Bryce Cotton 59-point explosion saw him enter the record books in a multitude of ways.

          Here's a rundown of where that scoring masterclass sits in league history.

          Of course, Sunday's performance saw Cotton surpass James Batemon's 51 points as the most scored in a single game in the modern 40-minute era. Batemon's record held up for just 14 days.

          Cotton's 59 points is also the most ever by a Perth Wildcats player, surpassing James Crawford's 57-point game in 1987.

          It's tied for sixth for the most points ever scored in an NBL game, only behind Al Green (71), Reg Biddings (63), Shane Heal (61), Andrew Gaze, and Green again (60).

          The efficiency is what stood out in the performance from Cotton. He was 18-of-28 from the field, including 7-of-15 from beyond the three-point line, and also shot 16-of-17 from the free throw line. The 28 field goal attempts is the fewest by a player who has scored 55 or more points in the NBL.

          How to use Fall

          The Tacko Fall experiment in New Zealand has been mixed thus far, but there's one thing that's stood out as something to track moving forward.

          It's the big question: how will these Breakers use him defensively? The better phrasing may actually be: how can they use him defensively?

          Petteri Koponen's team is going from a high-level defensive big in Freddie Gillespie - the Breakers had a 104.3 Defensive Rating with him on the floor - who could use his mobility to hard show and recover, to a centre with more of a focus on rim protection and no real ability to guard in space.

          The Breakers' staff know they have a unique player in Fall, where you can make up for his deficiencies by maximising his once-in-a-generation frame, so how do you use him?

          We've seen some of the rim protection already, with Fall blocking six shots over his first two games with the Breakers, and posting an outrageous block percentage of 25.5%.

          The issue, and reason why the team has allowed 117.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, is when Fall is forced to guard out in space, which he'll have to do a lot of in this league. Against the Illawarra Hawks, the Breakers resorted to an unbelievably deep drops, where Fall was effectively just camped out at the defensive semi-circle, leaving whoever was guarding at the top out on an island.

          Trey Kell III missed this one, but then it was Tyler Harvey's turn.

          A drops coverage is most effective when you have guards who can avoid being screened but, even if they succeed in that, zero resistance from the big would give the opposition a reasonable look every time down the floor. Surely there's enough trust in Fall's mobility to step up a little bit higher and carry a hand, to at least make things somewhat difficult for the offensive guard.

          "We didn't have too many practices together," Koponen said after the Breakers' loss to the Hawks.

          "We tried to put something, defensively and offensively, together and how to use [Fall]. The guys also have to find a feeling with him: where to pass, what are the things we want to do with him on the floor... The guards really need to work much harder, fight over the screens and contest those shots.

          "We watch film, we get better, and we also learn how to use him better, and the guards, step-by-step, with experience together, they're going to learn how to play together."

          The Breakers' next game of the round was against the Wildcats, and Cotton - who's historically been able to take advantage when going up against a drops coverage - went to work.

          The Breakers have one of the smartest coaching staffs in the NBL, so we'll give them time to figure out the best way to utilise Fall. They'll undoubtedly have to lean into a lot of zone whenever Fall is on the floor or stick with that drops coverage but in a more traditional way with the big-man higher up.

          Whatever the outcome, the process of figuring out how Fall can be effective in the NBL will be a mightily fascinating one.

          Mason Peatling

          The Hawks did something interesting in their first game back after the FIBA window. It was a, sort of, unforced change; the team was 7-4, so there was no real need to change anything substantial.

          They did anyway, by moving Mason Peatling into the starting lineup, and, in turn, bringing import Darius Days off the bench.

          While surprising, the sentiment isn't without precedent: the idea of starting your hard-working, connective piece over an import.

          We've seen it this season, with Mitch Norton entering the Bullets' starting unit over Batemon. Keli Leaupepe has started games over Cam Oliver in Sydney, too.

          Of course, one of the most successful examples of it came back in 2021, with a Melbourne United team that would win that season's NBL Championship. Dean Vickerman started a development player over the likes of Scotty Hopson and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr., as a way to set the tone and stagger the scoring talent across the roster.

          That development player was Mason Peatling.

          "It was an experiment we were talking about doing at some time during the season," Hawks head coach Justin Tatum said after his team's win over the Breakers on Thursday.

          "We wanted to wait until after FIBA, and to see if it benefitted us. Mason is a low-demand, high-reward type of guy. At the end of the day, he's a very great communicator, and he's a leader, and he's experienced... Darius coming off the bench; he's more free-minded to score the ball, and less worries about foul trouble or defensive matchups and stuff like that. [He can] just come out and be Darius. We're trying to get the best out of everybody, to make the best for this team."

          The early returns have been really effective. It passes the eye test, with Peatling's rim-running and offensive connectivity opening up opportunities for the likes of Harvey and Kell to get quality looks, while the work-rate on both ends helps the Hawks both finish defensive possessions and create new ones.

          "It was the screening, it was the communicating," Tatum said. "It was the switching late, it was getting on guys at certain times and uplifting them."

          Over Peatling's two starts, the Hawks outscored their opponent by 39 points, which includes a +15 in his time on the floor in their three-point loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday.

          The Hawks also got two solid scoring games out of Days as a gunner off the bench; a role that may better suit his skillset.

          We'll see how the coaching staff continues to adjust as the season progresses, but it feels safe to say the Hawks may have found their optimal starting unit and rotational schemes.

          My favourite plays of the week

          The early frontrunner for play of the year, and it might not be surpassed: a full-court shot from Tyler Robertson.

          There aren't many bigs in the NBL who can push the break like Lachy Olbrich.

          It's still a work in progress, but Ben Henshall has made some steady improvements on the defensive end this season.

          This is a really heady play from Kell, creating a 5-on-4 with this little bump.

          It was an injustice that a foul was called on this play by Will Magnay.

          Chris Goulding is the hottest shooter in Australian basketball right now, so his gravity is strong.

          The balance from Cotton here is incredible.