Basketball: Breakers release Duane Bailey as Corey Webster returns

Corey Webster in action for the Breakers. Photo/NZ Herald.

The Breakers have rejigged their roster to accommodate the return of shooting guard Corey Webster after his stint with the New Orleans Pelicans in the United States.

Ahead of tomorrow night's game against the Sydney Kings at the North Shore Events Centre, the Breakers announced Webster's return would see his short term replacement Everard Bartlett move to a fulltime contract, while the tough decision was made to remove forward Duane Bailey from the roster.

Coach Dean Vickerman described the decision making process as difficult, but essential to the club achieving success.

"These days are tough, these decisions are tough, but if you are to be successful they are not decisions you can shy away from," said Vickerman.

"Duane is a young man with a great future in the game, he has contributed to this club on and off court but right now the group has decided that Everard deserves a fulltime spot on the roster and with Corey returning we had to look at where we could make room on the fulltime roster.

"Duane took the news as you would expect, he was disappointed but reacted with great maturity. We have offered him a role to stay with the club in a training capacity for the remainder of the season and to be available should we suffer injuries, understandably however he is considering all of his options right now with a view to earning a playing contract."

Bailey was a Breakers Development Player in 2013 before earning an upgrade to the fulltime roster and subsequently a one year deal with a one year option that was exercised by the club for the 2015-16 campaign.

A member of the NBL championship winning Southland Sharks, Bailey was a 2015 Tall Black, playing on the tour of Europe and being a part of the team that won the Stankovic Cup in China before playing Australia in the Oceania Series defeat against Australia.

Bartlett is the big mover in the shake-up, without a contract in the ANBL at the start of the season, the Tall Black guard was called up by the Breakers to cover Webster while he was pursuing an NBA contract with the Pelicans.

Bartlett had 13 points, four rebounds and three steals on return to Adelaide in the Breakers' season opening loss before upping the ante at Vector Arena in the win over Townsville with 19 points on shooting 7-of-9 from the field, and 5-of-7 from long range.

He marked his return to former club Perth on Friday night in style, with 17 points on the back of some hot shooting nailing 5-of-8 from three-point territory, performances that made it impossible for him not to be part of the Breakers campaign this season.