Basketball: Breakers refuse to rule out changes

Breakers' playmaker Pero Cameron has struggled for form recently. Picture / Fotopress

Breakers chief executive Peter Chapman won't rule out a change of coach in an attempt to secure a playoff spot.

The Breakers have 11 games left to play in the Australian National Basketball League, starting with tonight's clash with the Melbourne Tigers at the North Shore Events Centre.

To make the playoffs they have to win seven of them.

"The pressure is on everyone," Chapman said yesterday. "It is on management, it is on the players and is on the coach, it is right across the board.

"We are not dead yet but we have a few bullet holes in us."

Chapman said the franchise were not planning to change the playing roster to boost their playoff chances.

However, he could not say whether coach Frank Arsego and his assistant Wayne Brown would retain their jobs until the end of the season.

"The performance of the team in the end rests on the coach's head. All the management can do is put everything at their disposal.

"That is where it is at ... I am really not in a position to say whether we would make changes there or not but it is not something that most clubs would do."

The Breakers plummeted to their 14th loss in 21 matches last week after they were edged out by Cairns Taipans in a bottom of the table clash.

Once again much was made of the form of Tall Black Pero Cameron who, despite being the Breakers' top scorer in the match, has looked out of sorts recently.

Cameron has been struggling with an Achilles strain and appears bulkier than usual.

"He is a couple of kilos heavier, only two I think, from the time he came back from the Olympics. Those 2kg can be put down to muscle rather than flab. It is not a case of fitness for Pero Cameron."

Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin seems to have knack of getting the best out of Cameron, who often struggles with his diet.

However Chapman was quick to defend Arsego saying Baldwin works with Cameron only for short periods of time.

"Pero Cameron is a unique type of athlete. He is very gifted but I think that even he would agree he is a difficult person to manage and he finds it difficult managing himself.

"But people have seen Pero at his very very best and they are wondering why they don't see it every time he goes on court.

"That is a fair question. It comes down to the individual as much as the coach. If he is not playing well then a lot of that responsibility lies on his shoulders. He has put up his hand and said he has been disappointed with his form."

Chapman said the team remained positive and it was important to remember the Breakers were still establishing themselves.

Give us a break!

Played 21 games
* won 7
* lost 14

Heartbreakers
Close last five games
* Lost to Cairns 106-105
* Beat Perth 110-109
* Lost to Townsville114-103
* Lost to Sydney102-98
* Lost to Adelaide 89-88.