Basketball: Breakers set for shake-up

Thursday night's home defeat by the Gold Coast Blaze could be the catalyst for a shake-up at the Breakers, with the immediate futures of import Awvee Storey and injured star Kirk Penney likely to come under scrutiny.

The Weekend Herald understands the club was to review its personnel at a board meeting yesterday, with the possibility of placing Penney on an injury waiver and replacing Storey with another import to be discussed.

Penney has been out of action for over a month and his back injury has shown little sign of coming right despite an optimistic early prognosis.

The club has been patient with its marquee star so far but a tough schedule over the coming fortnight, with three out of four games on the road, could see that patience wear thin.

At 4-4 and yet to win on the road, the pre-season title favourites find themselves in a precarious position.

With Thursday's defeat having blotted their undefeated home record, the club needs to find a way to win on the road to maintain its playoffs push.

Plan A would be to have Penney back in harness but if his injury doesn't improve the club could move to free up room on the salary cap by placing him on an injury waiver, allowing them a replacement.

Finding a player of Penney's quality at short notice would likely necessitate going to the import market with Storey the player likely to make way.

Even if Penney does return to fitness shortly, Storey's future appears by no means secure.

"He plays defence and he rebounds," Lemanis said when questioned about the American's contribution on Thursday night.

"They are two things we wanted him to do. Obviously with his aggressive style of defence he gets into some foul trouble but that is how he plays. But when he gets out and sprints the lanes and does those things with aggression he does positive things for us."

But whether that sort of contribution is deemed sufficient in a team struggling to plug the hole left by Penney's absence remains to be seen.

Things certainly don't get any easier for the Breakers, who tomorrow face a 5-2 Perth team enjoying a run of four consecutive home wins, the last of which was a comfortable victory over the top-of-the-table Hawks.

That said, the Breakers will take some encouragement from the efforts of the Blaze, who had lost all four previous road games before blowing them off the court with a remarkable shooting display on Thursday night.

"The good thing about playing [tomorrow] is that you can put it behind you pretty quickly and get back on the court," Lemanis said.

"On the road this year what has been proved is that you need to produce something pretty special [to win] and [Thursday] was a pretty special performance from [Gold Coast]. Obviously we need to find a way to get some road wins, to come out and find a way to play well and do something special."