Basketball: Crunch time near for Breakers duo

The Breakers will have to make some tough recruitment decisions and it could mean Phill Jones and Tim Behrendorff are missing in the upcoming season.

The seven confirmed ANBL teams are to sign participation agreements on Tuesday.

It's believed the team to boost the number in the revamped league to eight will come from Melbourne, despite the recent withdrawals of the Melbourne Tigers and South Dragons.

The scramble for players will then begin in earnest, especially once points ratings are confirmed, but the Breakers are well down the path to putting together their squad.

Kirk Penney, CJ Bruton, Dillon Boucher, Oscar Forman, Paul Henare and Thomas Abercrombie have been re-signed, as has development player Alex Pledger. Corey Webster is expected to re-sign tomorrow as the second development player.

The biggest uncertainty surrounds Jones, Behrendorff and veteran forward Tony Ronaldson.

The Breakers are understood to want to keep Ronaldson because of what he can offer off the court as much as what he does on it, but they could let both Jones and Behrendorff go.

Games will be cut from 48 minutes to 40 this season, meaning Jones' impact off the bench could be muted.

He will also be difficult to fit into the roster. The 35-year-old shooting guard is rated an eight (players are rated from one to 10 and teams last season couldn't exceed 68 points) after he won last season's award for the ANBL's best sixth man.

But there is a belief Abercrombie, in his first season as a full professional, can step into the role played by Jones.

Behrendorff, who is rated a seven, has spent three years with the Breakers where he has averaged 3.7 points and 2.4 rebounds a game.

"We can't make any promises until we know the points cap," Breakers general manager Richard Clarke said. "The cap could go up slightly from last season but until that is confirmed we can't make any decisions."

Clarke confirmed they are chasing a top-level Australian forward and that would go a long way to determining the makeup of the rest of the squad.

Adelaide's Luke Schenscher and Adam Ballinger loom as possibilities.

Schenscher is a 216cm centre and played two seasons in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trailblazers.

The Australian international is a close friend of Forman and ventured to Auckland last year to check out the Breakers.

Ballinger, who is a 205cm forward, is an American but will gain his Australian residency in June after five seasons in the ANBL. He is currently playing for the Waikato Pistons in the New Zealand NBL.

Clarke declined to comment on whether they were targeting the pair but said: "That's the sort of quality we would be looking at. We would consider them, like every team in the league."

If the Breakers fail to secure their target, they will then turn their attentions to an import.

"At the moment we expect to have one or no imports," Clarke said. "If we can fill our team with locals, we will do that. We will only use imports to fill any gaps."