Breakers defend Fall signing

The New Zealand Breakers have defended the signing of Tacko Fall, and denied they cut Freddie Gillespie, as the club battles to break a worrying six-game slide.

Since making the big man switch, the Breakers have seen a promising 7-3 start turn into freefall, losing their following six contests by an average of 22 points per game.

When asked if Gillespie, who has since signed in Italy, was offered an international contract he wanted to take, New Zealand CEO Lisa Edser said “yes”, denying the club cut him to make way for Fall.

"Timing, in hindsight of course, but not always in our control. We couldn’t control the offer for Freddie was going to come through was the one he wanted to take,” Edser told 1News NZ.

"It was a mutual decision. There was always an out for Freddie in his contract, there were always offers for him in the EuroLeague. Timing wise, we didn’t know when/if it was going to happen."

Fall is experiencing a challenging adjustment period with the Breakers, but Edser backed the 7’6 big man to eventually have a positive impact on the team.

"There's no way you can deny a 7ft 6in guy is going to create a stir. Yes, we're aware of that... it sounds like it might turn into ticket sales or jersey sales, but it doesn't,” Edser said.

"The reality is fans come to basketball for the team. For us, it's more about the long term success of the Breakers and there are so many different elements to it.

"Awareness of our league in the NBA is a huge plus to us and having a player like Tacko here, there are more eyes on us ... there are scouts looking at our NZ players that wouldn't have been looking at them initially.

"There's more depth to it than you might see at the surface and that's hard to explain at times."

Coach Petteri Koponen is searching for ways to implement Fall and use his unique skillset to his advantage.

"Overall, I think Tacko might be a better player than Freddie, but it's a totally different style and getting adjusted to that as a group has been a challenge so far," Koponen told 1News NZ.

"There is no better or worse things in basketball, just different, and that is the challenge with no practice time and building new habits as a group.

"We need to implement Tacko into the team, we need to change our defence, with more responsibility for the guards to fight over ball screens and contest pull-up shots. Every defence, you give up something.

"Before, our big guys were stopping the ball on the screens, we were helping from the weak side and we were rotating. Now, we are the opposite way and that's the challenge.

"As a coach, when you look at players and look at the team, you try to think of the best way to use them ... how we can get the best out of these guys. That's the challenge with the schedule."

The Breakers are back on court on Friday night at 5:30pm AEDT live on ESPN and TVNZ+.