August 6, 2026 • 8 mins
The 2026/27 season of the NBL is just around the corner and it's been a busy off season for the Breakers as they've signed several new players and coaching staff.
Gordon Herbert was signed as the new head coach, he joined D'Arcy to discuss.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildegrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Their new NBL season. That's the Australian NBL seasons, very
very close, pretty busy off season two for the New
Zeland Breakers. They're reshaping their roster and the coaching staff
as well, ahead of what they hope will be a
big twenty six twenty seven campaign. Gordon Herbert was signed
as the new coach of the side aka Gordy E.
(00:33):
Joins us now to discuss.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Good evening, Gordy, good evening night, Great to meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks very much for joining us on the program. Another
big season coming up. Still trying to get back to
those healcyon days. So, Gordy, what happens in pre season
for you? You're a season's coach. You've been there, done
that all over the world. Do you apply your same
philosophy to all pre seasons that Taylor made to the
team coming up? What do you look at?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
No, Basically, Darcia, I got my philosophy, but you know,
we need to adjust to our players and to a
certain extent, I work on three things. When I start
with preseason offensive concepts. We teach concepts before we teach
plays we don't want to play robotic basketball. Number two
one on one defense, and number three our player development
(01:22):
and you know, preseason is about establish how you want
to play, creating the habits you want to get from
your players, and also throughout preseason developing really good chemistry
with the team and developing a team identity.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It's a very difficult thing to do with the gentleman
nature of the game. Guys come and go every season,
so it's got to establish that connection, that chemistry early
in the piece extraordinarily important. Is there a trick to that, Gordy?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
You know, I always used to say there's no iron team.
I believe there's iron team. We need the individual talents,
but we need to create the team mentality first. You
know basketball, you know the players, you know, they have agents,
people in their ears, different things. You know, we have
to kind of take take them away from that, so
to speak. You'll always be there, but we have to
(02:18):
take them away from that and really try to create
a team mentality first mentality, and when we do that,
disguise limit. If we can do that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You mentioned first up offensive concept, that's what you look
at so plainly, that's first in the queue. You're very
much an aggressor on the court. You really want to
take your game to the opposition as opposed to worrying
about defending them.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
You know, when I started coaching, I taught defense for
the first seven days, then I taught offense. Now I'm
almost three sixty difference. I teach offense for the first
five to seven days because it takes much longer. I
teach offensive concepts, our spacing and angles, and then we
put in our structure. But to your point, yes, we
(03:08):
want to we want to make the team that we
play react to us, both on the offensive end and
the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Could you expand on the idea concepts for us.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Scoty, Yeah, it's concepts there, our our angles and spacing,
how we create how we start with angles and spacing,
and how we have to recreate our spacing over and
over again throughout an offense. And my philosophy is when
we have structure, once we have an advantage, now we're
(03:40):
now we're out of our structure and we're playing basketball,
and that's more with concepts.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And then you look to create the plays within that
so that it's almost like, well, that's the basic bones
of it isn't it, And then you flesh it out
as you go along.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, we you know, we do have structure and and
but you know, once we feel we have an advantage.
Now we're playing basketball, so to speak, and it's you know,
it's more read and react and it takes time. It
takes time to teach and get the hang of it.
That's why that's why I teach offense before I teach defense.
(04:17):
But don't get me wrong, defense and rebounding win championships.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It does crash the boards and make sure you own them,
no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Cody, what dragged you out?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And he's in in the first place. Why Auckland, You've
been all over the show.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Good question. I've always been intrigued by one coaching down
down in this league and living down here, and I
just you know, I love being in different cultures. You know,
you live that culture that you go into and this
is a different culture, and I really look forward to,
(04:54):
you know, living this culture. And you know, it's it's
kind of a new venture for my for me and
maybe my last I don't know, but it's it's something
I've always kind of looked forward to doing. What's coming
down here down Under.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You coach the German team, huge success of recent times.
Do you see all of similarities in those leagues in
Europe to what you've seen of the AMBL.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I've been very oppressed with the NBL when I watched
it last year. They've got great infrastructure. I think the
coaching in the league is outstanding and that's one of
the reasons I came here was become a better coach.
And you know, I'm starting to coach the Canadian national
team now after the German team, so you know, you know,
(05:44):
you're always trying to get better. You're always trying to learn,
if you know, to a certain extent, I say, life's
a mountain, not a beach. You know, if you if
you if you quit climbing, if you quit learning, you
quit adapting, you know, you fall down to the beach
and you're probably out of a job.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm with you on Matt one. You stop breathing when
you stop learning. There's always something to discuss, and I
think the older you get, the more you take that
on board. Talking about your coaching, Josiah Manna has just
been added to the coaching side. When it comes to
what you put down on the court, your ex's and o's.
Are you an inclusive coach? Do you use everybody else
(06:23):
or maybe slightly more dictatorial?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
No, I really try to use all the coaches that
are involved. To begin with it with a new team,
I will do most of the team things and but
that will But then, you know, I really I want
I want everybody to be involved in the coaching staff
and have a role and have a voice. You know,
this is not a one man show. This is a
(06:48):
This is a team effort, and to a certain extent,
we want our players to be a team, but our
coaching staff and our staff has to become a team first.
We can't expect our players to be a team, so
they don't see a team with us.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You've got a very impressive roster. There are some phenomenal
in there. And I point to one of my favorites,
Sam and NINGI. You got the old school in Ruben Tarangi,
who's outstanding and of course coming back into the fold,
he won't leave Paka, Jackson, catt Rot, anything else you
need to add to that mix, do you think, Gordy?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I thought Dylan's done an outstanding job recruiting this
putting this team together, and to a certain extent, I
just you know, you know, we have really good big pieces,
and then it's like putting a puzzle together, and now
we've got to figure out, you know, the other pieces
that compliment what we have. And you know, that's where
we are right now. And I think we've got a
(07:43):
really good player in James, great defender, can guard one
through five. He compliments what we have, and you know
we're looking for another big man who compliments Sam and
our bigs, so to speak. So it's really like putting
a puzzle together, and the last pieces are the toughest
to figure out.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Looking forward to that completed puzzle and then looking forward
to laying that down on the floor come the start
of the season. You have a happy pre season. Put
in place the offensive concepts, make sure that you've got
great player development, and the one on one defense is
working to a t. I'm looking forward to it. Gordy Herbert,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildegrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Their new NBL season. That's the Australian NBL seasons, very
very close, pretty busy off season two for the New
Zeland Breakers. They're reshaping their roster and the coaching staff
as well, ahead of what they hope will be a
big twenty six twenty seven campaign. Gordon Herbert was signed
as the new coach of the side aka Gordy E.
(00:33):
Joins us now to discuss.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Good evening, Gordy, good evening night, Great to meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thanks very much for joining us on the program. Another
big season coming up. Still trying to get back to
those healcyon days. So, Gordy, what happens in pre season
for you? You're a season's coach. You've been there, done
that all over the world. Do you apply your same
philosophy to all pre seasons that Taylor made to the
team coming up? What do you look at?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
No, Basically, Darcia, I got my philosophy, but you know,
we need to adjust to our players and to a
certain extent, I work on three things. When I start
with preseason offensive concepts. We teach concepts before we teach
plays we don't want to play robotic basketball. Number two
one on one defense, and number three our player development
(01:22):
and you know, preseason is about establish how you want
to play, creating the habits you want to get from
your players, and also throughout preseason developing really good chemistry
with the team and developing a team identity.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It's a very difficult thing to do with the gentleman
nature of the game. Guys come and go every season,
so it's got to establish that connection, that chemistry early
in the piece extraordinarily important. Is there a trick to that, Gordy?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
You know, I always used to say there's no iron team.
I believe there's iron team. We need the individual talents,
but we need to create the team mentality first. You
know basketball, you know the players, you know, they have agents,
people in their ears, different things. You know, we have
to kind of take take them away from that, so
to speak. You'll always be there, but we have to
(02:18):
take them away from that and really try to create
a team mentality first mentality, and when we do that,
disguise limit. If we can do that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
You mentioned first up offensive concept, that's what you look
at so plainly, that's first in the queue. You're very
much an aggressor on the court. You really want to
take your game to the opposition as opposed to worrying
about defending them.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
You know, when I started coaching, I taught defense for
the first seven days, then I taught offense. Now I'm
almost three sixty difference. I teach offense for the first
five to seven days because it takes much longer. I
teach offensive concepts, our spacing and angles, and then we
put in our structure. But to your point, yes, we
(03:08):
want to we want to make the team that we
play react to us, both on the offensive end and
the defensive end.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Could you expand on the idea concepts for us.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Scoty, Yeah, it's concepts there, our our angles and spacing,
how we create how we start with angles and spacing,
and how we have to recreate our spacing over and
over again throughout an offense. And my philosophy is when
we have structure, once we have an advantage, now we're
(03:40):
now we're out of our structure and we're playing basketball,
and that's more with concepts.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And then you look to create the plays within that
so that it's almost like, well, that's the basic bones
of it isn't it, And then you flesh it out
as you go along.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, we you know, we do have structure and and
but you know, once we feel we have an advantage.
Now we're playing basketball, so to speak, and it's you know,
it's more read and react and it takes time. It
takes time to teach and get the hang of it.
That's why that's why I teach offense before I teach defense.
(04:17):
But don't get me wrong, defense and rebounding win championships.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
It does crash the boards and make sure you own them,
no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Cody, what dragged you out?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And he's in in the first place. Why Auckland, You've
been all over the show.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Good question. I've always been intrigued by one coaching down
down in this league and living down here, and I
just you know, I love being in different cultures. You know,
you live that culture that you go into and this
is a different culture, and I really look forward to,
(04:54):
you know, living this culture. And you know, it's it's
kind of a new venture for my for me and
maybe my last I don't know, but it's it's something
I've always kind of looked forward to doing. What's coming
down here down Under.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You coach the German team, huge success of recent times.
Do you see all of similarities in those leagues in
Europe to what you've seen of the AMBL.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I've been very oppressed with the NBL when I watched
it last year. They've got great infrastructure. I think the
coaching in the league is outstanding and that's one of
the reasons I came here was become a better coach.
And you know, I'm starting to coach the Canadian national
team now after the German team, so you know, you know,
(05:44):
you're always trying to get better. You're always trying to learn,
if you know, to a certain extent, I say, life's
a mountain, not a beach. You know, if you if
you if you quit climbing, if you quit learning, you
quit adapting, you know, you fall down to the beach
and you're probably out of a job.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm with you on Matt one. You stop breathing when
you stop learning. There's always something to discuss, and I
think the older you get, the more you take that
on board. Talking about your coaching, Josiah Manna has just
been added to the coaching side. When it comes to
what you put down on the court, your ex's and o's.
Are you an inclusive coach? Do you use everybody else
(06:23):
or maybe slightly more dictatorial?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
No, I really try to use all the coaches that
are involved. To begin with it with a new team,
I will do most of the team things and but
that will But then, you know, I really I want
I want everybody to be involved in the coaching staff
and have a role and have a voice. You know,
this is not a one man show. This is a
(06:48):
This is a team effort, and to a certain extent,
we want our players to be a team, but our
coaching staff and our staff has to become a team first.
We can't expect our players to be a team, so
they don't see a team with us.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You've got a very impressive roster. There are some phenomenal
in there. And I point to one of my favorites,
Sam and NINGI. You got the old school in Ruben Tarangi,
who's outstanding and of course coming back into the fold,
he won't leave Paka, Jackson, catt Rot, anything else you
need to add to that mix, do you think, Gordy?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, I thought Dylan's done an outstanding job recruiting this
putting this team together, and to a certain extent, I
just you know, you know, we have really good big pieces,
and then it's like putting a puzzle together, and now
we've got to figure out, you know, the other pieces
that compliment what we have. And you know, that's where
we are right now. And I think we've got a
(07:43):
really good player in James, great defender, can guard one
through five. He compliments what we have, and you know
we're looking for another big man who compliments Sam and
our bigs, so to speak. So it's really like putting
a puzzle together, and the last pieces are the toughest
to figure out.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Looking forward to that completed puzzle and then looking forward
to laying that down on the floor come the start
of the season. You have a happy pre season. Put
in place the offensive concepts, make sure that you've got
great player development, and the one on one defense is
working to a t. I'm looking forward to it. Gordy Herbert,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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