MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy's View from Downunder) - It was one of the greatest falls from grace Australasian sport had seen.

After winning three straight championships the New Zealand Breakers crashed, tumbling to seventh place in last years NBL.

A team renowned for their discipline, ruthlessness and utter competitiveness to steal games they had no right to win, suddenly became an outfit that looked rudderless at times, making the most basic errors as they repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Defensively they looked like a pack of shy strangers, with a game plan suited to two-to-three years beforehand and players seemingly unable to adjust to the new refereeing style as every other team did.

Sure, the team lost outstanding leaders in Cedric Jackson and Dillon Boucher along with experienced coach Andrej Lemanis, but the change was so massive I figured there had to be a bigger cultural issue at play.

So last March I headed to Auckland to spend a day at Breakers training and watch their Vector Arena date with the Tigers, hoping to find out what.

There was a relaxed feel when I walked into training, coaches and players involved in various pre-training chats about some key strategies to beat Melbourne and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Vickerman was discussing their press strategies with CJ Bruton, Mika Vukona and Kerron Johnson, while the younger ones are put to work doing shooting drills

"Step into the shot," he calls out after a string of attempts fall short, teenage big Jack Salt surprising with his ability to can the triple.

The warm-up starts and it becomes clear this is a quiet group, Casey Frank and Gary Wilkinson the goof balls and Bruton the chatterbox.

"If it doesn't have the energy we need in a short period of time we are going to come after you," Vickerman bellows, perhaps sensing the relaxed mood.

The start of training is all about defence.

Not surprisingly Vukona wins most of the slide races, though Frank and Reuben Te Rangi also impress with their speed.

Next up are fullcourt defensive movements - slide, recover, slide, run, slide - and development player Alonzo Burton shows what a slick mover he is, while Salt again surprises.

Then comes agility running using timing gates. Corey Webster clocks the quickest time but Johnson is the most impressive - turning the corners like an F1 motorbike.

The balls come in, starting with the traditional three-man weave then moving to 3-on-3-on-3, where Tom Abercrombie nonchalantly nails a pull-up triple in Te Rangi's face.

"Yeah, Fido," Bruton smiles.

"Let's get some lay-ups," Jarrod Kenny adds after too many teammates unsuccessfully try to emulate Abercrombie's dagger.

Decisions are made at high pace and they're usually good ones.

Training progresses to five-on-five and the intensity continues to rise, but that intensity brings out some bad fouling habits, no doubt a hangover from some of their brutal sessions in the three-peat years.

Duane Bailey beats Vukona but the veteran grabs him hard to make sure there is no easy basket. Next up the Tall Blacks skipper throws Johnson out of court in the fight for a loose ball.

It's easy to see Mika hasn't enjoyed a losing season.

Bruton hasn't either, and he was critical of his team's rebounding on this day.

"Today some guys were just turning around jumping at the board," he said.

"But in a game you can give away two or three (possessions) doing that and at the moment it's coming down to two or three."

Once full-court scrimmaging finishes the team turn to scouting the Tigers in the half-court. Vickerman runs through their opponents' preferred sets, then defensive coach Paul Henare runs through the specific moves of some key players.

Fast forward to the next night and more than 7000 people have flocked to Vector and the free-wheeling Breakers put on a bit of a show, running up a 14-point lead at three-quarter-time.

But that's where the party ended. Melbourne put the challenge down and New Zealand went to water, being outscored 44-17 in the final 10 minutes.

On a number of occasions Tigers players scored on the exact moves Henare had instructed them on, defenders failed to execute basic team scouts, while other breakdowns were simple, fundamental defensive errors.

Rewind to that training session and it was easy to see why.

The stars in all the defensive drills were the young players. The established players were simply going through the motions, and there was no one in the playing or coaching groups willing to call anyone else out.

During the scouting session senior players were talking amongst themselves while the coaches were giving their instructions, then executing their own plays on subsequent sets.

It was clear that Vickerman was still in assistant coach mode, unwilling to put his stamp on a team he had inherited.

Similarly, Henare would not put his foot down on a line-up that included several ex-teammates.

With Boucher and Jackson gone too much was left to Bruton and Vukona, and they appeared tired of pointing out the same things.

It was a team without culture, without accountability, without attention to detail and without what it took to win in a very tough league, even with all their individual talent.

I saw coach Vickerman a month or so later and told him my conclusions. He agreed. It's something he no doubt had to tell the Breakers board as they reviewed his position, complete with a plan to rectify.

Of course, words mean little, so I eagerly awaited New Zealand's 2014/15 season opener against the defending champions in Perth.

They were expected to be without Tall Blacks Abercrombie and Alex Pledger, and in my preview I called a road win "almost mission impossible."

The Breakers got a break with Pledger able to come off the bench, but then lost FIBA Basketball World Cup star Webster to a back complaint early in the second quarter.

But the result? An 80-70 triumph that silenced 13,000 Wildcats fans.

Quite simply, their defence was superb.

Their rules were clear, their rotations with energy - even if there were a few mix-ups - and their discipline unquestionable, not giving away cheap fouls when beaten but trusting their teammates to be there on rotation.

On the sidelines the usually quietly-spoken Vickerman berated players a number of times for defensive breakdowns, while on-court Jackson was a man possessed making sure his teammates were all on the same page.

In contrast to last season - when a hesitant debut coach teamed with an unsure rookie point guard - the Breakers are now guided by two leaders with the same determined defensive vision.

Scarily enough, they lead a team full of long, athletic players who can make opponents' lives hell in this system, with their two most dangerous scorers to come back in.

Watch out NBL.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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