Luca Yates, Hayden Jones and Jordan Hunt Photo: Photosport
The final Tall Blacks roster spot for the FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah in August will be filled after a five game tour of China.
Basketball New Zealand has announced an 11-man squad for the Asia Cup with three more players vying for the last place on the team at the tournament where New Zealand will play Chinese Taipei, the Philippines and Iraq.
Prior to the Asia Cup, the squad will travel to China for a series of warm-up games. The Tall Blacks will play three games in the FIBA Solidarity Cup against Brazil, Guangdong and Montenegro, before playing in the Four Nations Tournament again against Brazil and a yet to be decided opponent.
The games in China are an opportunity for under-19 player Hayden Jones, 12-cap Tall Black Jordan Hunt and debutant centre Luca Yates to impress coach Judd Flavell.
"We'll have 13 guys to rotate through in China, and I guess we'll see what we like, what we need and where we need cover, whether that be in our wings or in our guards," Flavell said.
"We want to give guys a chance to actually pull on the black singlet and play up there. Then that'll give us the flexibility to make that decision as late as we can.
"We've basically got two or three practices together over that time in China, so we've got more games than practices.
"Overall, and I think the games in China will do this, we just want to speed up our connection. This group is very new in terms of a lot of new people coming in for the first time, there'll be new faces in the room. We want to make sure we keep things as simple as we can, so that we can have the highest execution rate leading into the Asia Cup."
Flavell has named an Asia Cup squad that includes three debutants, Jack Andrew, Mojave King, and Dontae Russo-Nance after being impressed with how the trio had performed in their respective Sal's NBL sides this season.
"The form that they've played with in the Sal's NBL and the roles and responsibilities that they've had with their teams. All of their teams were successful this past season, and a large part of that was down to how these guys contributed. All three of these guys I'm super excited for, they have an amazing opportunity in front of them right here."
The youngest of the debutants, 20-year-old Russo-Nance, is someone who Flavell has been keeping an eye on for quite some time.
"He's been on the periphery the last few windows. We just needed to see him on the floor for a large period of time so that we could see him with the responsibilities of leading his team, and carrying a workload.
"If you look at the Jets success, they probably surprised a lot of people with how well they did. They only just missed out on the playoffs, and Dontae was a big reason for that."
In Otago basketball, the last name King holds significance. With dad Leonard playing for the Nuggets, later turning to coaching, and mum Tracey also with a glittering collegiate career, Mojave King will be an exciting new addition to the Tall Blacks set up.
"We always knew that Mojave was very talented. When you look at the Tall Blacks in the past, we've had to have a guy that can score, shoot the ball and get hot. And we know Mojave can put on 10-12 points in a short period of time."
With an already well-travelled start to his young professional career, King has shown the ability to score the ball in numerous ways. In first most recent Australian NBL season with the New Zealand Breakers, King averaged 8.5 points. Alongside his recently completed Sal's NBL season with the Tauranga Whai, King averaged 22.2 points, shooting at 38 percent from beyond the arc.
Andrew's debut inclusion into the Tall Blacks squad has come from a lot of grit, hardwork and determination. He averaged 13.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.2 blocks per game over the course of a breakout season with the Taranaki Airs.
"Jack has had a phenomenal jump this season. He just really seemed to grow in confidence as well. For a big man to actually run and have a high activity rate that's something that we really like about them. He's been the first man down the floor, he's been active on the glass, and he's had great success in tandem with Carlin [Davison] off the pick and roll. I think those two have been one of the most dynamic duos."
Jones and Hunt, both of whom have had standout seasons in the Sal's NBL, will provide depth and energy for the Solidarity Cup and Four Nations tournament alongside 21-year-old Yates who holds a development player contract with the NBL champion Illawarra Hawks squad.
"I first saw him playing for the Illawarra Hawks and then got to see him up close and personal playing in the Sal's NBL. That gave us a great opportunity to see him perform each week, and playing against a lot of guys that were competing for these positions - and we just really liked what he had to offer.
"We're just really excited to have another quality big man that has good size and good level of skill. He shoots the ball well from outside, it may not be his known quality but that's a skill we really like when it comes to playing international basketball."
Tall Blacks Squad - FIBA Asia Cup
C - Jack Andrew* (Taranaki Airs), debutant
G - Taylor Britt (Canterbury Rams & New Zealand Breakers), 34 games
G - Flynn Cameron (Franklin Bulls & Adelaide 36ers), 28 games
F - Max Darling (Canterbury Rams & New Zealand Breakers), 9 games
F - Carlin Davison (Taranaki Airs & New Zealand Breakers), 4 games
F - Ben Gold (Marquette University), 7 games
G - Mojave King* (Tauranga Whai), debutant
G/F - Taine Murray (Brisbane Bullets), 10 games
G/F - Jordan Ngatai (Wellington Saints), 84 games
G - Dontae Russo-Nance* (Manawatū Jets), debutant
F/C - Tohi Smith-Milner (Canterbury Rams & Brisbane Bullets), 69 games
New Zealand Tall Blacks Squad additions - FIBA Solidarity Cup & Four Nations
F - Jordan Hunt (Franklin Bulls & Surrey 89ers), 12 games
G - Hayden Jones (Nelson Giants & University of Wisconsin), 1 game
C - Luca Yates* (Hawke's Bay Hawks & Illawarra Hawks), debutant
FIBA Solidarity Cup (Guangdong, China)
26 July - Tall Blacks v Brazil
27 July - Tall Blacks v Guangdong
28 July - Tall Blacks v Montenegro
Four Nations Tournament (Shenzhen, China)
30 July - Tall Blacks v Brazil
31 July - Tall Blacks v TBC
FIBA Asia Cup 2025 (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
5 August - Tall Blacks v Iraq
8 August - Tall Blacks v Philippines
10 August - Tall Blacks v Chinese Taipei
