BIO: Peyton Siva was born in Seattle, Washington (USA)

NBL EXPERIENCE

Peyton Siva made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 31 years of age. He scored 11 points in his first game.

The 31-year-old averaged 11.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game with the Breakers in NBL22.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS
2022/23
After two straight seasons of reaching the NBL semi finals, head coach Brian Goorjian would exit the Hawks, signing a deal to coach the Bay Area Dragons in the newly established East Asia Super League. Goorjian’s longtime assistant Jacob Jackomas would be elevated in the role of the head coach and look to continue the success of the prior two seasons. However, this wasn’t to be, as Illawarra would see a mass exodus of talent after the coaching change, retaining only Tyler Harvey and Sam Froling from the Hawk’s main rotation. Duop Reath (to Lebanon) and Justinian Jessup (to Spain) heading overseas, Antonius Cleveland (to Adelaide), Xavier Rathan-Mayes (to Melbourne), Harry Froling (to Brisbane) signing with other NBL team’s and the retirement of longtime Hawk, AJ Ogilvy.

Illawarra would replace the outgoing talent with locals Deng Deng (via Brisbane), Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (via Perth) and Mangok Mathiang, who had been playing in the NBL1 state competition as he recovered from a long-term injury before finalising the roster with imports Justin Robinson and George King.

The Hawks would split their opening games, losing to rivals Sydney (97–106) and then defeating South East Melbourne (85–72) behind a strong showing from Tyler Harvey (22 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists). The Hawks would then embark on a injury-riddled season which would see Justin Robinson require surgery on a meniscus tear in his knee, suffered in the Hawks opening game. Kevin White (via Perth) was brought in as a short-term injury replacement. Nine games later, Illawarra also made the decision to release George King (10.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.9 assists), who had struggled to overcome a persistent lower leg injury.

Former New Zealand guard Peyton Siva (9.3 points, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals) would be brought in as a replacement for import Justin Robinson.

“Peyton’s a high-level competitor whose elite decision-making will open up opportunities for the rest of the squad, and we can’t wait to have him in Hawks colours next week”. said Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas upon announcing Siva’s signing.

Sadly, Siva managed only 11 games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against Adelaide, adding further salt into the wounds for the struggling Hawks. Siva’s best game (14 points, 11 assists and 4 steals) came in a heartbreaking loss to Melbourne (100–106) which required two overtime periods for a winning to be decided.

Illawarra (3-25) would finish the year with the worst record in club history. Tyler Harvey (18.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.5 steals) led the team in scoring, and Sam Froling (14 points, 8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists) won the Hawk’s MVP award.

Peyton Siva played two seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Illawarra Hawks. He averaged 10.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 34 NBL games.

CAREER RANKINGS:
– 47th in assists per game.

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.