NICKNAME/S: B

BIO: Brayden Inger was born in North Short, Auckland (NZ) and attended Rangitoto College. Inger won back-to-back titles with Rangitoto College (2015, 2016).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Brayden Inger made his NBL debut with the Cairns Taipans at 22 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

After finishing ninth with an 8-28 record, Cairns appointed Adam Forde as coach and lost leading scorer Cameron Oliver (to Houston), Fabijan Krslovic (to Tasmania) and Mojave King (to Adelaide). Tahjere McCall (via Orléans), Stephen Zimmerman (via Nymburk), Keanu Pinder (via Adelaide) and rookie Bul Kuol (via Detroit Mercy) joined a returning group led by Scott Machado, Majok Deng, Kouat Noi and Nathan Jawai.

Cairns signed the New Zealand forward to a one-year development-player deal after he averaged 14.3 points and 4.6 rebounds for the Southland Sharks. Forde said, “He has what it takes be an NBL player.” Brayden Inger grabbed one rebound in two minutes during his NBL debut at RAC Arena on December 5 as Noi (17 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block) and McCall (16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal) led Cairns, while Cotton (31 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals) guided Perth to a 90-67 win.

Inger (0.7 points across 15 games) remained outside Cairns’ regular rotation for most of the season and received short opportunities when injuries reduced the available roster. He rolled his ankle before the December 11 home opener and missed the game while the resulting tendon injury healed, returning to the active line-up later that month. It was his only reported injury during the season.

Inger was selected for New Zealand’s squad during the February international window and was away from Cairns for its games against Brisbane and Melbourne. He made his Tall Blacks debut during the final World Cup qualifier against India and said, “It’s been a dream ever since I was seven.”

His best game came against Melbourne at the Cairns Convention Centre on April 10, where Inger (6 points and 1 assist) made the first two three-pointers of his NBL career. Pinder (15 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block) and McCall (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals) led Cairns, while Lual-Acuil Jr (23 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks) guided United to a 92-63 win.

McCall (16.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 2 steals across 22 games) led the Taipans in scoring, assists and steals and shared the club MVP award with Machado (10.2 points and 5.3 assists across 18 games). Deng (14.3 points and 4.7 rebounds across 28 games) finished second in scoring, Zimmerman (11.4 points and 9.6 rebounds across 16 games) led Cairns in rebounding, Pinder (10.9 points and 7.6 rebounds across 28 games) was named the NBL’s Most Improved Player and Kuol (10.4 points across 28 games) was named Rookie of the Year.

Inger played seven minutes in Cairns’ final game at the Cairns Convention Centre on April 23 as McCall (42 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block), Deng (30 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block) and Pinder (17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block) led the Taipans to a 112-98 win over Brisbane, while Franks (30 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal) led the Bullets as Cairns finished ninth with a 9-19 record.

Brayden Inger played one season in the NBL. He averaged 0.6 points, 0.4 rebounds, and 0.1 assists in 15 NBL games.