BIO: Sam Timmins was born in Dunedin, NZ and was following his father’s footsteps as a rugby union player before taking basketball seriously at Middleton Grange High School.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Sam Timmins made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 24 years of age. He scored seven points in his first game.

After a season where the Breakers played 29 of 36 games in Australia, things only continued to get worse for the Breakers, with the team unable to play any home games during NBL22 and finishing dead last during the regular season.

After playing the previous season with a trio of Corey Webster, Tai Webster, and William McDowell-White at point guard, the team decided they would build around the younger of the three and move Corey to the bench. The Breakers then allowed him to exit his contract with him choosing to play in Europe instead. Not long after, as a result of the NBL requiring players to be vaccinated for COVID-19, Tai Webster chose to exit his contract as well and play overseas.

While losing the Webster brothers, the team gained the signatures of Kiwi Yanni Wetzell (via South East Melbourne) and import players Peyton Siva, Hugo Besson and Jeremiah Martin. Additionally, the team signed French prodigy Ousmane Dieng under the league’s Next Star program.

The team immediately faced adversity, losing Siva and Thomas Abercrombie to injury and having to absorb a COVID outbreak on the eve of the season. The team signed Chasson Randle (7.8 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) as a replacement player for Siva, and the team began the season with a 0–6 start.

Siva was able to return to the team a few weeks later which then saw Jeremiah Martin (12.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.2 steals) and the Breakers agree to a mutual release, the move came as a result of high-level play from Randle, who they chose to retain instead of Martin once Peyton Siva (11.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2 steals) returned from injury.

Although the team had planned to play their home games at the back end of the season, COVID-19 restrictions made that impossible and forced the team to base themselves in Tasmania for the majority of the season.

The Breakers were led by the all-around play of Yanni Wetzell (17.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.1 blocks) who left the team to play in Europe once New Zealand had no chance to make the playoffs. Despite leaving the team with a month of the Breakers season still remaining Wetzell was named club MVP. Hugo Besson (13.9 points, 4 rebounds, and 2.3 assists) and Finn Delany (10 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2 assists) would raise their games during that final month of the season but by mid-February had fallen to 4–10.

Timmins (3.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.2 assists) would start the season as a development player but was elevated into the team’s 11 man roster after Wetzell left the team. New Zealand would finish with a 5–23 record, the Breakers worst season in their 19-year history.

2022/23
With the departure of Dan Shamir, assistant Mody Maor was elevated to head coach, with the Breakers entering their first season where they would play regular home games in two seasons.

The Breakers lost six of their top eight players (Yanni Wetzell, Hugo Besson, Peyton Siva, Finn Delany, Ousmane Dieng and Chasson Randle), and only Thomas Abercrombie, Robert Loe, William McDowell-White and Timmins returning from the previous season.

Tom Vodanovich (via Sydney), Izayah Mauriohooho-Le’Afa and Cameron Gliddon (both via South East Melbourne) and rookies Alex McNaught, Jayden Bezzant and Daniel Fotu were added for defence and perimeter shooting off the bench. At the same time, Dererk Pardon, Jarrell Brantley and Barry Brown Jr were signed as import players. Utilising the NBL Next Star Program, the team also added French NBA prospect Rayan Rupert.

With Abercrombie missing the first month of the season due to suffering a torn retina the Breakers’ season began with a loss to Melbourne, a game which gave little indication to the defensive behemoth they were set to become in NBL23 but four rounds into the season, they already equalled their total number of wins from the previous campaign. Two nights later, New Zealand posted their biggest victory ever at Spark Arena with a 94-62 victory over the Tasmania JackJumpers. The win also resulted in the Breakers overtaking Sydney Kings to sit atop the NBL ladder.

After two seasons living out of suitcases, the Breakers had revived themselves as a contender this season, and the following game saw a top of the table clash against Sydney that more than lived up to the hype. The Kings’ led comfortably for most of the game, but a late run from New Zealand, who outscored them 31-17 in the last 10 minutes behind Barry Brown Jr (22 points), who had settled into a sixth man role, narrowed the gap but failed to complete what would have been a epic fight back. The Breakers fell short 81-77 while also losing Rupert for two months with a broken wrist.

New Zealand then became the first team that season to win five straight games after dismantling the South East Melbourne Phoenix (110-84), and by the start of December, had won 11 from 13 contests before losing to the Perth Wildcats (84-92).

Other key games during the Breakers’ run home included former Breakers stalwart Corey Webster, silencing his former club as Perth snapped the New Zealand Breakers’ five-game winning streak with a 92-84 victory. Webster exploded for 16 points in the third quarter, including a stretch of 9 straight, before finishing with a season-high 26 points snap. Barry Brown Jr was the best for New Zealand, putting up 27 points.

a epic Tyler Harvey half-court bomb gave Illawarra their first road win of the season against New Zealand (78-76). The dramatic loss motivated New Zealand, who snapped their four-game losing streak with a 93-88 win over the Sydney Kings in the next game, courtesy of a clutch three-pointer from Jarrell Brantley, and defeating Melbourne United, 80-74, to guarantee the Breakers a playoff spot.

During the final month of the season, New Zealand bounced back and forth with Cairns in a battle for second place but victories over the competition’s bottom two (Brisbane and Illawarra), allowed New Zealand to leapfrog Cairns and finish second overall during the regular season.

Timmins appeared in 11 games for the season and averaged 1.4 points and 0.8 rebounds. Timmins was a part of Breakers’ squad which narrowly lost the Championship Series to Sydney in five games.

SYDNEY KINGS
2023/24
After two seasons and limited minutes with the Breakers, Timmins signed to play with the Kings. Sydney were forced to undergo a huge rebuild prior to NBL24, after losing several key pieces to NBA opportunities. First reigning NBL MVP Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic both headed to Washington, then coach Chase Buford was released to pursue NBA opportunities and eventually joined Milwaukee. Imports Derrick Walton Jr, Justin Simon and Tim Soares all headed overseas, and Jordan Hunter remained with the team as the only starter from the championship squad to return.

Former league MVP Jaylen Adams returned after a season in Europe and joined new imports DJ Hogg (via Cairns), Denzel Valentine and former NBA talent and Australian Boomer Jonah Bolden, who returned to basketball after a 4-year absence.

G-League championship coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah was brought in as Buford’s replacement, and despite the considerable roster turnover, the Kings still entered the season as championship favourites.

After ten games, Sydney sat in second position (7-3) and had lost to only two teams, the Tasmania JackJumpers (twice) and the Cairns Taipans. This was achieved while marquee player DJ Hogg (who missed the first half of the season) and Jaylin Galloway sat injured on the sidelines.

From Round 8 onwards, the Kings looked nothing like the team that had dominated the league for the past two years. They struggled to win games, giving up 100 points on nine occasions, and finished as one of the worst teams in the league at the defensive end.

Much of the team’s success this season came from the pick-and-roll offence of Adams (19.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.1 steals) and Hunter (10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks). Bolden (8.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists) delivered some great games but understandably spent most of the season working himself back into basketball form. In comparison, Denzel Valentine (12.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.1 steals) and Dj Hogg (14.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.3 blocks) didn’t deliver as expected at both ends. Sydney finished the season in fifth place and failed to make the post-season after losing to New Zealand during the play-in qualifiers. However, breakout seasons from rookie Alex Toohey (8 points and 4.0 rebounds), Kouat Noi (10.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.0 assists), who came close to winning the league’s best sixth-man award, and Galloway (10.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.2 steals) were the only real highlights of the season, showcasing the individual talent and potential within the team. Timmins saw court time in 22 games but failed to score a basket.

Sam Timmins played three seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Sydney Kings. He averaged 2.2 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 0.2 assists in 29 NBL games.

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.