New Zealand have pulled off a key signing by luring two-time NBL champion DJ Vasiljevic across the ditch on a one-year deal.<\/p>\n
One of the league’s premier sharpshooters, Vasiljevic joins the Breakers after helping the Adelaide 36ers reach last season’s championship series.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old previously won two titles with the Sydney Kings and averages 14.9 points per game across his six seasons in the NBL.<\/p>\n
“DJ is a proven winner and a player who thrives under pressure in big moments,” Breakers president of basketball operations Dillon Boucher said.<\/p>\n
“His ability to stretch the floor and his leadership perfectly align with the style of play we have established here in Auckland.”<\/p>\n
Vasiljevic fell out of Adelaide’s starting line-up under Mike Wells last season but was a significant contributor to their success.<\/p>\n
He joins the Breakers’ roster alongside elite American guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Kiwi big man Sam Mennenga.<\/p>\n
“I am incredibly excited to join the Breakers and become part of the whanau,” Vasiljevic said.<\/p>\n
“This club has a prestigious history and with a clear vision for the future that I want to be a part of.”<\/p>\n
New Zealand won the inaugural Ignite Cup last season, beating Vasiljevic’s Sixers in the final, before parting ways with coach Petteri Koponen.<\/p>\n
They are yet to announce a new head coach.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Perth Wildcats have secured a key piece of their roster by re-signing Elijah Pepper for the next two seasons.<\/p>\n
An elite shooter, the 24-year-old Pepper averaged 10.5 points per game last season as the Wildcats reached the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to have Pepp committing to the Wildcats for another couple seasons,” Wildcats coach John Rillie said.<\/p>\n
“He is a key piece to our squad as the staff continues to develop our youthful backcourt.<\/p>\n
“His elite shot-making is his separator in this league as he continues to grow his all-round game.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand have pulled off a key signing by luring two-time NBL champion DJ Vasiljevic across the ditch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3392,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-401525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-breakers","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}