NZ Breakers confirm signing of young NBA prospect

By Christopher Reive

The New Zealand Breakers have locked in their next NBA project.

The Kiwi club have made a habit of bringing promising young talents into their roster as part of the Australian NBL’s Next Stars programme and helping them grow over the course of a season into players ready for the world’s top league.

Since the programme started, the Breakers have had two of their Next Stars players drafted in the first round — RJ Hampton in 2020 and Ousmane Dieng in 2022 — with a third likely to be added to that list next week when 2022/23 Next Star Rayan Rupert hears his name called.

In the upcoming season, Lithuanian guard Mantas Rubštavičius will be looking to follow that trend.

Rubštavičius, a 198cm guard, shapes up as an interesting project for the Breakers. The 21-year-old has been playing professionally in his home nation and has been capped by the national team, so the idea of playing against grown men in the physical NBL won’t faze him.

Rubštavičius withdrew from this year’s draft to instead sign with the Breakers and better promote himself for the 2024 NBA draft. In a league where teams are consistently favouring younger players in the draft, it’s a bold move for the young Lithuanian, but one Breakers coach Mody Maor believes will ultimately work in his favour.

“Mantas is exactly the same prototype as Rayan Rupert and Ousmane Dieng; he’s got great positional size combined with a versatile perimeter skillset,” Maor said.

“Out of all the potential Next Stars who are available this year, Mantas is the one player who cares about winning more than anything else.

“One of the things we’ve learned over the years with our Next Stars is that if you can find a player that truly loves basketball and truly cares about winning then you have a shot of being successful with it.”

Rubštavičius, who is expected to join the Breakers in August, was ranked as the No 63 best prospect for the 2023 NBA draft by ESPN before withdrawing and is ranked at No 54 in the 2024 class.

Maor believed Rubštavičius would exceed those expectations.

“Mantas has been playing against adults, which is not normally the case when you get an 18-year-old. It means he will adjust to the NBL faster, allow him to showcase his talents earlier, and help us win.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission