Shamir: "Taine Murray is One for the Future"

Sky Sport Breakers Head Coach Dan Shamir is not ruling out giving minutes to promising 18-year old schoolboy Taine Murray in NBL21.

The Rosmini College Year 13 student, and 2019 Tall Blacks bolter, has signed a one-year Development Contract with the club - meaning the young Guard will train alongside the professionals on the full roster, including Corey and Tai Webster.

“Taine plans on going to study in the USA and that’s probably going to happen around August or September of 2021,” said Shamir.

“Having said that, we view him as a future Breaker, we see him as a guy who can become a starter for the Breakers down the road.

"Due to the circumstances surrounding Covid and the postponed NB21 season not starting until December at the earliest, Taine will be able to complete a full season with us.

Chinese NBA Academy player Terry Li is the other development player currently on the Breakers’ books and he saw game time in NBL20.

Shamir is non-committal about Murray seeing minutes but just training at the Breakers’ facility does put him in the frame.

“We obviously have a lot of proven players in his position, however, things always change and it’s a very dynamic business,” he said.

“My feeling is we are going to invest in the process and hopefully Taine will invest at his end and play well and we will see what happens.

"All of a sudden, you see someone at practice and you feel he can contribute in the game and you just throw him in there.

"It will definitely happen with Taine at some point, we just don’t know when."

The 1.98m and 86 kilo shooting guard has attracted College interest in the States after being a standout performer in front of American scouts in February.

“He’s still young and still got a way to go but he already has a body type that makes him a legitimate future guard in the NBL,” said Shamir. 

“We view him as a guy with the skillset, the character and body to become a good player at this level and we want to help him to work towards that.

“He has a good feel for the game but I think his basketball IQ is an aspect of the game where he is going to improve just with the experience with us. 

“The main thing that separates professional players, one from the other, is mainly knowledge and vision of the game and understanding of angles and decisions.

“There is a pretty big gap in how the game is played at the high school level and even the NCAA College level and the professional level.

“He has all the ingredients to become a very good basketballer.”