Versatile Carlin's breakout party

Adversity and opportunity can bring out the best in people, and there's no better example than Carlin Davison with the BNZ Breakers, fully displaying his versatility with a breakout performance as a point guard in Canberra.

The Breakers were going to have to get creative in the point guard position in the short-term with Parker Jackson-Cartwright and Preston Le Gassick unavailable through injury, and replacement Nelson Weidemann yet to arrive.

What coach Gordon Herbert has quickly discovered is that he might have very well the most versatile weapon in the NBL in his arsenal in the form of Davison.

The 23-year-old has also been seen as one of the most prodigious emerging talents out of New Zealand having come through as a development player to a fully rostered player at the Breakers while starring in the NZNBL and earning opportunities with the Tall Blacks.

He has always been tremendously versatile and shown signs that he can play as his team's main playmaker in the NZNBL both at Taranaki and Wellington, but he's never got to show that in the NBL with the Breakers.

He's been more seen as a three or four man with great explosiveness, athleticism and quickness who does his best work in the open floor and above him.

But that all changed going back to last Saturday night in Perth where Davison was the one that ended up running the point for the Breakers for most of the night against the Wildcats and dished out 11 assists.

He then started in the point guard role on Wednesday night against the Sydney Kings in Canberra and produced the performance of his 51-game NBL career finishing with 20 points, 14 assists, four rebounds and four steals on 6/9 field goal shooting, 3/5 from downtown and 5/5 at the foul line.

Davison became the first New Zealand-born player since Mark Dickel in 2001 to have back-to-back 10-plus assist games in the NBL while he's the only player since the league reverted to 40-minute games not named Bryce Cotton or Kendric Davis to have at least 20 points, 10 assists and four steals.

Afterwards, Davison talked about his versatility is his great strength.

"I think it would be my versatility that's my biggest thing. I really just go out there and play wherever the coach puts me," Davison said.

"I don't mind playing whatever position you want, you can play me anywhere and I just try to do my best at the job so versatility is my big thing."

If you look at what Davison had done in recent years in the NZNBL and it's no surprise to see him being able to step up to be his team's main playmaker in the NBL.

Davison produced 18.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists back in 2025 with the Taranaki Airs, and then 14.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 2026 with the Wellington Saints.

So he wasn’t foreign to playing that point guard role and is more than happy to fill that position for now at the Breakers.

"I'd say I've had it (the ability) at lower levels and in NZNBL I've played point guard, but I just wait for my name to be called and if coach puts me in, I just do that job," Davison said.

"I love passing the ball and I love setting up my teammates so I feel like it comes natural to me, but I still have a lot to work on."

Considering what the Breakers were up against when taking on the defending champion Kings in Canberra on Wednesday night, to come away with the 102-101 showed the tremendous heart and fighting spirit within the group.

They were playing with just the one import with Jackson-Cartwright and Josiah-Jordan James sidelined, and then with Charles Bediako in foul trouble the whole game and playing just over 12 minutes.

Throw in the gruelling travel schedule the Breakers have already had to deal with to start NBL27 and there were plenty of built-in excuses, but Davison and his teammates had no interest on falling back on those.

"I guess we just don't stop fighting," Davison said.

"We go to training every single day, work hard and coach is trying to make us better every single day, and is very hard on us but that's good.

"Look what we did tonight because of it but to play with no imports pretty much just shows that how much everyone on this team wants to win, and shows that we can fight."

As for a couple of his teammates, Davison and Sam Mennenga are the two players more than anyone to step up over the past two games.

Mennenga has delivered 67 points, 31 rebounds and six assists with seven three-pointers across the two games and then there's the leadership of Reuben Te Rangi that Davison spoke highly of ahead of his 400th NBL game next Sunday away to Cairns.

"He's (Mennenga) so dominant in the paint and I think a lot of the time we just try to get it inside to him if we can, but also he draws so many people that it makes it easy to kick to the other side too," Davison said.

"He's (Te Rangi) like the father of the group I would say and he's like a really good dude. You can't ask for a better teammate and he's always there in my ear helping me out.

"Obviously he's about to play 400 games so he's played a lot of NBL games, but he's a great dude and I'd go to war with him every day."