King 'having the most fun I've had in NBL'

The third instalment of Mojave King looks the complete package as he takes on the biggest defensive jobs for his team, is shooting well and is still the same standout athlete, and has never enjoyed the NBL more than now at the BNZ Breakers.

King is in his third stint in the NBL having had two previous seasons as part of the Next Stars programme, firstly at the Cairns Taipans in NBL21 and then at the Adelaide 36ers a season later.

Since then he has spent time in the G-League along with a standout NZ NBL season at the Southland Sharks. Now this version in NBL25 of King at the Breakers as a 22-year-old looks a more well-rounded and mature package.

King has always been a standout athlete with brilliant natural gifts, which he still possesses, but it's his work to take on the biggest defensive jobs for the Breakers this season and to have improved his scoring and shooting, that is standing out.

That doesn’t mean it has been an NBL25 without hiccups, though, and with two games to go the Breakers now can't reach the top six while King has also missed nine games through injury.

King only returned from a calf injury against Brisbane on Friday night, but then against Adelaide on Sunday he was his team's shining light with 20 points and two assists with 5/8 three-point shooting in a team that lost by 16 points.

Having now almost completed a third NBL season, King has no trouble saying this has been his best and most enjoyable campaign.

While ultimately he would still like be shooting to get an NBA chance in his career, in the immediate future he sees no reason why a return to the Breakers in NBL26 wouldn’t be on the cards.

"I'm definitely having the most fun that I've had in the NBL so yeah, for sure (I'd like to come back to this team) and I'm having a great time," King said.

"I feel like I can compete at that (NBA) level and it was great to obviously get the opportunity to go over there and play against NBA teams to show that I'm able to play at that level.

"But right now I'm more focused on myself and developing every day, getting better and improving on my game. Then I'll end up wherever I end up."

King has always had the physical gifts to be a strong defender with his quickness, length and athleticism. All it took was having greater buy in, focus and a determination to lock in defensively.

That's exactly what he has shown an ability to do this season, and the other improvement is his ability to get to the rim and finish with him shooting at 65 per cent inside the three-point arc.

His outside shooting sees him knocking it down at 32 per cent, but that's on the rise highlighted with what he did on Sunday. He is happy with how his all-round game is developing.

"I put in a lot of work and getting the opportunity to go out there and show it is obviously great," King said.

"It's unfortunate that I've had a couple of injuries that kind of messed up my rhythm a little bit this year, but when I come back in the coaches do a good job of integrating me back into the team, and helping me find my flow again.

"It's been fun to just have a little bit of an increased role and play more, and get good match ups especially defensively. I think that's something that I've always wanted to show more and now I'm getting the opportunity to do it, and I can't ask for much more."

The Breakers now have two games of the season to finish with both at Spark Arena firstly against the Cairns Taipans this Saturday, and then the following Wednesday against the Illawarra Hawks.

It will be the first time all season long that New Zealand will have back-to-back games at Spark Arena, and King wants to help the Breakers finish strongly.

"We're still just focused on us really. We know that we can be better and we're not worried about any other than team than us because that's all we can really control," King said.

"We're just trying to go out there and execute the coaches game plan that they put a lot of time and effort into to try and give us the right keys to go out there and win.

"We just want to go out there and execute the best we can to try and get a couple of wins."