Gordon Herbert was delighted with how DJ Vasiljevic, Sam Mennenga and Parker Jackson-Cartwright fired in his debut as New Zealand Breakers coach, but the best thing for the coaching great was how much improvement his team still has in it.

The Breakers were home at Spark Arena to open NBL27 on Sunday night but were doing so without import wing Josiah-Jordan James before losing Kouat Noi early on with an ankle injury.

They went on to beat the Illawarra Hawks 95-81 and the signs were especially encouraging with dominant showings from their gun point guard and big man.

Jackson-Cartwright finished with 23 points and 13 assists with Mennenga adding 27 points and eight rebounds including a trademark poster dunk early in the piece.

Then there was new addition Vasiljevic who showed not only what he can do scoring himself with 24 points on 6/10 three-point shooting, but just the gravity he pulls towards him to help open up space for his teammates.

"He's somewhat of an x-factor for us I think and even when he's not shooting the ball, he creates space for Sam and Parker to play because they have to guard him," Herbert said.

"So he creates space and it's nice to have one Serbian mentality with us and I think more so for me his basketball IQ is outstanding than the shooting if that can make sense.

"It's huge for us to be able to create space for Parker and Sam to play in, and when you have shooters like DJ, that creates that space which is so important in today's game."

Overall, what pleased Herbert the most about the first up performance from the Breakers was the fact that they scored the 14-point win without a turnover in the first half against a Hawks team just about full strength, but how much improvement is left.

While Mennenga, Jackson-Cartwright and Vasiljevic fired with a nice cameo with 11 points on 3/5 three-point shooting from 393-game veteran Reuben Te Rangi, the Breakers can get more out of others.

That is obvious with James who didn’t play and Noi who got hurt, but import centre Charles Bediako fouled out in less than 23 minutes for six points and seven rebounds so he has a significant upside.

Izayah Le'Afa has just got back on the floor from injury and Mojave King has just joined the team too so what is most encouraging for Herbert is their upside still.

"I thought we had some really good individual performances within the team mentality, which was really important. There's a lot of stuff to clean up, which is normal in September, but we'll get there," Herbert said.

"The positive thing was that our compete level was outstanding and the basketball stuff it takes some time.

"We'll get there, but it's a day by day process and we've got a long ways to go, and we just have to take it one game at a time and strive to get better each day."

While it was an impressive first up win for New Zealand on Sunday night, there's not too much time to celebrate as they head straight to Brisbane to take on the Bullets on Tuesday who will be playing their first game of NBL27.

Given the Breakers won't have time to work on anything on the floor following their opening night win, Herbert will look at them learning through the vision and focusing on recovery before they then remain on the road to face the Perth Wildcats on Saturday.

"We'll focus on us tomorrow with video and go through stuff, correct stuff positive and negative, and it's more contrast learning," Herbert said.

"We don’t have time to really go on the practice floor to do stuff, we have to learn from the video a little bit.

"It's more about recovery too and we had Sam and Parker playing a lot of minutes so the big thing is that we recover not only physically and mentally.

"We enjoy this win tonight and tomorrow we move on with the next game mentality."

There are very few coaches who have arrived in the NBL for the first time with the legacy already behind them that Herbert has after a lifetime in coaching following his own college playing career and then more than a decade in Finland.

He's enjoyed great success at club and international level ever since primarily throughout Europe including winning a World Cup with Germany and he remains the national team coach of his homeland, Canada.

He has seen a lot all over the world in basketball but taking over as Breakers coach is his first chance to come down under and his first impressions of the NBL already couldn’t be higher.

"I was very impressed at the Blitz with the quality of the teams and I think it's a great quality, and there's some parity in the league," Herbert said.

"I don’t see a huge difference between one and 10 so to speak, and I think anybody can beat anybody on any given night.

"And I guess too the infrastructure of the league really stands out for me too with how professional it is, and the vision they have of where they want to go. And obviously they are attracting some really good players nowadays."

Chris Pike

NZ compete level impresses Herbert