NBL New Zealand Breakers to sign import Zylan Cheatham ahead of NBL24

American power forward Zylan Cheatham has agreed to a one-year deal with the New Zealand Breakers, sources told ESPN.

Cheatham, a 6’5 forward who last played for Bayern Munich in the Basketball Bundesliga and Euroleague, will join the Breakers as their first import signing of the 2022-23 NBL season.

The 27-year-old played multiple regular season games with two NBA teams — the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz — between 2019 and 2022, and has spent the majority of his young career in the NBA G-League.

Over the 2022-23 season with the Birmingham Squadron — the Pelicans’ G-League affiliate — Cheatham averaged 13.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, while shooting 56.5% from the field and 31.1% from downtown. Following that season, Cheatham joined Bayern Munich to help bolster the German team’s EuroLeague campaign; the Phoenix-native’s season highlighted by a 20-point, 8-rebound performance against Real Madrid in April.

Cheatham will fill a four-spot for the Breakers left by Jarrell Brantley, who played a prominent two-way role for Mody Maor’s team. Cheatham projects as an athletic, skilled forward who could effectively guard multiple positions in the NBL.

Cheatham joins William McDowell-White, Cameron Gliddon, Izayah Le’Afa, Thomas Abercrombie, Dan Fotu, Mangok Mathiang, Dane Pineau, and Mantas Rubstavicius (Next Star) as contracted players on the Breakers’ roster.

The Breakers still have one local spot to fill, as well as two import positions.

“We’re going to have two more imports on the perimeter,” Maor told ESPN over the weekend. “If you want to peg them into positions, it’s a two and a three, but not really; it’s two perimeter players.”

In Tasmania, Jordon Crawford has agreed to a deal to join the JackJumpers, sources said.