Den Helder Suns

The Den Helder Suns are a professional basketball club based in Den Helder, Netherlands. The club was founded in 2016 and currently plays in the BNXT League. The team has played at the highest domestic level since 9 years. The Suns play their home games in the Sporthal Sportlaan, which has a capacity of 1,000 people.

Den Helder Suns
Leagues	BNXT League
Founded	2016; 9 years ago (2016)[A]
Arena	Sporthal Sportlaan
Capacity	1,000
Location	Den Helder, Netherlands
Team colors	Blue, Black, White, Gold
President	James Meijer
Head coach	Paul Vervaeck
2021–22 position	BNXT League, 20th of 21
Retired numbers	1 (5)
Website	denheldersuns.nl
Home Away Third

History

After the bankruptcy of the Netherlands' professional BV Den Helder team during the 2013–14 season, a professional basketball representative team from Den Helder was missing for three seasons. In 2016, the Suns organisation was founded with the goal of making a return to the Dutch Basketball League (DBL). On June 30, 2017, Den Helder Suns announced it would return to the highest level in the 2017–18 season.^[1] On July 14, 2017, the Suns announced "Peter van Noord head coach Den Helder Suns."^[2]

In its first DBL season, Suns finished in the eight place of the regular season, above last-placed BAL. Captain Tjoe de Paula, who played for different clubs from Den Helder before, got his number retired on 19 April 2018.^[3]

Since the 2021–22 season, the Suns play in the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged.^[4]

Season by season

Key

	Playoff berth
ROY	DBL Rookie of the Year
U23	DBL MVP Under 23
DT-2	BNXT League Dream Team (2nd Team)
ROS	ROS

Season	Tier	League	Regular season					National Playoffs	NBB Cup	BNXT Playoffs	Head coach	Individual awards
			Finish	Played	Wins	Losses	Win%
Den Helder Suns
2017–18	1	DBL	8th	34	6	28	.176	Did not qualify	Quarterfinals	Did not qualify	Peter van Noord	Boyd van der Vuurst de Vries (ROY)
2018–19	1	DBL	5th	34	12	22	.353	Lost quarter-finals (Donar), 0–2	Eightfinals			Boy van Vliet (ROY)
2019–20[a]	1	DBL	7th	23[a]	7	16	.304	Did not qualify	Semifinalist			–
2020–21	1	DBL	6th	21	9	12	.429	Lost quarterfinals (Donar), 158–188	First Round			Boyd van der Vuurst de Vries (U23)
2021–22	1	BNXT League	20th	30	8	22	.267	Did not qualify	Quarterfinals	Lost first round (Limburg United), 163–203		–
2022–23	1	BNXT League	19th	28	6	22	.214	Did not qualify	First Round	Lost first round (Mons-Hainaut), 165–176
2023–24	1	BNXT League	20th	28	5	23	.179	Did not qualify	First Round	Did not qualify	Daniel Nelson
2024–25	1	BNXT League	15th	36	12	24	.333	Lost quarterfinals (Donar), 0–2	Quarterfinals		Paul Vervaeck	TreVion Crews (DT-2) Matthijs Verhallen (ROS)

1. The 2019–20 season was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The season finished in March, the Suns played only 23 games.

Players

Retired numbers

On 19 April 2018, Suns retired its first number as Tjoe de Paula was honored, who played for BV Den Helder during the periods 2001–2003, 2004–2006, 2008–2009 and 2017–18.^[3]

Den Helder Suns retired numbers
No	Nat.	Player	Position	Tenure	Ceremony date
5		Tjoe de Paula	G	2017–2018	19 April 2018[3]

Current roster

Den Helder Suns roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age G/F 0 Antoine, Bryan 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 25 – (2000-04-26)26 April 2000 PG 1 Mesidor, Reggie 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 25 – (2000-01-01)1 January 2000 F 7 Gilmore, Carter 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 23 – (2001-12-12)12 December 2001 C 10 Visser, Jonas 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 24 – (2001-02-06)6 February 2001 SG 11 De Haas, Ezra 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 17 – (2008-03-22)22 March 2008 PF 12 Post, Steven 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 23 – (2002-02-11)11 February 2002 G 22 Verhallen, Matthijs 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 21 – (2004-02-05)5 February 2004 G 33 Thran, Nick 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 25 – (2000-05-03)3 May 2000 F 42 Stover, Drew 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 23 – (2002-02-27)27 February 2002 F 77 Van der Heiden, Noah 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 25 – (1999-08-15)15 August 1999	Head coach Paul Vervaeck Team manager Marco Starrenburg Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Development player (I) Import player Injured Roster Updated: August 1, 2025

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either: Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

• Tjoe de Paula
  (1 season: 2017–18)
• Alex Laurent
  (2 seasons: 2017–2019)
• Leon Williams
  (1 season: 2019)
• Boy van Vliet
  (1 season: 2018–19)

Individual awards

BNXT League Dutch Rising Star of the Year

• Matthijs Verhallen – 2025

DBL Rookie of the Year

• Boyd van der Vuurst de Vries – 2018
• Boy van Vliet – 2019

DBL MVP Under 23

• Boyd van der Vuurst de Vries – 2018

DBL Most Improved Player

• Stan van den Elzen – 2021

Top scorers by season

The following players were the leading scorers for Den Helder in each DBL season:^[5]

Season	Name	PPG
2017–18	Tjoe de Paula	14.8
2018–19	Boy van Vliet	14.4
2019–20	Yarick Brussen	13.1
2020–21	Boyd van der Vuurst de Vries	14.7
2021–22	Ben Kovac	16.3

Head coaches

Period	Name	Honours
2017–2023	Peter van Noord
2023–2024	Daniel Nelson
2024–present	Paul Vervaeck

Notes

1. The Den Helder Suns is the successor of Den Helder Kings which went bankrupt in 2014 and while it is a new organisation, it can be seen as a phoenix club.