Edwards to depart Taipans early

Coach Adam Forde has confirmed Rob Edwards' season with the Cairns Taipans is over, as the star guard departs for his next destination.

While winning remains the number one goal for Forde, there's also something to be said for helping players thrive and find successful situations.

Edwards played his last game for the Taipans at Spark Arena on Saturday night and he didn’t play most of the last quarter after the Snakes fell 21 points behind simply because Forde didn’t want to risk anything happening to him.

The 28-year-old has had a tremendous season with the Snakes, averaging 19.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

"We sat Rob when we found ourselves down 21 because Rob is going to be moving on to a situation that is very financially benefitting for him," Forde said.

"There's a benefit to the club and it's sad to see him go, but right now we're going to do a send off for him while we're in New Zealand.

"When I saw ourselves down 21, the last thing I wanted to do was be responsible for him rolling an ankle in a game that was potentially going to get pretty bad."

It all came about quickly where Edwards did receive the offer and had to depart before the Taipans play their last two games of the season.

Forde wanted to get on the front foot to confirm it himself to put an end to any rumours that have been out there.

"It's sort of a spur of a moment thing and I want to say it out loud because we've had these weird speculations the last couple of weeks with dudes in and out of the line-up, and sometimes those journos can hide behind the cloak of a source which they don’t have," Forde said.

"The reality was that we've had guys in and out through illness this week, and Rob has got a great situation that we celebrate with him.

"We're looking forward to him getting this moment in his career even though it's sad that he's going to leave us.

"He was really torn about it and if anything probably needed my support to wish him well on the journey. I look forward to keeping in touch with him and seeing how his career progresses."

While Forde and Edwards have had a combative relationship at times during the season, they have also clicked as competitors and had a tremendous coach-player bond.

Forde will always be thankful of what Edwards provided the Snakes this season.

"Rob's a family man too and these are the things we take into consideration. He's a dad to a newborn that he was away from during the birth," Forde said.

"There's a lot of sacrifices these professional athletes make and in Rob's case, he was able to go back during the FIBA break in November but the birth of his daughter happened when he was here being an amazing soldier and teammate for us.

"Rob's done a fantastic job of putting the club and team first, and now this is a situation for him that we embrace and look forward to for him.

"It helps with the recruiting process too because he was a guy we brought in after he fell out of the rotation in the G League at a great dollar rate, he's capitalised and he remained consistent for us. He's one of the best people I've ever worked with."

There's always positives in any situation and in the fourth quarter against New Zealand, Kody Stattmann hit the floor for just the second time this season and helped spark the Taipans fightback.

He had eight points in seven and-a-half minutes to be a +13. He'll now get more chances over the last two games at home to Brisbane on Thursday and away to Tasmania on Saturday.

"Kody came in and capitalised on his opportunity and gave us that spark that we needed," Forde said.

"There's a benefit for him and for the club so at this stage of our season we're preparing for next year so it's a bit of a two bird, one stone situation where we can now look to play Kody Stattmann who is contracted for next year and give him a bit of burn as we send off Rob."