Forde blasts Taipans starters

The Cairns Taipans appeared to have turned a corner to set up an encouraging finish to NBL25, but coach Adam Forde was left with no option but to savage his starting group after Sunday's home loss to Adelaide.

Ever since suffering a 15th-straight defeat culminating in a home loss to the New Zealand Breakers on New Year's Eve, the Snakes had built some momentum over the first four games of 2025.

That had led to wins on the road to the Illawarra Hawks and Brisbane Bullets either side of narrow home defeats to the in-form South East Melbourne Phoenix and Sydney Kings. 

Following Friday night's win in Brisbane, there were no signs to Forde of what the Taipans would dish up on Sunday back at the Cairns Convention Centre, where they gave up seven three-pointers to DJ Vasiljevic and 38 points to the 36ers in the first quarter. 

Forde didn’t question the efforts of import center Tanner Groves, and he did like the fighting efforts off the bench from the likes of Akoldah Gak, Alex Higgins-Titsha and Kyle Adnam, but he could scarcely believe what he saw from his other four starters. 

In a way their numbers tell the story with Taran Armstrong finishing with 11 points on 4/12 shooting, Rob Edwards 11 points and four turnovers, Sam Waardenburg four points and eight rebounds, and Pedro Bradshaw three points on 1/5 shooting. 

What that doesn’t show is what Forde felt were selfish performances and for the first time all season, despite the five wins in 24 games, he saw players only worrying about themselves and not putting the team first.

"This was the first time there was a level of selfishness, they didn’t even bother trying to disguise," Forde said.

"I'm going to fire a bullet and the starters really let us down, aside from Tanner I think.

"We had an emphasis after that start of just winning the second quarter regardless of what the score was, but then we came out of half-time and again the starters let us down.

"I don’t try to point fingers in this scenario, but on this occasion the starters really let us down."

A few things stood out in that first quarter to Forde and then again early in the second half when he had the starting group back out there. 

At the defensive end, it was a lack of care and effort to fight over screens especially when guarding Vasiljevic, who hit those seven three-pointers in the opening eight minutes.

Then what he saw offensively was even more concerning because he saw players just wanting to make individual plays and he did see a degree of immaturity for the first time.

"What it is it's a lack of maturity and you can go one of two ways; either be aggressive and step up to the mark or hold each other accountable, but what it ended up was sulkiness," Forde said.

"That becomes infectious and then they start thinking about getting their own shots rather running what's best for the team. That quickly spreads to a run from the opposition and it's not until we get guys off bench in that understand.

"They're sulky and when it's going our way it's great, and it's all kumbaya and everybody's too nice. But when it's like this, everybody gets sulky and they don't hold each other accountable and don't set up to the standard. They just sit there and sulk."

To perform poorly in front of the loyal home fans once more had Forde feeling bad for the Taipans faithful especially considering they now haven’t seen their team win since October 4 last year.

The Snakes have lost their last 10 home games including the last five by an average of 21.

"It's more frustrating because we talk about trying to turn the page in some areas and it's disappointing we keep doing this at home," Forde said.

"We play better on the road and I don't know why, and it's disappointing when the fan base continues to show up, we had the blackout jersey and the donations with the auction is fantastic going to a great cause, but we do it off the back of that type of performance. It's disappointing and the fan base should be annoyed."

Forde guaranteed a change to the starting five when the Taipans are back at home to the league-leading Hawks on Thursday night.

"I'd hope they respond and if not, we'll have the bench playing 40 minutes," Forde said.

"I look at someone like Alex (Higgins-Titsha) and there's a dude who's a 24-year-old DP and there's a level of hunger with him who hasn’t had an opportunity. He's absolutely cashing in on it and I'll ride with guys like that."