Makoi, Armstrong the perfect pairing?

Cairns head coach Adam Forde says the signing of former Sydney King Jackson Makoi indicates the Taipans will not be taking their foot off the pedal when starting point guard Taran Armstrong is off the floor.

Makoi was initially contracted to the Sydney Kings for NBL25, but has signed with Cairns on a one-year deal as he continues to ramp up his return to full fitness. It follows an ACL injury that cruelly kept him out of South Sudan’s first ever World Cup campaign last year.

The 23-year-old returned to play just once for the Kings in NBL24, but Forde says the comparable skillset between Makoi and Armstrong means there will be an added element of smoothness to in-game rotations this season.

“He suits us and what we want to do. We probably had too many square pegs in round holes previously, so it was really important to find the pieces that suit what we want to do,” Forde said following the signing.

“What Taran does so well, knowing when we sub him out and Jackson comes in it will be like-for-like and we shouldn’t take our foot off the pedal.

“As we look to try and build this team out around Taran and put complementary pieces and shooters around Taran, it was important to get a backup point guard that when he’s on the floor he’s got four other guys around him able to open up the corridors in the same way for him.

“There are a lot of similarities between Taran and Jackson, so that was a really important piece to get over the line.”

Forde added Makoi’s previous knee issues are well and truly past him, following an extensive pre-recruitment check.

“Naturally, it was a concern,” Forde said. He did all the tests with our high-performance team and the physio team and it came back relatively all clear.

“He’s done a great job of rehabbing that in the 11 months since he did it, so no concern.”

Makoi has joined a roster that currently only has Armstrong, AK Gak and Sam Waardenburg also officially signed to the roster. But despite just four players currently being confirmed as playing for the Taipans next season, Forde says there has been plenty of behind the scenes progress in his recruitment drive.

Cairns has room to build its team in a new image due to the uncontracted status of all three imports from last season, plus the departures of Sam Mennenga to New Zealand, and Bul Kuol who has reportedly signed with the Kings.

“I feel confident out of our nine main players we want to rotate through, we’ve secured seven signatures,” Forde said.

“Those last few roster spots, we’ll probably wait until later in free agency to see those complementary pieces depending on what our import wings look like.

“I feel good with where we’re at now, and now we’ll probably tread water for a bit to find what our ideal import wing looks like and what fits around him.

“Makoi was contracted with Sydney, so it was a similar situation we found ourselves in with Sam (Mennenga), knowing we could probably provide an opportunity to him and knowing as well what we were looking for in that backup point guard position that was an ideal arrangement.

“It was a win-win for everybody, knowing he’s going to come up here and hopefully take another step in his career.”