New Role for Sidelined Snakes Star?

The Cairns Taipans have received a massive blow in their finals hopes – and it's not their top two rivals New Zealand winning against Illawarra on Thursday night.

Star centre and Most Improved Player nominee Keanu Pinder has effectively been ruled out for the rest of the season – barring a potential run to the grand final series by his side.

A stray elbow caught Pinder in the face in the Taipans’ Round 17 loss to South East Melbourne, and the club has revealed he’s expected to be back in contention for time on the court after the upcoming FIBA break, which finishes in early March.

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Speaking on NBL Today, two-time NBL champion Adam Gibson believes Pinder could be utilised in a different role should the Taipans make it to the final two.

“If they make it to the Finals I think ‘Fordey’ is going to have to bring Keanu off the bench,” Gibson said.

“Hopefully he can get healthy, hopefully they can get that far without him, and if they do bring him back ‘Fordey’ should bring him off the bench as an impact player.

“They’ve shown they can win games without [Pinder] … it’s going to be hard to bring him back in. When they brought him back in for those two games it took a while.

“I think they can win without him, but it’s going to be tough … he’s had such a good season but injuries have just killed him in the latter part.”

Another one of the league’s injured stars – South East Melbourne’s Ryan Broekhoff – is also fighting to be fit for the Finals, however the Phoenix’s post-season future is far murkier than that of the Taipans.

South East Melbourne currently sit sixth and look primed to participate in the elimination play-in game, but with no games left on their regular season schedule their destiny is out of their hands.

Broekhoff hit back at discussions of his impending retirement that had started doing the rounds in the rumour mill, and Gibson believes any retirement talk regarding Broekhoff is massively jumping the gun on what’s been a stellar career.

“He’s had a lot of injuries, and you feel for the man – with his last injury against Cairns you could see how emotional he was on the bench and you feel so sorry for him,” Gibson said of the Australian guard.

“He’s still young. With a great off-season where he gets his body right he’ll be fine."

The Taipans hit the floor on Friday night against the Wildcats, who are also fighting tooth and nail for their playoff future.