Pinder Integration Crucial for Taipans

Cairns Taipans coach Adam Forde has explained why integrating MVP contender Keanu Pinder back into the line-up last night was vitally important.

Pinder returned from a six-game absence against the Tasmania JackJumpers and played 20 minutes, contributing seven points and three rebounds.

Even though Cairns’ six-game winning streak came to an end with the 85-77 defeat, Forde has explained Pinder needs game reps to shake off any rust before the finals.

“The big part was obviously getting the win, but we needed to integrate Keanu back in,” Forde said.

“There is a little bit of touch he needs to re-establish.

“You run the risk, do you sit him out and try to win this game and reset it again next game, or do you roll the dice and go, let’s see if we can fast-track this?.

“Now we got four games rolling into the postseason, we definitely aren’t locked, we still need to win some games to secure our place in the post-season, but if you leave it too late when he is supposed to get that feel back again?

“Some things needed to happen tonight, it is just unfortunate we didn’t get the win with it as well.”

Forde highlighted a sequence of defensive plays in the final period which showcases the feel of the game Pinder needs to discover again, something the coach is confident his star player will do.

“We subbed him in for that stretch in the fourth, we were up three and there was a couple of errors on him on the defensive end,” Forde said.

“I’m not trying to put it all on him right, but Magnay rolls, Tahj (McCall) and Bul (Kuol) both collapse in to tag the shooter and (Jack) McVeigh drills that corner three on the opposite end of our bench.

“A couple of possessions later, he is four-to-five feet off him with a hand down and McVeigh drills the other three.

“We go from being up three to down three and that’s the momentum shift. He will get that feel of the game back, that is largely what his game is built on, is touch and rhythm and the energy out there.”

Star Taipans rookie Sam Waardenburg left the game in the second half with what seemed to be a lower leg injury, with Forde saying the club is awaiting feedback from the medical staff.

“We will get him in front of an MRI (today). He landed awkwardly…you don’t want to be premature in the assumption of things, he seems fine, but so did Keanu and he was out for a stretch,” Forde said.

“We will see what the doc says, and we will go from there.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cairns&#39; Sam Waardenburg came off the court following this incident. <a href="https://t.co/43WKfdniJh">pic.twitter.com/43WKfdniJh</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1616380345640947713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Forde also quashed concerns around Shannon Scott’s health, saying he should be ready for Wednesday’s battle against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

“He had a bit of a stinger, just landed awkwardly on his side. He will definitely wake up a bit hurt, but we got a couple days to prepare for South East, so hopefully he is feeling better after that,” Forde said.

There is an old adage in sports which says some losses are ones teams need to have, but McCall dismissed that theory, believing Cairns will simply learn and get better from the defeat – as they do with any other loss.

“I don’t think we ever need a loss. There is nothing to regroup, we are never not together. It is just move forward and we got to be better, everyone knows that,” he said.