Potential Starting Role Lured Waardenburg to Snakes

The Cairns Taipans announced that former University of Miami big man Sam Waardenburg had signed with the Club just last week, and it appears that the allure of a significant role was part of what drew him to Far North Queensland.

Speaking on NBL Free Agency Market Watch, NBL analyst Liam Santamaria indicated that there was no shortage of interest in the New Zealand native, but the Snakes pitch was the strongest, going as far as suggesting we could see him in the starting lineup on the opening night of NBL23.

"Every team wanted him," Santamaria said. 

"Some didn't make great offers, like a DP to a roster or one year. He's got a two-year deal here with the Taipans. I think he's going to start for this team in the front court,"

"That's part of the conversation to say 'hey, come to this Club, we're going to give you plenty of opportunity to showcase your talents' and (now) he's going to be a Taipan."

Speaking on Waardenburg's skillset, Santamaria broke down his versatility as a key reason that so many Clubs were showing interest in the College grad.

"(He's) a 6-foot-10, 6-foot-11 stretch big. He can just play. He's shown some passing skills, he can put it on the deck and get to the rim," Santamaria added.

"I remember watching him back in 2016 when he was MVP of the Basketball Without Borders camp here in Australia that the NBL ran with the NBA, and then he's gone over and been a really good collegiate."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congrats to Kiwis Quinn Clinton (All Star game) &amp; Samuel Waardenburg (BWB Asia Camp) our MVP&#39;s! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BWBAsia?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BWBAsia</a> <a href="https://t.co/E1K0KTdtG4">pic.twitter.com/E1K0KTdtG4</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/746921217081278464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>