Why Cairns is the NBL’s must-watch team

Winners of four of their past five games, the Cairns Taipans are one of the hottest teams in the Hungry Jack’s NBL right now.

It’s no coincidence that this strong form has coincided with Jaylin Galloway and Luke Paul returning from injury, as all the pieces of Adam Forde’s puzzle fall into place.

On Monday’s episode of NBL Overtime, 2018 champion Peter Hooley explained how excited he is to see Forde’s vision come to fruition.

“The Cairns Taipans are must-watch TV right now,” Hooley said.

“They’ve got Jack McVeigh, Keanu Pinder, Jaylin Galloway, [Jaylon Brown], Malique Lewis, who is plugging and playing a little bit in his role, and Jonah Bolden’s been fantastic.

“What I love is this is the vision they had 6–12 months ago, of being able to get some Australian marquees, go out there and pay them and then load them with complementary talent around it.

“They’ve got three of the most exciting Australians on the roster, and now they’re still, I don’t think, anywhere near as good as they can potentially be.”

While fellow panellist Derek Rucker is just as excited about the Taipans, he’s challenged them to carry their home form on the road, starting in Brisbane on Thursday.

“We talked about how well they needed to play at home, and that’s exactly what they’ve done to start off the season,” Rucker added.

“They’re undefeated up in Far North Queensland.

“They’re a really balanced outfit, but they’ve got to find some consistency on the road now, especially on the defensive end.

“We saw them knock off Melbourne United at John Cain Arena, but the next time they visited [that venue], South East Melbourne blew them out.

“They need to find that level [of consistency] on the road, because I feel they need to win 50 per cent of the road games to be a real Playoff threat.”

Thursday’s all-Queensland clash at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre tips off at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN.