'Most fun I've ever had': Defence unlocking McVeigh's love of hoops

Jack McVeigh has always loved getting buckets, and that will never change.

The next growth in his game during the Hungry Jack's NBL27 Season will be defensively, and coach Adam Forde had full faith in him to take on his biggest challenge in the Cairns Taipans' home opener.

McVeigh returned to the NBL last season and had a tremendous offensive campaign with the Taipans finishing with 21.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4 assists while being named to the All-Second Team.

But when he looked to improve in the off-season, he wanted to do it defensively.

He picked the brains of Matthew Dellavedova at every opportunity and then put that hard work on show on Wednesday night.

The Taipans defeated the Tasmania JackJumpers 93-87 at the Cairns Convention Centre, and McVeigh took on the challenge of guarding JackJumpers star David Johnson fresh off a match-winning performance on Monday.

Coach Forde couldn't have been happier with how McVeigh has embraced the defensive side of his game coming into NBL27.

"When we talk about goals for the team and for the individual, that's part of it that Jack's got World Cup and Boomers and Olympics in mind," Forde said.

"He knows that's going to be an element they want to see and observe that he can do.

"When he provides that level of defensive intensity, bloody hell, I'm going to keep tasking him with those assignments.

"We'll take a lot of confidence from the way he really led the defence tonight."

McVeigh had a tough first game of the season against Sydney, with just seven points on 3/7 shooting while Dellavedova, who helped him define his defensive craft, guarded him for the most part.

"For the first time in my career, I'm finding joy on the defensive end," McVeigh said.

"It's fun showing up every day, exploring how to make plays on the defensive end, and studying the game.

"I was in Delly's ear all off-season about what he worked on and how he did it, and picking [his] brain.

"For me, it's been insane that for 10 years of my career, I've only really studied one side of the ball and found love in one side of basketball.

"To now be able to go out there and find joy in making plays, making mistakes and being okay with it because I'm aggressive has been really, really fun.

"I'm having the most fun I ever have playing basketball because of it."

Cairns now travels to Adelaide on Sunday to face the 36ers from 4pm AEST, live on ESPN.