NBL26 Report Card: Taipans lacking bite

15 Apr 2026

A brutal, injury-ravaged NBL26 campaign leaves Cairns searching for answers despite Jack McVeigh’s standout season.

By

NBL.com.au

As the Free Agency period tips off, NBL Media is putting the microscope on every club's NBL26 campaign.

Pete Hooley analyses every team, starting with the tenth-placed Bullets, all the way through to the Championship-winning Kings.

Report Cards >> Brisbane

What the ladder says

9th place - 9 wins, 24 losses

Four word summary

“Swear it’s déjà vu”

The final marks

Grade: D-

Forgive the Beyonce lyric above, but it was another season from the Taipans that looked eerily familiar to the last few, as a team that had solid expectations fell to the bottom part of the table. While they put themselves in the hot seat by saying in the off-season that they no longer want to be seen as a smaller club, it would be unreasonable to place 100 per cent of blame on things they could control.

The issues began with an Ashton Hagans signing falling through, meaning the club had to pivot to a more offensive weapon in Andrew Andrews. The timing of that compounded more pain for the Taipans when Sam Waardenburg was sidelined with an injury, which meant backup big man Marcus Lee had to shoulder more responsibility than was intended.

The Taipans lost 11 games by 20 or more points, which just sucked the joy out of watching Jack McVeigh deliver time and time again.

Season highlight

It could only be one moment, and it should have been even bigger than it was. The Taipans million-dollar man Jack McVeigh, put up a career-high 47 points against New Zealand in an example of basketball at its best. As if the game itself needed any more storylines, but add the fact it was his 200th career game and the first since he became a father and he won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

The Taipans got a tough four-point win over New Zealand and it was all on the back of McVeigh who was near flawless, shooting 16 of 21 from the field and pulling down eight rebounds.

Season lowlight

As the injuries started to mount, you could see it take a toll on the playing group in Round 6. The Taipans welcomed the Wildcats to their home court and ended up falling by 32 points. Just two days later, a battered and bruised group flew down to Melbourne and lost to United by 27 points, only managing to score 67 for themselves.

If that two game stretch wasn’t enough for fans to start getting concerned, the very next game they travelled to Brisbane and lost by 28 points and the alarm bells had officially started ringing.

Stats don’t lie

It’s an obvious statement, but you need to shoot the ball if you want to score the ball. The Taipans were last in the competition for field goals attempted and subsequently field goals made. While the Phoenix were a unique team to compare to, they took over 81 shots per game, with the Taipans just under 67. When you consider they were also the lowest offensive rebounding team in the league and that’s not a good equation.

MVP

Who else could it be? The Taipans made the move to secure McVeigh’s signature in the off-season, and they put their faith in the former JackJumper that he could lead the team.

Disregarding the issues around the whole team, McVeigh had a special NBL26 and was deservedly rewarded with a place on the All NBL First Team.

His two 40 point games were the standout, but he filled it up everywhere on the stat sheet for his first season in far north Queensland and looked very comfortable being the go-to guy.

Surprise packet

It wasn’t the way envisioned seeing Mojave King return to the NBL, signing as an injury replacement for Alex Higgins-Titsha. The 23-year-old was a bright spark in the second half of the season and started to play with the flare many expected from his first stint in the NBL.

When the Taipans season was essentially over, many experts looked at the Taipans future and were calling on them to lock in the young gun.