Taipans Built to Conquer Kings: Forde

The NBL23 championship runs through Sydney. That’s why Adam Forde wanted a Grand Final series matchup with the Kings. That’s why Adam Forde wants to beat the Kings.

Forde, who coached Sydney during the NBL21 season, has breathed new life into the Cairns Taipans this season – with the reigning Coach of the Year leading the side to a third-place finish and semi-final Playoff series against his old side.

While it isn’t the Grand Final matchup Forde wanted – he says his side was put together specifically to disrupt the reigning champions.

“We were hosting Sydney [last season] and Sydney were training at our venue on court one while we were on court three. In the echo of the building you could hear exactly what Sydney were doing to beat us,” Forde said. “They were making no secret in saying ‘they’re soft, they do this wrong, they do that wrong, you have to smash through their screens, they’re terrible at switching, they can’t do this’.

“You sit with that, and you don’t want to get upset because he was right. We were soft, we were getting crushed on the boards, and we were buggering up our switching.

“A lot of this off-season recruiting was ‘who do you get in to go up against a Jarell Martin, a Xavier Cooks’, so we bring in Sam Waardenburg. How do you counter the dynamic point guard of a Derrick Walton Jr, well you get a dynamic defensive minded point guard like Shannon Scott. We loaded up with youth on the bench, we needed more shooting since they’re a team that drops – lets go and get Jonah (Antonio), let’s go and get Ben (Ayre), let’s go and get Lat (Mayen), bring guys in that can shoot the three-ball.

“We built this team to try and be the direct matchup for Sydney, so my dream is we play them because that’s the team that’s number one, that’s the team that’s the defending champs, and that’s the team that is the team to beat. If you really want to come out of the other end being the best team, you have to beat them.”

Beating the Kings is far from the only reason Forde wants to win the NBL23 championship. He also wants to win it for the people of Cairns.

Before this season the Taipans had registered three bottom-two finishes in the last three seasons – with the outlier being their third-place finish in NBL20.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?????? ?? ?<br><br>The NBL confirming what we already knew, Adam Forde is the BEST COACH IN THE LEAGUE! ? <a href="https://t.co/h4l6uXQ9tJ">pic.twitter.com/h4l6uXQ9tJ</a></p>&mdash; Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1622901566637498368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Forde only took the reigns of the Snakes last season, and they improved on their NBL22 record of 9-19 to finish this season with 18 victories.

He says he’s put this team together to represent the style of the community that has thrown itself behind his team.

“I think about the games last year when we were getting smoked by 20 and nobody left, now we’re getting four-and-a-half thousand people to a game and they get right into it, and they get right behind the club,” Forde said.

“Win, lose or draw they really back the team, and there’s a real sense of connection.

“It’s a real touristy town. It’s vibrant, it’s energetic – I wanted to do a style of play they could relate to.

“I think to bring a championship to Cairns really validates everything you’re doing. You can be a little bit flashy and showy and it works.”

The Taipans kick off their Playoff series against the Kings on Wednesday night at Qudos Bank Arena from 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.