Unguardable Pinder Soaring for MVP

Cairns Taipans superstar Keanu Pinder is soaring this season, as his successful performances keep snowballing for the Snakes and his case for MVP improves.

Pinder recorded 34 points for the Taipans in Saturday night’s 91-82 win against the Tasmania JackJumpers, which saw Cairns improve to a 10-5 record.

Taipans leader Tahjere McCall is highly impressed with Pinder and called the Australian forward “unguardable”, following his efforts in Saturday night’s game.

“He’s grown so much, I’ve been with him for two years now and I’ve seen his growth, his steps, and being around him as humble he is, and genuinely a good guy,” McCall said.

“For him to get a night (Saturday) like this, he deserves this. We see everyday who he is, we see him on the court, and off the court.

“If anybody deserves a night like this (Saturday), it’s him, and he’s going to have plenty more.

“He’s unguardable.

“He does everything for us, he brings a lot of energy, he means a lot to us. I’m happy for him.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A dunk so big it almost went in twice ?<br><br>Pinder with an exclamation point jam ?<br><br>Follow the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/8Xd6EqMlfX">pic.twitter.com/8Xd6EqMlfX</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604014795685916672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Taipans coach Adam Forde added to the praise of Pinder.

“He’s been tough, especially in that low block,” he said.

“We can get our offence going with him. We knew they (JackJumpers on Saturday) were going to make some adjustments in the second half and send that double.

“His maturity, in terms of picking his moments, is growing day by day. He had 20 of 45 at half, then everybody else took care of business.

“It was a lot of maturity not just from Keanu but the whole group to pick their moments.”

The Taipans are on court tonight, playing the Perth Wildcats at 7:30pm AEDT.