Forde’s Taipans set to thrive with freedom
CAIRNS Taipans players will have the freedom to express themselves and embrace their creativity this NBL season, but coach Adam Forde is approaching the upcoming campaign as one the club pursues an inaugural championship.
Forde is in Cairns this week as he prepares to move his family to the Far North later this year.
But on Wednesday, days after announcing the signing of Keanu Pinder, Forde shot straight when asked of this team’s target for NBL22.
“Our language from day one is we want to win,” he said. “If we go through this one-year (building) process, I don’t feel like I’ll be doing the team or this club justice.
“The language is going to be, day one, this is our championship mentality. That will be everything we do.
“The language has to be, for us to be a contender, you need to do everything from your sleep, your nutrition, putting on your catapult vest, those non-negotiables.
“I’m only talking about the stuff on court.
“I feel like this is one of the reasons why this was so appealing, why I came up here, is I can be a little bit more of a hammer these guys maybe will respond to, maybe won’t respond to.
“There’s not going to be any teething process.
“This will be straight results driven, this is what we want to do, anything less than wins is going to be disappointing and we’re all accountable for that.”
A key to that success will be allowing the roster to fully embrace their talent and what makes them great.
Players like import duo Scott Machado and Cam Oliver, newly-extended Majok Deng and sniper Mirko Djeric
will have more freedom on the offensive end, but there will be greater expectations – and consequences – if they don’t live up to Forde’s high standards.
“We have a lot of guys who, I want to explore their creative freedom on the offensive end,” Forde said.
“There’s a lot of guys I don’t want to restrict or pigeon hole, like Majok, Cam, or Scott, to sort of say ‘you
have to run this offense’ or ‘you have to be in these set positions’.
“A little bit more free-flowing for them on the offensive side of things. It’s going to be more reads of the defence, more audible type plays, rather than set plays.”
And he will be tougher on their defence, which severely lacked during the woeful NBL21 campaign which started with so much promise.
“Where I’m going to be more of a hardass is on the defensive side of things,” Forde said. “There’s going to be clear rules, there’s going to be some non-negotiables on the defensive side of things.
“We really want to have a presence to set the standard defensively, early.
“We’re not going to put up with silly mistakes.
“On the flip side, their reward is if they do what I want them to do on the defensive side, we’re going to have fun on the offensive end.
“Let’s get 90 possessions, let’s put up 30-plus threepointers, let’s bump the rim, let’s dunk it, let’s get to the foul line. Obviously we’ll have restrictions on shot selections – it’s not just going to be complete chaos – but the reward for how I want to be doing things on the defensive end … is on the offensive side.”
THE LANGUAGE IS GOING TO BE, DAY ONE, THIS IS OUR CHAMPIONSHIP MENTALITY. THAT WILL BE EVERYTHING WE DO. TAIPANS COACH ADAM FORDE