TAIPANS TURN GAZE TO THE FUTURE
THE Taipans will use the next period deciding who partners Nate Jawai in the front court and if Travis Trice will be brought back for 2017-18.
The Snakes, eliminated by the Wildcats on Monday night, will go into next season with the majority of the group that led them to the NBL finals.
The retiring Mark Worthington and Damon Heuir are the only Australians unsigned, while the futures of imports Travis Trice, Nnanna Egwu and Tony Mitchell are up in the air.
Mitchell, brought in during the season, is unlikely to be considered for a second season while Trice won the club’s MVP award and evolved.
Egwu’s NBA Development League playing rights were traded to the Grand Rapids Drive during the summer with the big man likely to join them in the coming weeks to finish their current season.
The Taipans are not known for bringing back imports, with Torrey Craig and Jamar Wilson the only Americans to play more than one season in the Far North since 2011.
Cairns product Jeromie Hill looms as a potential replacement for Worthington after playing the last two seasons with the Sydney Kings. Hill and his management team are pushing for more playing options, after spending long periods of this season on the bench, with the Far North product understood to be keen on a Taipans deal if possible.
Heuir, who starred in a limited role this season, has shown his loyalty to the Taipans and Marlins in recent seasons.
The explosive guard had upwards of four big offers to switch QBL teams but will play with the Marlins, with a close relationship with coach Jamie Pearlman sealing the deal.
Speaking after the Taipans loss on Monday, coach Aaron Fearne said recruiting would be a challenge this off-season.
“We have found a way to be competitive over the last eight or nine years,” Fearne said.
“We are really proud of that. We have a good core group of guys coming back.”
Asked earlier this month if he would go back to the D-League following the Taipans campaign, Trice said he was weighing up his future.
“I am still trying to decide, I have been talking to my agent,” Trice said. “I have had a couple of calls, a couple of NBA teams want me to come over and work out for them.”
Hill will play for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix in this year’s QBL.