Marlins stint to lift Jonah’s game
An off-season in Cairns playing for the Marlins could be the key to sniper Jonah Antonio becoming a bigger piece of the Taipans puzzle in NBL24.
Antonio boasts the longest deal at the Taipans, having signed a three-year deal (third year option) when he joined the club last year.
Known as “Quick Six” for his penchant for coming off the bench and hitting quick triples, the 25-year-old Perth product struggled for consistency in his first NBL season, as he finished the campaign with a 29.8 per cent hit rate from beyond the arc.
He’s not just a one-trick pony.
While he’s made plenty of highlights with the shooting ability, he is a capable defender, can rebound, and if he puts it all together will play a bigger role in this Taipans team.
And that’s what Taipans coach Adam Forde is keen to see after Antonio’s NBL1 North campaign with the Marlins. It is a position in which Antonio can thrive.
The Marlins are coached by Taipans assistant coach Kerry Williams, they operate from similar playbooks, use similar terms, and it’s an education tool Forde can deploy to get the best out of players who may be considered fringe or bench players in their debut NBL campaigns. “He is an elite shooter, always will be, and that’s what he’s built his career on,” Forde said.
“He’s athletically gifted, he’s a guard that gets rebounds, he’s shown multiple times through the season he can get blocks and make defensive stops.
“What we need to do is instil some habitual characteristics on the floor which you get with repetition.
“The good thing with Marlins is that there are a lot of transferable terminology and style of play that Kez does with Marlins that we do with Taipans. The smallest things from pick-up points to how you close out on the ball, the subtle differences that are able to get out and contest a shooter like Bryce Cotton compared to not being able contesting him and he drills a three on you.
“Building up that skillset’s become more second nature with him.
“The priority in terms of how he plays, how he shoots, how he defends, there’s no change for my viewpoint in how good he is at that, it’s just how we can get his confidence up and his reaction time to how we want to defend in the half-court and as a team, get that up to speed and that will transfer to a better second year here with us.”