You're right, the loss of Wilbekin is pretty minor.

1-12 on the road. If they were 3-10 they'd be in the box seat for finals.

besides the serious upgrade of the rest of the league....its hard to play pro ball without any $$

I'm not sure the upgrade was that serious, Melbourne, Perth and Illawarra have gotten better, while NZ, Sydney, Cairns and Adelaide have all gone backwards to a degree. Townsville have been at a similar level (although not consistently, great one day, terrible the next, somewhere in between the next).

Re Cairns, losing a stud defensive PG like Wilbekin is a massive loss given the limitations of their bigs defending ball screens. Wilbekin's leadership offensively is also a big loss, even if he wasn't a great scorer.

Scott Wilbekin is what didn't happen in a very tight cut throat season. Not hard to work out that although Starks is serviceable he is not Wilbekin who was a giant killer.

Yep, take out an NBL first-team PG who could close the game at both ends, insert a talented but inconsistent 6'1 scoring guard, and the Taipans go from 12-3 in games decided by 10 points or less to 9-8.

What paul said, disgraceful away record.

Wortho would be pretty close to Cairns' MVP, I don't think he's the problem.

Loughton and Trigger looking past it, unfortunately they are both under contract for next year so could be another ordinary year for CNS next season.

Burston is a free agent and from what i hear it will be unlikely for CNS to re-sign him due to the length of the other big guys' contracts. Ironic because out of him, Trigger and Loughton I'd rather have Burston for 2 more years than the others.

What happens if a player retires, I presume they forfeit the remainder of their contract? Loughton should think seriously about it.

OP has answered their own question. Lost Wilbekin and gained Wortho.
As far as I can tell, now days Worthington is a death sentence for any team he joins...

My understanding is that Cairns operates on a tight budget.
Hence why you've got a budget import in Craig.
Wilbekin was a find and a half. He was a fantastic on-court leader for that team last season.
Even teams with money to spend often struggle to replace star imports, it must be that much harder for Cairns.

The other thing I recall about Cairns from last season, was that they had great depth. Plenty of contribution from the bench, and your coach used it well. This year, with Craig starting, the bench is mediocre at best.

Craig's only been starting for the past couple of weeks.

Loughton was absolutely dreadful, Trigger was decent in some games but they don't feed him enough when he is making his shots.

Gliddon still inconsistent offensively!

Team struggled to nail 3s all season long

Couldn't win on the road

Starks vs Adelaide was their first platter to score 20 points all season... They have no go to player

Interesting to see if they try and get Nathan Jawai or even Jeromie Hill who I think is from Cairns.

They are still way too defensively minded and games like the last home game vs Wildcats was absolutely awful viewing spectacle.

Good luck to them and hopefully Gordie can make more of an impact for them in 2016/17

Jeromie Hill is on a 3yr deal with Sydney

No go-to player. Needed one of the imports to be that guy.

Are Loughton and Tragardh truly done or just disregarded because Fearne has preferred defensive options in Wortho and Burston? They should try to find themselves a new opportunity.

Cairns missed the playoffs in 2014 and with mostly the same team won the minor premiership in 2015, so some subtle changes are probably all that's needed, and with the way Fearne likes to play a defensive PG who can run an offence and run late-clock P&Rs is the most important piece.

Hard to replace/lose players of Wilbekin, Randle and Cedric Jackson. Each of those teams have gone backwards when they have lost the above player.

Cairns lost Wilbekin and went from GF to mediocre just as NZ did when they lost Ced Jackson and Adelaide, well, we all know not much is happening there without Randle.

The best way to win in the NBL is to have a superstar and 2 or 3 good players to support him. Without a go to guy you not win many games.
Adelaide: Randle
Brisbane: Motum
Cairns: Wilbekin
Melbourne: Goulding
NZ: Webster
Perth: Ennis
Townsville: ???
Illawarra: Lisch
Sydney: Childress

some you win, some you lose... Starks doesn't hurt his shoulder before game 1, Weigh doesn't miss 7 games, Trigger doesn't get restricted minutes because of a leg injury, less condensed traveling.... what if... what if... sometimes shit just happens. And sometimes you can't explain the shit that is happening, like our 3pt %.

The league got much better and we struggled to replicate last years form without a guy the quality of Wilbekin. Starks tried, but especially on D, he's just not the same kind of player. He's got his upsides, but we didn't see them consistently enough, to the extent that looked the best with Bruce and Gliddon on the court at the same time.

Still, while we couldn't nail those 50/50 road games like we did last year, we were great defending the home court (and the crowds were excellent despite the 6.30 tipoff and mid week games) plus we'll finish above Townsville.... so the season isn't a complete bust.

haha Worthington was a subtraction? he was consistently one of the best performers... but don't let facts get in the way of your haterism....

The Wortho hate is interesting. He had a really solid year even though his outside shot wasn't falling, his defence and passing were excellent. Last season he was very good for Melbourne, especially the first 2/3 of the year.

My simple view from the outside after only watching a few games, on player personnel:

Wortho was solid this season and consistently one of Cairns' best. He’s the classic jack of all trades- he’s good at virtually every area of the game without being great at any one thing, and he continued that this season (except his three ball). But because Loughton dropped away and Trigger and Burston were OK without being spectacular, the overall frontcourt play barely improved.

Starks was the main issue. Maybe it’s unfair, because his best was very good (eg: The game in Adelaide) and his play was actually at a higher level than I feared after reading his modest stats from Italian Div 2. But at the end of the day, there was a substantial drop off in guard play after having Wilbekin last season.

And- as has been mentioned- the league got stronger. Cairns were minor premiers but they weren’t head and shoulders above- apart from very early last season when they started really well. Other teams made significant improvements to their teams, and in some cases their teams and coaches.

Thats not entirely true- just thinking about it, I did actually watch Cairns quite a number of times this season.

"plus he has spent a career getting the better of Redhage."

Please show your working out.

Don't underestimate the loss of Mick D in the equation. No disrespect to Geordie but Mick seemed very effective with both the players and Fearne.

"plus he has spent a career getting the better of Redhage."

Please show your working out.

'simples' an apt description of most anon comments..

I get the Wortho hate, I do, I was once a hyperbolic hater..... but he's been good for us. Anyone who has watched all our games would have seen that.

LV i think your analysis is pretty spot on.

Like I said in previous post, Wortho's recent history with his chosen teams is poor, despite whatever numbers he puts up. At some point you have to question why teams falter when he signs on, particularly if he is in a leadership role.

Good player, not a leader.

I'm not sure Cairns faltered when he signed on. They made the GF last year, but missed the playoffs the three seasons before that.

Fearne's system requires tempo control at both ends, not necessarily slowing it down, but slowing the opposition down.

When the PG-C combo was Ubaka-Crosswhite and Wilson-Crosswhite they could achieve both those things through their PG play and their ball-screen defence. When Crosswhite left and it was Wilson-Tragardh they couldn't.

With Wilbekin-Burston they again had a capable combo in those areas, but Starks-Burston wasn't up to the level needed at either end.

Culture comes down to a whole lot more than one player.

No one was talking about Wortho and "culture" when he was in successful teams in Sydney and South Dragons.

The fact that he is known for "winning" his personal battles with Redhage, while Redhage doesn't give a shit about him, says it all

Anon, get on the meds you are not making any sense....

Paul - spot on. I haven't got the stats in front of me but last time i looked Bruce's def eff was far better than Starks when he was put in the starting 5.

Wortho and Redhage are both A class nigglers on court, who constantly toe the line between crafty and dirty.

Redhage pulls more dirty moves than Wortho, but Wortho's temper is slightly hotter than Redhage’s so he loses it more often.

Completely not the point I was making, LV.

The point you were making was complete and utter bullshit, and I wasn't even trying to reply to it- it was just one eyed Perth nonsense that wasn't worthy of more than the past 15 seconds Ive spent writing this post.

So you just added in a random comparison between Redhage and Wortho, but not in response to my post? Ok then.

I wasn't directly responding to your point, no. I was just giving a general view (non biased, unlike yours) in response to numerous comments in this thread that have mentioned the Wortho/Redhage thing.

Neutral, I should say.

You're not necessarily "biased" but you are a Redhage fan boy from way back. I don't have any skin in the game, so to speak.

"...in response to numerous comments in this thread that have mentioned the Wortho/Redhage thing."

Only one other person has mentioned it. I responded and asked them to elaborate. Someone else quoted both of those comments and added "LOL".

Why do you bother with this crap?

I skimmed- I saw at least 3 or 4 times that the Wortho and Redhage thing had been mentioned, and I chose to respond.

If you don't want to read my crap opinions, feel free to ignore them, just as I can chose to ignore your occasional Pro Perth Rubbish.

Wortho has had a decent year personally but it's a fair question to ask whether he's had a positive impact on the team/his teammates. From what I've heard there's been some tension between him and some others.

Snooch, it sounds like you just wrote his exit interview from his last four clubs!

snooch I haven't heard that, in fact I've heard nothing but positives about his off court influence.

Don't forget that he's got long term friendships with a number of current Taipan players.

I heard he was the one who encouraged Trigger to go with his latest hairstyle.

That's grounds for dismissal, surely?

hahaha that might be grounds for deportation to Naru!

Yeah I can't vouch for how true it is, just what I've heard from a couple of people who should know.

I'll try and get the inside scoop on Wortho from my sources this week.

I'm with Podge - paul and LV have made fairly sound arguments to the Taipans demise.

And as much as he's the 'heart and soul' of the club (perceived or otherwise), Loughton is not contributing on the court at both ends.

The way I see it, the big losses are Wilbekin & Downer.

For reasons already explained, Wilbekin was a once in a decade import for a low budget team like the Taipans. Starks is a great player, but his strengths are in transition (read the Downtownball.net interview with Rob Beveridge) which Fearne seems to dislike with a passion.

I also wonder if Gordie's similar style has led to Fearne regressing. He seems to have slipped back into more negative ways that he relied on with previous teams of lesser talents. He has some tremendously talented offensive players at his disposal, but instead of utilising them for their strengths, continues to hold them back within his strict offensive structure. It's not the first time he has brought in a player and tried to make them play a style that isn't their strength or a position they're not accustomed to.

I think there's an imbalance with the lineup as well, as some others have already alluded to, which gets exposed against some teams more than others.

I also have real concerns about the shooting %, particularly from 3pt. Shooting is such a confidence thing, and when players are frustrated with court time, restrictive systems, internal conflict etc. shooting suffers.

You make some good points @miracle.touch

Disagree about the strict offensive structure Wilson, imports especially have a green light to take a shot if it's there - even if it's early. It's just got to be a good shot not jacking up nonsense.
Sure there is a structure and a lot of time we like to move the ball around to get the best shot. We've come a long way since the grind offensive back in 2011. Have a look at our pace stats and shoots taken, the evidence is there.

Pushing the offensive and getting out into transition is 100% part of the system, it wouldn't surprise me if Fearne ended up with a rotator cuff issue for the numbers of times he swings his arm around urging the players to push it after a O rebound.

Starks' issue wasn't offensive (after his shoulder injury improved anyways), it was defensive. Which is why in some cases Bruce got time that you'd normally expect the import to get. Part of me thinks that, with a couple of extra pieces to compliment his skills/cover his deficiencies, he would be an interesting prospect to bring back next year.

3% was insane..... wasn't because of a lack of practice either, thru the season I saw more than a couple of the guys putting in extra work.. Confidence is a hell of a think.

I'm not sure Geodie will be here next season, he came up here because he is close friends with Fearne and he wanted to still coach in the NBL. Wouldn't surprise me if Sydney/Perth/Brisbane or NZ (assistant) picked him up.

For the life of me i can't understand why Sydney didnt hire Micky D........ Towel guy is a joke.........

The question i have is: next season to we run with Bruce and Gilldon as starters and spend out import $$ on a big man and bringing Craig back?

No. Bruce is a reserve at this point, if you want two frontcourt imports youll need to sign another good Aussie guard. Of course, maybe they'll be allowed three imports?

that's what the rumor is (i think Boti wrote about it a couple of months ago, along with Asia players as locals).

If that happens it'll be interesting to see how the police a cap to keep the league 'even'.

I wouldn't be surprised if another team throws some cash at Bruce to try and lure him away from Cairns next year. He improved markedly this season.

You can question all you want Anon, I know there isn't an issue at the Taipans with Wortho. I can't speak for his other clubs because i wasn't there. But by all means hating hate kiddo, but hate hard with style like Supernintendo.

Snooch - I think Brucey has a 2nd year on his contract? but i'm not 100%

Nope. Free agent according to this.

The Cairns Taipans have retained point guard Shaun Bruce on a one-year deal.

http://www.nbl.com.au/nbl-team-news/taipans-retain-point-guard-shaun-bruce/

rodger that Snooch, thanks for the link.

He'd be close to the top of my retention list. Hopefully we can match what gets thrown his way.

You are indeed many things Anon...... many things....

Well, whether there's conflict there or not, it's not to the same level that the Breakers are dealing with, but they're still in the box seat for the finals.

As much as I agree re Starks, I think Loughton's game falling off a cliff has played a big part too.

Not sure about him being heart and soul of the club - I'm not arguing he isn't, he's probably a great lockeroom guy - but he's infuriating to watch. Why a guy who's shooting under 30% on the season from three continues to just jack them up time after time is beyond me.

You'd hope him being signed for another 2 years doesn't hamstring the club re recruiting - I agree with whoever said they'd prefer Burston, he was such a crucial part of that team particularly in the first half of the season and can do so many more things in the post that Loughton can't/won't.

I don't know Wortho, never met the guy, so can only refer to the rumours that he has an attitude problem.
He has skill that is undeniable, and he is now on his 5~6th NBL club. Whenever he moves on, its never cos he's not a good player, and always rumoured to be personality related.

Redhage, after being deemed not up to import quality by NZ, has stuck with Perth for over 10 years. Apart from the haters who claim he flops too much, I've never heard a bad word said.

Again, only rumours, but the notion that Wortho still feels he has an axe to grind with Perth is disappointing.

Back on topic, apart from the Kings there have been no real easybeats this season. It's a reasonably competitive league, and Cairns have just fallen a bit behind.