Love the atmosphere in the smaller stadiums, sell out crowds.

Snakes are no good. Reckon it'll be our worst season since Melo Trimble

Snakes looking great 32 seconds before halftime.

JJs looking rusty, snakes looking very solid. Forde looking in control on sideline.

Well bugger me.
Most surprised.

I wish the refs watched today's Sixers v suns game, or even the World Cup for women, the blow some of the softest calls.

Cairns by 20 at 3/4 time, JJs defensively woeful.

Turnovers and heavy reliance on 3s will see these Taipans lose some bad games and win some great ones I think. They should be exciting to watch, even if probably not top 6 overall.

Not sure what's worst - the refs or Magette

Inconsistent refs decions, there horrible.

After Q1, I certainly didn't see the Snakes winning this comfortably.

Bul Kuol man. Without question he will be a starter for the remainder of his NBL career.
Handles vastly improved, can create off the dribble off a curl or iso. Shades on Jimmy Butler

Of Jimmy Butler*

JJs imports seem to keep the ball to them selves, McVeigh get get it in his hands, they look disjointed.
I thought Forde did well, certainly better than I thought he would be as coach, McCall turns it over to much, there other two imports were fantastic.

Happy with that. Still got two more players out injured, so will have to wait to see how it all clicks down the track.

Considering expectations for Scott were so low, he has looked pretty damn solid both in Darwin and tonight. Might be the steal of the season if he provides even half of what he did tonight each game.

Party is over JJ's

"I wish the refs watched today's Sixers v suns game"

Refs were real quick on the whistle in the Sixers-Suns game if players made illegal contact. NBL refs traditionally have not been good at that, but I thought their opening round was decent, created an environment for highlights and plenty of scoring.

"Party is over JJ's"

They were 2-6 last year!!

That 3rd quarter was awesome from Cairns. They'll be fun to watch.

DJ Hogg can certainly light it up. And the stats support this, 45% from 3 in France last year.

JJs missed McDaniel on the defensive end

Magette had some nice passes but they need much more than 16 pts on 6-22 from him and Doyle, especially with Steindl out

Its not necessarily party over for JJs but they're missing some players

The league has improved too. Only United and Illawarra have likely taken a step back. Every other team has gotten better or in Sydney's case still very good. NZ back at home.

So JJs could easily drop down to 8th or 9th position, or even last, without really doing anything wrong. Just losing games by 5 points that they were winning by 5 last year, with better opponents and/or not quite creating the same chemistry with the new imports they had last year

Not much of a surprise that's why I had the JJ's 6-7th this season. Adams was a big loss for them and Doyle is no Adams.

"So JJs could easily drop down to 8th or 9th position, or even last, without really doing anything wrong."

At the moment they're not defending, whereas they defended at a very high level last season. If they don't fix that they will finish 8-10.

I was talking from a full season stand point

But they could've defended a lot better tonight and still lost.

If they defend like last year over a full season they won't finish 8-10. Two challenges with that are the refs are calling it tighter from the start this season, not waiting three months, and JJs don't have Magnay early anchoring the defence like they did last season.

Interesting times for them, they came into last season so en pointe with their defensive rules, but they haven't looked in sync at all in the first two games.

Magnay missed most of last year. Their D was superb late season and playoffs without him. It's odd their D wasn't so great. Although Hogg, Deng and Adnam have hit some big shots

JJs have more continuity than any other team, with most of the roster plus coach returning. That's why 0-2 start is concerning. They have a huge natural advantage right now and they're not making the most of it.

Injuries are hurting though to be fair

I obvs saw McDaniel and Steindl on the sideline. Was Magnay with the team on the sidelines? Didn't see him. Starting to think he won't be back in the league at all.

"Magnay missed most of last year. Their D was superb late season and playoffs without him."


Tassie's oppo scoring went from 76ppg to 82ppg after Will got injured. Their interior D was not the same - their defensive rating went from under 100 to 105 - and their offensive rebounding and three-point shooting improved to cover the loss (lifting from 75.8 to 81.1ppg).

They were still a good defensive team against Melbourne late in the season as United couldn't hit open shots, but their last four games against Sydney they leaked 96ppg at 70% on twos, where Sydney averaged 87 for the season.

The Kings recognised that if you spread the floor and stay composed against their pressure the interior was a weakness, and other teams are doing this well at the moment too.

Magnay was sitting at end of the bench.

I thought all the close calls went to taipans, Roth got a tech, when on a back to back play at one end Cairns go to the stripe and at the other in the same situation, no call.

Thanks Dunkman, didn't see him.

JJ's should of squeezed more cap to retain Josh Adams. He was a mini-Cotton towards the end of the season and frankly was probably playing better than cotton at the time. I don't think they gave his input enough credit. Imagine the cats had done the same after Cotton's first stint.

Adams single handily won them games coming from behind with some crazy shooting. So for them to expect the same success without that kind of a offensive spark may be a challenge.

The issue is defense. If they still had Adams it would possibly be worse.

"Although Hogg, Deng and Adnam have hit some big shots"

Pretty sure Adnam wasn't playing for the Taipans :)

Cotton is not renowned for defense (not bad but not necessarily elite in the department). Nor is Chris Goulding, Corey Webster, Stiendl. Adams was there for shotmaking, instant offense etc..

They have a whole bunch of other defensive players who dont necessarily light up the score board.

Tough game to watch as a JJs supporter, especially the 3rd quarter where the Taipans exploded.


Credit to Cairns they played with confidence and hit some huge shots. Hogg is dangerous and Deng shot the lights out.

While there is no doubt Adams won games late in the season last year, on the other hand it could be argued throughout the rest of the season his hero ball cost them.

Have not seen the JJs play as badly at the defensive end, there is some work to do on the offensive end as well.

When is Magnay due to return? He should address some of these defensive gaps.

Word from JJs earlier in week hoping for Magnay back in November.

Mcdaniel is a big out as well

@Scout

I'm hoping they come good, I thought your imports looked for themselves only, McVeigh needs a lot more shots. Roth has proved a good coach but thought Bairstow should be used more than Krislovic. While Krislovic is bigger Bairstow does a lot dirty work better. A fit Magnay might change it all.

"Mcdaniel is a big out as well"

Very true.

i'm not a fan of white so when Sam and Clint come back hopefully he doesnt get minutes.

@ Dunkman

I love this sort of discussion - thanks for spending the time to actually post some stuff that is considered.

Yep Bairstow does the hard yards and could have slowed the scoring down, Krislovic was getting buckets so it is either stop scoring or stop them scoring.


Magnay will make a huge difference, so will Magette controlling games and starting to improve on 1 from 11 shooting and turnovers. I rate Magette and expect him to improve.

Defence and confidence in each other in offence will as well. Yep the two new imports seemed to isolate a lot which was similar to Adams etc early last year needs to be some faith in the system as well as individual brilliance.

White needs a bit of structure to score should not be the go to.

Have a soft spot for the Taipans being another regional small dollars team will back them against other teams. Have obviously taken a different tact to putting the team together than the JJs.

The Jackjumpers will evolve and I'm looking forward to watching it

Any info on why Magette sat most of the second half?