I would give Hall a chance from the bench first it might help him find his spark.

The criticism of Hall is way over the top IMO. He is not the reason the Taipans are struggling. Defence is the main issue for the Taipans along with the fact it is essentially a complete new team combined with a new-rookie coach (that is not a criticism of Kelly). Hall defends quite well and contributes in other areas and Trimble and Newbill are dominant ball players, which I feel is making it difficult for Hall to find his place in the system.

I doubt very much the Taipans are considering cutting him and they probably can't afford to anyway. He is still being given solid minutes and to suggest bringing in Bruce or Heiur and shuffling the minutes around would help the team, is ridiculous IMO. To suggest Hall is a spud (as other anonymous posters have) is also ridiculous. Sometimes, imports take a bit of time to get going and it is early in the season still.

Perhaps an awkward position for Cairns with Hall. I can imagine there might have been an expectation on OKC's part that Hall would get minutes in the NBL.

DKD is shooting 39% from three and scoring 6.2 ppg to Hall's 6.4 in almost half the playing time.

This is a good opportunity for Cairns to continue their tradition of developing good young talent for other clubs to take later.

Points noted Twinkletoes, but coming in as a second round pick in the recent NBA draft, you would expect Hall to be producing way more than what he is at the moment. I think if Cairns keep Devon around until the end of the season, we could expect him to produce the same numbers as Marvelle Harris did for Illawarra. As LoveBroker stated, DKD is producing the same amount of points in almost half the minutes Hall is receiving. Do Cairns then shift Waxy/DKD into the starting line up and bring in Hall off the bench?

Also Hall came into the league with not a bad scoring pedigree in his last season of college. Shot great percentages and averaged nearly 12ppg.

Cairns would be reasonable to expect greater scoring output from him and they havent got that thus far.

Doesnt need to score the house down but a nice little 13-15ppg would give compliment to his defence and give him reason not to be cut.

Hall looks down on confidence when shooting.

Misses a few then gets down and doesn't try to get his shots up which is sad for a flat out shooter like him

Cairns should have got Dennis as their coach, then just change their name to the Cougars

If Cairns had a more established team and structure, I think they would be able to absorb Hall's underperforming a bit more, but surely they need to make a move sitting at 1-4?

If they can afford to upgrade, that is... If he was potentially a longer term project and others in the team were stepping up, it could be worth putting the time in to be able to lock him in for a few seasons, but is that realistic?

WookieE - Hall is not the main problem in my opinion. Defence and being a completely new team with a new and rookie coach are bigger issues in my view. From what the Taipans said (before the Melbourne game) they are not even considering cutting Hall and I wouldn't be if I was them either. Sure, he needs to be scoring more and there is no doubt he is down on confidence at the moment however the whole team and coaching set up is a work in progress.

I doubt the Taipans are in a position to replace him anyway but even if they were it wouldn't necessarily solve the issues that are seeing the Taipans struggle to put wins on the board at the moment.

Defence and being a completely new team with a new and rookie coach are bigger issues in my view.

When Trevor Gleeson took over from Bevo and their defence remained the same, Trevor was accused of admitted publicly to simply copying Bevo's defensive schemes.

Taipans roster has drastically changed and cheapened so it isn't that simple Lovebroker.

Am I alone in detecting emotional fractures in Mike Kelly's bonhomie persona, especially in the closing stages of the Melbourne game?
Here is the contrast:
Nate (as representing others) is reported to like coming to work each day knowing the boss will be unfathomably cheery, regardless. Positives, positives. Followed as may be necessary by a little suggestion that he and the rest of the outfit could possibly improve.
But Fearne demanded a standard of paid professionals and had no compunctions whinging when they failed to deliver. It sorta worked, as the record shows.

In the United environment Mike never had to play 'bad cop'. In Cairns he has to be both 'good/bad'. He's struggling with that, and he'll get no bail-outs from his assistant, nor of course the 'volunteer' 2nd assistant.
He knows how to do it (witness his containment of Walker's opinionated self- indulgence), but it ain't sitting well with him I suggest. He cannot be anything but aware that his career and the team's chances are at tipping point.
Good luck to him, but expect either a melt-down (unlikely) or a very much more hard- headed Kelly.
Devon Hall's ascent/descent should be watched in this context.

Astute, I like it. You're right of course, Mike was never going to maintain the breezy pre-season persona for long. I actually think he'll figure it out though. although perhaps not this year.

on a side note, Aaron fearne must be looking at that team and spewing at the defensive effort.

From a club perspective, why the hell would they get rid of someone that is bringing NBA attention to the club, chances are that they will never play an NBA team but Hall is bringing scouts out to see him.

From a player personal perspective, of course he should lift his game, if his shot isn't dropping then he should focus more on his defence and crashing the boards and getting more involved in the game that way. Cairns has options in his position so it's not all doom and gloom and I think they will still finish higher than Adelaide this season.