Roth reveals: Why we couldn’t wait for McVeigh

Tasmania coach Scott Roth has weighed in on Championship hero Jack McVeigh’s move to the Cairns Taipans, noting that a return to the JackJumpers was never a likely scenario.

Although McVeigh’s contract with the JackJumpers ran until the end of the NBL27 campaign, he had already spent more than a year away from the club, after signing an NBA deal with the Houston Rockets.

Roth explained that the timelines simply did not match for a possible fairy-tale return, as the club had already finalised its roster and felt confident in its plans for the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 Season.

“I haven't really followed that too much, other than the fact that obviously Jack has been wonderful for us and the timeline of him coming back just did not work,” he told Tasmanian media.

“He's been away for over a year now and when we had a chance to sign Josh Bannan, it was a no-brainer at that time and not to wait. He is the perfect replacement to fill that spot and also play the five.

“At the same time, we were recruiting David Johnson, who we had been following for months during the season, and we landed those two relatively quickly. When I go to these guys and tell them what the landscape looks like and how we are going to put this team together, I cannot lie to them.

“Once we heard that Jack wanted to wait again through the summer to go through the NBA process, it just knocked us out of the park as far as, ‘we are not going to wait for that whole result to end’. We moved forward and put the roster together.

“Jack has been removed from us for a year. It is not like Bryce Cotton leaving after two or three months and going down the road and you could wait on him, or Matthew Dellavedova jumping from Melbourne to Sydney. That is in the same year and within a few months and you would want to wait to see what they would do. This was a year removed and we have to put a team together.

“The timelines were just not aligned and you cannot squeeze people in and push them in and figure out how you are going to have minutes when I have already promised other people what their job role would look like. Why would they come here and all of a sudden say, four months later, ‘Jack McVeigh is back’?”

Roth expressed great respect for McVeigh and offered his best wishes for the forward’s next chapter with the Taipans.

“Jack has earned the right to go on and play wherever he wants to go play and make as much money as he has, and that term for him or any player is short,” he continued.

“If he chooses to go to Cairns or somewhere in Europe or whatever, it is a great credit to him, but to be honest with you, it is a great credit to my staff and all the hard work they have done to get him in this position to do that. It is kind of a yin and yang thing, but ultimately he earned the right to go do what he wants to do and we support him to go on his way.

“Basketball is quite transactional with players and the thing that we are all proud of is that it seems like everyone that leaves, people here are quite passionate about when they leave. So we must be doing it right that we are getting the right kind of people in here, but we are also advancing their careers and getting them better and getting better jobs. Jack falls into that category.

“Jack has earned the right ... we got a nice buyout from Jack to say goodbye and thank you.”

Roth said he expects McVeigh will receive a warm welcome from JackJumpers fans when he returns to MyState Bank Arena.

“Milton Doyle coming back in and Fab Krslovic and any of our former players that come in, Isaac White, Matt Kenyon, any of the guys that have come back, I would assume that they would be quite proud of these guys,” he added.

“We are proud of them because we have propelled their careers in a lot of different ways and allowed them to get other jobs and move forward. In Jack’s case, as in Milt or anyone else that would come back, it should be a standing ovation for what they have done and how the culture has been built here. There are foundational pieces that drove us to where we are now.”