THE CAIRNS Taipans have added to their perimeter presence in a big way heading into the 2025/26 NBL season, adding sharpshooter Reyne Smith to the roster as the Aussie returns after a successful stint in the college system.

Smith has signed a two-year deal with the Taipans following the Tasmanian’s time honing his craft in the NCAAM, having a significant impact with the Louisville Cardinals. He spent time with two teams in the NBA Summer League in the Denver Nuggets and Washington Wizards, but now returns to his home country to start his career in the NBL.

He is coming off a career-best year as well, ranking third for Louisville on the scoring front having posted 13.1 points per game, and emerging as a top performer in all of college basketball when it came to having an impact from behind the arc.

Three-point shooting is Smith’s one-wood, and he produced the best numbers of his career from behind the arc. He nailed a whopping 107 threes for the season, which ranked him in the top 15 of the entire NCAAM, and he did this while missing a hefty chunk of games, averaging 3.45 makes per game, which was third in the country too.

His most memorable performance with the Cardinals came in January, where he set the program record for most three-pointers in a game, knocking down 10 as the team recorded a big win over the SMU Mustangs.

It was the type of performance that put him on the map nationally, and there was the potential that he could have been a bolter for the 2025 NBA Draft, although he went unselected and missed out on a two-way contract in the Summer League.

However, his addition to the NBL immediately makes him one of the best shooters in the competition, and he will undoubtedly tear games apart in the coming couple of years as he looks to play a role in the Taipans returning to postseason action.

Smith will be joining returning coach Adam Forde on the roster, who will certainly look to utilise the shooting power of the team’s newest recruit and pair him with a point guard who can be creative with his passing.

Currently listed to suit up for the Taipans in the 2025/26 season are Sam Waardenburg, Kody Stattmann, Kyrin Galloway, Alex Higgins-Titsha and Kyle Adnam, with the Taipans set to make even more moves as the season approaches in the coming months.

The 22-year-old guard also developed his game at the Centre of Excellence, has represented Australia at international level in the past, and will be hoping to build on his most recent outing at the Summer League, where he dropped 17 points with the Nuggets.