On the flip side, how much emphasis can a team place on hit-and-giggle cricket when adroit batsmen can't free their arms to tickle a smattering of fans in empty stadiums.
Malan and his skipper, Kruger van Wyk, preferred to look at the incremental improvements.
He took heart in the growth of George Worker as an opening batsman but agreed they needed to find him a savvy new-ball partner.
"It's the opening slot we have been struggling with all season."
It goes without saying Malan felt there were areas CD could have been better at.
"We couldn't find a partner for him (Worker) at the other end who could rotate the strike and hit a boundary when needed so it's something we'll have to look at come winter time."
He was satisfied with William Young at first drop in the white-ball format. "We need to find more boundary options and we need to hit boundaries throughout the innings."
Young classy batsman Ben Smith was reduced to running out snake lollies to the huddle every time the wicket fell yet he showed plenty promise in the first four-day Plunket Shield with his second first-class century in the win over Otago Volts in October.
"He played the first seven (T20s) and was hitting the ball like a dream but not finding the gaps, unfortunately.
"He's going to grow and become a better cricketer if you look at last season compared to this one and he's hitting the ball 10 times better," he said, adding at 23 he had lots of time, like other young Stags, to play T20s.
In the bowling department it pleased him that opening bowlers were using the new ball productively in claiming wickets.
Swing seamer Seth Rance, of Wairarapa, was "unbelievable".
"Ajaz Patel, bar today, has been brilliant, going for [fewer] than seven runs an over this campaign," he said of the left-arm spinner from Auckland.
With the one-day Ford Trophy looming, Malan was keen to establish a blueprint for white-ball cricket and have the players buy into the concept in pressure situations.
"Our fielding has been really good in stages and at times really bad in stages," he said, evident in yesterday's dead rubber for CD where fielders fumbled and dropped catches.
Malan felt three victories this summer showed improvement, amid a CD drive to develop home-grown talent but also to set a deadline for the chosen ones to perform.
"There's obviously a 300 per cent improvement from a winning ratio point of view so you put all that in the position we're currently in - not happy about about being fifth but it's the step in the right direction, which is important."
How and Noema-Barnett were dropped just for the remaining T20s on poor stats.
"I"ll be in touch with both of them tomorrow and we'll be training on Wednesday. They were both part of the three-game selection from our Plunket Shield point of view.
"It was purely for their T20 format this weekend. They are quality four-day and one-day players who've had some success in T20s over the years so from that point of view I'm expecting them to be at training come Wednesday."
Malan said he wasn't "over the moon" with where CD were but it was a promising step in the right direction.
"If we win three more games next season to have six wins then we'll be in the playoffs so that's our draft."
