Is that a haiku?

Silky Smooth player.

Lacks the raw athleticism of Prather and Felix, but can play off the ball and shot is much better.

Doesn't need the ball in his hands and will mean melbourne will be a very tough cover for teams.

Two horse race at the moment between united and the kings.

Since when was Mathiang coming to Melbourne?

Ware. Hooley
Goulding. McCarron
Patterson. Moller
Trist/Barlow, Smith-Milner
Boone, Pledger

Stacked with one local spot remaining.
They appear to have enough players upfront can't see Mathiang fitting in.

McCarron early 6th man favorite.

Pretty much a Ramone Moore clone

Hogwash, your count is already at 11, counting Patterson, where's that other local spot fitting in?

My mistake WookieE.

They can still add a next star prospect though.

Yeah I'm not sure McCarron leaves Cairns and other offers on the table to come to Melbourne to come off the bench. I think you can pencil him as a starter likely at SF.

MU may be looking at Lamar Patterson to give some offence off the bench.

I doubt with what theyre paying Mc Carron and the fact he left for a bigger role that he would be coming off the bench.

BTW Patterson is playing the Chinese 2nd league which someone averaged 60 points in last year, so the NBL will be a big step up.

He played in Italy last season I think, which is a similar standard to NBL. The fact they've gone a 2-3 instead of a 3-4 as expected suggests they may have another signing to come.

I could be wrong, I just suspect Melbourne would be aiming higher than Trist/Barlow in the 4-spot. Having said that, after the GF and a healthy pre-season maybe they think Barlow can produce over a full year.

Agree, I wouldn't put it past them though.

Melbourne looks absolutely stacked from 1-3, but a bit light on in the frontcourt.

Moller can defend and rebound well enough to play at the 4, but the lack of low post options in this team is a worry- unless Trist is better than people seem to think?

I don't think you really need a low post scoring option in basketball today. It's a luxury. It's rare to find a post scorer who scores from there as efficiently as most people shoot threes or off cuts or as a roll man. A post player also slows offences down generally. Trist can score in the low post, but I think any team without a post threat isn't disadvantaged in any way.

Yeah not completely sold on Smith Millner yet. He provided a few good hustle minutes towards the end of last year but whether he's ready for 20 mins a game im not sure.

Wesley could be a much bigger blow than we think. He was the catalyst for the mid season serge last year and he's passing out of the post freed up plenty of 3's.

We havnt replaced him and will need to tweak our game style to probably more run and gun without an inside option.

Good as long as the shots are dropping...

With a fit and firing Alex Pledger, I think United will be fine but the question I ask is would they go twin towers and have Boone and the Pledgehammer playing together on court at the same time?

At worst, Vickerman has so many options so I think it will be a fun season ahead for him.

Would anyone have Bubbles coming off the bench behind McCarron?

I think Pledger is more capable and poses more of a threat than Majok. But age will be a factor.
Retaining Ware and Boone is a huge factor.
Patterson remains to be seen, but I feel that is a slight downgrade from Prather/Felix.

So who is the replacement for Wesley?
Can't help feeling that overall they have regressed slightly.