They said both of the games will be live streamed Thursday night in Bendigo and Saturday night in Knox.

Melbourne playing without their 3 imports ???? That is disappointing.

Melbourne United said it would be streamed on their facebook

Might have to change their name from "the best team ever" to "the most overrated team ever" good on ya melbourne boys killing them on defence without ANY imports

Gaze wont be looking to his bench too often.. Might see a 7 man rotation for the entire season. Its bleak beyond Kickert.

When Bogut is on the floor Sydney have a hard time rotating to the open man. Bogut is nailed in on protecting the rim...

Melbourne looks like a well drilled team, who have a lot of plays to get their players open shot. Kings do not yet have enough set plays to get the open shot. Always looked like we were shooting against the defence. Although I also think Gaze is playing more of the bench than he would in the regular season.

If Bogut can stay healthy and stay out of foul trouble and play 25 minutes a game, they'll probably be OK with Wear, Kickert and Pineau, Deng in the frontcourt for the other 15 minutes.

Having said that, Wear plays a lot like Kickert. Given how much scoring they have, I would've thought they'd go for someone whose strengths were more in line with doing the dirty work in the paint.

For United, I'm still interested in how McCarron slots in. He looked comfortable playing point last night (in the first half that I saw, anyway), but with Ware there, he'll be a spare parts man playing back up PG time, plus time at the 2 and 3.

McCarron I think will complement Ware and CG quite well. I like him.

Ultimately if their frontcourt has weaknesses- eg: Lack of rim protection, interior toughness, rebounding other than Bogut, then they'll replace Wear.

They've put too much into this season to let it slip away because of one hole that could be plugged by replacing an import.

Sydney then daylight....

True,

Wear is similar to Kicket. Kings need post up player. Also Bogut is more effective in the low post than the high post.

Pineau as I have said before, is Gaze's mate, and not NBL level. Defensive player of the year - a joke. Bowen, Deng Deng and Deng Acouth, should be rotated in before Pineau.

The NBL has mostly got traditional bigs:

Brandt, Jervis
Boone, Pledger
Jawai
Hodgson, Bairstow mostly plays near hoop also
Ogilvy

NZ and Adelaide may cause some headaches for Bogut. Still, he's a smart player and he'll be trying to hedge enough to put a hand in the face and anticipate the drive so they don't blow by him. I reckon he'll be fine. He'll get caught out occasionally on the perimeter but his interior defensive work will mean that overall he'll be elite at that end by NBL standards.

Pledger showed last night already that if Bogues isn't going to come out much further than the charge circle on D, then they will just keep shooting comfortable jumpers and it will be a liability... Not sure if that's how he plans to continue to play or it's just because he was in a bit of foul trouble and not quick enough to be able to move his feet first to keep position and didn't want to be blown past, but it's a red flag...

Wear didn't look the goods so far, and agree that they don't need another Kickert... Seemed a bit too eager to get his shot up the few times he had it, but then, so did most... Deng Deng looked good and I think he'll be one of their defensive standouts... but that's not saying much for this Kings team...

Keeping it in perspective though, it's their first game against an NBL level team, they've only had a full team the last couple of weeks, and that window after half time they all just clicked, so I don't think Kings fans will be lighting any fires yet...

As for United, much better drilled and coached and McCarron was great to watch as usual... I seriously doubt that he moved to Melbourne (with that price tag) to come off the bench, but he's the sort of player that would take that on and be the spear tip of the second unit that helps run teams over... Great potential to flourish this season for sure...

What I've seen of David Wear in the preseason he doesn't look much chop at all. Never understood why they went for a poor man's Kickert when they already had the real thing they needed a Majok Majok type.