They'll be fine, sunshine

Bit of a gamble getting the stat-getters from less successful teams.

Team is unbalanced, but too much talent to stay down for long. They will find a way to make it work id expect.

lol sensible... nice try, OP...

Just because they've spent big, doesn't mean that they should be top of the ladder... More often than not, if they just get players that put up big numbers on other teams and don't think about how they all fit together, it's NOT a recipe for success...

Have to say, as a non-Melbournite, it's good to seem them down the bottom of the ladder... Now if only the wheels could fall off the little red Wildcats wagon somehow, it would be a pretty good season! :D

Expect Melbourne to make some moves in the next week as they won't sit back without trying something.

Do they move Prather.....like how far is he, they need to make a call!

Long is great on O but doesn't play D and certainly doesn;t fit next to either local big man?

Trimble is all stats and no substance doesn't make anyone better and kills the offence with Goulding in particular needing the ball to move to be effective which is a bit ain't the way Trimble plays.

Expect 2 of the three imports to be gone

They made some massive moves in the off-season trying to go one better.

Swapping out an ageing Boone and bringing in Long, was IMHO a huge net positive.

Losing Ware, IMHO the most valuable player in the league last season, was a huge loss. Whatever the reasons and politics. Trimble isn't Ware.
Ware was the key to that team, and without him they are basically starting from scratch.

I can understand the attraction in bringing Prather back. He won 3 consecutive rings. But he's also become injury prone, basically hasn't player for a year, and still has a problem with his knee.

Taken in totla, they have changed out all of their imports and most of their core. That's a Sydney move, and it was always going to take a while to get them playing as a team.

What I find crazy, is that they did nothing to address their one glaring weakness; their lack of depth at the 4 spot. In fact I'd say that losing Moller, they have gone backwards.
I didn't mind that they took a gamble on Jois last season, although in deciding who to move on out of Trist and TSM, they probably got that wrong. Barlow couldn't run out the season last time, and is now older and more injury prone. TSM aint it, and JLA is as raw as an egg.

Juggling your bench is critical, especially with the cap in place. And they just haven't done it well. You don't need 6 GOOD players on the bench, but you do need a decent rotation, injury cover, and some flexibility.
It's nice to have somebody like Pledge on your bench, I just hope they aren't paying him too much. He's a backup old-skool inside centre, and that's all he can play.
At the other end they have Ili, who is fast becoming the most over-rated crab in the NBL. As backup PG he's a probably a step down from Adnam, again that's his only role.
With Blubbles starting, their bench has nothing in between.

Considering their poor bench, they should have pursued a Next Star.

And yeah, considering how much of the season Prather is missing, they really should have found a better import.

If I was a fan of any other team, I'd be annoyed about the commentary on this forum

NBL is a strong league, United are playing without Prather (and have missed Goulding, Barlow, Pledger in other games)- they're 1-4 but have lost a few close ones and could easily be 3-2 or even 4-1.

What did you expect, that they were just gonna walk all over everybody? Pretty disrespectful to other teams IMO.

The talent gap isn't so much that United can phone it in

Remains to be seen whether United's squad has the right balance. Time will tell. Right now, my concern is the Defense- two downgrades at that end, with Boone and Casper gone who were both elite defensively.

If Prather was playing we would not be having this conversation.

The season is impacted by injuries, they will recover and when they do only Sydney can match them.

Prather playing help cuase then we don't have to see as much of Acuil & Smith Milner who are ready to regularly contribute on a winning team.

Prather missed all of last season in Russia due to a knee injury and the same knee has kept him out the first five games of this season too.

Not only was it a risk to sign him but a very big gamble to give him a 2 year deal meaning they're stuck with him for the season and clearly with all the money they've spent poaching these players from other teams they probably can't afford a half decent temp replacement so going with Stith as he was already here.

The only positive in all this are these problems happening at the start of the season rather than the end they've got a lot of time to wait on Prather bring him back when he's cherry ripe then hope to go on a run. They only need to make the playoffs they will still be the title favourites if Prather is healthy in February.

This is all on Vince Crivelli - he's spending obscene amounts of money but it feels like all he is doing is assembling a fantasy league side. How much basketball knowledge does he actually have? I do remember many eyebrows were raised when he was originally appointed as CEO.

Utd would still have Ware if Crudelli didn't lie directly to him when questioned about whether he was the top earner at the club. Bad move since imports naturally talk with one another and Kennedy revealed what he was on. So the club chief parlayed overspending on an unproven import with putting off the engine of the team. Great leadership. I thought Ware was injured in the latter part of last season but when all of this was revealed a while after the playoffs it makes sense.

CrocMedia must be feeling a little sick right now with their ownership stake.

"If Prather was playing we would not be having this conversation.
The season is impacted by injuries, they will recover and when they do only Sydney can match them."

ROFL

So, if Prather was fit & healthy we wouldn't be having a conversation about him not being fit & healthy?
Thanks for that, any other pearls you'd like to share?

Prather, at his best, was the best SF in the league. Unfortunately that was 3 years ago.
If and when he comes back, will he still be that good? And will he be able to play minutes needed?

Prather was, hopefully is a plus defender, they need someone that can play defence, problem is long as a rim protector is just not that good or smart. Hopefully Prather is able to protect him somewhat, however who knows. On offence they tend to take some horrible shots, long took a one legged fadeaway vs Perth and there is a real sense of I can take and make anything, he can, but that thinking doesn't win championships.

I imagine with that many talented offensive players, on short term deals there is a real need to get mine to get paid, you see guys looking for their own shot in social ball, imagine these guy with bigger egos and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line... I would want my numbers too.

Vince was great runny Sandy in SEABL as GM they had a good record

#770988 - good point, I was going to include it but forgot to mention the Prather aspect. Utd were struggling to hang on to a playoff spot before Felix arrived who helped them win the top seed to setup the run to the title.

Didn't know Vince was a barber. Amazing.

A quick scroll of this thread shows 3 idiotic participants which makes a sensible discussion highly unlikely.

Trimble is a serious downgrade from Ware.
Why sign an injured Prather.

Couldn't underestimate the loss of Henare in all this,it must have some sort of impact,McCarron seems panicked in tight situations,for a player of his standing some really poor decisions and turnovers,throw in no Casper and it does escalate there lack of a real floor general,there performance in the NBA games was pretty impressive so they maybe still carrying travel effects,to much talent to not make play offs but need to get moving .

"A sensible discussion about Melbourne United"

OP is clearly mistaken in posting here.

At the end of the day, United are 1-4 but they've lost 3 of those games by 3 points or less.

If they were 3-2, everyone would be talking about how they're championship favourites, because even without Prather they're still near the top of the ladder.

People are so fickle.

At the end of the day, United are 1-4 but they've lost 3 of those games by 3 points or less.

If they were 3-2, everyone would be talking about how they're championship favourites, because even without Prather they're still near the top of the ladder.

People are so fickle.

Having said that, I'm not counting on Prather being the saviour either. Time will tell. I just think it's funny how everyone thought United was so stacked and so good, when the smart money was always on Perth at $5.50 (and probably Sydney too) just like last year the smart money was on Perth at $6.00. And now United's screwed cos they're 1-4.

1-4 doesn't worry me.

1-7 would though- at that point, the entire season would be starting to look in some danger.