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Melbourne United’s roster looked remarkable coming into the 2015-16 season and that all came together in Round 1 with two big victories leaving them as the early NBL team to beat for the championship.
It’s only one week into the season and things can change, but based on pure talent and with how the group played as a unit in wins over the Townsville Crocodiles and Illawarra Hawks, Melbourne deserve to be championship favourites.
They weren’t the only impressive team with perennial contenders Perth Wildcats terrific on the road beating the Adelaide 36ers minus captain Damian Martin. The Sydney Kings were also outstanding beating the Cairns Taipans at home despite missing superstar Josh Childress.
Last year’s grand finalists New Zealand and Cairns both suffered big road losses and had impressive wins at home in the opening round while the Sixers looked good beating the Breakers, but struggled against the Wildcats.
Only the Crocs lost their two matches of the weekend as the young team looks to find their feet and a way to be competitive against teams with much deeper and experienced talent pools, and significantly more resources.
On the other hand, Melbourne were the only team to win their opening two matches of the season and they looked dominant, and supremely impressive in doing so.
The club has put enormous time, effort and money into building the United brand since discarding the Tigers name, logo and colours in a bid to bring Victorian basketball together.
They did assemble a talented roster last season as well including Jordan McRae, Stephen Dennis, Mark Worthington, David Barlow and Daniel Kickert.
Things started badly with Darryl McDonald replacing Chris Anstey as coach after one game, and despite the enormous individual talent things never clicked and they didn’t seriously threaten for a playoff berth.
That was a massive underachievement and the club’s ownership knew that and went about rebuilding the team from the coach right down to the majority of the playing squad.
Only Kickert, Nate Tomlinson and Barlow remain while McDonald was replaced Dean Demopoulos, who may be new to Australia but has high American college and NBA experience.
His contacts helped to lure Hakim Warrick to the NBL to join Melbourne with 532 games of NBA experience but the big man was only the last piece of the puzzle to fall after Breakers championship winner Ekene Ibekwe asked for a release.
Chris Goulding spent last season playing in Spain but was quick to return to Melbourne and the NBL following the signing of Demopoulos as coach. Guulding continues to hold out hope of attracting attention in the NBA based on his ability to put up big numbers, shoot well and create his own shot.
Todd Blanchfield has developed into one of the best Australian players in the NBL over the last 24 months with the Townsville Crocodiles, and was offered a deal he couldn’t refuse to join Melbourne this season as well.
After McRae proved an import who could deliver big numbers but not necessarily lead the team to success last season, the import guard was the biggest move for United to make and the signing of Stephen Holt appears one that will only help them be a championship contender.
Majok Majok has signed out of college as an emerging young big man with Igor Hadziomerovic another US college player joining Melbourne.
Combine those signings with the remaining Kickert, Tomlinson and Barlow, and Melbourne had enormous talent coming into the new season. It looked good at the pre-season Blitz with United going through unbeaten, but that’s not always a good indicator of things to come.
However, their first two games of the season were outstanding starting with a 99-84 win in Townsville over the Crocs and then backing up with a 93-81 win in the game of the opening round against the Hawks at Hisense Arena on Sunday.
Already, Warrick appears capable of dominating inside for United and providing a huge presence around the rim, while Holt can score and create for his teammates, Goulding can put up huge numbers and Kickert is the best shooting big man the NBL has perhaps ever seen.
Add to that Blanchfield, who was the best player of the opening round starting with a career-high 29 points with seven threes in Townsville on Thursday and 15 points and 15 rebounds on Sunday, and Melbourne have at least five players capable of dominating at any point.
Majok also showed good signs that he can be a good big man in the NBL immediately, Hadziomerovic and Tomlinson are solid back-up guards and if Barlow gets healthy, he provides enormous NBL championship and Olympics experience and poise.
There is a long way to go obviously, but it’s going to take a horror injury run, an implosion from inside the group or another team to rise to a remarkable level to knock off Melbourne United as the championship favourites.
Round 2 fixtures (AEDT)
Wednesday
Illawarra Hawks vs New Zealand Breakers (WIN Entertainment Centre) – Fox Sports News 7.30pm
Thursday
Sydney Kings vs Townsville Crocodiles (Qantas Credit Union Centre) – Fox Sports News 7.30pm
Friday
Melbourne United vs Adelaide 36ers (Hisense Arena) – Fox Sports News 7.30pm
Perth Wildcats vs New Zealand Breakers (Perth Arena) – Fox Sports News 9.30pm
Saturday
Sydney Kings vs Illawarra Hawks (Qantas Credit Union Arena) – Fox Sports News 5.30pm
Cairns Taipans vs Townsville Crocodiles (Cairns Convention Centre) – Fox Sports News 7.30pm