Very tough game, I like it. 29-24 United. SEM pressing and causing turnovers but bench can't keep the pressure up. Mitchell got another sideline bollocking from king. Daniel’s is going to be very good. King and Vickerman had to many coffees, they are both going mad on the sideline. Edwards causing problems for SEM.

United got so much depth, Krebs in very good form.

Brown looking like the best NBL defender since Damian Martin. Relentless. The gulf between him and the guy who replaces him is a big as it gets.

Physical defensive game but high scoring.

Has brown won DPOY yet?

I love it, very physical game, United's three imports are top shelf. Maldonado looks like a bit street baller, Brown is magnificent defender, shot not dropping tonight though. Glover and Mitchell struggling on D. United so strong across the board, Vickerman really riding the refs. Refs been very good. 52- 46 United.

Sobey unguardable

Brown and Sobey score, but the class of MU leaves them up by 5 with a quarter to play

Also not sure if it's the same for others but the slow/double post problems on here seem to have been fixed, thanks Isaac

Lack depth hurting SEM. Imo Moller is a Josh king type player and he's OS.

Phoenix led this 70-66

Now losing 75-97

Ouch

Early days but MU look so good, so much balance and CG43 still to come in

SEM need another scorer

Lack depth hurting SEM. Imo Moller is a Josh king type player and he's OS.

Love Foxwell but need a point guard import, Foxwell got time. United just so strong, again there imports are excellent, plus very strong local core. Bowen plus 22, Walker plus 20. King is excellent coach but there doesn't seem to be any plan B. Bench also not so strong. Maldonado is a street baller, Glover not his best day, Mitchell can’t play D, Foster getting 20 minutes because he can. I’m not certain how much money SEM are paying but the squad has got gaps in it. Brown should go back to three spot and bring in an import four.

A congratulations to the refs as well, physical game reffed very well. Far superior.

I can't remember any NBL team getting more even contributions from 1 through 10 as this United team.

And the best outside shooter in the league still to come back.

I know it's stupidly early but this 3-0
United is a top 4 lock already and half way through the season will lock up top 2 IMO.

Hate getting on this bandwagon but MU certainly does look the goods (and that's bad). Not only 3 and 0, but also by decent margins (56 pts over 3 games).

The impact of Goulding's absence amounts to addition by subtraction. How is he even going to get court-time, whose minutes will he take, why? If it ain't broke, and all that.

On paper, there may be better looking rosters than MU's, but MU have definitely set the standard.

Yep United are for real, and it doesn't even feel like they've hit their stride yet. Ili is Ili, Doyle/Walker have been dynamic, Edwards has shown flashes (outside of the FT line), and Delaney has been perfectly competent... but that bench depth has been the big thing for me so far. Dyson has been super impressive for a 17 year old, Krslovic looks like NBL1 Krslovic and must have Cairns and Tassie wondering where THIS had been, Krebs is becoming more reliable/consistent, and even Tom Wilson has been perfectly playable at this level... another AFL "what if" story, I thought he looked very capable during his short Kings stint years ago.

Melb do look a bit better than I thought they would but why the OTT hype? They struggled to beat a decent team like Tasmania and then pumped two crap teams in NZB and SEM and SEM who most predicted bottom 4 when they had 3 imports are only playing with 2 imports right now.

Yeah depth has been the difference- Daniels looks better than everyone predicted, Krebs and Krslovic in career best form and Wilson's proving he belongs in NBL.

This shouldn't surprise us because Vickerman does get lots out of his players- other examples include Rob Loe, Mitch McCarron, Xavier Rathan-Mayes who all performed better at United than elsewhere, while lesser lights like Mason Peatling, Sam McDaniel, Craig Moller and David Okwera were empowered with opportunity and contributed at a young age at United, and haven't replicated that elsewhere (Okwera) or haven't significantly improved since leaving United despite being young when leaving (Peatling, McDaniel).

SEM lack depth, to play that up and in D for 40 minutes is impossible unless you got plenty rotation. King got have a fall back option, defend in the half court or even a zone. Only ten players hit the court and when you take out garbage time, some played very few minutes. It's the as last season, lack depth in the big spots, Gak ok, Brown in Europe plays the three spot, Hunter and then really no fours .
United on the other side coin look great, imo Bowen played better than Delaney yesterday and Krebs is solid at both ends. As Gazey said, Daniel’s keeps hitting threes he’s going to be top five.

Zodiac we know you don't like United but it's not hype recognising a pair of 20+ wins and a road win against Tassie who are perpetual contenders and United's bogey team (13-8 vs United before this season).

As long as Vickerman is there, Melbourne will always be Melbourne. And they do it while never going for flashy signings, just people they know can get the job done. Doyle gives them a bit more firepower they might have been lacking, but he is a smart signing. No reason why they won't find themselves in another GF series.

King is a good coach, but what are SEM doing? I think they have been a bit too deliberately conservative with their imports. Obviously missing out on Moore was a blow, and they nailed Brown, but ther choices including VB seem odd. Early days though.

SEM doesn't lack depth as such, but as the commentators pointed out multiple times, they need another scorer who can steady the ship when Sobey's off the court.

I was actually thinking last week SEM need someone like Tyson Walker, then funnily enough Drewy said exactly the same last night.

SEM are weird, they always try and cheap out on imports and end up with so many duds for such a new club. Tassie despite being younger seem to be run more professionally.

SEM were run like a personal fifedom of Tommy Greer for all his ex-Tigers mates, who has since left the club but made sure their former coach Simon Mitchell was re-hired as GM. Not good enough to coach the team anymore but good enough to run the team lol

They're going the same way as the Bullets did with Sobey where the team is seemingly built around him with him being the offence. There's no offence outside of Sobey, they had an all offence/no defence import in VB but cut him, because he doesn't play defence which the coach King wants, even though King supposedly signed him.

They haven't been a serious club from day one and even though I have no proof I suspect they were created by LK to create competition and a rivalry for LK's baby United but intentionally nobbled financially with people like Greer put in charge to keep them as #2 in Melbourne.

Never change Zodiac, you're a laugh a minute.

SEM have been a mid-high spending team (2nd in NBL in 2023 according to ESPN figures). They had Mitch Creek for 5 or 6 years who was a marquee that plenty of other clubs would've loved to have, and they've had a very strong roster at times (2021 for example when they were a few moments of Jock Landale brilliance away from a very likely championship).

Early days, but MU have certainly stamped themselves as the team to beat this year.

No one's the "team to beat" a week into the season when half the main contenders haven't played an actual NBL game yet.

United's just doing what they always do- it's looking like a 9th consecutive winning season under Vickerman, but whether they have the necessary top-end talent remains to be seen.

LV, point taken but we aren't putting our houses on it, yet. Just saying innocent things like, they (MU) are already looking f%*king awesome!

You speculated that, "it's looking like a 9th consecutive winning season under Vickerman," and finished the statement with "but whether they have the necessary top-end talent remains to be seen." Both ends of that statement are just as questionable.

They aren't really. United have already started 3-0 that start goes a long way to finishing above .500, at the same time they don't have the top-end talent to likely be a legit contender.

I've said before I think Vick is far and away the best coach in the league and always maximises the talent of his rosters.

The last couple of years United has gone agonisingly close to winning the championship both years, yet haven't had anyone in the top 5 players in the league. Arguably JLA in 2024 was capable of being at that level (he was in his previous NBL stint in 2022) but missed some games for "personal reasons" during the season and never quite performed at that level.

It's a testament to Vickerman's coaching that they got so close (it was only McVeigh hitting the greatest shot of all time that denied them in 2024), without having a legit MVP contending level player. I suspect similar will happen again this year. They have the look of a team whose season will finish in the semi finals or another runner up.

JLA missed the start of that season due to the broken wrist on his shooting hand he got in Libya or wherever during the off-season. His wrist was never right that season hence the reluctance to shoot much.

Although actually, it must be noted CG43 did make All-NBL 1st team in 2023-24, and finished 2nd in the MVP. So I guess that contradicts my point above re 2024. But it was certainly true in 2025.

Yeah I'd forgotten about the broken wrist- could've been a factor for sure. His outside shooting game has never progressed despite looking promising a few years ago.

I agree, SEM spend money but they never get the mix right, name me one player on SEM bench that would get on united bench, perhaps Glover, but even he was poor yesterday. It's gone from Greer to Mitchell, tells you a lot. My mate who knows an agent had a player that King was very keen on but never even got a call. One player that looked good, Aliir hasn’t been seen or heard from, who knows. Is he long term injury or bolted OS. Creek was magnificent player, still is but never had the right players around him. In Kellys first season they looked good until Cummins got the bullet and Moller went down, as they say the rest is history. Foxwell is going to be great but now they really need a player like Tyson Walker to steady the ship and after Hunter and Brown who is really a three, who they got, Gak ok, Mitchell struggled defending any one that can move, King twice yesterday got into him, yes I know the commentators talk him up, again,it’s the old mates act and Aliir has gone missing. This squad should still make top four, still got an import spot left but compared to JJs they are so far behind. Hopefully they don’t get twitchy on King and let him build something.

Maldonado started 20 games for his German team last year, DJ Mitchell was a starter for Brisbane a few years ago, Glover would get minutes on any NBL team, Gak's no slouch- Depth isn't the issue but they do lack playmaking and creative scoring ability.

Long-term their issue has been coaching, King's the first good coach they've had.

Maldonado is an individual, ball sticks in his hand, he's an import coming off the, bench. Mitchell Brisbane team were very poor and he was sat down for while because he gave the coach crap, again because he’s a shooter and wouldn’t play D. I said Gak was ok and Glover was fine but poor last night.

You've said in multiple different posts that SEM lack depth. I don't think that's right- they're deeper than many other teams this season. Agree they have some needs but those should be improved with an import replacement for VB.

Let's be real it's a crap roster.

By depth I mean their bench is better than NZ, Cairns, Brisbane and possibly a few others, and it'll get better again when another current starter is added to it.

Agree though Zodiac - they lack top-end talent, and scoring so it's one of the weaker rosters overall (although again a new import might shift the dial). But I'm optimistic King will get them firing and they'll be an over-achiever.

Edwards is another player coming from g league and ready to go in nbl.

The naysayers like to claim g league stats don't correspond but there's a lot of imports proving this wrong again this season

Edwards is averaging 13 & 7 not sure he's a great example.

Well he averaged 12 and 8 in G League... so statistically it's comparable.

There's more to basketball than scoring stats!

So you believe there bench is better than three out ten teams, that's not a great recommendation to qualify high up in finals position. They still have an import spot left and Aliir might turn up, who knows so season certainly not done, to repeat my self should be top four.
Totally agree, stats are not everything. Mason Peatling certainly proves that, Sam McDaniel just another.

I think we're getting posts confused. The posts about stats were referring to zodiac thinking Edwards isn't a good example of a g league player coming to nbl and being high level

McDaniel just limped off, it was a strange looking collision.

Sorry wrong game.