IQ test: United's smarts already shining through

He may have only been in Melbourne for 48 hours, but United recruit Josh Oduro is already impressed by the level of play among the playing group.

That group includes himself, Joe Ingles and Luke Travers, who were all in the NBA last season (not to mention the soon-to-be-arriving Cole Anthony), as well as international players Chris Goulding, Shea Ili and Sam Waardenburg.

With that talent level and standards set by coach Jacob Chance, who himself was with the Austin Spurs in the NBA G League, Oduro believes puts United in a strong spot heading into the Hungry Jack's NBL27 Season.

"We've got a lot of people that play hard," Oduro said during Friday's media availability.

"We've got a lot of smart basketball players, and Chancey is doing a great job just keeping us together and showing us the system, so I didn't really feel like it was too hard my first day out there.

"Everyone's playing the right way, and so that's a nice thing.

"I've got a little bit of prior knowledge with some of these guys, like LT, Joe Ingles, but, you know, just continuing to get out there, get a lot of reps, talking to them on and off the court.

"I think we'll be a really close-knit group."

Coach Chance says while the group is headed in the right direction, it's only week two of training camp.

"It's still early days, and importantly, we're trying to be very collaborative in our approach with the coaching staff and the playing group," Chance said.

"There's some things we're still working out, but there's also some really clear non-negotiable identities that we want to have.

"It's about setting those, getting feedback from the players and making sure we're narrowing our focus to those things daily.

"They're much bigger things at the moment, but as guys start to trickle in, you're starting to see the IQ of our team take over, and they're finding the little intricate things they can be better at.

"As we get going, we'll put more language and parameters around those things to kind of guide us as we move forward.

"[But] as I said to the group at the end of training, we're trying to do something really hard, which is win a championship.

"Competitive practices and having intent when you step on the floor helps you and the team, so we can all get to the level we need to together."

Melbourne open their Hungry Jack's NBL27 Season on Saturday, September 19 against Adelaide at John Cain Arena.