United building "to be better" in NBL25

Melbourne United attacked NBL24 with one import, one Next Star, and a stable of elite local talent, and although they fell to the Tasmania JackJumpers at the final hurdle of the season, Dean Vickerman is targeting a similar roster make-up for NBL25.

United finished the regular season as the top seed, given their league-best 20-8 record. They defeated the Illawarra Hawks in the Playoffs to secure their place in the Championship Series, in which they lost to Tasmania in a swinging five-game battle.

It has been confirmed Jo Lual-Acuil Jr will not return next season, while Zac Triplett and Malith Machar have also been let go by the club.

Dean Vickerman says while he has less time to build his roster than this time last year, he’s still targeting top local talent to create the foundation of his team.

“We had the luxury of an extra month last year to really get processes done on how we build our team. This year going to the last game of the year there’s a little bit more urgency about the timing to make sure we get everything perfect in preparation for free agency,” Vickerman told MU Media.

“We’re a long way ahead of last year with the number of players we already have committed to the club on multi-year deals.

“Is there a high level Australian or New Zealand talent that can fill, especially, these center positions and across the board are those opportunities there? If not, we’ll look at the import market. In a perfect world it will be a similar scenario to this season’s make-up.

"It’s important for us to say ‘we were close, but we weren’t good enough’. We need to get better and we’re excited about how we build this roster to be better than last year."

That departure of Lual-Acuil Jr and Next Star Ariel Hukporti means there will be at least two big changes on United’s roster next season, as the center pair acted as the anchor for what went on to become the competition’s best defence.

Lual-Acuil Jr started the season sidelined with a wrist injury, but bounced back to be named to the All-NBL Second Team. Hukporti himself recovered from the serious Achilles injury that knocked out his NBL23 season to find himself projected as a second-round pick on a string of draft boards.

The likes of Will Magnay and Isaac Humphries have both re-signed with their NBL24 clubs which has diluted the market of established, local centers United could add to their roster, but Vickerman says Melbourne is not necessarily searching for like-for-like replacements for the Lual-Acuil Jr and Hukporti.

“Certainly a big area to fill with our bigs moving into this free agency,” he said. “As we try to fill those roles we’ll look for the defensive element that was really potent for us this year, but we’ll also try and add a little bit more shooting to our bigs as well.

“Jo has had some amazing opportunities over the last few years and China was one he explored two seasons ago and he came back to us, and now there are some great opportunities for him to continue that path, but there is also a path and an unfinished business about where he sits in the NBA landscape as well.

“We wish him absolutely the best in his pursuit of both those overseas opportunities.

“Ariel, our job as a club was to always put him in the best position possible for this year’s draft and after a year-long injury I think we achieved what we needed to achieve as a club, and himself as well with the growth he’s shown to put himself on those draft boards and hopefully have the opportunity to be an NBA player.

“I’m sure he’ll go to Summer League and it will be difficult for an NBA team not to put him on their roster.”