United's Play for Star Big Revealed

Zhou Qi re-signing for the South East Melbourne Phoenix has become the biggest story in the NBL in the week leading up to the first round of the season.

Although the Chinese centre will miss the Phoenix’s first few games of the new campaign, his addition to a side that already boasts handy tall stocks has elevated South East Melbourne’s credentials in earning a place back in the playoffs.

Initially slated not to return to the NBL for a second season, Qi was a chance of suiting up for the Phoenix’s cross-town rivals, Melbourne United, according to NBL analyst Liam Santamaria. 

“Melbourne made a play,” NBL analyst Liam Santamaria said on The Huddle. “They came in hard at the eleventh hour and they tried to get Zhou Qi and wrestle him out of South East Melbourne’s grip.

“They didn’t get it over the line and now they still have (Ariel) Hukporti on the sidelines and nobody as a replacement.

“That spells to us that they’re going to make a move of some sort.”

The season-ending achilles injury suffered by Hukporti at the Blitz has left United with just one recognised big – returning big man Isaac Humphries.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ariel and his new set of wheels popped in to practice today to catch up with the team following successful achilles surgery. The team presented him with his NBL23 jersey.<br><br>Great to have your smile back at Hoop City, Big A ? <a href="https://t.co/5nNcVZm3Lo">pic.twitter.com/5nNcVZm3Lo</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1574933512133943297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While he’s a swing forward by trade, the strong rebounding 6’7” Jordan Caroline has been thrown up as a suggestion to pinch-hit at the centre position by Adam Gibson, while the likes of Mason Peatling, David Okwera or David Barlow could lock down the power forward position and free up Humphries for more minutes at centre.

“They’ll have to play small because they don’t have any bigs,” NBL commentator Gibson said. “That could be a weapon because other teams and other bigs are going to have to play down, so there’s that foot speed advantage.

“Isaac has to step up. He had a very interrupted year last year and he didn’t play a lot of games … Barlow’s come back, Mason Peatling hasn’t done anything this pre-season after a knee cleanout.

“To find a replacement player that will have to be a local or a Next Star, or they’re going to have to release an import. It’s going to be tough for them to work that out.”