Heard about this as a possibility a few weeks ago. Personally I think the rule should be used to sign the biggest name financially possible to bring in more punters.

Kickert will be a solid NBL player, don't get me wrong. Marquee? No.

He will basically be another DJ wouldnt he??

Not sure if he is Marquee but could do quite well i reckon.

i havent seen him play but sounds like a genuine stretch 4 , where as dj is an inside scorer who likes to play some stretch.

kickert will likely do very well and would be a very good signing.

So Melbourne are looking at a roster of

Kickert/MacMillan
Worthington/Walker
Barlow/Odigie
Goulding or import/Corletto
Dennis/Tomlinson

Looks very good to me, especially if Dennis gets back to the form where everyone was expecting him to be MVP last pre-season before he got injured and Barlow/Kickert play well, which i do expect both to happen.

If Goulding stays, they'll have weapons at every position and then with the assist leader from last season coming off the bench.

On paper looks like the United are the best so far this off season.

I can imagine it makes getting PC and Wilson harder to swallow.

That's a scary looking lineup, with or without Goulding.

Kickert has never made olympic teams so how is he marquee ahead of wortho?

Reminds me of that Dragons championship season (though with an inferior coach) where they came into the betting market at $9 because imports hadn't been signed, but you could see that the Australian talent was going to be tough to beat. Worthington and Barlow will be the keys to the D and the other pieces are looking useful.

I actually didn't even know who Daniel Kickert was... I agree with Nat, my belief was that marquee players were supposed to be the best talent to bring more people to game. Nothing against Daniel of course, he seems like a solid addition.

Kickert is a 6-10 pf/c,

played college at St Marys averaged 15 pts, 5 rbds, 50% FG, 45% 3pt shooting

Played in the 2006 World Champs, a minor role.

2013-2014 played for Azovmash a VTB league (one of the strongest behind the Euroleague the league Jamar Wilson and a few others played in before coming to the NBL and Jamars stats translated accross pretty well) and averaged 15 pts, 5 rebounds, 50% FG, 45% 3pt shooting (pretty much the same as college)

I saw him play a VTB game online, (he was playing with Derrick Low who played NBL for the Spirit) and he offensively reminded me of a DJ type, but obviously a better shooter from 3pt land and be pretty confident his stats from college/VTB will translate to the NBL, so will be a very good signing for Melbourne imo, it wouldnt shock me if he ended up in MVP calculations a but like DJ this season.

i was hoping he was plan b if DJ left for the 36ers but obviously he has been snapped up so that cant happen, will be a good signing.

I dont think he will be a flashy, highlight real type guy, but will be solid, and a great shooter so will spread the floor well for Melbourne. I think Wortho will have to do a lot of the inside grunt work at both ends.

The best thing for Melbourne with this signing is that they dont need a import big, so they have the flexibility to replace Goulding with a import if he goes overseas, which is huge imo.

Dennis a MVP level import, who shares the ball well, with 4 guys who have played for the Boomers at a major (or in gouldings case most likely soon will) is a awesome starting 5 and very hard to match, and some good talent off the bench including 3 guys who were starters in the NBL last season gives them a great 8 man rotation.

This should be a good season on the court for Melbourne, so hopefully the fans will put aside the name change, etc and support them, if they can win the championship would be a great way to set the 'new' team up and hopefully draw fans to the game.

With that lineup and Anstey's love of playing Wortho 30+ minutes a game, it's hard to see where Waxy will get court time from unless Goulding doesn't return and Barlow plays more 2, which is a shame as Waxy was developing great and full of confidence after the Sino series.

@proud.....the issue with Waxy is he 29 turning 30 during the season and people tlk about developing him like he is a 23 year old.

Guys start to loose a step at 30 usually so if he does what can he bring? i'd suspect he'll be out of the league pretty quick once his body starts regressing.

I'd assume Walker will be the main back up at sf and PF and could easily get 25-30 mins per game, spelling Barlow and Wortho for 10-15 mins per game each.

I wouldnt be surprised to see Wortho play back up C either so that will open up some PF mins also in some smaller line ups.

Even if Barlow, Wortho and Walker only play the two forward spots there is roughly 27mins each available.

Kickert was arguably Australia best player in Europe last season whilst leading the Ukraine league in scoring until he was released due to the tension over there. Not surprised that many aren't aware of him too much but I expect him to be in MVP discussions come seasons end.

Not only is he a good player, he is a great leader. Go United!