Too many big outs for United, no team has the depth to cover those losses almost feel sorry for them, almost.

Another cold take from Zodiac.

MELBOURNE

PG: Rathan-Mayes* | Ili | Duach-dp

SG: Goulding | Tucker* | Triplett-dp

SF: Maluach | Newley

PF: Caroline* | Peatling | Okwera

C: Hukporti-ns | Humphries


NS or SRP sf or pf incoming


Hard to say who starts where.

I can't see United winning it this season. The losses of JLA, Delly and White are too big to cover.

Lucky there’s play-in games to look forward too, but can’t see Melbourne going far in the tournament if they don’t play good enough defence. Definitely not feeling as confident this season. I could see some midseason player subtraction if the team isn’t on the same page.

Prove me wrong United.

PG: Ili | Rathan-Mayes* | Duach-dp

SG: Tucker* | Maluach | Triplett-dp

SF: Goulding | Newley | final roster spot (TBC)

PF: Caroline* | Peatling | Okwera

C: Humphries | Hukporti-ns

A little underwhelming

But every teams has plenty of what IFs

I expect Tucker to be a big upgrade on Agada. If that turns out to be right, United can still contend for the title.

Humphries and Hukporti has the potential to be the best 5 man combo in the NBL, if Humphries is healthy and playing like he did early in the 20/21 season, and if 20 year old Hukporti has taken another step forward in development

Interesting to see them go with budget imports at the last two spots after saving so much money on White and Delly. Also strange that their big budget import plays the same position as their highest paid local. Wooden spoon candidates?

In: Humphries, Caroline*, Tucker*, XRM*, Maluach, ?

Out: JLA, White, Agada*, Delly, Baba, Barlow, Prewster

Bigs: Humphries, Hukporti(NS), Caroline*, Peatling, Okwera (DP)

Wings: Tucker*, CG43, Newley, Maluach

Point Guards: Ili, XRM*

Looking good to me. Will be competitive again.

All side look like they are chasing kings.

Agreed. Kings favourites by a fair margin.

Wooden spoon candidates?

Why not Humphries/Hukporti? Because of Humphries injury history?

If Hukporti takes another leap he could be MVP of the league, kids a monster and Vickerman has the track record of development

LV, well yeah Humphries could play a couple of games and then go down for the season then what? Hukporti showed some nice flashes but he's not a starting centre in the NBL plus he's young and a bit emotional could get in all sort of foul trouble is expected to start and who would be his back up Dalton?

I can't in any way shape or form see United going with a Humphries/Hukporti combination for the whole season. If not a Landale than an import centre that falls out of the NBA will be needed at some point.

It's a high risk, high reward scenario.

Hukporti entering 3rd pro season. Vickerman does indeed have record of developing. Humphries health is a risk but his upside also huge

I'd rather have United's 5 man combo than most other teams.

Fair enough then if I were a United fan after what you've lost this off-season I would be quite disappointed with that roster and livid about the centre situation.

There was talk earlier in the off-season that Hukporti might leave to sign with Alba Berlin and I assumed Humphries was going to be a risky but potentially shrewd back up for a legit NBA level 5 man but it looks like this is what they're going to start the season with.

You're kidding yourself. The 5 spot is the part of the roster I'm most excited about

(Along with Tucker whose got nice hops, and seems to be the calibre of import who could become an MVP candidate).

We have 2 guys who could both be at All NBL level.

Humphries was basically there for the first 3rd of the 20/21 season, and Hukporti has immense physical gifts under the tutelage of Vickerman who has runs on the board.

Hukporti will likely be in the NBA next year, much like Delly and Jack White, and there's the chance he could do a JLA this NBL season.

I ran the numbers. Last season he, per minute:

- Led NBL in blocked shots

- 7th in rebounding

- 38th in scoring - ahead of Blanchfield, Jessup, Steindl, Maggette, Rathan-Mayes and Siva.

He was living in JLA's shadow, much like JLA was living in Landale's shadow the year before. He had some bad games, but on the better nights the raw potential was blindingly obvious.

Maybe a Humphries injury would be good for his development.

If Humphris stays healthy they can be a top 3 team again. Right now it's a big if .

Barlow coming back?

We have 2 guys who could both be at All NBL level.

Humphries was basically there for the first 3rd of the 20/21 season

I ran the numbers. Last season he, per minute

Let's not forget Delly could be back with Utd, he has a training camp deal with Sacto and has to make final cuts before he’s an official out.

Delly is more likely to come back to United then Jock Landale.

Delly already said he won't be coming back to United this season.

What were JLA's numbers the season before last?

9.5ppg, 5.4rpg. Playing against benches

What did JLA do last season? Almost won the MVP

Hukporti has similar potential. Won't necessarily happen this season, real chance tho

Humphries looks healthy based on his recent instagram. Hopefully he's learnt something about managing his training load and with the right medical staff he can stay on court.

In a hypothetical world where Humphries had signed for Jackjumpers and we had the potentially formidable lineup of Magnay and Humphries then we'd be hearing how good these guys could be and how Humphries is a great backup for Magnay yet here in the real world we have Hukporti that thus far has stayed injury free and yet Humphries abilities are seemingly worthless due to his own health issues.

I'm not a United supporter in any way but Barlow was injury prone, Delly was injury prone and both haven't been lugged with 'injury prone' tags in the same way that Magnay and Humphries has so I'd be pretty happy with the United medical staff, even if Goulding has had injuries over the past couple of seasons

Humphries is 24, not 34

He's struggled with injuries for 2 years straight, but at that age the odds are in his favour that he'll get healthy and have a long professional career ahead of him

Think a few Adelaide fans on here might get triggered watching him playing well for United!

Look at Josh Boone, went several years and barely played

Had 2.5 pretty healthy seasons at United, made 1st team All NBL, won a title and a runner up

So LV according to you Hukporti is thus on track for league MVP and Humphries and Tucker could be All-NBL, got it. How am I meant to reason with this?

Good luck to you, Humphries and United's season ahead.

Nah as I said, it's high risk, high reward. "Could be" all NBL.

United pair obviously has a higher ceiling than most, if not all, other big man pairings in the NBL. Doesn't mean they'll definitely do it.

Looking around the league, you know what you're getting from Loe, Majok, DJ, Pineau etc etc.

Could go either way.

Sotto in the same boat.

Humphries was a huge get imo.

The stuff he was doing when healthy was mvp being on boomers candidate.

Hopefully he's not a guy that has a career ruined by perpetual injury

Some of the comments on here about united imports all you can do is laugh bring on the season

100% agree with you KP. Zodiac gone from cold take king to completely irrelevant.

United's centre position could well be the best in the league. Having two high-quality guys allows them to manage Humphries load if needed too. The roster looks very good, just not as resilient to injury as previous seasons.

I don't even think it’s high risk high reward, it’s more of a case of lost 2 starters to the NBA and a 3rd MVP level guy took a bag in China.

Who were they supposed to sign in place of Humphries?