Caroline thrown under the bus lol Honestly I'm surprised they still haven't cut him yet he looks terrible. He's got no lift and misses too many bunnies when he's not getting his shot rammed back down his throat that is.

Vickerman is 100% spot on

Writings been on the wall for Caroline for a while, it's been 11 games inc pre season

This United team going nowhere until they improve team balance. Caroline has simply not been up to standard so he needs to go

Not sure what that press conference comment does for Caroline's confidence though. A bit unprofessional By Vickerman

It is but he wouldn't have said this unless he knew Caroline is going to be cut. They're 6 games in, one game away from the 25% mark of the season and the imports contracts becoming guaranteed for the rest of the season.

It does seem a pretty clear sign they're very close to signing a replacement

The NBL can be unreasonably harsh on imports and way too lenient for Aussie players. Let's face it, if Jordan Caroline were an Australian he'd have a guaranteed 15 year NBL career and a few Boomers qualifying caps under his belt. But he's an import, and so he gets publicly slandered and used as the whipping boy for all of his team's follies.

Vickerman should be under scrutiny as well.

MU playing with no system, no heart, body language embarrassing all things that could change quickly.

Not surprising as United overspent pre-COVID and now are in a period of rationalisation.

I agree with the comment, seems an honest assessment from Vickerman with no intended malice. My issue is that this recruitment sits with Vickerman. He's recruited a seriously undersized import, who lacks any range on his shot (or even a reliable Mooney-style jumpshot), asking him to play the 4 position at 6,7" against some long frontlines in the NBL. Was picked as a "hussle guy” obviously but doesn’t seem to run the floor or have the athleticism to have any impact.

If we take a step back (and yes I understand the Hukporti injury and Ili out changes everything) but the team recruitment has been awful. Paring Goulding with two ball hungry guards in Tucker and XRM was always going to result in issues. Humphries looking a bit better but the system they play just looks so disjointed.

Good points JMS

Clearly the wrong fits on a number of fronts

The 3 imports were, simply, the wrong combination to supplement the main local pieces being CG and Humphries (and same would've applied with Hukporti)

All it needs is for that 4-man to be able to shoot, as a spacer and also pick-and-pop with XRM. The rest of the pieces will fit if they get that right.

Spot on.

This group could be successful with that one change, and Ili's return

The good news for United fans lately, is Tucker has been finding his feet. Our best player today and equal best alongside XRM on Thursday

Imports all over the world get treated harshly, perform or get the bullet. Most Australian players need to perform or they also don't last. 99% of players that play for Australia do well even if it’s a second quality side, you can only beat what’s in front of you. As far as Caroline goes he’s suffered massive pacific shrink.

Agree Dunkman, imports have very little margin for underperforming anywhere in the world - such is the nature of thungs for foreign players in pro sports which is a purely performances based scenario.
The thing I dont like is when people direct their criticism at the person in a disparaging way.
In the case of Caroline, he's not performing up to the level that he has prior to coming to Melbourne, but, he's trying his ass off and I commend him for that.
He's clearly in a funk and has been in situations where he's been playing out of position.

United can release him and get a replacement to play at the 4 or 5......or get Makur Maker (or another non-import) and keep Caroline to play in scenarios that suit his game.

Once the nbl gets another team they need to expand the import spots to 4 players, but keep only 3 imports on court at anytime, so then we still develop our local players.

Feel bad for Caroline since he is a spark player coming off the bench. The NBL in the future needs to consider being an international league like the EuroLeague. Would like to see more Europeans play in the nbl.

The NBL will have no other choice as it expands. I dont think the league can afford another 2-3 teams without upping import quotas. The bench depth across the league is quite poor and with more teams more of them become starters.

https://twitter.com/karlbeston/status/1584129905922826240

thoughts?

"Melbourne United have embarrassed themselves today & I'm not talking about the L. The throwing under the bus of a member of your team to cover up broader failures is totally pathetic. Caroline hasn’t been good, but their problems run far deeper, he’s just their scapegoat #NBL23"

Karl Beston on twitter

The problems definitely run deeper.

Unimpressive and classless comments by Vickerman. He probably wishes he could take them back.

Vickerman has spoken about this publicly before and he's spoken to Caroline about it numerous times. This is a case of stating the obvious and not using PR speak when everyone, including the import concerned, knows the situation.

https://nbl.com.au/news/honest-conversations-for-import

But Publicly comparing him against Jack White immediately after a loss, takes it to an unnecessary level

Indicates the pressure Vickerman is feeling

While some of the imports this year have been great, others have been so poor. I never understand the let's get more imports, let’s do better scouting of what we have and give blokes like Kuol ago.

Agree. I don't see the need for an additional import. The marquee player rule helps mostly keep the non-NBA top local talent in the country, and for the most part there is a wide gap between import #1 and #3 already, I don't see the value in bringing in #4 unless we want to see more NBL1-level imports instead of extra mins for locals.

XRM appears to be Melbournes cancer. Whilst he and DV thinks he is the greatest, helps other teams get cheap wins. Goulding is completely checked out. Never seen him not hustle and accept losing, but he looked completely checked out by offensive set number 5 tonight.

Illi will help but he's not making this a championship team. Imo there three imports this season just haven’t fit. In the 2018 season if memory is correct they had same problems with not enough ball for their imports and Goulding. They lost Prather to injury and it all turned around, though Prather got back for GF and was great in game 5.

"But Publicly comparing him against Jack White immediately after a loss, takes it to an unnecessary level"

I'm all for coaches speaking openly and honestly, especially given the player in question already knows he's gone if they find the right kind of import.

"But Publicly comparing him against Jack White immediately after a loss, takes it to an unnecessary level"

Especially given that he tried.
If he wasn't putting in enough effort, ok, but he was.
He just missed bunnies under the basket. That's just being in a funk, so can't criticise that

Looking at the Wildcats last year , they left a massive front court gap until too late. The years they made changes such as bringing Cotton in or Plumlee in they won a championship.

If Melbourne can see a personnel change is needed to deal with a structural lack of position balance and act quickly , it could be a good outcome.

He did say he talked about it in the change rooms, if you bring in an import to replace an Australian player you would hope he's just as good or close.
As far as I’m concerned the frank people are the better.

Doc Rivers move by Dean Vickerman.

the basketball show suggested Jabri parker or Michael Beasley as replacement of Caroline

No thanks

I saw the conference and just didn't understand DV's take at all. It seems they brought JC to replace JW? Were they blind or fooled? What was their expectation of him, to grow taller or starts shooting like CG (JW wasn't a great shooter either) over a few weeks? DV should focus on CG's body language, Tucker 'the best import' theatrics, XRM's turn overs, 'not trusting the bench' kind of things, instead taking cheap shots at a guy who at least tried. So he is a bad fit, fine, thank him and move on, everybody would understand, but 'I wish he was JW' gee. There's no other JW out there but JW and he ain't coming back so deal with it. They need a PG and PF/C, and not many (if any) locals available, so they should consider moving the second import as well.

United don't need a PG. Ili is more than capable of starting

I'm not expecting Ili back any time soon

Best case scenario sounds immediately post FIBA window but I'm not banking on that

It's sounding like round 6 is a possibility for Ili. They're talking about this week being a chance but he's only just starting back in full contact training. Must have been one hell of a whack he copped.

Anon - do you expect Ili to play 35min+? Last year they had 3 PGs this year at the moment none, XRM is not a PG. I'd move either XRM or Tucker with JC and bring PG and PF/C. My preference is in keeping Tucker as he can play 3 easy, not that I like him :)

Backtracking

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman has praised import forward Jordan Caroline's response to his comments after Saturday night’s loss to the Sydney Kings, and has labelled Caroline as a "warrior" for his side this morning.


After the loss to the Kings - in which Caroline shot just 3-11 from the field – Vickerman compared the forward to current Denver Nugget and former United star Jack White, while also saying the side was knee-deep in looking for a replacement for the Nevada College alum for the remainder of NBL23.





“People challenged me about my comments in the press conference the other day about Jordan Caroline, and I apologised to him for it. It wasn’t fair to compare his game to Jack White’s game,” Vickerman told RSN.


“When I first got hold of it I texted him and he responded, and then the next day when we got together as a group I apologised to him in front of the group.


“Any time you feel like you bring any type of disrespect to a person, which I certainly didn’t mean to, you need to make sure you’ve got that one covered off. He was great with it.


“We made it really clear to Jordan when Ariel went down that we may need a centre, and if we do find the right gut that could affect his ability to play with us. We’ve been really clear an open, and he’s been amazing.


“He just turned up, 'yep coach, I understand’, and he’s given everything he’s got. He’s a warrior for us. We continue to look for that guy to replace Ariel and hopefully we can sort it out in a couple of weeks.”

Admitted his mistake and apologized

That's leadership