“Honest Conversations” For Import

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman had admitted the club has had “honest conversations” with struggling import Jordan Caroline.

Caroline had just four points in Sunday’s loss to the Tasmania JackJumpers and has seen his minutes drop in four consecutive games to start the season.

With questions starting to arise about his fit on the roster, Vickerman says the club is expecting more from the 26-year-old.

"While you've got a guy on your roster you try to get the absolute best out of him," Vickerman said.

"We've had honest conversations about his performance, we've had honest conversations when we lost Ariel (Hukporti) and we talked to Zhou Qi. He understands, we're just trying to get the absolute best out of him right now.

“We are going to continue to try to unlock what we saw when we recruited him. We saw glimpses of it, of him getting downhill and getting to the rim.”

United veteran David Barlow played almost 28 minutes against Tasmania, as Vickerman trusted him more than Caroline.

“With Ice (Isaac Humphries) getting in foul trouble, we needed more from (Caroline),” the coach said.

“My trust went with Barlow. He was amazing…but we can’t have that all the time, we can’t expect Barlow to give us that much load if we get into foul trouble.”

Melbourne welcomes the 3-1 Cairns Taipans to John Cain Arena on Thursday night.