United’s collapse sparks big questions

When Melbourne poured in 53 first half points against Perth on Saturday night, it looked like Dean Vickerman might have pulled off another coaching masterstroke.

United had limped into the Finals, arriving with shaky late season form and a growing injury list that always made a Playoffs Series appearance feel unlikely.

And despite their fight, the result ultimately mirrored the arc of their season. After opening the campaign with dominant 9-0 and 13-2 records, Melbourne's early momentum faded, and the loss served as another reminder of how a once-promising year had slipped away.

So where to now for a team stacked with stars, clearly built to contest a title, but ultimately falling short?

"Melbourne United have some significant questions to ask of themselves and how they shape this team to resurrect their championship prospects in the seasons to come, not only next year," NBL MVP Derek Rucker said on Moments That Mattered, presented by Mitsubishi Motors.

"Now they're in that situation where they've kind of got to frame it around a three-year plan. And the biggest question is their coach."

Rucker and co-host Jack Heverin said United's big names struggled when it mattered most, pointing to the team's imports and star shooter Chris Goulding.

"The first one that jumps out to me is Milton Doyle, who had 13 points," Heverin said.

"He may argue, and some of his biggest fans might argue, that the expectations of him are unfair. But when you're a marquee import in this league and one of the big off-season signings, he goes missing too often in games … I don't know how else to say it."

"Yeah, sometimes he can be really passive. I thought he was aggressive the other night, he just couldn't finish," Rucker continued.

"He got some pretty good looks and I think in the second half there he had some good opportunities to score the ball and keep Melbourne United in the game when Perth were pulling away.

"But he wasn't on his own. Chris Goulding had a poor shooting season. It's the first time we've seen a slide in his shooting efficiency in a number of years. He was dealing with some lower extremity injuries.

"The brilliance that we saw from Tyson Walker late in the regular season never really surfaced again in the Play-In tournament. Jesse Edwards just looked like he got overpowered. Again, he's a guy who is still in the mid-development stage of his professional career.

"Finn Delany couldn't reproduce what we saw in the game against Tasmania."

Rucker also spoke to the limited impact of United's defensive anchor.

"There was a lot to look at offensively in terms of why they were not successful in scoring more points. The big thing though was what happened to Shea Ili and that he was only able to play less than five minutes in the game," he said.

"Did he aggravate that (hamstring) injury, or did Dean Vickerman just lose confidence in Ili's ability to impact the game? I doubt it was the latter, because I think there's a lot of history there saying that Ili always produces when he's on the floor."

Rucker suggested United were still too reliant on the brilliance of 37-year-old Goulding.

"The aging thing is a difficult one, especially when you're trying to manage one of the greatest players we've ever had in the NBL. And it's not that Chris can't still produce high-level performances, it's that he can't do them as frequently as he once did," he said.

"The other side of high-level individual performances is that it comes at a cost, and that cost could be your output in the next game, how much you jeopardise your physical wellbeing going forward. I think all these considerations are highly significant.

"I see Chris in a role where he's playing 18 to 23 minutes a game in the next couple of seasons. He still has the capability to go off, but he provides really good shooting. You kind of discuss how many points a game you're looking for from Chris. But I think if you can get him up to 30 minutes a game when he's playing well, then that's great. But it's about managing his body.

"Again, the other night in Perth, he didn't look like he was labouring as badly as we've seen him in deciding games in the past two post-seasons. He got off 13 or 14 shots, so it's not like he didn't have the ability to create opportunities for himself. He just wasn't sharp down the back end of this season and especially the other night in Perth."

The future of Vickerman will also be a big talking point to come, even with the three-time Coach of the Year still having another year on his contract.

"I've got my ears to the street and the word is there may be some Japanese teams or a Japanese team sniffing around for Dean Vickerman's services," Rucker added.

"Dean Vickerman is one of the most respected coaches in global basketball and a guy who has had tremendous success not only in New Zealand, but here at Melbourne United. It would be a coup for any Japanese team to get him to take the job. With the money they are paying in Japan at the moment, no one could fault Dean for looking elsewhere and taking that opportunity.

"Also, there's something about being in the same environment for too long. I think this will have been Dean's eighth or ninth season at Melbourne United and sometimes, coach, you want to challenge yourself. You want to look for some new beginnings and change the horizon on your coaching career. No one could fault him, and obviously the financial implications as well.

"But if Dean Vickerman decides to move on from Melbourne United, that changes the picture tremendously. He's done so much in a quasi general manager role as well that maybe United have to look at bringing someone in that capacity also, as well as a head coach, and kind of look at a different organisational structure if Vickerman were to depart."