Vickerman locked in on NBL27 roster build

With the NBL26 Championship Series still underway, Dean Vickerman is wasting no time when it comes to putting plans in place to shape the best roster possible for next season.

Having reviewed the positives and negatives from our most recent campaign, Vickerman says the work has already begun to build a lineup of players capable of competing for a Championship.

Speaking to Melbourne United Media, our three-time Championship winning Head Coach provided some insight into what the coming months of Free Agency could look like.

“The league just keeps getting better and the talent level at this league is getting better,” he said.

“To see local players hitting that million dollar mark, there's teams out there spending, and so we want to be a club that's sustainable, but we wanna make sure that we're at the level that we can really compete to win a championship.

“We're heavy into the free agent market right now, and it's always about the locals this time of year, about what are the best positions available, what are the best free agents do they fit our roster, and so we're into that one deep with our assistant coaches right now about who we think are Melbourne United guys that would really fit our system and the positions that we have.”

“Once we get through that phase, it's about your local talent and who you want to return, and then you start to get into the import market a little bit later on.”

Looking at the sort of basketball he wants to see on the court, Vickerman emphasised the importance of being able to play with pace and space the floor, which when humming, was when we had the most success in NBL26.

“We want to play a style of basketball that is similar to this year in that we still want to be defensive-minded, we played at a really good pace, we've shot I think the 2nd most threes, we rebounded the basketball really well.” 

“At times I think we struggled offensively and so we've gotta continue to make sure that we've got enough creation that can really attack your switching defenses, and that we've got enough shooting in our roster that we can really spread the floor and open up gaps for that creation.” 

Having been eliminated from the NBL’s postseason much sooner than we wanted, Vickerman is making sure that this time before the start of Free Agency is used as effectively as possible.

“These last couple of years after playing a Grand Final Series, you've got three days to make sure you can secure your free agents, so we're gonna use this time, work really hard through this period, and hopefully put together a roster that can get back to a Championship Series.”

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