The postmortem on Melbourne United’s NBL campaign begins now after they crashed out of finals contention on the last weekend of the regular season.
United entered the final round in third spot on the ladder but within hours of a disappointing loss in New Zealand on Friday night Melbourne were eliminated after Perth defeated the Sydney Kings.
The Wildcats added further misery for United by escaping Hisense Arena with a 96-94 victory on Sunday afternoon that secured a record 31st consecutive semi-final berth for the Perth franchise.
With injuries to key players and the sacking of import Cedric Jackson, United found themselves languishing near the bottom of the ladder with a 3-7 record until the signing of Casper Ware, coinciding with captain Chris Goulding’s return from an ankle problem, triggered a dramatic form reversal.
Former NBA centre Josh Boone also made a significant impact over the final two months of the season, but it wasn’t enough to keep United in the title race.
In the three seasons since transforming the Melbourne Tigers franchise into Melbourne United, the club has only qualified for the post-season once and are yet to win a semi-final game.
“We failed, but we’re not failures by any stretch of the imagination,” Melbourne coach Dean Demopoulos said.
“I’ve really enjoyed being around this group, and they put their best foot forward and took us on a hell of a ride.”
Goulding felt his squad was good enough for the finals having entered the last round with back-to-back wins.
“We knew we were playing good basketball coming into that New Zealand game,” Goulding said. "They played a really good ball game. We didn’t play so fantastic.”
“You’d be lying if you said it wasn’t disappointing. We play this game for one reason, and we came up short.”
One of United's top priorities for the off-season will be retaining imports Ware and Boone. Both players will attract plenty of interest from other NBL clubs as well as from overseas.
It remains to be seen whether Demopoulos, having completed his initial two-year deal with United, will return for a third season at the helm but the former NBA assistant coach has no regrets about his coaching stint in Australia.
“I really enjoy coaching this group,” he said. “The city of Melbourne has been terrific to me, hell of a country you guys have got here, so it’s been a win-win for me regardless of what goes on after this.
"Whether it’s my decision or it’s not my decision, we will see what happens.”
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