Rumours are currently circulating that they may not be done this week in terms of big free agent signings, Well known local talent Jock Landale and Melbourne have been linked heavily as Landale has been training with the Melbourne squad.
McCarron, Goulding, Hopson and Landale. That's a scary lineup, assuming McCarron brings the ball up, you'd struggle to believe teams could consistently guard Hopson and Goulding rising up from either side off of Barlow/Landale pin downs, with the threat of McCarron also looming large.
However, Landale hasn't signed anything despite there being a lot of smoke to this fire.
The theory however remains the same, you can interchange the lead ball handler between Illi, McCarron, Hopson and Goulding all you like, but the concept of dynamic playmaking perimeter players receiving the ball in advantage situations has finals written all over it.
I see one issue with this team. Do they have the high IQ passing and ball movement skills to compete when the offense gets bogged down and the opposing defence has got all of the momentum?
It's something that will happen, the theory of your offense isn't always going to run smoothly and things will get ugly. Are Melbourne assuming that Scotty Hopson will throw the team on his back and carry them in those moments? Can Chris Goulding realistically take control of a game when he wants to at his age?
When this Melbourne United squad comes up against New Zealand/Perth/Cairns and Scotty gets off to a bad start and a defender starts to get on top, Chris Goulding has one of those 1-8 from three nights, what happens to their offense?
Scotty Hopson currently projects as their strongest passer with a passing percentage of 24% on 20% usage with an impressive 11% turnover percentage per SpatialJam
But the next best from last season is Shae Illi, who actually had a negative Pass/Turnover% and Mitch McCarron was slightly behind him but turned the ball over less.
McCarron and Goulding are good passers don't get me wrong, but is a team full of off ball perimeter weapons that's built around Scotty Hopson going to be able to deal with the added attention, effort and scouting that is put into cutting passing lanes, taking away strengths and importance of having strong decision makers?
For what it's worth, I believe this team will be fine, a definite threat to make the top 4. If everything falls right they could even be a true contender for the championship as well, but it's always fun to analyse these things and envoke discussion on our favourite teams and least favourite opposition.
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