NBL champ outlines United's "major issue"

Losers of six of their past eight games, the wheels on Melbourne United's NBL26 championship hopes are starting to get shaky.

One catalyst for this inconsistent form, which has seen Dean Vickerman's side only defeat Illawarra and Brisbane since the start of December, on both ends of their court. After leading the competition's plus minus through the first seven rounds, United has now dropped to minus 4.8 since Round 10, which will place them in seventh.

Another, which was highlighted by the panel during Monday's episode of NBL Overtime, was the play of import trio Milton Doyle, Tyson Walker and Jesse Edwards.

NBL champion Pete Hooley said "a few weeks ago, we sat here and said we weren't worried about them but if you're a Melbourne supporter, you're starting to get worried and rightfully so, because they're not playing good basketball right now."

Digging deeper into United's problem was 2001 NBL champion Damon Lowery.

"I feel like the major issue lies with the imports," Lowery said on Monday's episode of NBL Overtime.

"The three imports are all great players in their own right but I feel like as a collective, their confidence is a shot right now.

"I feel like it's Dean Vickerman's responsibility. You're the coach and have got to get these guys back up, feeling good about themselves.

"I don't know if they're walking on eggshells right now, and I don't know what's going on obviously behind closed doors. But it's got to start at the top and he's got to get these guys back on track."

In particular, Hooley, who played 66 games with Melbourne during his career, believes the play of Dutch big man Edwards has been United's biggest problem.

In his past nine games, Edwards is only averaging 11.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game, well down on his numbers from the first seven rounds when United was 9 0 (13.8 points, 7.9 boards and 1.4 blocks).

"Go back to the start of the season with Jesse Edwards, he was outstanding. We were saying he's been one of the most dominant big men in the entire league," Hooley said.

"Now he's struggling, which has an element of foul trouble in there, but I don't think he's playing to the best of his ability.

"He has had no double digit rebound games since the resumption after the FIBA Break. This is a guy who was ripping down rebounds [easily], which included a 16 rebound game at one point. [Plus] he was a wall defensively.

"He is so important to their success, so Melbourne need to do a better job unlocking him."

United return to the court on Wednesday night for an Ignite Cup clash with Cairns in Bendigo, tipping off from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.