Melbourne United signs ex-Utah Jazz player Stanton Kidd to replace injured import Casey Prather
Melbourne United’s search to find cover for injured import Casey Prather is over. The club has scored a gun wing player with NBA experience who is very familiar to coach Dean Vickerman.
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Melbourne United has signed ex-Utah Jazz forward Stanton Kidd as an injury replacement for Casey Prather.
Kidd is slated to make his NBL debut — pending a medical — in United’s Boxing Day open-air blockbuster at Melbourne Arena.
The 27 year-old, who played four games for the Jazz earlier this season, is rated a tough and versatile two-way player.
Coach Dean Vickerman, who drafted Kidd in the Worldwide Invitational, which runs alongside the NBA Summer League, said the wing was on the club’s radar this year as an import.
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“Stanton is someone that I got the opportunity to coach in Las Vegas a couple of years ago,” Vickerman said.
“He’s a 6’8” wing who is very versatile, can play multiple positions, guard multiple positions on the floor and shoots the ball at a good level.
“He’s long and a good athlete — he was someone we were certainly looking at in Summer League this year and then he progressed to make an NBA roster.”
There's a new Kidd on the block! 💥
— Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) December 20, 2019
We have signed Stanton Kidd. He played four games for the Utah Jazz in the NBA earlier this season & has made a name for himself as a versatile two-way player.
🎟 to Boxing Day Open Air Game: https://t.co/GXNDc9YWFj#WeStandUnited
Like Prather, Kidd can swing between the small forward and power forward positions.
“I think he can add to the pace that we want to play at; he gets up and down the floor well and with his length, I think he can be a high-level defender in this league,” Vickerman said.
Once Prather is medically cleared, United must release Kidd, under strict NBL rules around injury replacement players.
Kidd averaged 11.5 points, five rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in his final year of college at Colorado State.
He went on to play professionally in Belgium and Germany before a breakout Summer League campaign led to a four-game stint with the Jazz.
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While Prather’s future is clouded, amid a 4-6 week injury lay-off, back-up United centre Alex Pledger (ankle) has targeted the December 29 clash with Brisbane for a possible comeback.
United will take on the Wildcats tonight in Perth.
Guard Mitch McCarron this week declared the Wildcats and Sydney Kings the benchmarks.
But McCarron, who had an open look but missed a would-be three-point matchwinner in Perth in Round 1, has no doubt United “can get the job done”.
While Sydney has blasted Melbourne in two recent meetings, United has dropped two games to Perth by a combined losing margin of three points.
“I think they’ve (Sydney and Perth) been the standard,” McCarron said.
“We certainly haven’t been … had bad losses to Sydney twice now, there and here, and Perth has got us both times, there and here, so for us to go and win this thing (NBL title) we got to go through them and I think it starts this weekend.
“(We must) be ready to shoot, be ready to score, if everyone is aggressive and playing for each other I think we’ll be fine.”
United responded from a heavy loss to the Kings last week with a strong win over NBL straggler Illawarra Hawks