NBL free agency 2023: Latest player movement news

Isaac Humphries will return to the City of Churches, where he is keen to get back to work. See all the latest news on NBL free agency here.

Isaac Humphries is headed back to the city where he played his best basketball - Adelaide.

News Corp, in early April, revealed the 25-year-old star big man’s agent Daniel Moldovan had had initial talks with the Sixers, along with Sydney, and an NBA team was also circling.

The Sydney-born former NBA man has signed a one-year deal to return to the City of Churches, where, in 2021, he averaged 13.3 points, 7.1 rebounds and a league-leading 2.63 blocks per game alongside a teenage Josh Giddey.

Humphries felt he had “unfinished business” in Adelaide after injuries ruined his second season.

Isaac Humphries is back in Adelaide. Picture: Getty Images

“He definitely feels being injured in his last season in Adelaide was something that doesn’t sit well with him and, hypothetically, if he was to go there, he’d like to show a healthy, true Isaac season, so that’s an attractive option,” Moldovan said at the time.

Humphries’ story is one of immense triumph.

He’s had a taste of the NBA and dominated in the NBL in Adelaide, before injuries forced him to miss almost two years of basketball.

He made a successful return to the court with Melbourne United last season and, in November, made the courageous step to come out as gay. In doing so, he became the only active openly gay player in a top-tier men’s league, revealing the inner struggle that led to a suicide attempt and his powerful journey to becoming comfortable in his own skin.

The 2018 Rookie of the Year with the Kings topped the NBL in blocked shots for a second time, last season, and there are high hopes for his re-emergence in NBL24.

UNITED POACH ANOTHER PERTH YOUNG GUN

Melbourne United’s roster build is nearly complete, more than five months out from NBL24’s tip-off — and they’ve lured another highly-rated Perth young gun away from the clutches of their Wildcats’ nemesis.

Three days after the Red Army’s prized NBA draft pick Luke Travers chose Melbourne, United has secured former Wildcats’ development player Kyle Bowen on a two-year deal.

Bowen, 22, is a year older than Travers and was part of the Wildcats’ outfit that beat United for the 2019 NBL title.

Victorian-born Bowen — who played his junior state basketball for WA — has just completed four years at St Mary’s College in the US and joins fellow Sandgroper Travers in United colours next season.

“I’m champing at the bit to get back to Australia,” Bowen said.

“Melbourne United is a high-calibre, big-market team. I’m really looking forward to getting down there and getting to work.

“This is a special group of guys and I think we’re capable of big things.”

Kyle Bowen (right) has joined Melbourne United on a two-year deal.

Travers knows plenty about the 100kg bruiser as both an opponent and teammate for WA at junior national championships — Bowen was the MVP of the 2019 U20 tournament.

“We played a little bit against each other as juniors, but then played in a lot of state teams together and I just remember him being the ultimate team guy,” Travers said.

“He’s always been a really strong leader, he’s got great skills as a big man and has been shooting the ball really well.

“I think his ability to adapt to whatever situation he’s put in is really going to help us. He’s a special player and he’s going to contribute right away.”

The 201cm forward’s decision to spurn Perth is another blow to the Wildcats, who lost Travers and were unable to make any headway with fellow young local Alex Ducas, a college teammate of Bowen’s who chose to return to the Gaels for a fifth year under the NCAA’s pandemic exemption.

United’s roster build is a far cry from last season, where the club was left scrambling when Matthew Dellavedova and Jack White secured NBA contracts and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr chased riches in China.

As of today, they’re loaded with elite local talent with just four roster spots left to fill, one of which could potentially be Dellavedova or a high-level import two guard.

Dellavedova is one of the more famous St Mary’s products and, should he be enticed back to United after a season with the Sacramento Kings, it won’t be the first time Bowen’s crossed paths with the NBA champion.

“As part of the recruitment process (to St Mary’s) ‘Delly’ gave me a call and I couldn’t even concentrate on what he was saying, I was too busy thinking ‘I’m on the phone to Matthew Dellavedova, this is insane’,” Bowen told the Wesleyan in 2019.

With coach Dean Vickerman locking in a four-year extension, United has staked an early claim as the team to beat in NBL24.

UNITED’S ROSTER

C: Jo Lual-Acuil, Ariel Hukporti

PF: Luke Travers, Kyle Bowen

SF: Chris Goulding, Tanner Krebs

SG: ???

PG: Shea Ili, Flynn Cameron

Development Players: Zac Triplett, Campbell Blogg

GODFATHER OFFER: UNITED’S HUGE PITCH LOCKS IN VICKERMAN

The fish aren’t biting when Dean Vickerman answers the phone from a boat in the middle of Westernport Bay to wax lyrical on the huge new five-year deal he’s signed to remain coach of Melbourne United.

He’s enjoying a rare off-season getaway on the back of securing the prized signatures of former star Jo Lual-Acuil and emergent NBA draft pick Luke Travers and coming to terms with the club he’s led to two titles in his six years at the helm.

“I’m sitting on a boat and I’m catching nothing,” Vickerman says with a laugh.

“The whole family is down in Cowes for the week and I’m out on a boat with a couple of mates today.”

Dean Vickerman has been locked in as coach of Melbourne United for the next five years.

With his contract set to expire at the end of next season, there were rumbles the lure of a big-money deal in Asia could pry Vickerman out of Melbourne.

“When you see your friends over there, the guys I’ve spent time with like Andrej Lemanis, Paul Henare and Kevin Braswell, and you want to experience as many things in the game as possible, sometimes you just check yourself and say ‘yep, I’ve been in this league for 20 years, what other opportunities are there in the world I can experience?’,” Vickerman said.

That prompted a godfather offer from the United board that locked in the 51-year-old — considered by club boss Nick Truelson, among others, as the “best coach in Australia” — until the end of NBL28. The unique deal makes him one of only two coaches contracted beyond 2024-25.

“While I still had a year to run, the board said ‘we can’t possibly compete with the money that was on offer in Asia and other places’, but they can compete with the terms, so it wasn’t even me coming to them and talking about it,” Vickerman said.

“The board presented me with that offer and I was stoked.

“This league is such a great place and I really want to be a part of it for the next five years and see the growth we can have.”

Vickerman shakes hands with Lemanis, who he assisted during his time in New Zealand. Picture: Getty Images

It’s great for his family, too. Each of his three children will complete their schooling in Melbourne as dad chases a dream of being the first coach to lead the United/Tigers franchise to back-to-back NBL titles.

“I’ve never repeated (as an NBL head coach),” he said.

“There’s still that massive goal — can you get good enough for long enough to put a team together that can win it twice?”

Vickerman’s 182 wins — 130 of which have come with United — are the 14th most in NBL history. His winning percentage of 62.3 is the highest of anyone to have coached as many games as him — other than the great Brian Goorjian.

He’s stood on the sidelines in 293 NBL games and another five seasons at the helm would put him around the 450-game mark, up among names like Lindsay Gaze, Trevor Gleeson and Joey Wright.

Vickerman dreams of winning back-to-back titles with United. Picture: AAP

There are protections for both club and coach in the deal — the first three years are rigid but, beyond that, there are out clauses in the final two seasons for both parties, should Vickerman decide to explore his options, or United seek a different direction.

“I really like the way it’s structured, I think it’s good for both me and the club,” Vickerman said.

A CHANGE OF THINKING ON NBA DREAMS

United, in recent times, has become known as a breeding ground for NBL talent.

For what seemed like an eternity, NBL clubs fought tooth-and-nail to stop their best players leaving for greener pastures like the NBA.

But, for Vickerman, he has come to welcome talent with NBA dreams to use United to launch their careers — starting with star centre Jock Landale, who led the club to the 2021 NBL title and is now part of the Phoenix Suns’ NBA playoff run.

“It really came to life with the Landale signing,” Vickerman said.

“He was such a high-level player and, from the start, he was like ‘I just need to get back to Australia and really go and show everything I can do when I’m made the man on a team’.

“For us, the total goal was to have him win and then get to the NBA.”

Jock Landale tore up the NBL with Melbourne United. Picture: Getty Images

Landale in action for the Phoenix Suns. Picture: Getty Images

Teammate Jack White watched Landale make the move and he later leapt from United to the Denver Nuggets, while Matthew Dellavedova came home for a season and franked that into a deal with the Sacramento Kings.

Now Vickerman will try to help Travers, Lual-Acuil Jr and Next Star Ariel Hukporti be the next United players to land in the big league.

COACH OF THE YEAR?

It might seem crazy, but there are people across the league who believe last season’s coaching effort might have been Vickerman’s finest — and his side missed the playoffs.

United’s issues have, at times, been glossed over, but the reality is they were gutted by NBA departures, injuries, chemistry issues and Vickerman admitted he had struggled at times.

It even left some less-astute watchers wondering if United should part ways with their star coach, although there were never any questions from those in the know.

The famous Vickerman sideline pose — in New Zealand.

And last season. Picture: Getty Images

One NBL coach told News Corp he believed Vickerman should have won coach of the year after the club’s stunning turnaround. United was floundering at 5-10 but won 10 of its last 13 games to miss the top six by a heartbreaking 0.06 per cent.

“I’m indifferent about last season, but there are some positives out of it and things to learn from,” Vickerman said.

“There’s part about how we recruit people and how we induct people — it took too long for us to try to change people to the Melbourne United way.

“Now we have this off-season, it’s about once we recruit people, how good a job can we do before they get here? When they get here? How do we induct people better?

“But we’ve also looked at what we did as individuals, as a group and as an organisation to turn this thing around.

“A lot of it was top driven, having a really supportive ownership and front office, and then just buy-in from our key players and senior players on the team.

‘Once we were able to do that, the run we put together in the second half of the year was really special.”

NEXT BOOMERS COACH?

Truelson is, understandably, thrilled United was able to fend off the riches of Asia to keep Vickerman in Melbourne.

It’s a problem more and more clubs are going to face with global eyes now on the NBL.

“It’s become the same with coaches as it is with players, now,” Truelson said.

“You look at people like Brian Goorjian in Asia, Trevor Gleeson in the NBA and Will Weaver in Europe with Paris Basketball.

“We respect the fact overseas opportunities are always there but we had some productive discussions with Dean throughout the season and into the off-season and it was great for the club that the ownership group was able to get this deal done, long-term.”

Vickerman had his first taste of life in the national team system during recent FIBA World Cup qualifiers in Melbourne and Truelson hopes his man might, one day, be handed the reins from Goorjian.

Dean Vickerman during his coaching stint with the Boomers.

CHASING NBA DREAM: TRAVERS LEAVES NEST FOR UNITED

NBA-destined Perth Wildcats product Luke Travers has crossed to bitter rival Melbourne, in a move that has ignited the passionate Red Army and added another major coup to what’s already been a huge free agency for United.

News Corp, last month, revealed the Cleveland Cavaliers’ draft pick was a key United target.

After he made the call to move elsewhere, sparked angst from the parochial Wildcats’ fanbase who were saddened the club was unable to keep their young star in Perth, Melbourne got its man on a three-year deal.

Travers has watched from afar as a production line of Aussies rolled through United and on to the NBA, while he showed exponential growth, despite the considerable shadow of legendary Wildcats’ import Bryce Cotton. It is the reason, after four years at the Wildcats, the young gun decided Melbourne was the best spot to help him make the necessary improvement to take on the big league. He’ll have the chance to handle more of the rock in coach Dean Vickerman’s up-tempo, shared offence, giving him the opportunity to shine.

Much-loved Perth young gun has signed with Melbourne United.

Still just 21, Travers has had to grow up — quickly.

He walked out of high school at 17 and, a week later, was on the Wildcats’ roster. He only left the nest last year to live with mates in Perth but, with a desire to head to the US long term, the quiet kid felt another step outside his comfort zone was essential for his future.

“Moving out was a step in the right direction before completely moving away but I’m going to have to get used to it,” he said.

“Everyone knows it’s my goal to get to the NBA but I’m also focused on trying to win a championship with Melbourne United.

“The team Melbourne has built suits my game and the role that Dean wants me to do with that team was the most appetising thing for me.”

The Perth-born Willeton High product averaged 9.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3 assists in NBL23 and, across his final 16 games of the season, shot the three ball at 50 per cent. His contract includes standard NBA buyouts, should the Cavs decide to call him up.

Cleveland, which took him at pick No.56 in last year’s NBA draft, remains in regular contact with their Aussie young gun. He’ll jet to LA to work on his game, before spending a month in Cleveland and then participate in his second NBA Summer League, and then landing in Melbourne

The prized signature of the 200cm swingman at United comes on the back of the return of superstar centre Jo Lual-Acuil Jr, the arrival of emerging wing Tanner Krebs and young guns Flynn Cameron and Campbell Blogg (development player) inking deals — all in the space of less than a week.

After four years in Perth, Luke Travers has joined Melbourne United. Picture: Getty Images

RIVALRY SPIKED

The move turns up the heat on an already fierce rivalry between the two clubs, given both project to have rosters stacked with talent, with Cairns star Keanu Pinder and former United forward David Okwera heading west to join Cotton and Co.

Add to that Travers, albeit hampered by injury, was part of the NBL21 Wildcats’ squad that was beaten by United 3-0 in that season’s grand final series.

Cats’ legend Greg Hire encompassed why Travers’ departure was such a big blow when he tweeted: “I believe he’s the future face of a franchise. And that franchise should’ve been the Wildcats.”

Travers said most ‘Cats fans had been disappointed but supportive — but not all.

“It hasn’t been too bad, most are wishing me the best, but you also get some of them who are disappointed in you and calling you a snake,” he said.

He’s already pictured what a return to Perth’s RAC Arena cauldron might look like from the other side.

“It will be a weird experience, but a cool one, for sure,” he said.

“Being on the good side with them for a long time — hopefully still somewhat on the good side — but yeah, it will be super cool.”

BIG SHOE GUY WITH A BIGGER MULLET

Travers and basketball go hand-in-hand, but he says he tries to take some time away from the game.

“I’m a big shoe guy, I’m into fashion and also a bit of a gamer as well,” he said.

“Little things like going for a coffee or down the beach is something I like to do.”

He’s not lying when he says he’s a big shoe guy: “I have maybe 150 pairs at the moment, so I’ve got to expand it a little bit more. I do need some more Jordans, so hopefully I can get it to maybe 200 before the end of the year.”

Add the mullet into the mix, too.

The change of scenery had some hoops fans wondering if the curly blond party at the back would also make way.

“The mullet’s getting to a pretty decent length at the moment, I had thought about cutting it back a little bit and going maybe a short mullet but I think it will be around for a while,”

“It’s become a bit of a trademark and a lot of people love it.”

Travers possesses breathtaking athleticism. Picture: Getty Images

UNITED’S PLAN FOR NEW MAN

Versatile Travers sees himself primarily as a power forward who can stretch the floor with an improving three-point shot and elite playmaking ability.

He looks up to reigning NBL MVP Xavier Cooks and the pair share similar traits.

Travers is a supreme athlete and his defensive chops were, last season, franked by the Wildcats, who awarded him the Andrew Vlahov Medal for their best defensive player.

“He can come in and play the four for us, which is a crucial position in this league,” United coach Dean Vickerman said.

“It starts our defence and initiates our offence, which is a massive strength for Travers.

“He’s a guy that can grab it off the rim and start the break or someone we can flip it to in the halfcourt to create for others.

“The shooting is really developing, we saw that this year and then he’s a crazy athlete.

“With the ball movement that we can generate, people like him are going to have opportunities to attack mismatches and play at a higher pace than he has in the past.”

OTHER FREE AGENCY NEWS

Meanwhile, reinvigorated Adelaide swingman Anthony Drmic has found a new home in Tasmania, signing a one-year deal with the JackJumpers. The 31-year-old averaged 10.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in NBL23.

Teenage U20 National Championships MVP Ben Henshall has slotted straight into Perth’s main roster, inking a two-year deal with the Wildcats. The homegrown talent can do it all and was the most impressive player at the nationals in Geelong, leading WA to gold.

United also cut development player Josh Duach after one season.

Originally published as NBL free agency 2023: Latest player movement news