Melbourne prepared for White NBA interest

Melbourne United head coach Dean Vickerman says he is reining in his excitement of his club re-signing Jack White, due to a certain belief the Boomers forward will be on NBA radars following Australia’s Olympic campaign.

The club announced White had re-signed with United on a two-year deal – with a second-year player option – on Wednesday evening, however made it clear the contract did contain an NBA-out clause.

White was a two-way player on Denver’s championship winning roster in 2023 and earned a 10-day contract to close out the recent NBA season with the Memphis Grizzlies following a stint with G-League side South Bay.

“Jack has been continually coming back to the club whether it was when he was in college at Duke or in the NBA, continuing to come back here in the off-season and be around the guys here, to have it locked in, or semi-locked in because there’s going to be some opportunities for him,” Vickerman told SEN.

“That little part holds back the excitement, and even chatting to him you want that to be his dream, to go and get that NBA contract. There’s going to be a pathway for him.

“If he makes the Boomers and goes to the Olympics, and people see him there, if he goes to the Boomers and does something different in camps, there are going to be those opportunities to expose himself to more NBA clubs.

“There’s a date we have him officially locked in so I’m looking forward to that day.”

While White is an exceptional, NBA-level player, his signing looks to be a high-calibre safety net for the potential departure of Luke Travers, who himself is pursuing NBA opportunities with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Travers was selected with the 56^th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, and his rights have been held by the Cavaliers since. He has returned to the NBL in each of the seasons he has been eligible to sign for Cleveland and has shown substantial improvement through both those campaigns.

The 22-year-old thrived as a small-ball five in Cleveland’s 2023 NBA Summer League triumph, but has shown the versatility to play a variety of positions and styles on both ends of the floor.

Vickerman says the next goal for his side is to continue to shore up its frontcourt for the upcoming campaign.

“We still have Luke Travers under contract as well. Jack White, Luke Travers, multi-versatile guys you can play in different positions so that can change the structure of your team, but both of those two have the opportunity to go to the NBA,” he said.

“Ariel Hukporti, JLA, that center spot for us, they’re two positions that are key for us to move forward and try to fill. With Ariel we look forward to seeing him in the NBA Draft and Jo is going to test the NBA as well and has some opportunities to play in Asia. That end of the roster is where we need to sort things out the most.

“We’ve looked at the local market as we always do to fill those positions and we don’t think either guys are in our salary range, or they don’t fit our needs at that spot.

“We have Rob Loe locked in already as a backup center and now we’ve just got to try and find that starting center that has a lot of characteristics of Ariel in being an amazing defender, and has some of the things Jo was capable of doing in scoring the basketball as well.

“That would be the ultimate goal.”