Vickerman Breaks Down Championship Series Defences

There are few basketball minds in the NBL who know more about winning than Melbourne United’s Dean Vickerman.

After winning four championships as an assistant coach across his time with the Tigers and Breakers, Vickerman has added three more titles to his cabinet as a head coach. First in 2015 with the Breakers, then 2018 and 2021 with Melbourne United.

He added another feather to his cap in the recent FIBA qualifying break, having led the Boomers to massive wins over Bahrain and Kazakhstan.

Dean Vickerman led the New Zealand Breakers to the 2015 NBL title. He also spent the 2017 season as an assistant coach at the Sydney Kings.

Speaking to SEN, he previewed the defensive side of the upcoming NBL Championship Series.

“I’ve been fortunate to work for both of these programs, Vickerman said. “They’re very proud programs with winning traditions.

“Sydney really dare people on your team to shoot it, so your ability to put a lot of shooting on the floor to counter their defensive coverage is really important – and I think New Zealand is capable of doing that.

“For New Zealand, their defence is the opposite. They’re such a physical defensive team – they try to get after you and make you make errors.

“We had some success with flipping our defence to zones and trying to counter their pick and roll coverage, but they’ve got some relentless guys.”

Barry Brown Jr has been named as the decisive talent for this series by a number of experts, and Vickerman is another who follows that line of belief.

Brown Jr – who was named the NBL’s Sixth Man of the Year in his debut campaign – finished third in the competition’s scoring charts with an average of 19.5 points per game.

Vickerman says you have to expect Brown will score against you, but it’s up to you to decide how.

“He’s a tough cover,” Vickerman said of the import guard. “He’s just so fast and he gets past your really quickly, and he finishes over bigs at an efficient rate.

“He tried to gap him a little bit but then he stepped into his three-ball.

“You work out absolutely what you live with when it comes to him. He’s an emotional guy who can really get against opposition crowds and get his team fired up. It’s going to be fun to see how he handles this one.

“There’s always going to be x-factors and, for me, Barry Brown coming off the bench like he’s capable of doing is one, and then even Rob Loe – he’s a guy the Kings are probably going to allow to shoot some basketballs.

“If those two go well then they could be real x-factors.

Game 1 of the NBL23 Championship Series begins tonight - Friday March 3 - at 7:30pm AEDT live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 play.