BIO: Malith Machar was born in Adelaide (SA).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Malith Machar made his NBL debut with the Melbourne United at 23 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

Signed a development player deal with Melbourne United on a two-year deal, with a team option for the second season in August, 2022. Dean Vickerman had the following to say about Machar on the announcement of his signing. “At 6’6 he’s a long, versatile athlete that can play at a high tempo, defend multiple positions and shoot the ball well from beyond the arc. I can’t wait to get him back in Melbourne and continue to see just how much he can do for us.”

After Melbourne finished the previous season on top of the ladder but suffered an early playoff exit after losing star guard Chris Goulding to injury, many felt United would return as championship favourites. Unexpectedly, however, United lost almost half of their starting unit prior to their first game as a result of injuries and better opportunities overseas.

Leading scorer Jo Lual Acuil, was very keen to stay in Melbourne but exited the club after receiving an offer to play in China, which was far too good to refuse.

White and Dellavedova were both contracted for this season, but with only weeks before tip-off, both secured deals to play in the NBA from Denver and Sacramento respectively. The loss of both players couldn’t have come at a worse time, as most players around the globe had already signed deals with teams, leaving very few options available to replace them. Isaac Humphries (via Adelaide), Xavier Rathan-Mayes (via Illawarra), Rayjon Tucker and Jordan Caroline were all signed, and David Barlow, who had announced his retirement, returned to help fill the gaps.

Things went from bad to worse when Next Star Ariel Hukporti went down clutching his lower leg during the NBL Blitz in Darwin. With starting centre Hukporti out for the season, Humphries, who was coming back from a serious bout of knee problems, was thrust into playing major minutes. The absence of a clear backup big man forced veteran forwards Barlow and Brad Newley, as well as import Jordan Caroline, to log considerable minutes at the centre position.

United were able to win their first game of the season, an overtime victory against New Zealand (101–97) off the back of a huge night from Rathan-Mayes (33 points, 5rebounds and 9 assists).

Rathan-Mayes (14.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.4 assists), who had been recruited to lead the team’s second unit, was thrust into the starting lineup after Shea Ili (8.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists) became a late omission, a result of a concussion suffered during FIBA qualifying games while playing for New Zealand. Ili would drift in and out of the team’s roster for most of the season, appearing in only 13 games through three separate stints, forcing Tucker to spend time out of position and running the floor in his absence.

Melbourne (5-6) struggled through the first three months of the season, with numerous media outlets calling for an import change to try and improve their situation. While Tucker (17.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists), who, when first signed, proclaimed that he would be the ‘best first year import in the league’ was a long way away from that, it was Caroline (5.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 0.7 assists) who came into United’s program as a high-effort, bustling power forward but failed to establish himself as an undersized centre and was axed.

Marcus Lee (9.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks), a former teammate of Humphries, was signed in November, adding size and interior defence to the squad and sparking a major turnaround for Melbourne. During this time, United also got a boost from the return of Ili, and Tucker finally began to find his feet offensively.

The last straw seemed to be a loss to Illawarra (93–79), who at the time had only one to their credit for the entire season. This loss, combined with Melbourne finally being able to put their intended starting roster fit on the floor, resulted in a 16-point win over Brisbane (104-88) the following game. Goulding (20 points), Tucker (20 points), Lee (18 points), Ili (15 points) and Rathan-Mayes (8 points and 10 rebounds) off the bench, all producing good numbers and gelling together for the first time. Following their shock defeat to the Hawks, United ended their campaign on an 11-3 run.

Melbourne’s turnaround saw them enter the final day of the regular season with hopes of scraping into the Play-In Qualifier. It looked like United would make it after Tucker (31 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists) carried the team to a win over Adelaide (116–107) in their last game, a Perth victory over league leaders Sydney saw them claim the final playoff spot due to points percentage.

A telling sign of what hindered Melbourne this season was the fact this marked the first time a Dean Vickerman led United team had finished the season outside the top five in the competition in defensive rating. Despite their poor form, United were a part of multiple historic events during the season. United faced off against reigning and eventual champs Sydney on Christmas, which drew more than 300,000 people to their TV screens and sparked a new tradition across Australia. Tucker (31 points and 5 rebounds) would finish as the game’s highest scorer, but United would suffer a 21-point loss to the Kings (101-80). On the back of big man Isaac Humphries (9.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks) publicly announcing he was gay, the team also spearheaded an NBL pride round. As a part of the round that celebrated the LGBTQ+ community.

Machar would appear in 4 games this season and score a total of one point.

2023/24
After a forgettable season where United attempted to regroup after losing starters Jo Lual-Acuil to China and Jack White and Matthew Dellavedova to the NBA, United welcomed back Lual-Acuil and Dellavedova for NBL24 and added NBA prospect Luke Travers to build out a roster very similar to the team which narrowly missed out on a grand final berth in 2022.

Looking to run things back, import Ian Clark (via Adelaide) was signed as the team’s only import, filling the team’s bench scoring role that Scotty Hopson had previously occupied while young, up and coming talent Tanner Krebs (via Brisbane), Kyle Bowen and Flynn Cameron were also added to the roster.

In his sixteenth NBL season, Chris Goulding (16.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists) delivered one of the best seasons of his career on the back of playing with the Boomers at the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and fighting for a spot on the 2024 Olympic team.

In addition to Goulding leading the way in scoring, United were unguardable for most of the season with any of the team’s starters able to take over games. Lual Acuil (14.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks), Dellavedova (12.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 6.3 assists) and Clark (13.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) kept the scoreboard ticking over while swiss army knife Travers (11.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists 1.1 steals and 1.3 blocks) filled the stat sheet in almost every other category.

Machar saw minutes in only 3 games for the season, failing to score.

Melbourne’s success saw the team playing in front of sell-out crowds almost every week with their biggest win at home came against Brisbane in December where they won by 35 points and thanks to some lights out shooting from Goulding (7/9 from beyond the arc) and forcing the Bullets to shot a woeful percentage at the other end (3/26 from the perimeter).

Melbourne faced Illawarra in the semifinals, where both teams lit it up, the scoreboard displaying 100 points in consecutive playoff matches. Tied at a game apiece, United survived a huge scare in Game 3 to advance to the Grand Final series.

United delivered a blowout win in game one (104–81) behind Goulding (22 points on 7-12 shooting) and Lual-Acuil (20 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks). The JackJumpers evened the series at home (77-82) thanks to big games from Jack McVeigh (16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists) and Milton Doyle (13 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists). Shea Ili (20 points on 8-12 shooting) led United in the loss.

Dellavedova (21 points and 8 assists) delivered one of his best games of the season in a game looked like easy victors until a miracle shot from McVeigh (18 points and 12 rebounds) resulted in Melbourne losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.

In game four, United rode the hot hand of Ian Clark (18 points and 4 rebounds) to even the series at two wins a piece (88-86).

Tasmania’s Jordon Crawford had struggled through the majority of the playoffs, but was the epitome of the JackJumpers never-say-die attitude, scoring 19 points in the first quarter and finishing the game with 32 points as the JackJumpers came from behind to win at John Cain Arena (83-81). It was the equal-third highest tally by any player in a title-series game during the 40-minute game era, and ended Melborne’s championship hopes.

Malith Machar played two seasons the Melbourne United..

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.