Rd 3 Preview | JackJumpers v United

The Tasmania JackJumpers are still shorthanded but have called in some reinforcements, will be celebrating captain Will Magnay's 100th game and now welcome Cole Anthony, Joe Ingles, Jacob Chance and Melbourne United on Thursday night.

The JackJumpers have played two games so far this season with an impressive come from behind win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at home before just falling short on the road to the Cairns Taipans last Wednesday night.

Tasmania were already without Bryce Hamilton, Josh Bannan, Ben Ayre and Anthony Drmic coming into the season, then lost championship winning veteran big Majok Deng to a fractured leg in the opening game against the Phoenix.

That has made things challenging on a personnel front, but it hasn’t stopped the competitive levels of the JackJumpers and now reigning NBL1 North MVP Kody Stattmann and two-time NBL champion Biwali Bayles are on board to provide some depth.

The next challenge now for the JackJumpers is hosting Melbourne United on Thursday night at MyState Bank Arena with plenty about the match up to look forward to.

There's no shortage of familiar faces on that United team starting with new coach Jacob Chance who spent two seasons as an assistant at the JackJumpers so he is no stranger to MyState Bank Arena.

There's also championship winner Fabijan Krslovic who returns to his former home court and while United aren’t at full strength either with Chris Goulding and Shea Ili ruled out, they do possess some big guns including Cole Anthony, Joe Ingles and Luke Travers who have 1201 games of NBA experience.

Roth is glad to have added some extra bodies over the past week to help get in full practice sessions leading into Thursday night's game and hopes the luck starts to turn on the health front while fully aware of the challenge United present.

"I think for us it is about doing the work, it's about showing up and doing your daily preparations and not taking shortcuts or making excuses or trying to come up with any other antidote to solve this," Roth said.

"We're just trying to stack days as we've always done, the basketball gods I really believe reward you over time if you're doing the right things over and over again so we'll continue to do that.

"They're (Melbourne) definitely on the very high-end of talented teams on the league and have great depth, and good size, and they're going to be a handful all year for people to deal with.

"It will be a good look to have them early in the year like we have them now but they're extremely talented."

Magnay is excited at the fact that he brings up 100 games with the JackJumpers on Thursday night and the captain couldn’t be happier with the home he's now found in Tasmania while backing them to perform strongly against Melbourne.

"It's massive and I wish I could have got it sooner, but it's really, really special and it's not something I take lightly," Magnay said.

"After everything I've been through, to get to 100 games anywhere at one club is something that means a lot to me. I'm really proud and thankful to everyone that's been a part of the journey.

"And I think we've been playing some solid basketball over the first two games and we just lapsed for a little bit too long so we're focusing on how we can cut that from five minutes to three minutes.

"It's hard to play 40 minutes of perfect basketball, it's not really achievable because you're playing good teams, but if we can cut those lapses down I think we'll be OK along with cleaning up some rebounding and stuff as well."

Jed Richardson is one player who will continue to receive more opportunities in the absence of Deng as he provides support up front to Gold and Magnay, and should Bannan remain out, he'll be called upon even more.

In his first season with the JackJumpers after spending NBL26 with the Cairns Taipans and continued strong NBL1 North form at the Northside Wizards, he's just looking to embrace every opportunity.

"It's been really fun here so far and the home opener obviously was awesome to play in front of the home fans and then we got up to Cairns and it was a little bit disappointing," Richardson said.

"There were still some good things to work on that we've used this week and it's been really fun so far being here.

"I'm super ready for whatever role I can play and I've just kept myself ready to go, and obviously in that game in Cairns we were down in numbers and I got thrown in there a bit more and the key for me is just making sure I stay ready."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2026/27 | ROUND 3

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS v Melbourne United

MyState Bank Arena, Thursday October 1, 7:30pm

Watch live on ESPN via Disney+, Foxtel, Kayo or Fetch