NBA hopeful staring down ‘scary thing’ after teaming with Ingles
Melbourne United NBL star Luke Travers has his eyes firmly on breaking back into the NBA, after getting a taste of the league early in his career.
The 25-year-old was taken with the 56th pick in the 2022 NBA Draft by Cleveland, earning a great opportunity to develop with their G-League team the Charge between 2024 and 2026.
Luke Travers of Melbourne United drives at the basket. Getty
Travers returned to the NBL in 2026 and re-joined United, where he had signed before the Cavs selected him.
Across the first four games of the season, the 201cm forward has been a key part of the Melbourne side, averaging 10 points per game and playing heavy minutes, but the team overall has had a sluggish start after injuries mounted in the pre-season.
Travers says his long-term goal is to break into the Boomers′ roster for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics and earn another shot at the NBA.
"I want to play in the Olympics, I want to get back to the NBA, I want to be an NBL MVP kind of guy," Travers told nine.com.au.
"I guess with all of that, it's expectations, and that's a scary thing. Going day by day and taking it as a slow process of daily habit and getting back into that helps.
“Leaning on guys like Joe Ingles and Cole Anthony and even coach Jacob Chance, who’s been around the NBA as well.
“I’m still trying to get better. I’ve only just turned 25. It’s still early days and a lot of room for improvement and that’s what I’m going to do, and the results have spoken for itself.”
United has started the season 1-3 and clearly will need to time to build chemistry, following heavy roster changes.
Travers aside, United also added NBA veterans Joe Ingles and Cole Anthony, giving the team a whole new look.
"A lot of these guys have played together before or know a lot about each other," Travers said.
“Unfortunately, our pre-season was a little injury-ridden, and we couldn’t get all the guys on at the same time.
"The beauty of the NBL is games come quick. We're figuring it all out still, we've spoken about the growing pains, but there's so much talent here that we'll figure it out pretty quickly."
Travers added that he's loved having Ingles and Anthony to learn from across this early stage of the season.
Ingles, 38, spent most of his career in the NBA and is one of the Boomers' all-time greats, while Anthony was a high-level scorer in the NBA for Orlando across the 2020s.
"Obviously they've both done it at the highest level, so the talent is there, the basketball IQ as well and just to have those guys there helping us every day is great," Travers said.
"Any time you can be a sponge and learn from them it's good, not just for me but for the whole group.
"I think we'll reap the benefits of it for the whole season and the results will start to show."
Melbourne's next chance to start building into the NBL season comes on Wednesday night when they take on the 36ers in Adelaide.
