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MELBOURNE United has taken a massive gamble on Dean Demopoulos as its new NBL coach, even though the experienced US coach will be here later this month.

Showing the club was prepared to cast its net far and wide, Melbourne secured Demopoulos, 61, on a two-year deal.

But Demopoulos will need to beat history which tells us American coaches coming in "cold" to Australia's premier league usually end up being expensive mistakes, as South Dragons can atest.

The only American coach who came in from the US without any prior experience of Australian basketball and succeeded in the NBL was Murray Arnold at Perth Wildcats in 1991.

But Arnold inherited the 1990 NBL champion. He took them to a championship repeat but was gone a year later.

“Dean is an outstanding person and basketball coach with a wealth of experience and knowledge and an outstanding set of values," United chief executive Vince Crivelli said.

“He has staunch loyalty to the programs and people he has worked with, he is invigorated by the vision we have for Melbourne United - on and off the court - and he ticks all the boxes for us.”

Well, except maybe any prior involvement in the NBL and/or Australia. Only time will tell how important that is but it has been critical in the past.

According to United, Demopoulos has worked with "some of the best minds in the game", including long stints as an assistant to John Chaney and Nate McMillan.

He coached at Kennett High School in Pennsylvania before joining Chaney’s staff at Temple University and stayed for 17 years as the school made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances.

He had one season as a head coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before becoming an assistant with the Seattle SuperSonics and Portland Trail Blazers alongside McMillan.

Demopoulos also assisted Vinny Del Negro at the Los Angeles Clippers, adding to his NBA resume.

His NBA experience is likely to come in handy when he arrives on April 20 and Melbourne goes looking for import replacements for Jordan McRae and Stephen Dennis.

Also on Demopoulos' resume is a stint working with Phoenix Mercury's WNBA centre Brittney Griner as her skills coach.

“We believe Dean has all the attributes that we need from our coach,” Crivelli said.

“He is an excellent skills coach, a great clinician and brilliant with the Xs and Os.

“Dean will work well with the players and people around the team, and we all look forward to working with him.”