Evans signing could push Pops out

The word in Toronto is that the Raptors/ Philidelphia 76ers - Jason Kapano/Reggie Evans trade this week is likely to mean that Pops Mensah-Bonsu will leave the Canadian club.

Raptors of course already boast a strong front-court in Chris Bosh, Shawn Marion & Andrea Bargnani and Evans is expected to take over Mensah-Bonsu's role of providing boundless energy off the bench.

Mensah-Bonsu's performances for Raptors though, where he averaged over five rebounds and five points per game in under 14 minutes of court-time, will mean that he is not short of NBA suitors for next season.

That should ensure that the North Londoner can ink a deal without having to try-out for clubs over the summer and so there will not be a repeat of 2007, where Mensah-Bonsu missed out on the Eurobasket qualifiers as he sought to secure an NBA contract.

World Student Games - An opportunity missed

The World Student Games start in Belgrade in less than a months time but Britain have only entered a Women's team in the Basketball competition.

Some commentators have suggested that as the Men's U20 European Championships are also taking place in Macedonia in July, BPB opted for that event ahead of the Universiade. That seems a strange explanation given that most of the players who'd have been likely to represent GB in Belgrade are over that age bracket.

Taking a look at the GB Men's squad the likes of Eric Boateng, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Justin Robinson and Randall Hanke would all have been eligible for selection. Indeed, as athletes can still represent our University national team even if they graduated in 2008 Keiron Achara, Dzaflo Larkai and Tafari Toney could also have suited up.

With Chris Finch now done with his club commitments (Mons were swept in the Belgian League Finals, losing Game 3 on Friday) he could have taken this group of players plus the likes of Ben Eaves, Paul Guede, Matt Guymon and Shane Walker to Serbia and seen how they came up to scratch in international tournament conditions.

As Toney recently admitted in an interview with the BBC he is not expecting to make the final roster this time around, so when and where does he get the chance to gain international playing experience?

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/basketball/8072737.stm

The gap between U20s and the GB Senior team is likely to become increasingly big as we head up the rankings and other than perhaps playing for England or Scotland in the Commonwealth Basketball Championships (first event in Bangalore in 2010) young fringe players over 20 will have few opportunities to play.

It has to be concluded that declining to participate in Belgrade is a short-sighted decision, especially given the increased funds that BPB now has at its disposal.

Club v Country: Will the pressure subside?

As revealed by www.gbbasketball.net on Friday, Andy Betts is the first of Team GB's European players to be inked for next season. Betts has been rewarded for a fine spell at Aris who he joined in January and was given an Honourable Mention by the influential Eurobasket.com in their Greek League awards this week.

Signing for a major club means that Betts should not be under any pressure to withdraw from the GB team. Betts highlighted such demands from clubs in an interview with Basketball 24/7 last year. Demands that he has resisted both for GB and previously with England.

Whilst it is against FIBA Europe rules for European clubs to prevent players representing their national teams in FIBA competitions, clubs have found ways and means of getting players to seriously consider opting out of national duty - except of course when the national team is the club's country of origin.

Last year, Mike Lenzly and Dan Clark both of whom had a strong shot at making the final twelve dropped out before training camp. Lenzly had just signed the biggest deal of his career in Italy and Clark had not broken through as a regular at Estudiantes. Under those circumstances both players were in a vulnerable position - where their clubs could persuade them that participating in a Eurobasket qualifying campaign was not in their career interests.

Now that Britain have made Eurobasket will our programme get the respect that Betts has demanded? If foreign clubs do continue to put pressure on players to opt-out will all be able to resist now that a place on a Finals roster is at stake?

Team GB: The (R)evolution

Having had a first stab at predicting who the Final 12 for Eurobasket will be a couple of weeks ago - thought it would be interesting to track the evolution of the GB team, since its inception in 2006 (the team that Chris Finch nicknamed the "Little Pioneers") through to the potential class of 2009.

2006	2007	2008	2009?
Starters	Starters	Starters	Starters
Hansell	Midgley	Boyd	Boyd
Reinking	Reinking	Reinking	Gordon
Joseph	Deng	Deng	Deng
Sullivan	Archibald	Sullivan	Archibald
Huggins	Betts	Mensah-Bonsu	Mensah-Bonsu
Rotation	Rotation	Rotation	Rotation
Johnson	Lenzley	Hart	Reinking
Williams	Sullivan	George	Sullivan
Sanders	Huggins	Freeland	Freeland
Haslam	Haslam	Betts	Betts
Bench	Bench	Bench	Bench
Lawson	Joseph	Midgley	Lenzley
Freeland	Sanders	Leven	George
Reed	Boateng	Achara	Achara

A striking point looking at that potential line-up for 2009 is to think back to where we were at the end of that 2006 campaign. In possession, a point down to Belarus with seven seconds to go in Sheffield - the possible go to men for that final shot were our two stars on that team: Nate Reinking or Dru Sullivan. In the end Reinking was closed out and Sulli missed a tough off-balance shot.

If we are in a similar position in a Eurobasket game this time around - there is a strong chance that neither of those players will be on court and our go to man will be arguably the leading "clutch player" in the world.

Full marks to all those who committed for that first team, when everything was still run by EB and very flaky, especially the likes of Sulli and Reinking - as they started that journey to Eurobasket 2009.

Nice touch would be to invite those players no longer involved to the Game On event in August to let the GB fans show their appreciation.

Big assists in the Big V for Corletto

GB new boy Daryl Corletto is staying in shape in the Australian off-season by turning out for his Melbourne Tigers club in the Victorian State Championship - the Big V. Corletto racked up 13 assists in a 155-93 blow-out of Waverley last weekend.

In the NBL this season he was a back-up point guard on a Tigers team who reached the Finals losing a thrilling series 3-2 to local rivals South Melbourne Dragons. Corletto is an experienced pro heading into his tenth season with the Tigers and though his stats didn't exactly light up the league last year, coach Finch clearly thinks that he is worth a look at in our problem position

Brits heading out of Chicago?

With 28 teams now on the beach, those NBA trade rumors are flying thick and fast. The pure speculation regarding the British stars is as follows.

Although new Bulls GM Gar Forman has said that inking Ben Gordon is his priority - the feeling is that Big Ben will head out of the Windy City in search of a bigger cheque. With their cap space Detroit Pistons are being touted as a likely destination for Gordon but only if they can secure their number one target Carlos Boozer - and then still afford the London born sharp-shooter.

The other story is that Gordon could end up joining old teammate Thabo Sefolosha down in Oklahoma City.

Just as long as the deal gets done by August so that Gordon can join Team GB is the cry from us British fans.

Surprisingly, given that he only signed a major deal with the Bulls last summer Luol Deng has also been the subject of trade talk. This is due to the whispers that Toronto Raptors may look to shift franchise player Chris Bosh on this year - before he is free to walk next year. If Bulls want Bosh they'll have to offer Toronto something decent in return, hence Deng coming into the equation.

So Luol to team up with Pops north of the border? Well the certainty that Mensah-Bonsu would definitely stay at Raptors has also cooled a touch. The Londoner wont be short of offers after an impressive end to the season in Toronto.

So will all three Brits find themselves on the NBA merry-go-round this summer?

Breaking News: Finch and Reinking's Mons team fell just short in the opening game of the Belgian Play-Off Finals going down 76-75 at Charleroi. Reinking's numbers: 8 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Game 2 is in Mons on Thursday night

GB can wait for Finch and Reinking

It will be a little while longer before coach Chris Finch and Nate Reinking turn their attention to Team GB - as their Mons team beat Aalstar 109-94 last night to secure their place in the Belgian Play-Off Finals. Reinking came off the bench and scored all his 12 points with threes, nailing 4 out of 6 from beyond the arc.

It is the second time that both coach and player have made the Ethias League Finals they lost out to Oostende whilst at Bree two seasons ago. Going one step further this time will be a tough task as Mons will be up against current champions, the big-spending Charleroi.

Game 1 of the best of five series is in Charleroi on Tuesday night.

By the way check out this video from the Mons website - an extended Day in the Life interview with Finch as he prepared his team for the play-off series against Aalstar.

http://www.eknetwork.tv/parcourir/noeud/127

Is there anyone else that you'd want coaching our national team? Thought not.

Breaking News: Robert Archibald's Malaga lost the first game in their ACB Play-Off series 70-62 to Barcelona tonight. Arch scored 8 points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench.