Worcester Wolves - Team Preview

Worcester Wolves

Point Guard: Last year was a strange season for the Wolves. Halfway through an uninspiring season coach Chuck Evans left the team over a racism row which led to most of the players resigning. Veteran England coach Paul James was drafted in, and one of his first signings was American point guard Rod Middleton. It will certainly be good news to Wolves fans that he has returned.

The 6'3'' Middleton was a key part of the quickly put-together line up that pushed very hard for a playoff place, missing out by the narrowest of margins. He led the Wolves in points (19.6), assists (4.5) and steals (2.7), and was noted for his hard-working defense and flashy passes.

Middleton is a great player, but the Wolves don't have very much in the way of a solid back-up. Shooting guard Kastytis Normantas will get some time here, as will young Brit Luke Sanders.

Grade: B

Shooting Guard: The Wolves have two pretty decent options at the shooting guard with the aforementioned 6'3'' Lithanian Normantas likely to command the majority of minutes early in the season. "Special K" averaged 13 ppg last year on a truly superb 69.4% shooting. If he can do similar this season he is going to be one of the most efficient offensive players in the league.

Wolves picked up a young English talent in the off-season in Callum Jones. The brother of GB international James, Callum came through the ranks of the highly succesful Manchester academy before spending four years at Pace University in America. He comes from great basketball stock; aside from his brother, his father Jeff is the current head coach of Manchester Magic and the mastermind behind their success at junior and EBL level.

If Callum can come close to the level of James, then he certainly has a lot to give to the Wolves this season, and coach Paul James might be just the man to get it out of him.

Grade: B+

Small Forward: When Paul James joined Worcester last season his first move was to sign up one of his former players. Daniel Gilbert was a key player in the Guildford Heat's ill-fated ULEB Cup run, and was clearly one of James' favourites. Last season he averaged 18.4 ppg and was a highly consistant performer. It could be argued that he is more of a natural shooting guard than small forward, but he proved last year he is a highly capable 3.

The only real back-up here is John Stoukas, a 6'6'' 19-year-old Greek youth international. Stoukas appears to have an awful lot of talent, and if coach James can mould him, he will have a role to play as a defensive stopper and providing spark minutes off the bench. However, Stoukas is young and inexperienced, and backing up the 3 might be a little too much for him early on.

Grade: B

Power Forward: Dave Watts should probably have made the jump to BBL last year. Instead he dominated the EBL last season, picking up the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player Of The Year awards. The skinny 6'9'' Watts is a scoring threat both inside and out, and a very difficult defensive match-up because of his size and quickness. Gaining some England caps over the summer can only have improved his confidence, and he will no doubt he looking to make the same kind of impact at this level as he has with the Manchester Magic last year.

The Wolves have about as close as you get in the BBL to an embarrasment of riches in terms of bigmen. Behind Watts is experienced Canadian/Lithuanian Aleksas Zimnickas who has played in Ireland, Switzerland and most recently in Iceland averaging 19 points and 8 rebounds per game last year. Zimnickas attended the University of Hartford, a highly reputable team, and could turn out to be an excellent addition to this Worcester team.

The Wolves have also retained young 6'7'' Lithuanian Pavolis Tamulynas who will probably only see minutes in the case of foul trouble or injuries.

Grade: A-

Centre: Two strong power forwards usually means no real centre at this level, but the Wolves have impressively signed two further bigmen capable of logging good minutes. 6'8'' American Justin Dobbins is fresh out Eastern Michigan University were he had an excellent college career, averaging 12 ppg and 5.9 rpg in his final year. Obviosly it will be difficult to tell until he plays together with the Worcester franchise, but if Dobbins can reach his potential, opposing defences will have a lot to deal with trying to stop him, Watts and Zimnackas inside.

Martynas Versinskas, a 6'9'' Lithanian completes the Wolves compliment of players. Versinskas is a bit of a wild-card having not played professionaly for a couple of seasons, but should settle in nicely on a team with plenty of size and Lithanians to show him the ropes.

Grade: B

Key Additions: Baltic big-men Zimnackas and Versinskas are likely to be the tipping point for Wolves being a good side, and one challenging at the business end of the table.

Key Losses: Fan-favourite Frenchman Harry Disy will not be returning. Disy was a great player for the Wolves last year, although he has been replaced well.

Full Roster:

Justin Dobbins 6'8'' PF/C
Danny Gilbert 6'5'' SF/SG
Callum Jones 6'5'' SG
Rod Middleton 6'3'' PG
Kastytis Normantas 6'3'' SG/PG
Luke Sanders 6'1'' PG
John Stoukas 6'6'' SF
Pavolis Tamulynas 6'7'' PF
Martynas Versinskas 6'9'' C
Dave Watts 6'9'' PF/C
Aleksas Zimnackas 6'8'' PF/C