What do the Thunder need to compete?

Worthing Thunder have had a pretty poor start to the season. Two wins have come at the expense of two of the (arguably) weakest teams, Essex and Plymouth, and there have been some pretty bad performances, notably a heavy loss away to Sheffield.

So what has gone wrong? Let's look at the recruitment process:

Local boy Samuel Cricelli who played his debut professional season last year at Thunder was snapped up by Plymouth Raiders in the off-season. Cricelli, a 6'7'' combo-forward, had a successful college career and was a high point in Thunder's season last year. He was capped by England over the summer and it's a shame Thunder couldn't retain him.

As for the imports, swingman Reggie Bratton signed to an LEB-Silver club in Spain and big-man Kadiri Richard was picked up by BBL giants Newcastle Eagles. Point guard Sherrad Prezzie-Blue moved back to the States, but has recently returned to the Thunder.

Evaldas Zabas, the Lithuanian point guard, returned from last year and was taking most of the weight of scoring, but he has since moved west to Plymouth. Our other Europeans (who don't require a permit) were Latvian forward Janis Ivanofskis and 6'5'' Finland international Ville Makalainen. Makalainen has moved back home and signed for Korisliiga club Honka Espoo Playboys. Ivanovskis doesn't appear to be playing professionally this year.

So lets look at this years squad:

• Veteran American forward Marlin Capers is the only new import and has scored well, even if he is lacking a little in athleticism these days. 

• Bruising big-man Shaun Durant is known for his rebounding skills, and he has been putting them to good use.

• 6'6'' Londoner Mansour Mbye's talent is not in doubt, but at times his decision making is. 

• Rumours have been flying around that Thunder's other big, John Nottley, will be heading State-side as soon he gets a visa to work there, and that will be a blow if he goes. 

• Club captain James Brame has been steady and reliable as ever. 

• Bulgarian Pepe Zafirov show flashes of real talent, followed by stretches of mediocrity and occasional technical-foul-earning outbursts. 

• Welsh guard Adam Williams has impressed, and occasionally looks disheartened when things are going badly. 

A decent set of players, but lets think about what the Thunder need to take this team from being a competitive, but ultimately low ranking team, to a challenger in the play-offs.

Point guard: Thunder need a point guard. At the time of writing, rumours are abound that 5'11'' American Sherrad Prezzie-Blue has been re-signed to replace Zabas. This is a fantastic move, if true, but if not then Thunder need to immediately look for a new guard. We will struggle to pull out close games without a floor general out there.

Athletic power forward: I think Thunder could do with an athletic power forward, to give a bit of variety to the offence inside. So far we have Nottley, something of a finesse centre who gets his points from long range shooting, hooks and on the virtue of usually being the tallest guy on the court. We have Durant, who gets his points from muscling his way inside or from put-backs. We have Zafirov who seems to prefer shooting the three, and isn't really a natural big. If we had a good athletic forward, who likes to hustle in the paint, pick up rebounds and has some decent post moves (think Guildford's Mike Martin or Sheffield's Olu Babalola). Mbye perhaps should be filling this role, but appears to spend much of his time on the perimeter.

Heart: Dan Hildreth had it. Janis Ivanovskis had it. Ville Makalainen had it. So did Kadiri Richard. But this year we seem to be missing a bit of heart. Someone ready to do whatever it takes to win, throw himself on every loose ball, battle on when we're 20 points down. We need to sign a Dru Spinks or a Yorick Williams.