The Miami cHeat: undone by a good point guard?

Boston Celtics. New Orleans Hornets. Utah Jazz.

There are the three teams that have beaten Miami Heat at this early stage in the season. What do they have in common? A top class point guard.

Celtics' Rajon Rondo is currently leading the NBA in assists and has had a superb start to the season. He's not a big scorer, but he excels at getting his team-mates involved. Rondo torched the Heat's defence and had 17 assists on the night.

Hornets win could be attributed to the huge game from big-man Emeka Okafor dominating that little bitch (yes, a highly technical phrase) Chris Bosh in the post. But Chris Paul did a fantastic job too. Again, big on the assists dishing out 19, and Heat didn't have an answer.

46 points from power forward Paul Millsap was the big story in the Heat-Jazz game. But Deron Williams came up big too, adding 21 points and 14 assists.

So what we can see is the Heat can't deal with the combination of a great point guard and a big-man playing well. And they flat out got destroyed by the Celtics.

Not strictly British basketball, I know, but if you want a tenuous link, British forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu plays for New Orleans Hornets, although admittedly he didn't see any minutes against the Heat.

Ogo Adegboye: our point guard of the present and future?

These days GB has a fairly decent youth set up. Running from U15 up to U21 you can usually see the progress of players as they develop their skills and ascend to the top level. I remember going to watch a tournament at Burgess Hill a few years back, and being impressed by the skills of Dan Clark and Matthew Bryan-Amaning.

Now they are fully fledged members of Team GB, with Clark playing an influential role in some of the key victories this summer. But another important name in the farcical Eurobasket qualification tournament, was Ogo Adegboye, and he has really come out of nowhere

A regular at the Midnight Madness event, Ogo was never involved in any of the national youth teams. He was never considered a serious prospect for Team GB. But the experience of the 6'0'' guard at NCAA Division I college St Bonaventure, and a shortage in the back-court catapulted the Nigerian-born Adegboye into the deep-end and the starting line up.

The point guard is such a crucial position at any level of basketball, and it was entrusted to Ogo, who stepped up and delivered highly mature performances for GB, playing an important role in many of the victories.

He's going into his final season of college this year and will no doubt he hoping to add a stellar season to his belt. He should face bigger and better competition for back-court minutes next time. Ben Gordon will be hopefully making his debut, plus the potential return of Jarrett Hart and Mike Lenzly and his young peers Justin Robinson, Devan Bailey, Andrew Lawrence and Devon van Oostrom to contend with.

Team GB: are they eligible?

Steve Nash. Michael Olowokandi. Ndudi Ebi.
These three names are probably the best examples from history.

Nash is a former NBA MVP and still one of the best point guards in the league today.

Olowokandi was the 1998 No.1 draft pick, taken above Vince Carter and Dirk Nowitzki. He is generally considered to be a "bust", but overall he had a solid NBA career with highs of 12.3 points and 9.1 rebounds coming in the 2003/04 season.

Ebi was the no.26 overall pick in 2003 NBA Draft. He is a genuine bust, and his career has been disappointing even in Europe. Nevertheless, he has still played at a high-level, and is probably still young enough to get back to the top level.

So what do Nash, Olowokandi and Ebi have in common?

They were all eligible to play basketball for Great Britain, and they all chose to play for someone else.

Tottenham Hotspur fan Nash was born in South Africa to a Welsh mother and English father. His family moved to Canada when he was 18 months old, but he regularly visited London, where his father was from.
He represented Canada, and while still going strong in the NBA, appears to have retired from international basketball.

Olowokandi who was born in Lagos, Nigeria grew up in Britain. He went to high school in Seaford, about half an hour away from where I live. He represented Nigeria and has now retired from pro basketball.

Ebi is technically still eligible to play for GB. But he appears to consider himself more Nigerian than British.

So, with these three potential Brits missing in action, are there any other dual-nationality possibilities that aren't gracing the current team?

Kelenna Azubuike is the most obvious target. Born in London, he was raised in the US. He would be a massive asset to the wing, where GB are probably weakest at the moment.

Dante Cunningham is having a decent start to the season for Portland Trailblazers. He has worked out with the GB team in the past, and appears to have some British heritage which may allow him to represent GB if he gets a passport.

Big men Chris Ayer and Ross Allsop both represented England this summer, suggesting they are eligible for Great Britain too. Ayer has played in the NBA D-League and is currently under contract in Japan. Allsop is in his final year at Nova Southeastern University in the US. Ayer is the better of the two, but GB is pretty stacked at the power forward and centre positions.

In Europe there are a number of players who haven't played for GB but appear to have a British passport. Darren Phillip, Ugonna Onyekwe in Spain and Andrew Lovedale in France are all forwards who could be used. 6'6'' swingman Dee Ayuba is currently playing in Sweden.

There aren't very many guards though. Lindsay Tait (New Zealand) and Artur Drozdov (Poland) apparently have GB passports but have represented other countries. The story is the same for Australian Daryl Corletto, who has been invited to GB camps in the past. Although Lee Jeka who has been playing in Germany may be a possibility.

Team GB - What could be possible?

This summer the national basketball team of Great Britain (Team GB) dominated their qualification group and won a place at the next Eurobasket Championships to be held next year in Lithuania. It was a hugely impressive display (although rendered pointless by FIBA changing the structure of the tournament meaning all but 1 of the teams in the qualification round are now in the championship, but I digress) by a clearly very talented team.



Deng is GB's main man.

 6'9'' Chicago Bulls small forward Luol Deng was the star, of course, averaging a superb 22.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game. These are fantastic statistics, but beyond the numbers Deng really was the key factor in GB's success, he made the big shots and came up with stunning plays exactly when we needed them. A true class above anyone else in the tournament.

So with Deng as our catalyst can Team GB make an impression at the next Eurobasket? Let's examine Deng's supporting cast and, in one case, potential co-star.



Gordon with his GB shirt.



The man I speak of is Ben Gordon. Gordon is a 6'3'' guard who currently plays for NBA's Detroit Pistons. He was born in London but has spent the majority of his life in America. However, Gordon has pledged his alleigance to the Union Flag and is expected to represent GB next summer and at the London 2012 Olympics too. In Gordon, Team GB has a second NBA megastar, something very few national teams can boast.

So with Deng and Gordon leading the way for Britain who else is set to shine for their country? 6'9'' power forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu is a sure bet. Pops is a rebounding machine. At the qualifiers he averaged 13.5 rebounds per game. To give you an idea of what a fantastic achievement this was, 7'0'' Orlando Magic centre Marcin Gortat, considered a strong rebounder at NBA level, also played at the tournament. In virtually identical minutes for Poland, Gortat managed 8.9 rebounds per game. Pops puts 100% heart into every GB performance doing everything that's

asked of him, and doing it well.

Lets not forget that when Team GB qualified (and qualified well) this summer, they did so without three key big men. Veterans Andy Betts and Robert Archibald pulled out with injuries, while former first round NBA draft pick Joel Freeland felt he needed to concentrate on his club career over the summer. All three of these guys have a lot to offer Team GB, especially young Freeland who is establishing himself as an excellent player in the Spanish ACB, probably the world's best league outside the NBA. Daniel Clark was available this summer, and really proved his worth with some terrific performances. Current team captain Andrew Sullivan, playing in the UK for Mersey Tigers this year, is a tireless worker and still has plenty to give this GB team.



Sharpshooter Reinking is a key scorer.



GB has always been considered much stronger at the forward than at the guard. Ben Gordon will go along way to remedy that problem, but certainly there is not the same level of depth. Naturalised veteran Nate Reinking provided some excellent scoring relief for Deng and Mensah-Bonsu averaging 14.5 points per game. Reinking is 36 now, going on 37 in December, but refuses to be written-off, if anything getting better with age. GB has talent coming through the ranks of the US college system. Ogo Adegboye and Justin Robisnon both contributed at the qualifiers, in particular pure point guard Adegboye impressed with unexpected maturity and savvy. GB mainstays Jarrett Hart and Mike Lenzley were absent, though, and the national side will be a better team when they return.

Now that is the foundation for a very strong team that GB can put forward for the next couple of years. But there are some wildcards too. Britain-born New York Knicks shooting guard Kelenna Azubuike has been unable to qualify for the national team as he doesn't currently have a UK passport. If, and it is a Yao-Ming-sized if, Azubuike can be accepted as a British citizen he would be a massive asset with his shooting and strong defence.

 There is another NBA player who could potentially qualify for GB. Portland Trailblazers forward Dante Cunningham appears to have some British lineage. In the same position as Azubuike, Cunningham lacks the necessary British passport, and barring some decent development might well be unlikely to break significant minutes into the rotation anyway.