Love aims to keep overseas trio

Plymouth Raiders coach Gavin Love has signalled his intention to secure the futures of American trio Lehmon Colbert, Jeremy Bell and Paul Williams.

Love has already snapped up American Drew Lasker from Guildford Heat; however Lasker recently married his British fiancée and is no longer viewed as an overseas player which affords Plymouth the opportunity to keep hold of all three of Colbert, Bell and Williams.

The Raiders coach has indicated this is what he wants to do, telling BBC Sport: “Do I want to re-sign them? That is the intention.

“I’ve spoken to them and their agents and we’re hoping they want to return to Plymouth next year.”

Love, nevertheless, admitted he would have no problem finding replacements for them if they chose to move elsewhere.

He added: “There are more players than there are clubs and if they don’t want to play for me then I’ll move on.

“I get 30 emails a day from people who want to come and play for me at Plymouth so I could find other players.

“But I want to keep the continuity within the squad that we had this season and build on the success that we had last year.

“We’re very close to signing another European player and once those three are signed and sealed I’ll move onto the permit players.”

Plymouth finished third in the BBL championship table last season, behind Newcastle and Leicester, and they were also beaten by the Eagles in both the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy finals.