CHALLENGING for honours in the British Basketball League is well within Worcester Wolves’ capabilities, says head coach Paul James.

Wolves underwent a significant overhaul in the summer with five new players joining the squad.

But James insists equalling or even bettering last season’s BBL play-off and Trophy triumphs is a realistic target.

“I would like to think that we can go forward and achieve what we did last year. I really do feel that we’ve got a team that’s capable of doing that if we can get everybody playing with confidence at the same time,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s any reason why we couldn’t go on and get to a couple of finals this year or even challenge for the league either.

“It is early days but I like the make-up of the team. I think we’ve got all the pieces there, it’s just trying to make sure we can get them playing together at the same time and make sure people stay healthy.”

Wolves are currently third in the league with three wins from four matches and travel to cellar-dwellars Leeds Force on Friday night.

Newcastle Eagles and Leicester Riders are the only other teams to have lost just once but James reckons the league is still taking shape.

“I think once you’ve played everybody at least once then you know where you are in the scheme of things,” the Wolves director of basketball said.

“We’ve only played four games but we’ve won three of those and at the start of the season I’d have taken that.

“We know we’ve got a lot to work on but while we’re working on that stuff and not being at our best we are still winning games. I’m still very happy. The only disappointment was that we lost a game I felt we would have won.

“We were nowhere near par, in fact we were very poor against Manchester Giants. But then I’ve seen the other side when we went up to Newcastle in the first game and played well to win.

“I know it’s within us, it’s just a matter of getting everybody playing well at the same time to make games a bit more comfortable than they have been at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Chavis Holmes has been named in the latest BBL team of the week.

The 28-year-old point guard scored 23 points, as well as pulling down eight rebounds and supplying three assists, in Worcester’s 82-68 victory over Surrey United at the University Arena last Friday.

Holmes, earning his first nomination, is joined in the select quintet by Chris Jones of Durham Wildcats, Manchester Giants’ Ingus Bankevics, Charles Smith from Newcastle Eagles and Glasgow Rocks’ Keiron Achara.