WORCESTER Wolves took a gamble in opting for wholesale changes over the summer.

It was calculated but a gamble nonetheless.

It was also a race against time for the club’s head coach Paul James to recruit a raft of new players and bed them in ready for the start of the season.

With Wolves’ preparations not helped by a lack of court time due to the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships taking place at the University Arena, it has been a trying few months for the British Basketball League side.

It has not been a great start to the campaign for Worcester either, certainly not by the standards they have set themselves in recent seasons.

Victory in their first two games was welcome but leaving it until the final seconds to edge Bristol Flyers, a side unlikely to be a major threat this term, 78-76 at the arena showed there is still a great deal of work to be done.

That was further underlined when they were beaten 88-54 at Leicester Riders, a team who look almost certain to be challenging for top honours.

Wolves hope to do that too.

The reason for ripping the team up in the first place was to start afresh and work towards establishing themselves as a force at the top of the game. Having won the play-offs and BBL Trophy in 2014, Wolves presumably felt they needed to act to ensure that doesn’t become a one off.

In Pavol Losonsky and Perris Blackwell they have the kind of performers that will get the crowd to their feet just like Zaire Taylor, Will Creekmore and Alex Owumi used to.

Worcester are a work in progress but unfortunately they can’t be that forever.

At some point they are going to have to start delivering results to make the gamble pay off.

Otherwise it’s going to be tough season and Wolves will expect better.