Sheffield Sharks need to speed up integration of Rickie McGill and Scottie Lindsey

Sharks - with Rickey McGill and Scottie Lindsey making their debuts - went from the sublime to the ridiculous in hanging on for victory against Cheshire Phoenix last Friday.

Ahead of tonight’s visit of Manchester in Super League Basketball, Lyons said: “We’re still trying to figure out who’s doing what. When you’ve got two guards coming in you’re trying to find the balance of who’s the primary, who’s going to be the one coming off actions, who looks best where, so it’s going to be difficult until you have actual game experience together.

“We need to work on things, we need film from the Cheshire game. It’s a whole different thing from practice to a game.

“We lost Rodney Chatman III (knee injury) unfortunately, he was probably one of our main points scorers along with Prentiss (Nixon), so Rickey coming gives us those teeth in the backcourt.

“He’s got shot-making ability and he’ll get better and better as he plays more.

“And Scottie’s got that size. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Scottie yet, he’s still trying to figure things out.

“Rickie has been in the league so he’s comfortable whereas Scottie is still trying to find his feet, when he gets going that’s going to be great to see as well.”

With so many scoring assets to accommodate now - no player logged three quarters of the game in the 87-85 win over Cheshire - Lyons says the onus is on the players to deliver when they are on the floor.

“It puts pressure on the players, you’ve got to go out there and perform,” said Lyons, whose team enter this one-game weekend tied at the top of the SLB standings with London Lions on a 10-4 (win-loss) record.

“This is a deep team, everybody wants to play so you’ve got to go out and earn your minutes and execute.”

The game comes at the end of a tumultuous week for British basketball, one that began with Sharks general manager Sarah Backovic explaining the rule change on the number of imports a team can sign, to all the Super League Basketball clubs uniting in rebellion against the British Basketball Federation which has granted a period of exclusivity to an external American consortium to run the league from next season.