'We won't pull up': Sheffield Sharks coach Atiba Lyons on going top and impact of Rodney Chatman and Donovan Clay

Jacob Groves, Drake Jeffries, Jamell Anderson, Mike Ochereobia and EC Matthews have all settled in well, but disharmony was threatened when Nelly Cummings departed after only a few weeks and Makhi Mitchell was snapped up by a G League team in America.

The season had already begun when 26-year-old guard Rodney Chatman III came in in mid-October, and it was November 1 when first-year pro Donovan Clay, a forward, was added.

But both have been instrumental in helping Sharks win six of their first eight games in the Super League Basketball championship season. Just last week Chatman was named the league’s player of the month for November after averaging 19.6 points per game.

And on Friday when they beat Caledonia Gladiators and Sunday when they outlasted Surrey 89ers, Clay was the top points scorer with 23 and added 18 two nights later.

Lyons has always maintained bringing North American players in to play in Britain can be a leap of faith - he being an example of it working as he has built a life here.

But he has been encouraged by the early signs of how well Chatman and Clay have integrated.

“You never know for certain, you can hope and you can have a good idea,” he said of the recruitment process. “Chatman was someone I’ve been looking at for a couple of seasons. I knew a coach who is a friend of mine that had coached him, so I felt comfortable with what he was going to bring as a person.

“As a player I didn’t know it would translate as well as it has, but he’s done really just jumping into this league and making an impact.

“With Donovan, he was not as well known of a quantity. He’s a rookie, which is another layer to never knowing what you’re going to get. The word was he was a tough, physical defender and that’s right up my alley: I love defence, I love guys that play hard on both sides of the court, so I was confident he would be good, I just didn’t know how good.

“They’ve both come in and bought into what we do, they’re team guys, so it’s been a pleasure to have that uncertainty quashed pretty quickly by good character people.”

They have both helped Sheffield climb to the top of the standings for the first time in 11 years, according to league statisticians, but Lyons will not let anyone get carried away.

“It’s definitely nice to be in a position whereby you’ve had all these games and you’ve capitalised on it,” said Lyons, mindful of that fact his team have played a game more than London Lions who are one win behind, and three more than Newcastle Eagles who would overtake the Sharks were they to win all their games in hand.

“We’ve put ourselves in a position where teams are having to catch us, we’re not the team that’s playing from behind.

"But I’ve been in this position before and it doesn’t count until the very end.

“We want to make sure that we’re not pulling up, looking round and getting too comfortable.

“We have a very strong league and teams are getting better every week so we have to stay focused.”