Love will take a tough stance on recruitment
GAVIN LOVE is not afraid of out of contract Marjon Plymouth Raiders players 'keeping their options open' in this summer's transfer market.
Raiders' coach had two key personnel changes forced upon him last year.
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Starters Evaldas Zabas and Jerome Gumbs both rejected offers of new one-year deals and joined clubs in Sweden and Luxembourg respectively.
The same thing could happen with any of the nine professionals from Raiders roster last season.
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However, Love warned any player considering playing hardball with him this summer: "If you're not 100 per cent committed to the club, we don't want you.
"We have people working so hard behind the scenes here that they deserve to have people out on the court working just as hard as they are, if not harder."
Love believes the balance of power in European basketball's transfer market will again lay with clubs, not players, this summer.
Teams hit by wider economic problems, have had to cut their cloth accordingly.
Love said: "Trust me – there are less jobs than players in basketball right now. And there are a lot of players."
He added: "It's a tough thing to get, a job playing professional basketball.
"It's started already. The other day I opened my inbox and there were 20 emails sat there waiting for me.
"One of those emails could be from a particular player who's interested in coming here; or it could be a list of 20 possible guys; or it could be a link to a website to 100s of possible guys."
Love increased Raiders' roster from seven professionals in 2010/11 to nine last season.
How that trend will play out this summer remains open to conjecture until Love receives a playing budget for 2012/13 from Raiders chairman Bob Widdecombe.
"I don't think the chairman will sit me down and give me a budget for next season for a while, to be honest," said Love, who does not expect to recruit in earnest until July.
"We have to sit down first and evaluate our sponsors and things like the Hoops 4 Health programme.
"But people like Bob and Pat Widdecombe now work so hard on getting sponsors in to the club that I'm sure we'll have enough money to put together another team who are contenders next year."
Raiders could this summer cash in on being now arguably the second most fashionable club, behind Newcastle Eagles, in the BBL.
Love added: "Who wouldn't want to come here and play in front of 1,500 fans every week?
"Who wouldn't want to come and travel on the best team coach in the league?
"And who wouldn't want to stay in the best accommodation at the Future Inn?
"If you don't, that's fine. We don't want you. I don't care who you are."
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