New Scotland coach Erik Olsen believes pulling double duty as Glasgow Rocks number two can help fast-track young talents into the professional game.

The American will split his time between the two roles after previously getting a foothold in the British game by working on the development camp run by the Los Angeles Lakers and Great Britain star Luol Deng.

With the Scots men’s team still waiting to learn whether it can earn a spot at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Olsen will target the next generation of basketballers and he believes the new domestic programme – backed by funding from Sportscotland – can help raise the bar.

“We immediately want to identify players that have the potential growth trajectory to be professional talents, and international talents for the Scotland and GB teams,” he said. “And after we identify these players we will aim to give them more hands on coaching and access to our Sport Scotland strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists and physiotherapists in order to ensure that not only are these young players given everything they need to develop off the court, but also will be given individualised and personal attention on the floor.

“Our long-term goals are multi-faceted. Ideally we will be able to incorporate more of European club approach to our training programme, meaning that we can identify these players early, and include them into our BBL programme with the Glasgow Rocks, to give future players the challenging club system that will push them to their maximum.”