MALAGA (EuroBasket 2009) - Joel Freeland and Robert Archibald will come together to play for Great Britain at EuroBasket this summer - and they can get used to seeing a lot of each other.

Freeland has signed to play with Unicaja, where the 22-year-old will come under the wing of the highly-experienced Archibald.

Freeland, who stands 6ft 11in tall, has spent the last four years with Gran Canaria, gradually developing on the raw talent that persuaded the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers to draft him as a relative unknown in 2006.

He came to the fore last season, averaging 10 points and 4.6 rebounds

Freeland and Archibald were yesterday named to Chris Finch's GB squad for EuroBasket in Poland in September.

GB will hope the deal helps accelerate Freeland's already impressive development.

Speaking on Monday before the deal was announced, GB star Luol Deng spoke about both players, highlighting Freeland's potential, and Archibald's ability to pass on his knowledge of the game to team-mates.

"'Arch' is like a coach," Deng said. "He's playing but he's helping the guys. It's really great having him around."

Of Freeland, Deng added: "I’m a big fan of Joel, I enjoyed playing with him he’s such an energetic player very skilled and very athletic and he’s capable of being a great player and I really mean that, not just for GB, or for Europe.

"I really believe he has the talent to be in the NBA. For Joel, last year was the first time he started to play a lot and I think that the more he will play and the more opportunities he gets the more he will show his skills and I’m interested to go back and see how much he has improved and what he added to his game because I know he was very serious about it in terms of getting better."

FIBA