By Rob Dugdale in Tel Aviv

Mensah-Bonsu played for Dallas in the NBA

Great Britain forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu says the team's recent wins in Turkey show the team is peaking at the right time for their EuroBasket qualifiers.

GB take on Israel on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, with NBA star Luol Deng in the team for the first time this summer.

"Whenever you have a guy like that added to the team it gives you a chance to win every game," said Mensah-Bonsu, who was GB's top scorer in Turkey.

"I'm excited to see what we can do with him on the court," he told BBC Sport.

The absence of Deng has allowed Mensah-Bonsu to shine, leading the team at both ends of the court in their warm-up matches.

"Even though I'm one of the younger players I came on this team expecting to be a leader and coach Finch said he expected it of me too," said Mensah-Bonsu.

"He said I did an okay job but at times I thought I could have done it better.

With Luol back here it takes a load off a little bit and it makes my job easier Pops Mensah-Bonsu

Although those results were at times poor, with the defeats to Belgium and Estonia the lowest points, Mensah-Bonsu believes the worst of the team's growing pains are over, as shown by the wins over Bosnia-Hercegovina and Portugal.

"I think it just shows some of the growth that we've made in the last week," he said.

"When we were in Italy, you could tell that we were a young team, not so much in terms of ages, but in term of not having played together much.

"After being together for three or four weeks we're starting to become a close-knit team - we're starting to understand each other. When we played Bosnia and Portugal we looked more like a team and we played like a team.

"Our turnovers were down, our assists were up and we executed better. I think it's just the start of things to come and we're feeling really positive."

Great Britain's game in Tel Aviv is the first of six qualifiers this summer over a span of 18 days. Bosnia and the Czech Republic are the other teams in the group.

Israel, who reached the second phase of last year's European finals in Spain, are the top seeds in the group. The Czechs, who also qualified last time out, will be GB's first home opponents when they play at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday.

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GB are aiming to qualify for next year's European finals in Poland, a feat no domestic national team has managed since 1981.

Qualification would go a long way towards convincing the world governing body that the newly-constituted GB team deserves an as-yet unguaranteed spot as hosts in the 2012 Olympics.

While all eyes will be on Deng, restored to the squad after three weeks of insurance wrangles were sorted out last weekend, Mensah-Bonsu has already shown that he is an international class player.

"With Luol back here it takes a load off a little bit and it makes my job easier. I'll be able to adjust - I'll be glad that someone else can be the focal point because it can be a little tiring at times.

"He's not been with us for those three weeks so we've grown without him but he's not the type of player who comes in and disrupts a team," says Mensah-Bonsu of his colleague.

"His talent alone just raises the level of play of others around him. At practice today, some of the thing he was able to do showed what a difference he can make."