With all of the action of well-known NBA players bouncing in and out of China this season I got to thinking about which players should be playing there. Part of the issue I see is that the CBA teams have felt that an NBA stint on the resume was enough to fill their arenas and take their teams to the top of the standings. This is not the case anymore. So then who should be coming over to play? Here are a couple of thoughts I have had recently.

Joe Alexander - Why is there no discussion of him coming over? I have watched a few of his games this season on Futurecast this season and he seems to be palying very well. He is averaging 19 pts and 9 rebs for the Texas Legends. More importantly for the CBA he used to live in Beijing and reportedly speaks basic Mandarin. Wouldn't the CBA fans eat up a homecoming? Plus his game translates over well to the CBA - athletic big man who likes to shoot.  

Marcus Jordan - I know he is still playing college ball, but wouldn't it make perfect sense to not waste a few years in the D-League while hoping for an NBA chance and instead take his game and name to China? I am sure Nike would love to place a Jordan in the CBA to battle the Chinese apparel compaines on their home turf. He is putting up good numbers this year, and with two more years of development should be ready to make a splash in the CBA. 

Yao Ming - Why is there not more talk of this? Why should he even try to play 100+ games a year in the NBA when he could move back to China and ply half the games and make money hand over fist in side ventures and endorsements? The chances of a return to form in the NBA seem remote at this point. While in the past a foreign player returning home would be seen as a failure, I think we have moved to a point where you can legitamely be an icon in a foreign market.

Jet Chang - I know this is not as big of news to most as the other names, but I think this actually may be the most likely of all four. Chang is currently playing at BYU-Hawaii (DII) and is the future of Taiwanese basketball (you can read all about him in the "Player Update" section of this site). Will he even bother with the SBL, or will he cash in on day one in the CBA?

I would love to hear from other people about other players who should be coming over to China soon.

Taiwan - Wednesday and Friday night double-headers this week taught us quite a bit about how the rest of the season is shaping up. The most interesting game was the Yulon vs. Bank of Taiwan match-up on Wednesday. This marked our first chance to see Yulon in action without Tseng Wen-ting manning the middle. The results were not pretty, as BoT easily handled Yulon.

Despite losing to Taiwan Beer Wednesday night, KKL was competitive the whole game. Shawn Hawkins seems to be finding his footing (and his jumpshot) and they are falling into a nice rhythm. The positive results continued on Friday night as KKL beat Taiwan Mobile to move out of the cellar.

In the other game on Friday Pure Youth pulled out a close game against Dacin in a battle between 2nd and 3rd place teams. Jones-Jennings had another massive game with 22 points and 25 rebounds. This guy really deserves a bigger contract in the future.

Japan - In JBL news, Aishin came away with the Emperor's Cup title. Regularly season action now finally resumes this week. In less positive news, the JBL has taken over the Hokkaido-based Rera Kamuy franchise after the team's ownership failed to pay multiple league fees and broke numerous league policies. They have fired coach Joe Bryant as part of the restructuring as well (aka cost cutting measures). In my opinion, this opens the door for the bj-league to enter into the Hokkaido market. As Niigata has shown, a team that struggled financially in the JBL can operate successfully in the bj-league.

The bj-league All-Star Game is this weekend. Hopefully I can put up highlights from the game soon.

Korea - As I predicted a few weeks back the the Samsung Thunder are making a push to join the group of teams at the top of the league standings. After a tough overtime loss to KCC Egis, Samsung has pulled off three wins a row, including a 15 point victory over 1st place Sonic Boom KT. With Aaron Haynes' continued all-around superb play, Samsung looks to make the league a four team race.

Philippines - Game one of the PBA Philippines Cup is tonight as the Beermen take on the Texters for the title. The teams split their two meetings earlier this year. The teams both field a balanced attack with multiple players capable of exploding for big games. Should be a fun series to watch!

ASEAN - Semi-Finals action this weekend. I am excited to watch the Patriots (and one of my favorites Gabe Freeman) take on the Dragons. The Dragons have an interior-focused offense now while the Patriots play a fast-paced style. It should be an interesting contrast.

CHINA - Is it weird that I was more excited to watch Lester Hudson play in China than I am to watch Rafer Alston? Hudson is averaging 23.3 ppg in his first three games, and Guangdong has won two of those games. Looks like Chinese teams are starting to figure out which kind of import is successful in their league.

Six games in total over the past two days, triple-headers are a nice benefit of the SBL's cost-cutting managerial style. So first a recap of the individual games, and then some random thoughts and analysis. This gets a little long . . . be warned.

Pure Youth 84 - Dacin 73
This was an interesting match-up of imports as both Jones-Jennings and Gayden are physically imposing compared to the Taiwanese players. With a 200 cm height restriction teams either go for the long athlete, or the brick wall. While Gayden is a great athelete, both of these players have some brick-wallishness about them.

This was a lot closer of a game then the final outcome suggests. Frankly, the teams were evenly matched in almost every statistical category. In the end it came down to Pure Youth hitting a couple more shots and then sinking their free throws at the end of the game. The imports had a nice little battle, showing a difference in their style of play. Jones-Jennings finished with 16 and 15 largely by moving people inside, while Gayden showed some versatility by stepping out for jump shots, he found the most success on inside moves and put backs, ending the night with 22 and 14. The best Taiwanese performance came by way of PY's Chien Chia-Hung who finished with 26.

Taiwan Beer 93 - KKL 72
Not too much to comment on this game, Taiwan Beer is just a lot better team. KKL is still without an import player since the departure of Bailey. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this game is that all twelve players on Taiwan Beer saw at least 8 minutes of action. Phenomenal substituting by the coaching staff!

KKL's Chang Jung-hsuan leads the league in scoring at this point, but is really going to benefit from the presence of Shawn Hawkins on the opposite wing.

Taiwan Mobile 78 - Bank of Taiwan 72
Mobile jumped out to a 25-10 lead at the end of the 1st and appeared to be on their way to an easy victory. Not so. Bank of Taiwan slowly chipped away at the margin over the next two periods, starting the 4th only down by 2. While Mobile did hold on, it was an unimpressive victory to say the least. Dove continues to confuse me. He looks good out there, and is by far the best athlete on the court at all times. It does not seem to be translating to a huge impact on the court though. One problem Mobile faces is their lack of depth. They only went 8 deep in this game and it showed. Faulknor had another average performance. He plays with a ton of energy and makes good things happen, but does not seem to have the ability to create his own shots. This would not be a problem if his teammates could create shots . . .

Dacin 86 - KKL 72
The only good news coming out of this game was that one team would finally get a 'W'. Dacin, riding on the physical interior play of Gayden and Tien Lei pulled ahead in the 2nd Quarter and never looked back. Gayden has looked better each game after an ugly performance in the opener against Tseng and his Yulon teammates.

Yulon 76 - Pure Youth 74 (OT)
By far the game of the night, and the game of the season far was this battle between two of the top teams in the league. I saw this as a match-up to determine who is the #2 team in the league at this point, as Taiwan Beer looks to be in a class of their own. Anyway, after taking a commanding lead early, Yulon let Pure Youth back into the game in the 4th. Pure Youth's charge was really a team effort, with big contributions from a number of players.

In the end there were some awful calls down the stretch that all went Yulon's way. As a result they were able to force overtime and come out with the victory. One thing I can't figure out is where was James Mao? I did not notice him get injured against Dacin the night before. Pure Youth needs his scoring, and this would have been a completely different game with him in the lineup.

Taiwan Beer 73 - Taiwan Mobile 59
Once again, at the end of this game I was not sure I knew how good Taiwan Beer is as a team. By this I mean, until they are challenged regularly I do not think we will have an accurate read on their team personality. Dove had an ugly game for Mobile, scoring 7 points on 3/12 shooting. He at least grabbed 12 rebounds.


Thoughts

• We know that Taiwan Beer, Yulon, and Pure Youth are good. We know that Taiwan Mobile, Bank of Taiwan, and KKL in their current state are weak. Dacin is the only team I do not think we have a real read on yet. They play Bank of Taiwan on Wednesday.
• I am tempted to rate the imports today, but am going to wait until next week and I have seen them all play one more time.
• Last night I had SBL running on one computer and the CBA running on the other, and could not help but think about the awkward relationship the two leagues have. If I were a CBA team I would be recruiting Taiwanese players aggressively. The fan support, sponsorship, and facilities of the SBL can in no way compete with the CBA. I understand a CBA team would have to think about the political message they were sending by bringing over a handful of Taiwanese players, but the basketball rewards would be worth it. There are at least a 10-15 players with the skill level to play in the CBA playing in the SBL right now, if not more. Taiwanese teams lack the size of Chinese teams, but at point and wing positions are as good, if not better. In my opinion of course . . .  It will be interesting to see what rumors about player movement start swirling at the end of this season.
  

I joked about it two days ago when discussing Javaris Crittenton's departure from the CBA, I guess I really should have put money on it!

From NiuBball.com:
"Though Sina is reporting that the team is cutting Francis, a source speaking to NiuBBall.com indicated that the break-up was mutual and that both sides were equally ready to move on.  Francis, who was brought in on a large contract after Beijing head coach, Min Lulei, flew out to the U.S. to watch him work out in November, became quickly frustrated with Min over his lack of minutes and felt as if the team was merely using him to sell tickets and merchandise.  Francis had not played more than five minutes in a single game, and had received his second straight DNP-CD tonight against Jiangsu after not getting any action on Friday against Bayi."

I for one am relieved that this happened early in the season. I hope that they look closely at their needs before signing a new import. With Lee Hsueh-Lin manning the point I see their biggest need being a scoring wing player. Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside was not to far off when he floated Rashad McCants name. McCants is the kind of scoring guard who has found success in the CBA (see Andre Emmett and Quincy Douby as examples). But if not McCants, high scoring guards who are in game shape are not that difficult to find.

On the other side of the story, it will be interesting to see where Francis ends up next . . . or should I say whose headache he will be next?

The influx of NBA-talent into the CBA this off-season was the most publicized topic in the history of Asian basketball outside of Yao Ming. It seemed that all the major news outlets had at least one story on the subject. As the names of former NBA players signing contracts with CBA teams kept rolling in, discussion about China, and the CBA in particular, taking on a new importance in the world basketball scene increased. While much of that talk is justified, the excitement about many of the NBA veterans has proved not to be.

Crittenton is the third former NBA player to be cut this season, joining Ricky Davis and Patrick O’Bryant on early flights home. More than anything I think these cases need to be a lesson for CBA teams. Crittenton and O’Bryant were both drafted on potential and “upside.” The reason they are not in the NBA (not including Crittenton’s encounter with Arenas) is that neither of them lived up to this potential. Frankly, they were not good enough to be in the NBA. Anyone who watched them play in the NBA knew that Crittenton is neither a point guard nor a shooting guard and that O’Bryant is the world’s tallest match stick and has a phobia for painted areas. I discussed Ricky Davis a few days ago, but to reiterate, he too is a player who never lived up to his potential. It is flawed logic on the part of CBA teams to think that just because a player was in the NBA they will be successful in China. Time to do a little more scouting!

The interesting bet at this point would be who is next. Mike James’ name is floating around as a potential cut, but after that who is not going to live up to expectations? Does anyone know how much of Francis’ contract is guaranteed? I can imagine Beijing is rereading his contract trying to find an out clause . . . or they are just praying for him to flick someone off again?

I have been hearing the Ricky Davis rumors for the past few days, but today NiuBball threw Mike James' name into the rumor mill as well.

I get the Davis rumors. After watching him play in two games it is obvious that he is not the kind of player who will find success in the CBA. His shot is too inconsistent and he has struggled to create off 1-on-1 opportunities. I think we look at players through rose-colored glasses when they make the move overseas. We assume that the competition overseas will be weaker so the problems they had in the US will somehow disappear. Ricky Davis excelled on bad teams. Being the star on the pre-Lebron Cavs is not a resume highlight to brag about.

The Mike James talk though surprises me. I have watched two of his games also, and frankly have just felt bad for him the whole time. The Chinese players on his team are AWFUL. He should two or three times as many assists, but his teammates miss the short jumpers or three-pointers. What surprises me more is that the team thinks Marcus Williams will somehow be better than James. Is there anything Williams can do on the court that James doesn't do? How about replace Josh Boone? It is not like he has been playing like a young Shaq. Once again, blaming a slow start on the foreign players is by far the easiest thing for team owners to do, but until their local stars Ding Jinhui and Jin Lipeng start playing consistently they are going to have trouble winning.

I wasn't going to comment on the awesomeness that was Stevie Franchise's CBA debut, but after articles from both NiuBball and Ball Don't Lie I think I need to enter the fray for no other reason than to add video of glorious 17 seconds.

Pause the first three video windows and fast forward to the 29:00 minute mark in the last video player. For me there are three highlights in this video (there would be four if we got a clear shot of the ice bags).

1)      The look on the free throw shooter’s face (Zaid Abaas is his name) when he sees Francis checking in. The eye roll is classic.

2)      Francis getting down in a defensive crouch and directing defense. Admirable? Sure, if your team is not up by ten and there are only 15 seconds left in the game! The big question is if we will ever see him play such serious defense again.

3)      The Beijing coach acknowledging that he is a sell-out to the other coach . . . at least that is how I translated his body language.

On a final note, I love Stevie’s Wikipedia page. I don’t think you get a better quote than “he was known early in his career for his crossover dribble, driving ability, and flashy dunks.” There is no mention of what he is known for at the end of his career. I guess “lackadaisical approach to training,” “penchant for injury,” and “the ability to repel all 30 NBA teams at once” are not nearly as flattering.

While I initially planned on doing a full recap of my thoughts on the CBA games I have watched over the past week, but that is not necessary with NiuBball doing such a great job of providing English language coverage of the action. Seeing as one of my main goals for this site is to help people find information on basketball in Asia, I will just continue to link to Jon's great articles.

One impression I did feel I needed to share was the overwhelming talent gap between teams in the CBA. The difference in the abilities and quality of the players in the Dongguan v. Jiangsu match-up was unbelievable. The Chinese players on Jiangsu's team looked like amateurs, while Dongguan's team was led by their Chinese players. While this was the most notable time I saw this, the end of the first quarter in games is also usually pretty brutal. There is very little depth on most teams, and when the starters sit down for their first breather, the level of play usually drops noticeably.

What I reallythe bigger news in Chinese basketball at the moment though is the status of Yao Ming's lower left leg. As a former Shanghai resident and one time patron of the great restaurant Yeeha (Yao's joint that serves American-style Chinese on the 1st floor and Texas BBQ on the 2nd) I was saddened by this article. While it is of course too early to know if this marks the end of Yao's career, it seems like all signs are pointing to the "old" Yao never coming back. I dislike how every immediately points to Big Z as an example of a massive player who bounced back from multiple lower extremity injuries. People seem to ignore the fact that they are very different players. It would be sad to see Yao come back and play the role of the immobile high post statue that Big Z has  mastered over the past eight seasons. Just last night I was watching a replay of a 1986 Celtics game, and I think watching Yao when he comes back may make me feel the same way watching '86 Bill Walton makes me feel. At least we got to watch Yao for most of seven seasons before all of these setbacks.

In the end I hope I am just being pessimistic. All the best to Yao in his recovery. "Yeeha!"

It seems that the only thing keeping these two basketball loving nations apart is politics. While that is one huge "thing" between these two countries, it seems that things are starting to heat up in this area.

First, Taiwan Hoops reported that Tseng Wen-Ting has been offered a chance to play for the Shanghai Sharks of the CBA this next season. I watched as many of Tseng's games as I could last year, as in my opinion, he is the most dynamic player in the SBL at this time. It would be a huge blow to the SBL to lose Tseng, last year's MVP and owner of multiple championships. But for Tseng the move would make all the sense in the world both from a financial standpoint and a basketball standpoint. At 26 years old it is time for him to step onto a bigger stage.

Second, is perhaps the bigger news with reports that Taiwan Beer are applying to join the CBA and subsequent reports shooting down the rumor. While there has been no update (in English at least) over the weekend on this, I think it is highly unlikely that this rumor came out of nowhere. Hopefully we can get some further clarific

This is a great blog post describing the path a few players have taken from the CBA to the NBA. The question of whether or not this is a viable path or not is one that I think needs to start to be discussed. One high profile player is currently using an Asian league to prepare himself for the NBA . . . smart or not?

Jeremy Tyler played his first regular season games as a member of the bj-league’s Tokyo Apache this past weekend (analysis of his play will come in a later post). Tyler’s decision to go to Japan has been panned by many after his well-publicized failures in Israel last year. The attacks on his decision have mostly been because he has decided to play in the relatively unknown bj-league in Japan. Frankly, while I am not a fan of Tyler’s decision to leave high school early (for social/emotional reasons more than anything) I think the bj-league may be the exact kind of league where a young player can gain valuable experience and improve their game. Because I am lazy I will bullet point my argument below.

• The competition. Calling the league a “Mickey Mouse” league as some observers have in the past is not accurate. While the level of ability of the Japanese players in the league is somewhat questionable, the league set up allows for three imports on the court at one time. The quality of imports in the bj-league is second in Asia to only the CBA. I did some quick research on where the foreign players in the league played their college ball and overwhelmingly the answer is D1 programs. Of the 77 of the 88 foreign players in the league listed on www.asia-basket.com, or 88%, played their collegiate ball at a D1 school (about a dozen of these players also have NBA or NBDL experience). You have to figure then that of the ten players on the court at any one time six of them are D1 level ball players. Add in a few quality Japanese players and the league looks a lot better than the image sportswriters depicted a few months back. 
• Practice. Every day in practice Tyler goes up against three experienced big men. His teammates Robert Swift, Kendall Dartez, and Michael Chappell are all quality basketball players. Robert Swift of course is the most famous after playing a few years in the NBA. He was slowed by multiple knee injuries, but looks to be making his way back into shape. Kendall Dartez played at University of Louisville and has had two separate stints in the D-League. Mike Chappell was a well-known college player who split his career between Duke and Michigan State, and has played professionally in Australia, Europe, and Japan since 2001. Not only will Tyler be able to work out against these guys every day, he can also learn from their experience.
• The Coach. There was a great article in Sports Illustrated last month that discussed why Bob Hill will be so good for Tyler’s development. Anything is going to be better than the situation in Israel last year where it sounds like he received very little instruction.
• The Culture. This is the most intangible of the arguments, but one that I feel cannot be overlooked. For a young man who has just spent the past year and a half having his life and decisions analyzed and debated, slipping away to a place where basketball is not the most popular sport could provide the mental break Tyler needs. Perhaps without a camera in his face, and overzealous fans he can spend some time actually learning how to play the game.

I understand that this is an optimistic argument, but I think we need to remember we are talking about a 19 year old KID who is learning how to be an adult, along with learning how to play a game he seems to have been built to play. I will be providing updates and analysis every two or three weeks on Tyler’s progression throughout the season.