It is July 23, 2013 here
in Manila, and there are only 9 nights left before the 2013 FIBA Asia Men’s
Championship Tournament, the first ever held in these parts in four decades,
kicks off at the ultramodern Mall of Asia Arena and the historic Ninoy Aquino
Stadium.
An air of excitement can
be felt all around the metropolis as the promotions for the event continue to
ramp up each day. Various signs along highways, advertisements on radio and TV,
and promo spots on YouTube have popped up, readying the rabid Filipino populace
for what should be the biggest sporting event of the year.
And as the last
one-time-big-time FIBA Asia Men’s Championship (the format will change after
the 2014 World Cup) closes in, we will take a look at the players and teams who
will take part in it. Now that FIBA Asia has officially released the rosters on
the tournament’s official micro-site, I can get down to making proper
team-by-team previews, but before even starting that I have to finish this.
In this last part of our series, I will put the spotlight on the stars from East Asia who are expected
to be in peak form when the basketball version of Thrilla in Manila commences.
These are Yi Jianlian, Cho Sung-Min, Kosuke Takeuchi, and Lin Chih-Chieh.
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| Taiwan's Lin Chih-Chieh is expected to be in peak form in August. (image from Da Village) |
I hope that at the end of
this series, readers of this blog and fans of Asian hoops will be more
enlightened, and be even more excited for the 2013 FIBA Asia Men’s
Championships.
Here we go.
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Yi Jianlian (CHN)
Specs: 7’0 - 26 years old
Current Club: Guangdong Southern
Tigers (CBA)
Been in National Team
Since:
2004
Latest Tournament & Achievement: Led Guangdong to the CBA
title, defeating Shandong in the Championship Series. He averaged 24.6ppg,
10.5rpg, 1.7bpg, and 1.4spg while shooting 57.4% from the field.
 |
| Yi Jianlian should be China's strongest weapon. (image from Sports.163.com) |
Yi is the heir apparent to
Yao Ming as the main man for the Chinese red machine. At 26, he still has maybe
3 or even 4 good FIBA Asia tournaments ahead of him, but I don’t think he’s
willing to wait for those before he makes his mark.
With Wang Zhizhi left out
of the final 12, the onus is on Yi to anchor the middle for China. Though his
natural position is PF, I think coach Giannakis will be forced to play him at
the slot especially against the faster teams. This is especially applicable
this year because a trio of young bigs will surround Yi – Wang Zhelin, Li
Muhao, and Li Xiaoxu. All three of those guys are 23 or younger and this will
be the first taste of FIBA Asia seniors play for Zhelin and Muhao. It would be interesting to see
Yi play alongside any of those guys, but the reality is he will probably get
more burn alongside 6’9 Zhou Peng, who at least already played in the 2012
London Olympics.
It will be very
interesting to see how Yi will be played by Giannakis, especially considering
the Chinese will play Iran and South Korea in round 1. Yi’s quickness will be
an advantage against Hamed Haddadi and Asghar Kardoust of IRI, while he should
be stronger than any of KOR’s big men. Yi should be a dominant force throughout
the whole tournament, but whether that will be enough for the Chinese to defend
their title is another thing altogether.
Cho Sung-Min (KOR)
Specs: 6’6 - 30 years old
Current Club: Busan KT Sonic Boom
(KBL)
Been in National Team
Since:
2004
Latest Tournament &
Achievement: Helped Korea to third place in the 2013 William Jones Cup, finishing
behind Iran and Taiwan A. He led the team in scoring with 11.3ppg, hitting
nearly 2 triples per game and connecting from downtown with a 42% clip.
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| Cho Sung-Min should be one of our top priorities on defense. (image from Sports.163.com) |
Filipinos might remember
Cho as the guy who killed Gilas in the last five minutes of the bronze medal
game in 2011. He is definitely one of the streakiest and deadliest shooters in
all of Asia, alongside other greats like CHN’s Wang Shipeng, JPN’s Kosuke
Kanamaru & KJ Matsui, IRI’s Hamed Afagh, and TPE’s Lin Chih-Chieh.
Even now with coach Yoo
Jae-Hak’s penchant to focus on a high pick-and-roll, Cho shouldn’t have trouble
finding himself open for his threes. He will also be a headache defensively, as
he is quick enough to follow opposing ball-handlers and has enough size to
disrupt passing lanes, especially with Korea expected to utilize the fullcourt
press.
Despite being tall enough
to play small forward for most teams, Cho will probably alternate more at the
two-guard position with speedster Kim Sun-Hyung. The two have very different
games (Kim is a slasher), and it will be interesting to see how coach Yoo
balances their skills.
Kosuke Takeuchi (JPN)
Specs: 6’9 - 28 years old
Current Club: Toyota Alvark (JBL)
Been in National Team
Since: 2004
Latest Achievement: Led Japan to a bronze
medal finish in the 2013 East Asia Basketball Championships.
Latest Tournament: Played for Japan in the
2013 William Jones Cup, where they finished in a tie for last place with Taiwan
B. Takeuchi averaged 13.9ppg, 8.5rpg, and 1.0spg.
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| Kosuke Takeuchi's play will be the best indicator for how far Japan will go. (image from FIBAAsia.net) |
When Kosuke first played
for the senior Japanese NT as a fresh 19-year old, he, along with twin brother
Joji, was labeled as the future of Japanese hoops. At 28 years old, that
promised future has finally caught up with him, and he is tagged to lead Team
Hayabusa to a possible berth in the 2014 World Cup. It will be tough, however,
since much of the team’s core is no longer around (veterans Takumi Ishizaki and
Takuya Kawamura are focusing on their overseas careers for instance) and Joji,
for the first time ever, won’t be around to watch his twin’s back.
Takeuchi and the Japanese
were impressive in last year’s FIBA Asia Cup, though, going all the way to the
Finals before losing by just two points to the Iranians. The roster of Japan
for Manila will be very similar to that team’s lineup, and it will be very
interesting to see if they can duplicate their deep run, especially since the
odds will be stacked against them in rounds 1 and 2.
One big difference for the
Manila tournament, when compared to the Japs’ campaign in the 2013 East Asia
tourney and the Jones Cup, is Kosuke will play alongside JR Sakuragi up front.
This means Kosuke can slide down to PF and he won’t have to guard the opposing
team’s top inside operators. With Sakuragi at the slot, Kosuke can more easily
spot up from the midrange or cut to the open spaces. Needless to say, Takeuchi
will be the barometer of Japan’s performance in the 2013 FIBA Asia tournament.
Lin Chih-Chieh (TPE)
Specs: 6’4 - 31 years old
Current Club: Zhejiang Guangsha Lions
(CBA)
Been in National Team
Since: 2001
Latest Tournament & Achievement: Led Taiwan A to second
place in the 2013 William Jones Cup. He averaged 16.3ppg, 3.8rpg, 2.7apg, and
1.0spg while shooting 34% from downtown and making nearly 2 treys per outing.
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| Lin goes up strong against the D of Gabe Norwood. (image from FIBAAsia.net) |
Lin is coming off a great
performance in the Jones Cup, and that momentum should serve him well as he
tries to lead Taiwan to its best FIBA Asia finish in decades. He is one of the
continent’s top wing players because he possesses a great balance between speed
and shooting, and we can count on him using both to full effect in Manila.
This is more so because,
finally, the Taiwanese hav a center who should be able to consistently dominate
at the low block – Quincy Davis. With Davis and frontline partner Tseng
Wen-Ting expected to attract a lot of attention down low, the wings and lanes
should open things up for Lin. I actually expect him to average not lower than
13 points in the tournament.
Of course, he will have
his work cut out for him at the defensive end, with other top wingmen waiting
for him in rounds 1 and 2. Gilas has a few guards and forwards who can really
give Lin trouble, while the wing players of Qatar and Japan definitely won’t be
pushovers as well. But, by far, Lin is expected to be maybe one of the top 10
players in the whole tournament (counting the naturalized players already), and
it would be a big surprise if he doesn’t lead Taiwan to at least the
quarterfinals.
#parasabayan
2 Comment
Great scouting and article, as always, Enzo. I think if Douthit is able to manage his fouls and Junmar can provide quality 10-15 minutes, then Gilas can deal with Haddadi and Yi. The bigger concern for me really are wingmen like Cho Sung-Min, Lin Chih-Chieh, Wang Shipeng, Hamed Aragh, Keijuro Matsui. These guys are just as quick and even taller than our shooting guards. Our guards have to fight through a lot of screens just to shadow these shooters. We obviously cannot afford to have any of them get on track since it will open the post for their bigs to operate. Been reading reports that Gary David has been displaying good defense during their games in New Zealand. I hope Larry and Jeff will be up to the task as well. I'm thinking maybe Gabe and Ping, who have length and quickness, can also shadow opposing shooters who get hot. The drawback is it might come at the expense of opening a mismatch at small forward where the likes of Bahrami will also be waiting to attack.
BalasI believe Gabe and Ping can make the job done if we talk about shadowing those opposing shooters, but we might loose our grip on the shaded lane. I hope coach chot had already figured out how to wisely rotate our D. What I'm also worried about is that heart breaking 3 point shots of the South koreans (the one in Busan Asian games still hounds me) whenever we face them. Hope we can make it on top 3. Go Pilipinas! Puso!
Balas