In the 2019-2020 season, Shougang was eliminated by Guangdong in the semi-finals. In the 2020-2021 season, Shougang encountered defending champion Guangdong in the quarterfinals, and although foreign aid McRae played well, Gibson's crotch-pulling performance on the offensive end also allowed Guangdong to win again. In the off-season, the management of the Shougang team wanted to invest heavily in the introduction of local reinforcements, but in the end, Sun Minghui, Yuan Shuai and other top local stars chose to stay in the team.
Former Shenzhen foreign player Salinger played for the Korean League last season, and with his on-the-line turmoil, his team won the Korean League championship. Salinger's competitive form after recovering from injury has remained good, which has also made the management of the Shougang team have a strong interest in him. And Salinger himself does not refuse to play for the Shougang team, but the team's head coach Yannis does not like Salinger's foreign aid, he believes that only team-type foreign aid is suitable for his own technical and tactical system, and super foreign aid can only break the team's established attack and defense system, which is not conducive to the development of the team.
The management of the Shougang team listened to the advice of head coach Yannis and did not choose to sign a contract with Salingjie, so the management of the Shenzhen team took a timely shot and continued the leading edge with Salingjie. The addition of strong foreign aid also allowed the Shenzhen team to reuse the twin tower tactics, and the internal line he formed with Shen Zijie made the Shanghai team unable to compete with it, perhaps only the combination of Okafor and Hu Jinqiu could compete with the shenzhen team's internal line combination. Qin Xiaowen, the general manager of the Shougang team, failed to bring in Salinger, so he signed three small foreign aides, Jeremy Lin, Gibson and Barry Brown Jr.
Team center Li Muhao was injured in the match against Liaoning, which also accelerated the team's management's pace of introducing internal and external reinforcements. As a team-type foreign aid, Hamilton, an old acquaintance, has always been favored by head coach Yannis, and Hamilton, who is familiar with the team's tactics, can do plug and play. Hamilton is expected to play in the CBA league again in the third stage of the league, when the Shougang team with four foreign players will officially launch an attack on the championship of this season.