On April 17, Beijing time, the Australian "rookie season" belonging to Zhou Qi ended, the 26th round of the NBL League, Zhou Qi's southeast Melbourne Phoenix lost to the Ants 80-84, Zhou Qi played 19 minutes and shot 4 of 8 to score 9 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block. After this game, the Phoenix recorded 13 wins and 13 losses, missing the playoffs two games earlier. In contrast, Zhou Qi said in the early days of joining the Phoenix that the team had the opportunity to impact the championship, but now he missed the playoffs 2 rounds in advance, which is obviously much worse than Zhou Qi's season goal.
It is worth mentioning that the contract signed when Zhou Qi joined the Phoenix in 2021 is 1+1 type, and the second year is the player option, that is, Zhou Qi will become a free person in the offseason, and can choose to leave or renew the Phoenix team.
Judging from the performance of the whole season, the Phoenix team is not worthy of Zhou Qi's contract extension, and in many games in the middle of the season, Zhou Qi, as the core of the team's internal line, has not been trusted for a long time, and has been placed on the bench at the key moment of the last quarter of many consecutive games, which is contrary to the commitment of the Phoenix team to sign Zhou Qi at the beginning. At the same time, the Phoenix team did not trust Zhou Qi and did not achieve better results, the personal status declined, the team results were not good, and Zhou Qi, who was at the peak, did not need to renew his contract!
You know, Zhou Qi's original intention to join the Australian NBL League is to impact the NBA, but this needs to be based on the premise that the Phoenix can continue to win, and the 2021 Australian NBL League Finals MVP Randale is favored by the Spurs in this way and signed with the Spurs for 2 years. Obviously, Zhou Qi failed to achieve his goal, Mo said that the championship finals, the Phoenix team did not even score the playoffs, Zhou Qi could not prove himself on a higher level of stage, there was no opportunity to perform to make those NBA scouts pay attention.
Joining the Australian League to play can be said to be an overseas "entrepreneurial" experience of Zhou Qi, trying to impact the NBA in another way, obviously, Zhou Qi failed. In the future, where Zhou Qi will play has not yet a certain news, in the case of not being able to return to the NBA, leaving the Australian League and returning to the domestic CBA League are the two most practical programs, Zhou Qi's official age has also come to 26 years old, in the peak stage, every season is crucial, whether it is career development or economic income, Zhou Qi needs to take into account.
If he stays in the Australian League, Zhou Qi needs to let his agent fight to join the team that is stronger overall and more hopeful to impact the Australian championship. If Zhou Qi wants to return to the CBA League, he needs to start negotiations with the Xinjiang men's basketball team again, whether he can sign a class D maximum salary return, or negotiate a deal with Xinjiang to renew the right of priority, these are all plans, you can sit at the negotiating table to discuss. To be sure, once Xinjiang agrees to trade Zhou Qi's top salary priority renewal rights, it will cause most CBA clubs in China to rob, and the price will not be low.
(Lin Xiaoxiang)