With the Melbourne Phoenix missing out on the NBL's playoffs and Zhou Qi's first Australian League trip officially over, the next step is to discuss where to go next season? For Zhou Qi, his first goal is definitely to return to the NBA, but until now he has not heard a team in the NBA to sign Zhou Qi, so this result is difficult to achieve.
The second option is to continue to play for the Melbourne Phoenix, but the team has been "drawing a big pie" for Zhou Qi, saying that it is necessary to give him the core position, to rebuild the team around him, and even to replace the coaching staff for him, but the actual action does advance with head coach Michelle, perhaps from here it can be seen that the purpose of the Phoenix team is not Zhou Qi, but wants the Chinese market behind Zhou Qi.
The last option is to return to the CBA, at present, the probability of Zhou Qi returning to the CBA should be the largest, at least here he is the absolute core, can have more ball rights, unlike in the Phoenix, the average time to play only about 20 minutes per game. If Zhou Qi chooses to return to the CBA, then the question arises, which team will he play for? Part of the reason for leaving here was that he was unhappy with Xinjiang, and if Zhou Qi could come back, then he would definitely not want to play for Xinjiang again, which meant that the CBA teams would usher in a crazy rush against Zhou Qi.
The Liaoning men's basketball team is one of the potential next families, after all, Zhou Qi went out from here, and he has a good relationship with this group of Liaoning players, and he has won two National Games championships together, and after returning from the NBA, the Liaoning men's basketball team has also been pursuing Zhou Qi. In order to be able to have a reinforcement salary for the team, the Liaoning men's basketball team even risked Zhao Jiwei's departure from the team, so as to reserve a maximum salary quota for Zhou Qi, no matter how the maximum salary contract is the most basic condition for the Liaoning team to pursue Zhou Qi, you can't expect Zhou Qi to be able to cut his salary to join, if this is the case, he will not choose to leave Liaoning and join the Xinjiang men's basketball team for high salary. Perhaps Liaoning's delay in giving Zhao Jiwei a maximum salary contract is to prepare for being able to sign Zhou Qi later!
In addition, the Shanghai men's basketball team is also a big potential next home for Zhou Qi, after the team looked for a rebuild last season, Wang Zhelin as the core also played in this final, but lost 0-3 to the Guangsha men's basketball team, thus missing the opportunity to enter the finals. If the Shanghai men's basketball team wants to have more hope of winning the championship, it can only continue to strengthen the lineup, if Zhou Qi becomes a "free man", the Shanghai men's basketball team that is not short of money will definitely pursue him without hesitation.
Where do you think Zhou Qi will go next season?