On the evening of the 24th, the Australian team won the championship with a thrilling 75:73 victory over Lebanon in the final of the Men's Basketball Asian Cup, thus successfully defending the title with a full victory record, and Lebanon and New Zealand won the second and third places respectively. In contrast, the Chinese men's basketball team, which has reached the top of Asia 16 times, is awkwardly stopped in the quarterfinals. And Japan, South Korea, Iran and other old strong teams that once dominated the Asian basketball world have also withdrawn from the championship battle. It can be said that the existence of the Australian team has greatly compressed the space for Asian teams to compete for the championship, and the new pattern of the "kangaroo army" dominating the crowd may become a norm. In order to become the hegemon of Asia again, the Chinese men's basketball team must cross the "big mountain" of Australia.
This is not yet the strongest squad in Australia
The predecessor of the Men's Basketball Asian Cup was the Asian Championship, founded in 1960. In 2017, the Asian Championship, which has a long history, ushered in an important change, renamed the Asian Cup, the duration of the tournament changed from biennial to quadrennial, and also welcomed Australia and New Zealand to join the competition. The entry of two Oceania powerhouses has brought a strong impact on the Asian basketball world, which is relatively weak in overall strength. In particular, the "Kangaroo Army", which is ranked at the top of the world and has a number of NBA players, has the trend of reducing the dimension in the Asian arena.
In 2017, Australia, which participated in the Asian Cup for the first time, easily won the final title. This time in Indonesia, Australia's road to promotion is still extremely easy. The only team that put some pressure on them before reaching the final may be another Oceania powerhouse, New Zealand. For most of the first three quarters of the semifinals, the two teams did play inextricably, and the Kangaroo Army finally got the ticket to the final by the fourth quarter. This time in the Asian Cup, the old defender Dela Vidovar and the flanker Jack White, who had played well in the World Cup, were not on the list, and the overall strength of the Kangaroo Army had further declined, and the team manager Gore did not go with the team. But even so, Australia did not encounter much pressure all the way through the barriers, and finally completed the defense of the title.
Don't forget, Australia also has Ben Simmons, an NBA All-Star. Despite the stiffness with the 76ers in the NBA in the past two years, and having been unable to play due to injury after being traded to the Nets, with the strength of Ben Simmons, once they return to the Australian national team, their strength will be even higher. If Australia had the strongest squad to play at the level of the Asian Cup, it would seem normal for them to finish on the podium with an average net victory of 50 points per game.
The three major Powers in East Asia collectively declined
The progress of Lebanon and Australia in this tournament also reflects the overall development trend of basketball in Asia today. On the one hand, the overall strength gap between Asian teams is narrowing. On the other hand, the gap between Asian basketball and world basketball is getting wider and wider.
In addition to the strong Oceania twins, the decline of the former three powerhouses in East Asia is in stark contrast to the rise of the upstarts in West Asia. In this competition, for the first time in the history of the three teams of China, Japan and South Korea, they collectively failed to qualify for the final four, but Lebanon and Jordan successfully met in the semi-finals and staged a wonderful "civil war" in West Asia. The strong rise of the West Asian team is not unrelated to the long-standing naturalization wind. As one of the first teams to use naturalized players, Teams such as Lebanon and Jordan have already tasted the sweetness and firmly followed this shortcut. In fact, with the help of "mercenaries" to quickly make up for the shortcomings of the lineup and efficiently improve the strength of the team, it has almost become the standard of all participating teams in the Asian Cup. The performance and fitness of naturalized players have largely determined the upper limit of the team's performance.
Jordan's ability to reach the final four is the clearest example of the gap in the strength of asian basketball teams gradually narrowing. They almost reached the final moments of the match against Indonesia in the group stage, 12-in-8 against Chinese Taipei, almost relying on miraculous performances to complete the turnover. 8-in-4 against Iran, the team won a big victory over the Persian Legion in an unsatisfactory situation. In the semi-finals against Lebanon, the two teams also played hard to solve. Perhaps, you can use the word "instability" to describe Jordan's play. However, looking at the team's path to advancement, it can also be seen that the contingency of Asian competitions has become larger and larger, and the gap in the strength of the teams is no longer as insurmountable as before.
Turning to the technical statistics table of the Asian Cup, the top few in the scoring list, rebounding list and assist list are almost all occupied by naturalized players. Next, Asian teams may be doing more about naturalized players. Jordan Clarkson, known as Asia's "strongest naturalized player" today, has said he will join the Philippine team in the next world qualifier. It is said that the Japanese team is also actively looking for naturalized players with stronger individual abilities to strive for better results in next year's World Cup.
Can the Chinese men's basketball team return to hegemony?
In the face of the double attack of Oceania's opponents and the wind of naturalization, the Chinese men's basketball team that has lost its dominant position needs to make more efforts to return to the top of Asia. Despite the objective reasons such as the sudden epidemic leading to the disorganization of the lineup, from the performance of the team in this competition, the overall strength decline and poor performance on the spot are also unavoidable realities. In the absence of naturalization shortcuts, how to fully tap the potential of local players and make the tactical concept more consistent with the ability of players is an urgent problem that needs to be solved by the Chinese men's basketball team to get out of the trough.
For the Chinese men's basketball team, the biggest problem at present is the lack of top players - in addition to the increasingly mature Zhou Qi, the men's basketball team lacks other players who can pick up the beams. In the past, Yao Mingyi Jianlian had good villains and teammates who could stand up, but now Zhou Qi is the existence of the flock in the men's basketball team, and there is no suitable assistance around. Taking the men's basketball team's loss to Lebanon as an example, Zhou Qi cut a double twenty data of 22 points and 21 rebounds, and the men's basketball team no player scored in double figures.
Just like the men's football team, the Chinese men's basketball team has also appeared "star shortage". Not to mention landing in the NBA, even Zhou Qi is the only one who goes to the Australian NBL to play. Without a star who has a firm foothold in the high-level league, the Chinese men's basketball team will not be able to talk about its intention to improve its competitiveness, let alone defeat Australia to return to the top of Asia.
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