Heading into May, there are only four teams left in the CBA that are still charging for the championship, and the rest of the teams have already said goodbye to the season early. Guangsha stopped in the quarterfinals after losing to Guangdong, but head coach Wang Bo and player Sun Minghui were already enjoying their holiday life and were invited to participate in the semi-final commentary, unaffected by the team's defeat.
Many fans feel sorry for the Guangsha men's basketball team, which has the strength to compete for the championship in recent years, but has always suffered injuries in the playoffs and is far from the highest goal. What's more troublesome is that the contracts of many players in the Guangsha team expired this summer, including Sun Minghui, Hu Jinqiu, Zhao Yanhao, etc., and it is still unknown whether they can keep the existing core squad next season.
In 2021, the "Guangsha Three Youths" renewed their contracts at the same time and got the maximum salary contract together, which shows that the club attaches great importance to them. However, Sun Minghui and Hu Jinqiu do play a core role, but Zhao Yanhao is obviously lower than expected, so whether the contract can be renewed this year is a big question, and even if the contract is renewed, there are variables about whether to renew the top salary of Class D.
The talent of "Guangsha Three Youths" was recognized by fans very early, and Zhao Yanhao was the first among the three at the initial stage, but he didn't expect his development trajectory to be high and low.
Zhao Yanhao is 1.95 meters tall, can swing in the second and third positions, has very good ball-holding skills, runs fast and light, has a steady three-point shooting, and has good breakthrough skills. Zhao Yanhao has already played a highlight performance when he was in the national youth team, averaging 11.4 points per game in the CBA season for the first time in 15-16 years, and the data is very eye-catching.
However, in the following years, Guangsha continued to recruit troops, and the head coach at the time, Li Chunjiang, reused mature players, with Lin Zhijie and Liu Zheng on the front line, and Zhao Yanhao's playing time did not improve much. In 2018, Guangsha had the experience of the first finals, Sun Minghui and Hu Jinqiu gradually became the inner and outer cores, but Zhao Yanhao stagnated.
Many fans think that Li Chunjiang reused his son Li Jinglong because of selfishness to suppress Zhao Yanhao in disguise, and this public opinion storm was stirred up on the Internet. The turning point came in 2020, when Li Chunjiang resigned halfway through, and Wang Bo reused Zhao Yanhao after taking office, who then burst out with amazing offensive power, and averaged 17.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game at the end of the season.
However, 2021 is also a turning point in Zhao Yanhao's career, when everyone thought he would soar into the sky, but it took a sharp turn. Two things happened that summer, one is that Zhao Yanhao was brought to the national team by Du Feng with his league performance, but his weak confrontation ability was completely exposed in international competitions;
In the following three years, Zhao Yanhao frequently fell into injuries, and more importantly, the problem of his soft style of play was completely exposed, and the opponents knew that he was not very good at fighting tough battles, and fans also began to understand Li Chunjiang's original choice, and the old coach had a vicious vision.
Zhao Yanhao may be more embarrassed this summer, and Guangsha will definitely desperately keep Sun Minghui and Hu Jinqiu, who can get big contracts with any team. But Zhao Yanhao's value may shrink, first of all, other teams will not have a strong willingness to poach, and Guangsha does not want to pay high wages, this was once the third big man in the team, and his ability to fight tough battles may not be as good as Zhu Junlong and Zhao Jiaren.