Asian Cup eight-for-four will test the backline level

The summer of 2025 is the "Little New Year" of all kinds of world-class sports. There are no World Cups or Championships for the Olympics and various sports, but the basketball cups in various continents are very eye-catching. The Asian Cup of the Men's Basketball Team, with Chinese teams participating, is naturally a wonderful event that fans cannot miss. In recent years, with the two major Australian teams entering the Asian Cup, and many countries continue to naturalize powerful players, the overall economic level has improved a lot.

The Chinese men's basketball team has gradually lost its position as the Asian overlord under the torrent of the world's basketball world's continuous improvement. It has even advanced to the top eight of the Asian Cup this time as the first in the group, but it has only achieved such a result after 10 years. In the quarterfinals, our opponent was basically locked in the South Korean team, and this game was also a key battle to test the Chinese men's basketball back line.

Since Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi and Yi Jianlian retired, the inside strength of the men's basketball team has declined significantly. Whether it is Zhou Qi, Wang Zhelin, who are highly anticipated, or the rising stars Hu Jinqiu, Yang Hansen, etc., they do not have the absolute dominance of old players in the penalty area. Guo Shiqiang, the head coach of this year's Chinese men's basketball team, also selected more guard players to play. It is often seen on the court that the Chinese men's basketball team is a lineup of three guards.

South Korea previously played against the last runner-up Lebanon with a very high outside shooting rate, directly shooting through the opponent and winning the game. Many people would say that Lebanon's defensive oppressiveness was not high, so that South Korean players made such a crazy attack. In fact, the Chinese men's basketball team has always been unoptimistic in the backcourt defense. Even Liu Wei, Wang Shipeng, Chen Jianghua and Guo Ailun in the Yao Ming era are all offensive players and it is difficult to limit their opponents on the defensive end.

In the next game, the guard group dominated by Zhao Rui and Hu Mingxuan should not only quickly rotate on the defensive end to give pressure on the opponent, but also maintain the stability of shooting on the offensive end to help the team score, which will inevitably be a big test for the players.

This Asian Cup is not difficult to see that the Chinese men's basketball team is also changing its traditional style of play and actively adapting to the fast pace of basketball in today's world and the changes in more external offenses. Starting from the second group stage, the guards gradually showed their state and feel, shooting decisively and attacked resolutely.

The Chinese men's basketball team was previously defined as a 3D character. The small forward was responsible for the outside three-point shooting and defense, while the power forward was more responsible for wing defense, rebounding and occasional shooting in the middle distance. Now that Wang Junjie's emergence breaks this routine, it can be seen that the head coach has given him more independent attack authority on the court, and he can not stick to tactical settings at the right time, which has led to his wonderful offensive scoring performance on the court again and again.

There are also two forwards, Zeng Fanbo and Cui Yongxi, who are unable to play due to injury, are also the hopes of the future of the Chinese men's basketball team. They both have experience in studying in the United States and their playing style is similar to the NBA's forward line, and they can shoot and defend.

At present, the traditional advantages of the Chinese men's basketball team in the inside line still need to be slowly made up for a while. Yang Hansen needs to rely on the accumulation and polishing of the game to become more mature. The guards who have been vigorously trained in recent years still need to support the team's offense. Forward players like Wang Junjie must constantly give him more ball rights to drive the entire team. We are looking forward to whether the Chinese men's basketball team can avenge their previous shame in this Asian Cup and enter the finals again!