Kaslauskas said Italy and France didn't field the best lineups for the
warm-ups, each team with four to five usual starters on the DNP (Did Not Play)
roster.
"Of course, we didn't have Li Nan and Yao Ming," he added, "but our defeats
can be attributed mainly to our poor defense."
After returning to Beijing, Kaslauskas adjusted the lineup for the Chinese
team by excluding centers Tang Zhengdong and Hu Ke, calling up instead point
guards Xie Libin, best rookie of the 2005-06 CBA season, and Chen Jianghua from
the second team of the Guangdong Southern Tigers, who bagged their third
consecutive CBA title early this year.
Gong Luming, manager of the China team, said that the current squad has many
inside players including Yao, so the head coach is confident of under-ring play
and the departure of Tang and Hu is reasonable.
Tang, 22, was not only expelled from the national team, but also lost his
chance to play in the NBA's summer league that started on July 7.
China's Yao Ming is in
training session for the upcoming World Basketball Championship held in
Japan this August. [eastday.com] |
According to Xia Song, Tang's agent, the 2.13m tall center had been focused
on training for the national team, which delayed his response to invitations to
play with the Toronto Raptors and other NBA teams. "It's too late now," Xia
said.
Point guard Sun Yue from the Beijing Aoshen team, the other Chinese who was
supposed to have joined the NBA draft, withdrew his application at the last
minute. He will continue to play for Aoshen in the American Basketball
Association (ABA) next season and wait for a more timely opportunity to join the
NBA.
Standing at 2.05m, Sun is a point guard with a style of play that reminds
many of the great Earvin "Magic" Johnson of the LA Lakers. A force to be
reckoned with, Sun was selected for the West All-Star team in the ABA All-Star
Game in February.
However, Sun's defects are as prominent as his panache. He is thin and the
stats haven't been very promising: four turnovers, a 39 FGP (field goal
percentage) and a 25 percent three-point shooting average per game in the ABA
have stifled his game.
Having played one season in the ABA, the offense-minded Sun clashed with
Kaslauskas' defense-oriented tactics, which explains why the head coach turned
to promote Guangdong's Chen Jianghua.
Chen, slightly shorter at 1.87m and weighing 75 kg, averaged 17.8 points, 7.5
rebounds, two assists, a 52.9 FGP and a 78.6 FTP (free throw percentage) for the
U-18 China team at the 2005 USA Youth Development Festival. In June 2006, he
also netted a team-high of 32 points for China's youth team in a friendly with
the Sydney Kings from Australia.
Chen Jianghua
"As a Chinese and a point guard, of course I hope I can play at the 2008
Olympics and pass balls to Yao Ming," Chen said. He is the fifth player from
Guangdong to join the national team after Zhu Fangyu, Du Feng, Yi Jianlian and
Wang Shipeng.
The US team will play China on August 7, and Brazil on August
8.
