Rethinking the rebuild

Team China head coach Djordjevic urges bold changes to domestic league to revive ailing national program

After two months of underachievement for Chinese men's basketball, national team head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic believes a number of rule changes in the domestic professional league — in particular reducing the length of games — would significantly boost the squad's rebuild project.

Having failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics after a 29th-place finish at the FIBA World Cup in Manila, Team China sank to a new low at the Hangzhou Asian Games, where Djordevic's squad relinquished its continental title thanks to a semifinal loss to eventual champion the Philippines on Oct 4.

Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming stepped up to take full responsibility for the team's failings, but refused to say if Djordjevic will remain part of the CBA's plans. Instead, the NBA legend only said that "big surgery" was required to rejuvenate the ailing squad.

Djordjevic, a 56-year-old former Serbia national team coach, took the reins for Team China during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he initially scouted the talent at his disposal as the CBA league was being played in a bio-secure bubble. Based on what he's seen of the CBA, he suggests that the league should consider shortening its 48-minute-long matches to synchronize with the international format.

"What we are talking about, FIBA basketball, a 40-minute game, is completely different from 48 minutes. That's the thing I would suggest for anyone to consider changing as soon as possible in Chinese basketball," Djordjevic told Xinhua. "Why? Because we want to gain great results in 40 minutes, not 48."

Djordjevic cited comments made by Team USA head coach Steve Kerr this summer to back up this theory: "In 48 minutes, you can go down by 20 but you can recover, in 40 minutes people probably don't have the time."

"The habits, physical power, mentality and personality that are gained and learned by the players throughout the year playing one version of the game can't all be just changed into another game," Djordjevic added.

To illustrate his point, he said that one player asked him for a 20-second timeout after forgetting that wasn't an option in the FIBA game.

The coach also believes that the differences in officiating also complicate the transition from the CBA league to FIBA tournaments, noting that the squad needed a monthlong summer training camp in Slovenia to adapt to the FIBA rules.

"We had one meeting when I showed the video of the game against Croatia, to explain to the players how many times Croatian players tried to sell a foul to the referees," he said. "I asked my players' opinion on a screen foul, and captain Zhou Peng told me that such a foul would not be called in the CBA."

Citing Hu Jinqiu's high rate of offensive fouls in the group match against Serbia at the World Cup, Djordjevic said all of those calls could have been avoided if the CBA had better referees.

After missing out on Paris 2024, China is now setting its sights on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

With an average age of 25, Team China could point to its relatively young squad as a factor in its poor performance at the Asiad. The Philippines, by contrast, had an average age of 32. However, it's hard to ignore the fact that many other squads went down the youth route. Qatar, for instance, featured two under-16 players — Mohamed Ndao and Abdulla Mousa.

There are also question marks over whether 27-year-old Zhao Rui and 28-year-old Zhao Jiwei will still be part of the national setup in 2028, so Chinese basketball will likely need to find new blood to step up and fill their shoes.

With a view to nurturing the next generation of hoops talent, Djordjevic reckons that the CBA should abandon its over-18 age limit to fast-track more young players to the pro ranks.

The former point guard mentioned that he and players like Toni Kukoc and Vlade Divac, who were members of the former Yugoslavia's team at the 1987 FIBA Under-19 Championship, were all playing professional league games as young as 16.

The CBA has tightened the cap on foreign players in the league in recent years, but Djordjevic thinks these rules should be loosened.

"Why not internationalize the league? If there is no chance for frequent club-level exchanges like in Europe, China can internationalize its own league. Why not introduce (more) international players, enhance competition, increase diversity, and give Chinese players more opportunities to compete with international players?" he said.

"If we look at the CBA league, we find that each team has several players who rarely get to play, so it's not just a matter of foreign players taking away opportunities from Chinese players."

In a previous interview with Xinhua, Yao revealed that Djordjevic's contract is due to end by the end of the year.

The recent consensus from fans on social media is that a change of coach is required. In particular, Hu Jinqiu's time on the bench came in for heavy criticism from fans.

Defending his limited use of Hu, Djordjevic said: "We had prepared something with the players who were practicing inside the system we had, so starting center Zhou Qi was the main guy that we built our game plan around. Sometimes a coach sticks with the philosophy. It's easy just to say, 'Why don't you put this guy in, he will solve the problem.' It's not how it goes, because it's a long planning period, the game is just the end of a process that is trying to get you to win again."

But while his future as Team China head coach remains uncertain, Djordjevic insists his passion for the role has not diminished, saying: "I'm always open to Chinese coaches if they want to talk to me."

Xinhua