Impressing the Foreign Coach! Guangdong Team Welcomes a New 'Cornerstone for Team Building,' Securing Hongyuan's Next 10 Years! _Wang Hongze_Hu Mingxuan_Game

On September 5 Beijing time, the CBA league offseason had not yet ended. Recently, a warm-up game took place between the local rivals Guangdong and Shenzhen. In this game, Guangdong, missing several players, lost 81-89 to Shenzhen. Naturally, without Hu Mingxuan, Cui Yongxi and Jiao Boqiao, Guangdong's all-domestic lineup was unable to defeat Shenzhen, a team that reached last season's semifinals. However, the result was not the most important part of the game. What truly drew attention was the performance of Guangdong's young interior player Wang Hongze. With Hu Mingxuan, Jiao Boqiao, Cui Yongxi and all foreign players absent, Wang Hongze almost carried the team's offense and defense by himself, and even led Guangdong to a large advantage over Shenzhen at one point.

From the game, Xu Jie, one of the few main players on the court for Guangdong, was repeatedly targeted by Shenzhen's Sun Haoqin on defense. With Xu Jie unable to gain an advantage, Wang Hongze became the only stable support point for Guangdong's foreign coach Yakovlevich. On offense, Wang Hongze was able to maintain efficient finishing ability from almost every position around the basket. On defense, his positioning and rebounding protection were also very good. Therefore, many fans believe that through this breakout performance, Wang Hongze has basically impressed foreign coaches Yakovlevich and Belokar. Next season, Wang Hongze will inevitably receive enough playing time and a tactical role, becoming Guangdong's top candidate for future leadership development.

For Guangdong, after Du Runwang's departure during this summer offseason, the team indeed needs a qualified domestic power forward to take responsibility. Veteran Zhou Peng's return is more about providing insurance and transition, as he can offer experience and defense in the playoffs, but Guangdong must develop one of Wang Hongze, Zhang Hao and Huang Mingyi over the next 2-3 years. With Zhang Haojia completely struggling in this game, this former rotation player during Du Feng's tenure is likely to be abandoned by foreign coach Yakovlevich. Therefore, the growth of Wang Hongze, Huang Mingyi and Zhang Hao will directly determine Guangdong's future ceiling. At present, Wang Hongze, who only joined Guangdong's first team last season, is clearly the player worth taking a chance on.

It should be noted that in recent years Guangdong's core guard Hu Mingxuan has almost always been in an overworked state. With Guangdong unable to develop the next Hu Mingxuan in its guard line, Wang Hongze's growth is related to the team's competitiveness in the coming seasons. Guangdong already has national team-level players such as Xu Jie, Hu Mingxuan, Jiao Boqiao and Cui Yongxi, and the team's biggest weakness at present is the power forward position. If Wang Hongze can take charge at power forward, Xu Jie can return to the bench. Guangdong could then field a lineup of a small foreign player, Hu Mingxuan, Cui Yongxi, Wang Hongze and Jiao Boqiao. In this way, Guangdong would have a chance to compete again with title contenders from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

In summary, Wang Hongze's rise will not only affect Guangdong's overall strength in its pursuit of the CBA championship next season, but will also determine whether Guangdong basketball can maintain playoff competitiveness over the next 10 years. If Wang Hongze can continue improving at his current pace, Guangdong could return to the ranks of championship contenders as quickly as possible.