There are three mixed-race players in the Chinese men s basketball team! How are their performance?

U19 Men's Basketball World Cup officially opened in Lausanne, Switzerland. This event attracted the participation of 16 teams around the world, with fierce competition and full of the passion and vitality of young players.

The Chinese team's lineup is as follows: defenders: Zhu Zheng, Yang Yi, Feng Ao and Hou Mengze; forwards: Zhang Boyuan, Chen Jiazheng, Cui Xinquan and Zhang Huafei; insides: Xun Sifeng, Xun Sinan, Wang Hongze and Liu Li. Unfortunately, Li Yuezhou failed to participate in the competition due to injury and missed this important opportunity.

Let’s talk about the competition system first. This year's competition is divided into 16 teams, which are allocated according to 4 groups (A–D), each group consisting of 4 teams, and a single-cycle group match is held. All participating teams will advance to the top 16 and enter the knockout stage (8th final). In other words, even if they perform poorly in the group stage, the team still has the chance to enter the knockout stage. In the

knockout round, the winner will enter the quarterfinals (such as A1 vs. B4) until the final decision of the champion and third place. The teams in each game will participate in different qualifying matches based on their results - from 5-8, 9-16, to 13-16, etc., ensuring that each team will play at least 7 games: 3 group matches plus 4 eliminations or qualifying matches.

The grouping of this competition is as follows:

Group A: Argentina, Mali, Serbia, New Zealand; Group B: China, Slovenia, Germany, Canada;

Group C: Jordan, Switzerland, Israel, Dominican; Group D: Cameroon, the United States, Australia, France.

In the first game last night, the Chinese U19 men's basketball team lost to Canada 72-80, and unfortunately failed to complete a 15-point comeback. Although we only got 2 points behind in the last quarter, judging from the results, although we were a little disappointed, it was acceptable.

However, the competition process was full of challenges. The Chinese team was clearly at a disadvantage in rebounding, and eventually lost 22 with 41 rebounds. Canada made 3 of 27 three-pointers in the game, with a shooting percentage of only 11.11%, but it snatched 63 rebounds, including 27 frontcourt rebounds, and scored 27 points on the second offensive. Especially in terms of frontcourt rebounds, we lost 20, and it is almost impossible to reverse.

Although we were close to overtaking for a while, our opponents always had an absolute advantage in rebounding. In addition to the gap in physical fitness, our players' positioning habits are also worth reflecting on. The competition for rebounding is not just the responsibility of the center, and all players should play a role in this link.

It is worth noting that there are 3 mixed-race players in this 12-man roster of the Chinese men's basketball team, which should be the first time in history. They are Zhu Zheng, Feng Ao on the back line and Zhang Huafei on the forward line. As for their performance, Feng Ao and Zhang Huafei did not get many opportunities, so they did not fully demonstrate their strength.

As a high defender, Feng Ao has good court handling ability and defensive awareness, but on the offensive end, his performance has not met expectations. He also needs stronger explosiveness and scoring ability compared to some other players. As for Zhang Huafei, he is defined as a "3D player", that is, he has defensive, shooting and rebounding abilities, but he has fewer opportunities in the game and performs relatively low-key.

The most eye-catching player is Zhu Zheng. In this game, he made 6 of 13 shots, scoring 19 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. It can be said that whether Zhu Zheng's presence directly affects the overall performance of the Chinese team. He is only 17 years old, but the maturity and command ability he showed on the court are impressive. His judgment and handling ball on the court are far beyond his peers. In the Chinese basketball world, Zhu Zheng is undoubtedly a "high-end product".

Of course, his performance was not perfect either. As a mixed-race player, Zhu Zheng's physical fitness, especially his explosive power, is still the part he needs to strengthen. Moreover, due to his relatively short height, he has difficulty achieving a powerful ending on some occasions. Despite this, his progress is still eye-catching. If he can continue to maintain this performance, if the national team fails to recruit Zhu Zheng in the next Asian Cup, it may arouse dissatisfaction among fans.

When talking about the issue of domestic defenders, my personal opinion is still: if a defender has a certain speed and can occasionally make a few beautiful assists, but is short, lacks sufficient explosive power, stable three-point shooting and mid-range offensive ability, and even his throwing is not mature, then his role in the international arena will be very limited.

This is not height discrimination, and it cannot be refuted by individual examples like Yuki Kawamura. In Asia, there is almost only one guard like Yuki Kawamura who has extremely high basketball talent. For the defenders we train ourselves, it is easy to be restricted by the opponent's defenders when handling the ball too slowly and slowly. Especially when facing a simple pinch from the opponent, it is difficult for shorter guards to effectively break through the defense line.

For the national team, the prospect of developing these defenders is not optimistic. With limited resources, the future goal should be to consider whether these players can gain stable playing time in the CBA league where foreign players dominate, rather than blindly expecting them to enter the adult national team and lead us to the World Cup and Olympics.

It is worth mentioning that Xu Jie successfully made his mark with his outstanding defense and three-point performance when he played against Xinjiang in the finals.