The second phase of the CBA regular season is in full swing, and recently there has been a lot of talk about the good news of the recovery from injury of the powerful forward Cui Yongxi. As one of the top domestic frontcourt newcomers in the CBA league, Cui Yongxi once signed with the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and received significant playing time. However, an unexpected injury led to his release by the Nets. It is reported that Cui Yongxi plans to return to China in the short term, which could be the best opportunity for CBA teams to recruit him. Currently, CBA teams are fiercely competing with the advantage of foreign players, but the traditional powerhouse Guangdong team is wavering between rebuilding or investing more to make a playoff push.
Guangdong team is now in a dilemma, especially after the disappointing failures of successive foreign player signings such as Ams, Barton, and Les. For Du Feng, Guangdong team currently has huge disadvantages at both the three and five positions. Even if the veteran Ren Junfei can still hold onto the big wing position, and Hu Mingxuan is expected to return in subsequent games, Guangdong team still lacks a qualified domestic small forward or center. Although the double foreigner four-quarter seven-person system this season gave Guangdong team a chance to catch their breath in the first three quarters, the single foreigner system in the final quarter is still a major pain point. This also makes Guangdong team not optimistic about being able to perform at a championship level this season, even if they bring in stronger foreign players, the upper limit is only the playoff semi-finals.
In this case, Guangdong team might as well free up enough funds to introduce Cui Yongxi, even if it means giving up on foreign player signings for the rest of the season. After all, Guangdong team's youth training reserves no longer have qualified three-position players. On the basis that potential newcomer Huang Mingyi has not yet been developed, Guangdong team's future reserves such as Chen Jiazheng and Wang Hongze, who are national youth team powerhouses, are not three-position players. In other words, Guangdong team will not have a top domestic small forward capable of standing on their own for at least the next three years. With Huang Mingyi leaning more towards the four position, Guangdong team can say that during the peak periods of Xu Jie and Hu Mingxuan, they will not be able to cultivate qualified championship-level three-position players.
Therefore, Guangdong team might as well directly give up on foreign player signings for the rest of the season and free up enough funds to trade for Cui Yongxi's signing rights. A healthy Cui Yongxi is someone Guangdong team can't afford, but after suffering a serious injury, his value will inevitably decrease. With Guangzhou team already dismantled and achieving good results, the possibility of selling Cui Yongxi in the future is also high. Therefore, Guangdong team can consider contacting Cui Yongxi when he returns to China, which may be the best opportunity for Du Feng and Zhu Fangyu to strengthen the domestic three-position.
It must be said that Cui Yongxi's athletic ability and non-ball-dominant style of play is indeed very suitable for Guangdong team, especially under the circumstances where Xu Jie and Hu Mingxuan are gradually growing into ball-handling cores. As long as they can pursue and obtain Cui Yongxi at the domestic three-position level, even if he can only recover 80% of his peak competitive state, Du Feng will have enough chips to maintain absolute championship competitiveness in the future, whether it's a single foreigner or double foreigner policy.