As the WCBA season approaches the two-thirds mark, more and more teams are discovering deficiencies within their squads or finding that certain foreign players do not fit with their current team dynamics. Consequently, many teams have been busy reinforcing their rosters recently. Among these are the Xinjiang women's basketball team, Xiamen women's basketball team, Henan women's basketball team, and Shanxi women's basketball team, all of which have been recruiting new foreign players. Both Henan and Shanxi previously had three foreign players, but for the sake of performance, these two teams have really gone all out.
According to a well-known blogger, Henan women's basketball team has invested 51 million RMB this year to build the team. This summer, Henan women's basketball team first signed Chinese women's basketball assistant coach Park Myung-ju as the head coach of Henan women's basketball team, and then conducted a series of signings of a large number of players, including domestic players such as Sun Li and Peng Huaqian, as well as signing three foreign players: Asinde, McDaniel, and Odyssey Sims. However, the latest news is that Henan women's basketball team has cancelled the registration qualification of Odyssey Sims and changed to sign Emma Gunn as the third foreign player, making Henan women's basketball team the first team this season to sign four foreign players.
However, the latest news yesterday was that Shanxi women's basketball team also signed the fourth foreign player, she is Mercedes Russell from the United States. Mercedes Russell has played for the Seattle Storm for the past seven seasons and was a member of the Seattle Storm championship teams in 2018 and 2020, averaging 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. The arrival of Mercedes Russell may be to make up for the departure of Liu Yutong, leaving no one in the Shanxi women's basketball team to replace Nelson in the frontcourt! According to the foreign player policy of this season's WCBA, perhaps Shanxi women's basketball team should cut Mouldro, this foreign player, so Shanxi women's basketball team has also become the second team this season to recruit four foreign players.
With the strengthening of Shanxi women's basketball team, who still dares to say that Sichuan women's basketball team's championship is stable? Although Sichuan women's basketball team has achieved 19 consecutive victories without defeat this season, the foreign players of Sichuan women's basketball team are still uncertain! The previous online rumors of Cambage and Jones joining have not yet been officially announced, so it is not certain whether Cambage and Jones will join Sichuan women's basketball team! At least now, there is no official announcement from Sichuan women's basketball team about the joining of Cambage and Jones. If we just follow the current lineup of Sichuan women's basketball team with all Chinese players against the Shanxi women's basketball team with three foreign players, Mitchell, Nelson, and Russell, it is uncertain who will win!
After all, Shanxi women's basketball team has also achieved a record of 14 wins and 5 losses, only behind Sichuan women's basketball team's record of 19 wins and 0 losses, ranking second in Group A. Now Shanxi women's basketball team has strengthened the inside player Russell, which can be said to have basically made up the shortcomings. It may not be realistic for Sichuan women's basketball team to rely solely on Han Xu to hold off the attacks of two foreign players in the paint. Therefore, under the fact that Cambage and Jones have not officially joined Sichuan women's basketball team, it will be very difficult for Sichuan women's basketball team to achieve a three-peat this season, because no one knows if there will be new foreign players joining the WCBA league later, everything is unknown.