The 27th round of the second stage of the 2024-25 CBA regular season continued, with a focus on the fierce competition between the strong Guangdong men's basketball team and the dark horse Tianjin team. Ultimately, the stronger Guangdong team defeated Tianjin 120-111 thanks to the outstanding performances of key players such as Jilun Walters, Xu Jie, Zhang Haojia, and Morand. It is worth noting that Guangdong once led by more than 20 points in the first half, but after the main guard Xu Jie's physical decline, he was fiercely counterattacked by Tianjin. Fortunately, Du Feng managed to suppress Tianjin and win this crucial away game with the overuse of Jilun Walters and Xu Jie, achieving a four-game winning streak while sending Tianjin to a six-game losing streak.
Now, Guangdong's core guard Xu Jie is showing signs of fatigue, and Du Feng urgently needs a new ball-handling small foreign aid to supplement the disadvantages of the guard line and the front line. At this time, the traditional powerhouse Zhejiang team exposed the cancellation of the registration of top foreign aid Kobe Simmons, which undoubtedly gave Guangdong a good choice for the future. Before Simmons' contract became fully guaranteed for the season, Zhejiang still chose to cut this top offensive forward-guard foreign aid. Previously, it was reported that Zhejiang might extend an olive branch to Daejon Nichols, the former starting forward-guard of the NBA's Timberwolves, who was also considered the ideal new foreign aid choice for Guangdong. However, since Guangdong is not seen as a championship contender this season, Zhu Fangyu and Du Feng will not compete with Zhejiang for Daejon Nichols.
On the contrary, Simmons will be a very good choice for Guangdong next season. According to statistics, Kobe Simmons averaged 17.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1 steal in 28.2 minutes per game in the 17 games he played for Zhejiang this season. In the game between Zhejiang and Guangdong, Simmons led the team to defeat Hongyuan without their star player Wu Qian, scoring 24+4+5 and becoming an absolute strong point that Du Feng could not contain, making him one of Hongyuan's nemeses. Previously, there were rumors that Guangdong was very interested in Simmons, but they were preempted by Zhejiang. Now it seems that Simmons may not continue to be favored by other CBA teams in the future, which will be the best opportunity for Guangdong to "snatch" him at a low salary.
In fact, Simmons, who can explode offensively as a top forward foreign aid, is Guangdong's number one nemesis. This season, Guangdong does not have a qualified ball-handling foreign aid and cannot attack Simmons, a scoring machine, in decisive moments. Zhejiang needs a versatile foreign aid who can cooperate with the whole team, so giving up Simmons is reasonable. After Simmons was abandoned by Zhejiang, Guangdong can consider taking this qualified forward-guard foreign aid in the future. As for Daejon Nichols, if Zhejiang is interested in taking this development league's tanking artifact, then Guangdong has no need to spend too much money to snatch him.
In summary, this season is not truly a championship-contending season for Guangdong, so there is no need to waste too much capital chain to strengthen the push for the top four in the playoffs. Next season, Guangdong can completely pick up Simmons at a lower price.