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This season has indeed seen significant changes in the CBA landscape, especially after the foreign players' quota was changed to seven per game across four quarters, severely compressing the playing time for domestic players. Many players who previously had decent stats on the court now hardly get to play at all, such as Zhao Lüzhou from Liaoning Men's Basketball Team, who had hoped to make a big splash but ended up in a worse situation than before.
Zhao Lüzhou has played a fair number of games this season, participating in 14 matches, but averaging only 5.4 minutes per game, scoring just 1.6 points and grabbing 0.8 rebounds, essentially becoming an expendable player.
During his peak with the Jiangsu team, Zhao Lüzhou averaged 12.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game, earning him recognition as an absolute mainstay and gaining the approval of then head coach Li Nan.
The problem is that Zhao Lüzhou signed a long-term contract with Liaoning this time around; he returned at the beginning of the year with a three-year C-class contract. Even after two seasons, there will still be two years left. Given the current trend in the CBA, it seems unlikely that he will be able to contribute much to Liaoning in the future.
Zhao Lüzhou was originally cultivated by Liaoning, but it's slightly regrettable that, as a small forward, he stands less than 2 meters tall and isn't particularly outstanding defensively. At the time, Guo Shiqiang favored Cong Mingchen, and with He Tianju and Liu Zhixuan also on the team, Zhao Lüzhou was loaned out. After winning a championship in 2018, Zhao Lüzhou officially joined the Jiangsu team.
After returning from the national three-on-three basketball team, Zhao Lüzhou's three-point shooting improved significantly, and Li Nan gave him a starting position. That season, the Jiangsu team did perform well and made it back into the playoffs. If not for the negative attitude towards the game, the Jiangsu team could have steadily improved. That incident affected not only Li Nan but also the players he favored, such as Liu Zhixuan and Cui Xiaolong.
In 2023, after playing several months of three-on-three basketball, Zhao Lüzhou received a call from Liaoning and was naturally thrilled to return to his old club, where he was highly regarded. It's estimated that Liaoning considered adding a swingman, especially knowing that Cong Mingchen would be out for a long time due to a severe Achilles injury, so they naturally wanted to plan ahead.
In the summer of 2024, Zhao Lüzhou trained well, lost weight, and became faster. He displayed his three-point skills in many warm-up games and should have been able to make a big impact in the league. Especially since Zhang Zhenlin was recovering from injuries, the team was in dire need of a small forward.
Who knew that the new season of the CBA would bring such drastic changes? While Liaoning did bring in multiple foreign players, the rotation of domestic players remained crucial. More importantly, the incompatibility between small forward Sajok and the team meant he couldn't showcase his individual abilities. However, Yang Ming dared not heavily rely on Zhao Lüzhou or Yu Zechen, mainly because the competition this year is so fierce, with other teams strengthening their rosters, making the opponents at the same positions very competitive.
Currently, Liaoning's strategy is clear: they've brought in Weber for the small forward position and will wait for Zhang Zhenlin to recover, at which point these two will be the regular rotation. If it doesn't work out, they'll look for other foreign players; otherwise, they simply can't win against the top teams.
Zhao Lüzhou won't see an increase in playing opportunities and will find it very difficult to even make the 12-man roster. Additionally, Liaoning's guards are also quite crowded, with previously considered key trainees like Li Huyi and Zhang Junhao seeing their playing time reduced.
At the beginning of the season, Yang Ming openly stated in an interview that due to the increase in foreign players, at least one-third of domestic CBA players no longer get to play, which is completely different from the single foreign player period in previous years. So, everyone has to rely on themselves.