At the beginning of the season, there were grand declarations of championship aspirations, but after only half of the CBA season, the team currently stands at ninth place in the league. During the offseason, significant investments were made in recruitment, with top salaries securing Zhou Qi and Chen Yingjun. Expectations were high before the season began, but now there seems to be no excitement. Fans have long criticized the foreign player issues, and it's unclear if anyone has noticed that in recent years, foreign players at Shougang have not performed well. It is believed that the so-called team basketball severely limits the team's potential. Foreign players are not performing well, and domestic player problems are also significant. Among the three top-salary players, only Chen Yingjun is considered a good value for money. Zhou Qi has been playing intermittently due to injuries, and the performance of Fan Ziming in the frontcourt is even more disappointing.
In the match against Zhejiang, Fan Ziming started and played for 25 minutes, making only 2 out of 13 shots and scoring 7 points with 6 rebounds. As an interior player, a shooting percentage of 2 out of 13 is clearly unsatisfactory. In the first quarter of the game, after Fang Shuo drew the defense and passed the ball, Fan Ziming broke through but failed to score on an open basket. This situation occurred twice more in the second half, leading many fans to comment: "Fan Ziming could compile a highlight reel of missed layups in a single season." Fan Ziming's interior skills are very rough, and despite knowing he lacks finesse, he insists on imitating others' jump shots with stiff movements.
Last season, Beijing Shougang actually wanted to trade Fan Ziming and negotiated with Guangdong, proposing to exchange Fan Ziming plus money for Zhou Qi. However, Fan Ziming had a trade veto power; he only wanted to stay in Beijing to receive a high salary and directly rejected the transfer to Guangdong. Therefore, Shougang had no choice but to keep Fan Ziming. Fan Ziming originally performed well in Xinjiang, being the only player capable of contributing a triple-double of missed layups and getting blocked by guards in a single game, yet his expressions remained fierce and his body language showed great effort.
Many fans compare Fan Ziming with Fu Hao, which is incorrect. Regardless of Fu Hao's issues, he genuinely dominated our Xinjiang frontline in the finals. When facing a power forward smaller than himself, Fu Hao still has an advantage. Fan Ziming, on the other hand, has no hard evidence of his abilities in tough matches; apart from their top salaries, there is nothing comparable between the two. With this level of performance, it's estimated that no team would be willing to take on Fan Ziming. His fundamentals are too poor, and he has reached a point where there is no room for improvement. It's likely that he will never make it into the national team in the future.
For Shougang to achieve results, Xu Limin is indeed not suitable to serve as the head coach. His post-game comments are always shocking; although we lost, we actually won. With such a strong lineup for Beijing, you've led them to this state, and after losing, you say in press conferences that losing was part of your plan. Although we say we lost, in fact, the real winners are us. A mediocre coach can exhaust the efforts of the entire army. Although I greatly admire Coach Xu, it's clear that this year is the time for Shougang to deliver results. Time waits for no one, and it's best to part ways amicably.