After finishing the last game of the 2021-2022 regular season, Nenking’s Loong Lions (aka Team Guangzhou) makes its final standings as 23(W)-15(L), setting a new franchise record with its win rate reaching 60.5%. Hence, Team Guangzhou acquires a playoff slot as the 8th seed overall, hitting another franchise record as well.

Last year, Team Guangzhou barely made the playoffs as it seized the last win to be qualified. This year, however, Team Guangzhou has already locked a playoff slot a week ago before the regular season ends. The all-around enhancement makes Team Guangzhou one of the top teams in the league, not to mention their win rate boosting from 46.3% to 60.5%. To be more specific, offensively, Team Guangzhou has a couple of stats that rank above league average, among which 24.1 assists per game sets a new franchise record, and eFG% 53.3% (7th), FG% 47% (8th), 3P% (9th) as well as FT% (7th) indicate that this team is offensively dashing. Defensively, DREB 34.1 (7th) and BLKA 3.4 (12th) display the team’s grind. Moreover, Team Guangzhou only averages 15.7 turnovers, which is third best team in the league. And most importantly, Team Guangzhou’s ORtg and DRtg rank respectively 10th and 11th, meaning that they are no longer offensively or defensively short, but acting strong at both ends of the floor.

As a matter of fact, these changes are visible. In the past 3 years, Nenking has kept investing in Loong Lions, therefore propelling the team to make continuous progress and greatly elevate their win rate from just 20% to over 60%. This season, Chen Yingjun, the 29-year-old guard of Team Guangzhou, reaches his career high. He once averages 20 points and 10 assists to lead the stats among all elite guards in the league, and even scores 43 points plus 9 threes to help the team defeat the ex-champion, Team Guangdong. As a result, Chen, for the very first time in his career, is elected into the league’s All-Star roster. At the end of the season, he finally averages 19.1 points and 9.2 assists, which makes him become the record breaker for these two stats as a CBA drafted player. And Chen’s averaging 9.2 assists also makes him the domestic player with the highest APG in a single season throughout the league’s history. For Zhu Mingzhen, the 26-year-old forward, he averages 12.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists this season, all of which are his career high. And his 45.2% FG%, compared with last season, is tremendously improved as well. Li Yanzhe, the 22-year-old center who mostly plays as the starting center this season, has made his career high across the stat sheet, standing out in PTS, REB, AST, STL and BLK. And of course, the team’s success can’t be reached without assistance from foreign players known as Mason and Leaf, as well as strong support from bench players like Zheng Zhun, Jia Mingru and Qi haotong.

But most importantly, Coach Guo Shiqiang is the propeller that drives Team Guangzhou ahead. In August, 2020, Nenking signed a contract with Guo and named him as the head coach for the team. As Nenking and Coach Guo share the same mind on team building and long-term goals, Loong Lions has made remarkable headway for the past two years under Guo’s coach. Team Guangzhou deserves lots of respect, for they rise all on their own without relying on foreign players. This season, Mason has been up and down due to his injuries while Leaf just joins the team halfway and plays only 15 games, not to mention the fact that the team encounters severe shortage for rotation as Guo Kai sits out of the season. With these predicaments, however, Coach Guo still leads the team in acquiring a playoff slot and sets a new franchise record for both win rate and standings. Under his coach, Chen Yingjun, Zhu Mingzhen and Li Yanzhe make their career highs; Guo Kai is efficient in spite of his injuries; Zheng Zhun is still a marksman while Tian Yuheng and Jia Mingru can also supply enough fire support. Now, Team Guangzhou is phenomenal in execution and plays great basketball both offensively and defensively with unprecedented energy and cohesion. With only one season, Coach Guo magically turns Loong Lions from a tough team. He’s got nothing to prove his coaching anymore.

Yet as Coach Guo says, though we rank 8th in the regular season, we have to keep tight for the coming battle. We hope that Team Guangzhou can prepare themselves well for the playoffs and go further this season.