It’s the end of July, and we have officially hit the NBA dead season. Summer League is over, and preseason basketball still a few months away. However, in just under a month, we can still watch several Minnesota Timberwolves players take the court in a highly competitive setting at the FIBA World Cup. Anthony Edwards will be playing for the USA, Rudy Gobert will be playing for France, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker will be playing for Canada.
However, Kyle Anderson got his Chinese citizenship this week, and he will be playing for China in the FIBA World Cup.
Kyle Anderson’s great grandfather was Chinese. In 2018, he and his mother Suzanne went to visit their long-lost relatives after years of searching. Anderson described the trip as “one of the best moments of [his] life.” If you want to know more about his their journey, closeup360.com released a great article about his journey, and a short documentary on YouTube.
Unlike Minnesota’s three other players participating in FIBA, Anderson will be the only current NBA player on his national team’s roster. The USA team is stacked with up and coming stars. An incredible backcourt in Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander headlines Team Canada. And France has its usual cast of talented veterans around Gobert like Evan Fournier, and Nicolas Batum.
FIBA currently has China ranked 27th in World Rankings, which they create through a composite score based on China’s games against other FIBA teams in the past eight years. Still, China has some very talented players, especially big men, and appear as though they could be on the rise. China went 10-2 in the final round of the FIBA Asia/Oceania Qualifiers to make the World Cup, establishing themselves as one of the clear top teams in their “zone.” Their only two losses came to Australia, a powerhouse in the FIBA world. They rank third globally and have a handful of NBA players on their roster. By adding Kyle Anderson, China has a strong chance to make it out of their first round group which features Serbia (6th), Puerto Rico (20th), and South Sudan (62nd).
Let’s take a look at some of Kyle’s co-stars.
Zhou Qi is a 7’2” center with a near 7’8” wingspan. He’s a major defensive presence as a shot blocker and a threat to score anywhere around the rim. Zhou was named the MVP of the FIBA Asia/Oceania Qualifiers, and he will likely be the main star of the team along with Slow Mo. Zhou had an incredible tournament to help China qualify for the World Cup, averaging 16.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks over 9 games. During the tournament, Zhou looked great at taking advantage of mismatches, and utilizes his height and strength to dunk over those unlucky enough to be in the way. He is also good at finding lanes to score on fast breaks, and he has the hands to vacuum up most passes thrown his way on cuts, lobs, and 50/50 balls.
Anderson should have immediate chemistry with Zhou. From what I’ve watched, Zhou seems to be a center somewhat in the Gobert mold. He’s a great rim protector, very athletic for his height, and although he may have a limited range on offense, if you pass him the ball in the right spot in a deep post-up, or hit him with a well timed alley-oop, it’s basically a guaranteed bucket. As we saw, Anderson was one of the few Timberwolves players last season who almost immediately knew how to get the ball to Gobert in the right spots. Anderson also helped facilitate the mismatches Gobert had around the rim.
Anderson’s playmaking and passing prowess will likely allow him to do the same with Zhou from Day 1 and could make for some seriously nasty pick-and-roll actions, especially against smaller teams. One of Anderson’s biggest strengths is that he can play point guard on offense and defense, even though he’s 6’9” and often slotted as a 3 or 4. Since many of China’s best players are extremely tall, Slow Mo could be the perfect player to unlock some exciting big ball lineups for them, as he did for the Timberwolves last year.
Zhou spent one year in the NBA, where he was teammates with James Harden on the Rockets. He had a hard time getting consistent minutes, and Houston cut Zhou in his second year. However, there are some really fun highlights of him playing with Harden. He had an extremely impressive hit-ahead pass on a fast break, a passing skill many people praise modern skilled bigs like Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama for being able to do.
FIBA lists Wang Zhelin as another one of the headlining names of China’s team, calling him a “Twin Tower” along with Zhou. While he fills up the box score a bit less than Zhou, Zhelin is similarly very quick for his size at 7’0”. He also has the fundamentals to be in the right spots to rim protect on defense and score around the rim on mismatches. Being able to take advantage of mismatches is extremely important in FIBA if you’re a big. It’s not like the NBA where almost every team has a 7-footer hanging around or “4s” who can play up a position.
Still, Zhelin doesn’t seem to have the same natural feel for defense or rebounding as Zhou, averaging 6.5 rebounds, 0.3 blocks. 11.5 points per game in the tournament. Zhelin was also second in FIBA’s efficiency rating on the team for players who participated in more than three of the games in the tournament. Kyle Anderson should once again be able to bring out the best in Zhelin, as he’s great in big-to-big pick-and-rolls.
China has several other players who are listed by FIBA as headliners including Zhou Peng, Zhao Rui, and Sun Minghui. Basketball increases in popularity every year as a global sport. As a result, FIBA continues to get more competitive every year, too. This year’s FIBA World Cup should be one of the most exciting in a long time. It will have a deeper pool of talent than ever before in the history of the sport, and it will get even more competitive as basketball continues to grow around the globe.
If you are a Wolves fan, it’s time to get excited about Slow Mo playing for team China. Not only will he contribute a lot to their national team from Day 1 as a passer, playmaker, and scorer. He may also help them climb the FIBA World Rankings if he can help connect their many talented bigs.
