Mitchell Sheds Light on Qi's Return

Friday, September 30, 2022

South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell has revealed how the Phoenix tempted centre Zhou Qu back to the NBL for a second season.

Qi has signed onto the Phoenix’s final roster spot at the 11th hour, with his contract at the club being confirmed in the week leading up to round one.

The 7’1” centre won’t arrive in Australia until October 16, as Mitchell says Qi is keen to spend some extra time with family.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"?? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ???."<br><br>Mitch Creek is more than happy about the return of <a href="https://twitter.com/officialzhouqi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@officialzhouqi</a> for NBL23. ?<br><br>? Tickets for Round 1 ?? <a href="https://t.co/aRS9VDMQTf">https://t.co/aRS9VDMQTf</a> <a href="https://t.co/Hu3t90KFbR">pic.twitter.com/Hu3t90KFbR</a></p>— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1574996126708559873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"I know he (Qi) had offers from all over the world. He also recently had another child," Mitchell told SEN.

"He’s got a young family and I know being overseas with us, and being away from them with the Chinese national team commitments - he was looking for a bit of time with his family.

"He’s getting a bit of that important time at home to reacquaint with his family and then he’ll re-join us for year number two which we’re tremendously happy about.

“The situation with Zhou is he has a contract in the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association), or he has his rights retained by his club in the CBA which he doesn’t want to play for. If free agency was ruled out for him, then my guess is he’d be in the CBA.

“Since his rights are retained by that same club, that made him available.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"Melbourne (United) made a play... and tried to get Zhou Qi" ?<a href="https://twitter.com/Liam_Santa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Liam_Santa</a> is joined by <a href="https://twitter.com/adamgibson_1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@adamgibson_1</a> on the latest episode of The Huddle to discuss the 5? BIGGEST storylines ahead of Round 1 of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <br><br>Catch the episode in full at <a href="https://t.co/IgMZDC36SX">https://t.co/IgMZDC36SX</a> <a href="https://t.co/f7FZ3idfwa">pic.twitter.com/f7FZ3idfwa</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1575022536450256896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Qi’s immediate unavailability adds to South East Melbourne’s hefty list of inactive stars, with Mitchell confirming new imports Gary Browne and Trey Kell, as well as Aussie sharpshooter Ryan Broekhoff, will be unavailable for the opening weeks of the season.

“Gary Browne our point guard had a bit of a knee injury in our last pre-season game – early in that game. The good news there is it’s only a level one medial ligament issue,” Mitchell said.

“Trey Kell who got injured very early on, just after arriving actually, copped a little bit of a knock to the chest in a scrimmage against the Tassie JackJumpers so it’ll be a couple of weeks before he’s ready to hit the floor.

“As it currently stands we’re going to go into the first game without Ryan Broekhoff who has a soft tissue injury … it’s a recurring injury [and] it’s really disappointing for him. He looks after himself really well and he’s just had some bad luck.

“The good news is Mitch Creek has been on the training track for the first time this year the last two days, and he’s looking pretty good.”

Browne’s integration into the side should help the Phoenix become a drastically better defensive team. The 29-year-old point guard has arrived in Australia with a reputation as a fierce on-ball defender.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gary Browne with the blink and you'll miss it spin cycle ??<br><br>This game's heating up <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/rmeJJzj8It">pic.twitter.com/rmeJJzj8It</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1571805742965092352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Phoenix had one of the best defences in the NBL in the first half of last season. Their slide down the ladder in the latter stages of the campaign went hand-in-hand with their inability to consistently limit opposition scoring.

Mitchell says he’s restructured his team with defence firmly in the front of his mind.

“I think without a doubt defensively we need to be better. We’ve shown patches where we can be very, very good, and even to halfway through the season we were ranked in the top three in the league. Once Ryan got injured we had a few issues [and] it dropped drastically,” he said.

“The assembly of the roster last year, we had some smaller bodied guards and then Zhou Qi joined us late, it wasn’t all on the same page.

“This year we prepared to have Zhou Qi, we’ve got Gray Browne who’s a really good on-ball defender and we can change up our coverage a little bit more this year. We’ve got a little bit more skillset in the backcourt in regards to our defensive package which I think can accommodate Zhou Qi.

“[We’ve] also [got] Alan Williams who’s a tremendously vocal and tenacious rebounder which is another thing we needed to get better at.”