New-look Ducks spread their wings

A product of the Ducks' youth system, Zeng was sent to study and play in the American high-school system in 2017 as part of the "Basketball Pioneers Program", a youth project funded by the club's parent company Shougang Group. He signed with G League team Ignite in October last year, however an injury-plagued season diminished his chances of being picked in this year's NBA Draft.

In his 19 games for Ignite in the development league, Zeng averaged 5.8 points and 2.8 rebounds. A rebuilding franchise like the Ducks is the perfect platform for Zeng to grow, reckons coach Xie Libin.

"We have young players like Zeng to mature and a lot of chemistry to build on a new roster. We need some warm-ups to figure things out and build from there. We are all in this together," said Xie, a former Ducks guard who last season served as an assistant under the team's previous head coach, Yannis Christopoulos.

With Christopoulos resigning following a disappointing first-round exit from the 2021-22 playoffs, the Ducks promoted Xie to replace the Greek in the offseason, opted to waive veteran guard Liu Xiaoyu and signed a low-key yet practical foreign combo in Nick Johnson and TJ Leaf.

The offseason of flux signals a major shift in the Ducks' style of play, with the younger players buying into the new approach, according to Xie.

"We've been working on our transition plays by pushing up the tempo and trying to go faster with more counterattacks," said Xie.