Ducks pin hopes on familiar face

"He is still very strict on details and pushes everyone hard in training, just like the good old days. The vibe within the team since he returned has been great."

Forced to end his Beijing tenure prematurely last summer after being locked out of China by the COVID-19 pandemic, Christopoulos said accepting the Ducks' offer was a no-brainer.

"I never felt that I left the team," said the former Team China assistant coach, who was signed by the Ducks in 2017 as a cornerstone of the franchise's rebuild plan.

"I felt I was always connected even when I was not the head coach. I follow the team and I follow the league ... I still feel I left something behind."

Led by former NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury, the Ducks won three CBA championships from 2012-15, but fell out of title contention the next season with an aging core of players and missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years in 2017.

Now refreshed after a three-week break, the Ducks are desperate to make every remaining game count to secure a top-12 postseason spot.

"There are 17 games left and I would say 17 finals for us," said Christopoulos. "I told the players to treat every game like it's the last game of your life."

Although familiar with most of the Ducks' players, Christopoulos is facing a challenge that he describes as "interesting" to maximize the potential of center Li Muhao and forward Fan Ziming.

Signed last summer, from Shenzhen and Guangzhou respectively, to beef up the team's undersized front-court, the towering combo have yet to gel with the rest of the team, combining for an average of just 17.2 points and 9.7 rebounds over 34 games.

Christopoulos, however, is confident the Ducks' investment will eventually pay off.

"I'm very glad and super excited to see them in our roster," he said of the duo. "It needs a lot of time for them to adjust with the team and for the team to apply different kinds of plays that we're not familiar with yet.