Potential New Teams in the ASEAN Basketball League?

Now that we have the SEA Games in the rear view mirror (congrats, Philippines) we can start looking forward to next big thing in ASEAN Basketball: The ASEAN Basketball League!

While nothing is officially set in stone, we think it’s safe to say that there be some new (and old?) faces this upcoming season.

[อ่านภาษาไทย คลิกที่นี่เลยครับ]

Disclaimer: The contents of this post are purely speculation from the writer’s perspective and are in no way associated with the ASEAN Basketball League, the teams in the ASEAN Basketball League, or any other teams mentioned.

During the transition of ABL 2015-2016 to 2016-2017, we saw only three teams retained in which would eventually turn out to be a six team league. After a disappointing Philippines team (MX3 Kings), the lack of Indonesian and Thai teams, and the expansion to East Asian clubs (Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions/Kaohsiung Truth), fans started questioning the league’s status.

It turned out that there was nothing to worry about at all, since there remains plenty of potential left untapped for basketball in the region. It was just up to the league and the teams to find the right places to look. The three original clubs (Singapore Slingers/Westport Malaysia Dragons/Saigon Heat) maintained their brand and even added on some more for their fans to look forward to. The Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions brought in an intense level of elitism that pushed other teams to become better. While the Kaohsiung Truth may have been shaky (probably an understatement) , they had their own identity which at times made them one of the most entertaining teams in the league. Alab Pilipinas gave the basketball-crazed nation a team that they deserved in the league after a long draught.

All in all, it was relative success considering how much change the league had to go through.

And you know what? It should be even better in this upcoming season!

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ABL 2017-2018: What We Know So Far

Nothing.

The league and teams haven’t officially updated much about the next season save for a couple of player/coach signings, but here’s as much as we can safely conclude so far.

The Singapore Slingers are definitely back, having already announced the re-signing of Xavier Alexander as their first World Import. Ng Han Bin and Desmond Oh were also mentioned as returning local players.

The Saigon Heat recently announced that Kyle Julius will be their ABL Head Coach, so they are also definitely back. Lenny Daniel and Moses Morgan have also been consistently posting about returning for a #ChampionshipYear. David Arnold is probably also not going anywhere.

Alab Pilipinas has not shied away from committing to the next season, already announcing that they signed Head Coach Jimmy Alapag. They have also announced that they will be re-signing Local MVP Bobby Ray Parks Jr.

Our Chinese isn’t reliable, but as far as Google Translate is capable of telling us, the Eastern Long Lions have constantly been updating about “defending the ABL title”. Reigning World Import MVP, Marcus Elliott has already returned to be with the team and convincing rumours have already pegged Tyler Lamb and Christian Standhardinger as their Heritage Imports.

That’s already 4 teams that have publicly announced that they will be returning for the next season. We’ll just throw in the Westports Malaysia Dragons in as the 5th team after Head Coach Chris Thomas mentioned in an interview during the SEA Games about how he might be able to play with a 12-player roster in the upcoming ABL season.

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ABL 2017-2018: Who Else Could Possibly Be In?

There’s no real fun in pointing out the obvious though. It pretty much a given that those 5 teams would be returning. While that it’s great news for the league to be returning that many teams (the most in a long while), what’s more fun for the fans is the speculation that comes after.

How many teams will the ABL end up with this season? Who will those teams be? Who will be playing for those teams? How many games will they play?

It’s these kind of questions that keeps the fire of us fans going during the off-season.

So we decided to take a fun jab at the speculation and rumours and try to take out shot at trying to answer those questions. It’s going to be wild and we’re going to reaching out all over the place for wild clues, but that’s the whole point.

We’ll go from most likely to least likely just for the sake of the build up.

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Some Team From Chinese-Taipei

Likeliness Meter: 98.7%
Likeliness Comparison: Stephen Curry at the Free Throw Line

To be fair, Curry’s career Free Throw percentage is only at 90.1% but the point is that the a new Taiwanese team in the ABL seems like a pretty much done deal.

It was leaked from league sources earlier in June that the Kaohsiung Truth would not be returning in the upcoming season (to little surprise). In the same leak, it was confirmed that there would be a new team that would be joining the league from Taiwan. This was followed a couple of weeks after by what seemed to be a press release (in Chinese) on several websites claiming that a different group has indeed confirmed to join the ABL in the upcoming season.

It seems a bit of a reach to say that it’s 98.7% likely that this team is going to be a new team in the ABL based on just a press release… but you can just feel that there just has to be one new team from Taiwan right?

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CLS Knights Surabaya

Likeliness Meter: 84.5%
Likeliness Comparison: R+L=J in Game of Thrones before it was actually revealed that R+L=J

The CLS Knights playing in the ABL started from something like a fan-fiction that made sense in the canon that eventually started to gain widespread acceptance before eventually the creators had to make it canon.

The ABL fans have been craving for an Indonesian team ever since the disappointment in 2014 where both the Indonesia Warriors and the woeful Laskar Dreya teams dropped out of playoff contention and were never seen again. There had already been whispers about CLS considering to join the ABL for a while, but – mind my French – shit got real when the Indonesia Basketball League (IBL) and the CLS Knights were unable to agree on terms about their participation.

The two sides went back and forth for a while about a possibility of them being able to work things out, but it was finally official that the CLS Knights were out of the IBL until the league changed their minds on the requirements they requested from the teams.

That leaves the CLS Knights, among the oldest and most storied clubs in Indonesia, without a league to play in. So you can’t really blame the entire hoard of CLS Knights that started begging for their beloved team to play in the ABL.

“There is an option to participate in ABL, for example. But that is if we still have players. Because we also do not know when ABL will start. We also do not know who the players who will be out of this team.” Managing Partner Christopher Tanuwidjaja said (in translation from Bahasa).

The team acknowledges the possibility of playing in the ABL and they have been in talks with the league, but nothing has been confirmed as a done deal so far.

HOWEVER, it might come down to knowing the right people to ask. Sports journalists who were covering the SEA Games 2017 have publicly been saying that CLS Knights star and ABL Legend, Mario Wuysang, was vocally confident in telling fans that they will be able to see him play again in the ABL soon.

The only drawback for now are the rumors swirling around whether the Indonesia Basketball Federation (PERBASI) will allow CLS to join the ABL since the league requires each Federations’ approval..

CLS+ABL seems like a match made in heaven so keep your fingers crossed and hope the basketball gods are paying attention.

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Hanoi Buffaloes

Likeliness Meter: 42.0% *giggles*
Likeliness Comparison: Demarcus Cousins was a guy that was seemingly always going to be traded from the Kings and it was just like “Oh, he’ll get traded next year” so something like that.

Everything that the Hanoi Buffaloes have done up to this moment are signs that they really want in the ABL.

They got a former-ABL Champion Head Coach in Todd Purves to lead the team. They played as a guest team in the TBSL last season. Everything seemed to be pointing towards the Hanoi Buffaloes preparing themselves for a berth in the ABL this season.

By making the move, Hanoi would be getting the international exposure they desire while the ABL would be getting an awesome Hanoi/Saigon rivalry.

And it’s not like Hanoi would be pushovers as well. They’ve shown that they can compete among the best. Nguyen Phu Hoang was a relative sensation in SEA Games 2017 and Nguyen Tien Duong was a solid contributor. Combine that with Purves coaching and recruiting and you can rest assured that Hanoi wouldn’t be coming in to the league just for kicks and giggles.

With that said though… there haven’t been any positive signals that Hanoi will be joining this year. There was an earlier period in summer where it seemed like a possibility, but there hasn’t been much since then and the momentum has seemed to die out. While there have been wilder things to suddenly happen without much notice, it does make Hanoi/ABL seem less probable for now.

PERSONAL OPINION ALERT: This one is a personal opinion/insight I’d just like to add. This upcoming season will be the 6th season in the ABL for the Saigon Heat. They remain the few long withstanding teams in the league’s history to have never reached the ABL Finals. They have gone through 3 straight semifinal exits.

What if – and this is a majorly wild what if – the Saigon Heat had discussed with the Hanoi Buffaloes and asked for one year where they could have all the Vietnamese spotlight on them? What if the Saigon Heat told the Hanoi Buffaloes “Give us this one year where we go all out and go for the championship. When we win it, we’ll lay out the red carpet for you to stroll in and join next year.”?

It would clearly suck for the Heat if – again, this is a BIG IF – the Hanoi Buffaloes came into the league and out-performed them in their first season. So just to avoid all of that, what if the Heat just asked Hanoi to back off for a year?

*end of personal opinion*

Still, you never know. Todd Purves itches for high level competition and if he can sway someone in the higher level management of the team… we might be getting some juicy rivalries in the ABL next season.

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Mono Vampires

Likeliness Meter: 29.29%
Likeliness Comparison: We never expected LeBron to go to the Miami Heat back in 2010 over going to the New York Knicks or staying in Cleveland but when he made the announcement it actually made sense. So yeah, something like that.

The Mono Vampires and the ABL have a weird relationship.

After a year of establishing their basketball team, the Mono Vampires jumped to join in the ABL. It was a miserable season for the Vampires and they limped into the finish line, far from playoff contention. But the potential was there. They had secured some of the best local talents in Thailand and all they needed to do was get their front office more experience in dealing/signing imports. It seemed like the Mono Vampires were building up to be a solid team.

And then suddenly it was all off.

In the following season, the Mono Vampires backed out of the ABL and played in the TBSL where they played as hosts for the event and handle the media as well. For their troubles, the Mono Vampires walked away with the Championship and the much advertised prize money.

I stated my opinions about different advantages of the ABL and the TBSL wayyyyyyy back before both leagues kicked off their seasons and my opinions have yet to have been swayed. The ABL presented teams with a higher level of competition (judging by the number of players who played for national teams in the leagues) as well as more media coverage. We feel like Thailand Basketball as a whole, not just the Mono Vampires, would benefit from having a team in the ABL as a part pf their basketball development program.

And it’s not just us! While Tim Lewis was still coaching the Thailand National Team, we had a conversation with him concerning Thailand and the ABL where he mentioned that the Thailand National Team program should figure out how to form a team to be in that competition.

The Mono Vampires certainly have more than enough resources to play in the ABL. The logic is there. All that is left now is whether the people with the final say will eventually move in the right direction.

The idea of the Mono Vampires returning to the ABL seemed a bit farfetched with the situation of the TBSL positioning itself in the same target market as the ABL… up until recently during the SEA Games 2017.

What at first looks like a simple social media post from Pete Bhodaramik, Team Owner of the Mono Vampires, might have a deeper meaning with the ABL hashtag included towards the end.

Since the SEA Games 2017 has concluded, there has been soft waves confirming the Mono Vampires interest. There’s certainly promise with all of the recent conversations going on (since they have been coming from the inner circles), but there’s probably also going to be a lot to figure out along the way to make things happen which might take time that both sides don’t have much in supply.

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Satria Muda Pertamina (aka Indonesia Warriors)

Likeliness Meter: 12.3%
Likeliness Comparison: Something like the Anthony Davis situation where almost everyone except the New Orleans fans expects him to be traded soon but it still seems very unlikely.

Satria Muda seems to be comfortable where they are in the Indonesia Basketball League. The team has a collection of the top players in the country as well as a young core ready to be tomorrow’s batch of top players in the country. There was no urgency for the team to play in the ABL last season and there seems to be no added urgency this year as well. They are not in a position like the CLS Knights where they are no longer playing in the IBL. With the schedule of the two leagues bound to overlap once again this year, it probably would be too much of a problem to field a team in both league’s for Satria Muda.

But recent movements have been suggesting otherwise.

With the CLS Knights-to-ABL situation looking more and more probable, you’d have to wonder if Satria Muda (as one of the bigger teams in Indonesia) are thinking that they just simply can’t allow CLS to steal all the shine in the international stage.

What’s more interesting is Satria Muda’s sudden participation in the Merlion Cup this 19-24 September, as first reported by ASEANSports. This followed the abrupt pull-out from the tournament by Alab Pilipinas and will see the Indonesian side facing the Shanghai Sharks, Jeonju KCC Egis, and NLEX-SCTEX.

While it might potentially be nothing than just Satria Muda competing in an invitational tournament, the Merlion Cup is in someways a tournament for the Singapore Slingers so if the Slingers/Satria Muda are on good terms… could that potential lead to an ABL comeback?

Everything is based on loose speculations so far for Satria Muda’s situation, but as the saying goes: where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire – or someone smoking weed.

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Hitech (Bangkok City)

Likeliness Meter: 6.9% *giggles*
Likeliness Comparison: That time when Vlade Divac said he wouldn’t trade Demarcus Cousins before trading DeMarcus Cousins less than two weeks later.

We had a chance to talk to Nipondh Chavalitmontien, the owner of Hitech and new President of the Basketball Sports Authority of Thailand (BSAT), earlier in July and asked him about the prospect of Hitech returning to the ABL.

His answer at that time was pointing to a strong “no” stating several reasons concerning the financial limitations (compared to playing in TBSL) and the difficulties of complying with the ABL requirements. It doesn’t seem like much has changed from then until now… unless we’re taking in the consideration the recent Mono Vampire/ABL rumors.

How would Hitech feel about the Mono Vampires possibly returning to the ABL? Would they be compelled to return as well as a team that has one of the 7 ABL Championships next to their name?

They certainly have enough players and talent to be competitive, but it still seems like a very long shot for them to return to the ABL soon.

Then again… we’ve seen crazier things happen.

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Phnom Penh Nagas

Likeliness Meter: 0.1%
Likeliness Comparison: Our chances with Margot Robbie. Just kidding, we don’t even have that much of a chance.

We know that NagaWorld, the largest entertainment center/casino in Cambodia, has been consistently supporting Cambodian sports. What if NagaWorld has seen the potential of the Cambodia National Basketball Team and decided that this is an area worth investing in?

Cambodia and their gang of American-based National Team players were interestingly entertaining during SEA Games 2017 with the shooting duo of Toun Sopheen and Oeun Sophoeun, as well as the promising young guard combination of Dominic Dar and Tommy Chea. There’s potential that can be built around that squad with the right import signings.

While the chances are highly unlikely that this will happen this season… we think that it won’t take long before Cambodia starts to seriously consider forming an ABL team.

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San Miguel Beermen

Likeliness Meter: -100.0%
Likeliness Comparison: Pigs Flying

LOL. NO WAY. ARE YOU HIGH?

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What do you think?
Who do you think will be joining the ABL this year?
Who do you want to join the ABL this upcoming season?

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