Hey, where are you located now. At what level and where did you play?
I’ll reach out to some people and see. If I can help.
Like I said to you in the PM. If you want to play in Taiwan there are 2 true professional leagues involved in Taiwan. The most notable as you mentioned is the SBL. The SBL is going to suck if you aren’t a run and gun player willing to play a role in that. I think you will have to make big adjustments as a euro player that is used to moving the ball around. There’s not much room for you to do what you want, questioning or deviation of what the coach wants will earn you a ride at the bench or cut. The coaches here love run and gun for a couple reasons. 1, it’s the easiest to run for them with the talent they have. They don’t have high IQ players like NBA level vision to make the right plays and be at the right spot. They don’t have athletic talents to have guys cut to the basket and have above the rim play. They have shooters and fast guys. And the 2nd is it’s the most entertaining for average fans who probably don’t have the basketball mind of someone like you, even I scream my lungs out seeing them not move the ball and find the right guys. Taking the most shots will also result in higher score so they don’t end up with the embarrassing 50 point games.
Problem with the SBL is, they don’t actually profit much if at all. It’s mostly rich companies sponsored like banks. They don’t know anything about basketball. They will not develop you. You will just run, run and run. Because you are playing run and gun so got to get up and down to spot up or be the guy to grab boards or the outlet to bring the ball up fast. Last I heard my friend who played didn’t even have a strength and conditioning coach. Idk about you, but you need to be marketable as a foreigner to play here. But they don’t care about developing, they will use you and when you can’t produce anymore. Bye. Knee injury that can harm your lifestyle down the road 20 years from now. They won’t help. Most players opt to play in China’s CBA where they do actually try to develop talent and make it a good league and invest into it. Not the case for the SBL. However you might ride the bench in both leagues if you’re a first year player…that’s just the politics of basketball here and it holds things back. They value seniority not talent sometimes. Navigation of politics of your team will determin your playing time sadly.
The other league is ABL, ASEAN basketball league. Taiwan just joined and it’s actually cool because they play against other countries like Hk, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. and more and more are making it an interesting league. I’m not too familiar with it, just the former coach who I knew from college that played in the G league in NBA was coaching.
The 2 types of foreign players they most want are basically big man and athletic off guard/swing man.
They want a big man to protect the rim and grab boards. Since not many tall Taiwanese players are available, naturally this need is filled by many foreign players.
They also want a off guard/swing man playing the 2-3 or small ball 4 that’s hyper athletic and can slash and possibly go above the rim. Also being a ball controller is a plus bringing it up court as hand checks can be iffy on full court press. Need a strong ball handler and strong player to bring it up.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Do you have an agent? I would look to CBA I China to honest if you care about your basketball career.
Coaching is like this, I’ll pm you some basketball academies later. You’ll probably have to start at this academies where they pay very little to establish yourself. Or I can put you in touch with another private coach who also played both in SBL and ABL. Private’s are about 1200 a hour, can be higher for you possibly since you have pro experience. You will probably need to coach on the side even in mid season and off season to sustain yourself if you play in Taiwan.
I wished I could catch you before I left for Malaysia. I really wanted to establish a good basketball academy and do things like real strength and conditioning. Taiwanese players lack that, most of them have never seen the inside of a weight room or have any clue on how to train. Our only chance is to develop euro ball type players, we don’t have the athletic talents of the nba. But we can definitely learn to play more European style and really move the ball and find high percentage shots.
Good luck. Hope others can chime in about life here and immigration.
