Seoul Samsung’s 2022 was sweet for a while. But now it has returned to its former place.

Samsung is at the bottom with 10 wins and 21 losses at the moment when the first half of the 2022-23 SKT A-Dot professional basketball is almost finished.

Even until mid-December, Samsung maintained a mid-table position. Despite a series of injuries, he showed a different organized and sticky basketball than before. A team that did not back down easily, that was Samsung.

The effect of joining Lee Jung-hyun, who was recruited with a large amount of money, was not insignificant. Lee Jung-hyun, who was a matchmaker, was obviously a great help to Samsung, which did not have an ace to lead the match.

The leadership of Samsung coach Eun Hee-seok, who made a name for himself as a great general when he was a college coach, also stood out. Since the 2016-17 season, he has been walking downhill all the way, pushing Samsung hard with a sense of defeat and turning them into real men. Their sticky basketball that makes them fall into the swamp no matter which team they meet is an attraction that has never been seen from Samsung. Coach Eun’s choice, which compensated for the fundamental problem of the team’s weak strength, was right.

But it didn’t last long. Marcus Derrickson’s injury departure was a fatal blow for Samsung, which had weak offensive power. In addition, it is showing a downward trend as of mid-December, when it was holding up well due to injuries to players who should be responsible for the inside and outside of Samsung, such as Lee Dong-yeop as well as Lee Won-seok.

At the end of December, there was a series of games in which they led throughout the schedule and then lost. On December 24 last year, it was fatal to lose to Kim Jong-gyu in Wonju Expedition right before the end. Instead of arranging the stamina of Lee Jung-hyun and other key players, coach Eun’s plan collapsed. Since then, Samsung has been on a losing streak, and is currently on an eight-game losing streak.

Now, the burden of Kim Si-rae and Lee Jung-hyun, whose heyday has passed, has increased. It is not possible to leave the clutch situation in each game to those who need to adjust the playing time. In particular, Si-rae Kim’s sluggishness is painful. He is the orthodox point guard that Samsung wanted so much, and he showed a good figure after the transfer, but this season, he is showing disappointing results compared to his name value.

The scoring ability of foreign players is difficult to expect. Emmanuel Terry and Jonathan Alledge are well-balanced foreign players, but their offense is poor. In the case of clubs with a large presence of domestic players, they can overcome even if the offensive power of foreign players is low, but Samsung is not like that. The competitiveness of both domestic and foreign players is declining significantly over time. 스포츠토토

Even the players who really need to play now, such as Lim Dong-seop and Jang Min-guk, have not been able to get out of the swamp of sluggishness that has continued for years. Lee Won-seok and Kim Jin-young, who have returned from injury and discipline, and Lee Ho-hyun, who is trusted by manager Eun, are hopeful, but it seems difficult to stop the current decline.

Samsung’s fundamental problem is that it cannot see sharp numbers. In the end, there seems to be no answer unless it is an extreme change of replacing all foreign players like Suwon kt. However, it is unclear whether a high-quality foreign player who will change the team power 180 degrees will remain in the market. Most of the clubs mentioned January as the appropriate time to replace foreign players, but since Samsung only won 10 games, the effect will be insignificant unless you are a great foreign player.

Is Samsung, which was briefly shining, collapsing so powerlessly? Also, was ‘Eun Hee-seok Magic’ just a mirage? Is the spring basketball that Samsung dreamed of ending up as just a ‘dream’ in the cold reality? Then, what should we solve for Samsung’s unprecedented long-term decline?

If Samsung finishes the season in last place again, it will be the 6th team in history to experience the most last place, along with Goyang Orion (including the predecessor Daegu Dongyang).