A Chinese puzzle: how to be successful without Yao

China have surrendered their leadership of Asian basketball since 2007. However, the Far East giants have never had such talented players as Yi Jianlian, Sun Yue or Yao Ming. The injuries to the latter have prevented them from being successful over the last few years. Without the Rocket center once again, new coach Bob Donewald Jr. will try to balance his absence by “getting the younger guys some experience.”

In Asia, China has pretty much mostly been the dominant force in basketball. In a 30-year period of domination that stretched from 1975 to 2005, China secured gold in the FIBA Asia Championships 14 of the 16 times it was held. However, in recent years they have found new arch-rivals in the form of an Iranian team which has won the last two continental championships.

China no longer rules supreme and yet the sport is growing faster than ever in the world's most populous country. The domestic league is improving and an increasing number of Chinese players look set to make the move to the NBA. It is now almost ten years since Wang Zhizhi became the first Chinese player to play NBA basketball, while four more players have made the move since (Mengke Bateer, Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian and Sun Yue). Two of them, Yao and Yi, are even having a great impact oversees with the Houston Rockets and the New Jersey Nets.

On the world stage China has not been able to match its continental dominance and in spite of being virtually ever present in the FIBA World Championships and Olympic basketball tournaments, their best finish in both competitions is eighth. In Japan in 2006, China finished the World Championship in ninth place, following defeat to finalist Greece in the eighth-finals round. Yao Ming was the tournament’s top scorer with an impressive average of 25.3 points per game, ahead of players like Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitzki.

China's 10th place finish in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship brought to an end a series of four consecutive wins and was their worst ever finish in the competition. However, having already been guaranteed a place in the Olympics as the host country, the Chinese sent what can only be described as a "B" team.

For China, the Olympic Games in Beijing meant an unprecedented level of expectations. In the first round, China's two victories and three defeats mark secured them the fourth and last quarter-final place of their group, setting up a tie against Lithuania. Their Baltic opponents were however far too strong for them - winning all four quarters comfortably to take the game 94-68 and therefore ending dreams of glory on home soil.

The absence of Yao Ming in last year's FIBA Asia Championship was a blow to the Chinese who were humiliated in the final by a talented and deserving Iran (70-52). During the competition, Coach Kazlauskas’ team had also some very difficult times against Jordan and Lebanon.

This summer, China will most likely be without Yao Ming once again. New head coach Bob Donewald Jr. regrets that situation but he has his strategy to be successful. "This is a difficult time and a period of transition for Team China, without Yao Ming, who is injured right now, and some veteran players who are kind of tailing off at the end of their careers," Donewald said. “We need to develop and balance that by getting the younger guys some experience." The coach plans to transform China’s National Team in "a team that is very united and defensive-minded with discipline."

In the first round of the FIBA World Championship, China is in a group that also includes hosts Turkey, Greece, Russia, Puerto Rico and Ivory Coast, they will have to be at their best to finish in the top four and progress through to the eight-finals.