New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year.
Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday.
The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei CTBC DEA (4-4) defeated the Taoyuan Taiwan Beer Leopards (3-4) 87-86.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Professional Basketball League
The 36-year-old Lin played a pivotal role in the Kings’ challenging start to the season, during which the team were plagued by injuries and often had fewer than 10 players available per game, the TPBL said in a statement.
Lin was the favorite among the media and fans, receiving 19 out of 22 first-place votes from the media and 1,545 first-place votes from fans, it said.
He earned a 49.6 percent weighted support rate, surpassing Taipei Taishin Mars guard Ting Sheng-ju.
Ting made TPBL history as the first player to record a triple-double, with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists in the Mars’ (2-4) 94-84 win over the Lioneers on Nov. 10, which snapped the team’s four-game losing streak.
Kaleb Wesson of the Kaohsiung Aquas (4-3) was named Import of the Month.
In addition to 21.4 points, 12.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, two steals and 1.6 blocks over five games, the 25-year-old Wesson also shot 44.8 percent from beyond the arc, contributing 2.6 three-pointers per game, the league said.
Wesson topped the weighted support rate at 38.1 percent, edging out Aric Holman (31.6 percent) of the Dreamers and Lin’s teammate Jason Washburn (21 percent).
Also on Friday, the Lioneers announced that they have parted ways with head coach Milan Mitrovic, with assistant coach Sheng Hsin-han to serve as interim head coach.
Lioneers general manager Chang Shu-jen said in a separate statement that the team has already secured Mitrovic’s replacement, a foreign coach expected to arrive in Taiwan in the middle of this month.
The new head coach aims to debut on Dec. 21, when the Lioneers play away against the DEA, Chang said.
Chang said that the decision to replace Mitrovic was made due to the team’s league-worst 2-5 record — 2-6 after last night’s loss — which fell short of expectations following off-season roster upgrades.
However, Mitrovic boosted player morale and guided the team through challenging times, he added.
The Serbian had served as an assistant before succeeding Greg Lin in the middle of February, with the team winning 14-10 in the rest of the regular season under his leadership and returning to the playoffs after missing out in the 2022-2023 season.
The team were eliminated by the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots in the semi-finals.
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