With a lineup of many domestic players, it is likely that the Vietnamese team will find it difficult to achieve high results in the SEA Games in Cambodia. Photo: thethao247.vn

HCM CITY — The Vietnamese men's basketball team has named the players that will attend the upcoming 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism this week approved a series of official lists of Vietnamese teams participating in the 32nd SEA Games, including the basketball team. 

Compared to last year's SEA Games held in Việt , this year's basketball team has many changes from the coaches to the player roster. 

For this SEA Games, Todd Purves will replace Kevin Yurkus as head coach.

Todd Purves is a veteran coach in the VBA, leading the Hanoi Buffaloes to the VBA finals in 2018 and creating many surprises when leading the young team of the Nha Trang Dolphins to reach the playoffs last season.

In the position of assistant coaches, there will continue to be two familiar names in Vietnamese basketball, Phan Thanh Cảnh and Hoàng Thế Vinh, the most experienced domestic coaches in the VBA.

For the players list, there are many unexpected changes compared to the squad that won fourth place at the previous SEA Games.

The first change is the absence of a series of key Vietnamese overseas players such as Chris Dierker, Christian Juzang, Sang Đinh, and Justin Young.

These absences will deeply affect the team's play as these are all important players in the squad, especially Chris Dierker and Justin Young for defensive and rebounding, and Sang Đinh, Juzang for scoring.

Replacing the above names will be a cast of local players such as: Lê Hiếu Thành, VBA 2022 Local player of the year Huỳnh Vinh Quang, Đặng Thái Hưng, and overseas Vietnamese player Richard Nguyễn.

The absence of quality players playing in the fourth and fifth positions will be a difficult problem that Coach Todd Purves needs to solve before the event.

It is likely that rebounding will be assigned to the duo of Nguyễn Huỳnh Phú Vinh (2m03 in height) and Nguyễn Văn Hùng (1m95).

With a lineup of many domestic players, it is likely that the Vietnamese team will find it difficult to achieve high results in the SEA Games as Việt Nam is in the same group with Malaysia, Myanmar and the "redeem team" of the Philippines. VNS