Danang Dragons struggles to find victory at VBA 2023: Falling into the abyss from the championship aura

Danang Dragons used to be the most special team in VBA history because they were the first champion of the Vietnam Professional Basketball League.

Back in 2016, the Dragons were also led by head coach Donte Hill and athletes from many parts of the country. They did not perform well in the Regular Season and had to play a match to win tickets to be able to enter the Playoffs.

But a surprise happened when Danang Dragons defeated each opponent one by one to win the 2016 VBA championship right at home, creating an emotional moment for basketball in the Han River city.

However, this is also the only bright spot that the Dragons have in their 8 years of existence with the Vietnam Professional Basketball League. Followed by a series of seasons that are both bad and unfortunate, leading to a series of bad achievements compared to other teams.

There is a sad statistic of Danang Dragons that since its inception, they have never had a win rate of more than 50% in official and recognized seasons.

Besides the 2016 championship season, the most sublime year of the Dragons is 2021 when they join 7 other teams to compete in the "bubble" of Nha Trang.

Coach Phan Thanh Canh's army then had 5 victories in 7 Regular Season matches and reached the Playoffs. But this is only considered as an experimental series of VBA and is not recognized in terms of achievements.

Below are the statistics of the Dragons' win rate at Regular Season over 8 VBA seasons, including the ongoing 2023 season:

In addition to VBA 2016 winning the championship thanks to its unbeaten record in the Playoffs (excluding 2021), the Dragons always have to finish the season at the Regular Season.

This year, the Playoffs door is considered closed for teachers and coaches Todd Purves when from the beginning of the season until now, they still have not been able to have any victory in the 12 matches played.

The reason for this struggle varies from year to year. There was a time when the Dragons did not prepare well for the new season, encountering Vietnamese players of low quality.

There are years when they have a good squad, but the mainstay is injured like Local Player of the Year candidate Nguyen Hoang Tuan, who broke his ligament in 2018, foreigner Darell Miller injured his knee in 2020.

The position of the overseas Vietnamese player of the "Han River Dragon" also faced many problems, they used to own Chris Dierker, one of the athletes with a superior level compared to other Vietnamese-born players at VBA.

But unfortunately for the Dragons when Dierker did not consider basketball a career and could not stick with the team for long.

VBA 2023 is another difficult season beyond imagination of Danang Dragons.

They changed generals and urgently appointed coach Todd Purves just over a week before the Regular Season started. This makes the team once again fall into a state of not being well prepared in terms of people and tactics.

Plus the replacement of foreign soldiers in the middle of the line (giving up Yevgen Sakhniuk, marrying Jairus Holder) and parting with a high-performing internal soldier (rookie Huynh Andre Minh Triet returned to the US to study), VBA 2023 was like a nightmare. there is no end to Dragons.

Taking on the "hot seat" position of Danang Dragons more than 2 months ago, Coach Todd Purves knew that it would be an extremely difficult season for him personally as well as for his students.

Having entered the field, everyone will aim to win even if it is the "bottom door" team. If they can't reach this goal, they will try to show their best face. But with Danang Dragons, try Just trying is not enough because now everything seems to be powerless.

“With preparations like this, I expected this to be a difficult season for all. I can't do anything else, just try to go through this phase with the players," coach Todd Purves confessed.

“As a longtime coach, I know this may be my down season but I accept the job anyway. But personally, I have no regrets, I think I and the students tried their best."

In the history of VBA, excluding the experimental series in 2021, no team has ended the season with zero wins.

From now until the end of the Regular Season, Danang Dragons has 6 more matches with 3 away matches and 3 home matches. Although it is not easy, it is certain that the goal of finding the first victory is still there for teachers and coaches Todd Purves.