The monster center's smile gradually disappears.

 Coburn's smile is fading away. Samsung faced a crisis from the beginning of the season.

Seoul Samsung Thunder lost 69-77 in the game against Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus in the 2023-2024 CheongKwanJang Professional Basketball Regular League held at Ulsan Dongcheon Gymnasium on the 9th.

Last season, Coach Eun Hee-seok's first year in office, Samsung had difficulties with foreign players. 1st option Emmanuel Terry lacked presence, and Marcus Derrickson had excellent offensive ability but left due to injury. Daral Willis, who was brought in to replace Terry as the first option, ended the season without being able to show his skills properly due to an injury.

To resolve the brutal deaths of foreign players, 210cm tall center Kofi Coburn was selected as the first option this season. It was a will to definitely solve the problem of competitiveness inside. 

Coburn's skills are as good as expected. Of course, there are weaknesses, but they are more than covered by the strengths. He has averaged 24.1 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 8 games to date, and is not easily inferior to foreign players on any team based on his performance alone. Unless unexpected variables arise, it is highly likely that Coburn will end Samsung's cruel death in Option 1.

Teams ahead of the game against Samsung must brace their heads to stop Coburn. The players who played against him were amazed at his overwhelming power and inside control after the game.

But Coburn's excited smile is gradually disappearing. Despite his great performance, Samsung is not winning. In addition to the successive injuries, the lack of support from other players is deplorable. Samsung, which maintained a .500 win rate at the beginning of the first round, recently suffered four consecutive losses.

Even in the Hyundai Mobis match on the 9th, Samsung was unable to escape its losing streak. The reason was poor scoring ability, which did not exceed 70 points for two consecutive games. The team ended the first half with a long-awaited lead, scoring 39 points, but in the second half, the team's scoring power fell into a sharp slump.

Coburn did his part that day as well. He attempted 12 field goals, scored 9 with high efficiency, and scored 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists, achieving a record of 20-10, symbolizing an elite big man. But he was lonely. Samsung took the lead in the first half with Lee Jung-hyun waking up from a slump and Lee Dong-yeop adding strength as an outside gun, but the support from domestic players disappeared in the second half.

Coburn has already achieved 20-10 with a field goal percentage of over 70% in three games this season. A stat line that is literally close to a ‘hard carry’. However, Samsung lost all of the games in which Coburn recorded the record. His brilliant performance is not leading to the team's victory.

Lee Jeong-hyun, who is under intense control from the opponent in the backcourt, has ups and downs in his performance, and none of the remaining players are showing consistent performance. Coburn's inside partner Won-seok Lee is also off to a bad start to the season. The presence of Avan Nava in the Philippine Asia Quarter is also not evident.

He has a lot of messy situations on offense. There are frequent turnovers in the process before the ball is thrown to Coburn, or Coburn himself turnovers in situations where the defense is busy. During the four-game losing streak, Coburn's average turnover was 4.8 and the entire Samsung team committed 13.8 turnovers. Samsung is also the team that commits the most turnovers (12.3) on average among the 10 teams.

Coach Eun Hee-seok said, "There are a number of problems occurring in succession. Lee Jung-hyun should be able to score from the outside, but all teams are blocking him, and Lee Dong-yeop burst in the first half, but in the end, there is a limit to the resources that can score from the outside in the game. We are serious. "It's a problem we all have. That's why Coburn gets overloaded, gets irritated, and loses, so that's even bigger. He also becomes sensitive to referee calls," he said.

Coburn has a presence similar to that of Shaquille O'Neal in the KBL, but O'Neal was the winning player who led the Lakers' three-peat. If Coburn is to become the real Shaquille O'Neal, he desperately needs more support from his teammates. Only then can his bright smile come back to life. 

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