2017 VBA season

Vietnam Basketball Association
Vietnam Basketball Association
Season	2017
Duration	September 5, 2017 – November 5, 2017 (Regular season) ; November 8, 2017 – November 12, 2017 (Playoffs) ; November 19, 2017 – December 3, 2017 (Finals)
Games played	54
Teams	6
Finals
Champions	Thang Long Warriors
Runners-up	Cantho Catfish
Semifinalists	Hanoi Buffaloes ; Saigon Heat
Awards
Domestic MVP	Tô Quang Trung (Thang Long)
International MVP	Jaywuan Hill (Thang Long)
Heritage MVP	Tam Dinh (Cantho)
	← 2016 2018 →

The 2017 VBA season was the second season of the Vietnam Basketball Association. The regular season began on September 5, 2017 and end on November 5, 2017. The playoffs began on November 8, 2017 and ended on December 3, 2017, with the Thang Long Warriors beating the Cantho Catfish in 5 games to clinch their first VBA title.^[1]

Teams

Venues and locations

Locations of teams in 2017 VBA

Team	Home city	Arena
Cantho Catfish	Cần Thơ	Da Nang Sports Arena
Danang Dragons	Đà Nẵng	Quan Khu 5 Sports Arena
Hanoi Buffaloes	Hà Nội	Bach Khoa Sports Arena
Hochiminh City Wings	Ho Chi Minh City	Ho Xuan Huong Sports Arena
Saigon Heat	Ho Chi Minh City	CIS Sports Arena
Thang Long Warriors	Hà Nội	Su Pham Sports Arena

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer
Cantho Catfish	Kevin Yurkus	Lê Hiếu Thành
Danang Dragons	Donte' Hill	Horace Nguyen
Hanoi Buffaloes	Todd Purves	Nguyễn Thành Đạt	Alien Sports
Hochiminh Ciy Wings	Ricky Magallanes	Triệu Hán Minh
Saigon Heat	David Singleton	David Arnold
Thang Long Warriors	Lee Tao Dana	Ryan Le

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Position in table	Replaced with
Hochiminh City Wings	Mika Turunen	Pre-season	Ricky Magallanes
Thang Long Warriors	Expansion		Lee Tao Dana
Saigon Heat	Anthony Garbelotto		David Singleton
Cantho Catfish	David Singleton		Kevin Yurkus

Draft

The Thang Long Warriors selected Justin Young first in the inaugural VBA Heritage Player Draft.^[2]

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Nationality^{[n 1]}	Team	School / club team
1	1	Justin Young	United States	Thang Long Warriors	Hochiminh City Wings / Hanoi Buffaloes
1	2	Vincent Nguyen	Netherlands	Hanoi Buffaloes	Den Bosch
1	3	Henry Nguyen	United States	Hochiminh City Wings
2	4	Anthony Vo	United States	Hochiminh City Wings
2	5	Stefan Nguyen	Sweden	Danang Dragons	Danang Dragons / Saigon Heat
2	6	Sang Dinh	United States	Cantho Catfish	Cantho Catfish
2	7	Ryan Le	Canada	Thang Long Warriors	Saigon Heat
2	8	Ryan Arnold	United States	Hanoi Buffaloes	Hanoi Buffaloes
2	9	Jimmy Kien	Australia	Saigon Heat	Danang Dragons

Import players

Each team is allowed 2 heritage players and 1 foreign player.

Team	Heritage 1	Heritage 2	Foreign
Cantho Catfish	Tam Dinh	Sang Dinh	DeAngelo Hamilton
Danang Dragons	Horace Nguyen	Khoa Tran	Rudolphe Joly
Hanoi Buffaloes	Vincent Nguyen		Jason Carter
Hochiminh City Wings	Henry Nguyen		Bilal Richardson
Saigon Heat	David Arnold	Anthony Vo	Darius Lewis
Thang Long Warriors	Justin Young	Ryan Le	Jaywuan Hill

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	PCT	GB	Qualification	TLW	SGH	CTC	HNB	HCM	DND
1	Thang Long Warriors	15	12	3	1160	1058	+102	.800	—	Advance to Playoffs	—	69–66	79–67 87-90	71–61 80-69	56–67	96–65
2	Saigon Heat	15	9	6	1147	1084	+63	.600	3		86–78 69-75	—	72–59 62-78	84–77 64-72	74–79	93–78
3	Cantho Catfish	15	9	6	1210	1151	+59	.600	3		72–74	80–85 (OT)	—	83–86 (OT)	85–71 99-63	76–68 105-99
4	Hanoi Buffaloes	15	8	7	1067	1049	+18	.533	4		66–71	71–72	71–79 75-77	—	57–55 65-60	66–60 83-61
5	Hochiminh City Wings	15	5	10	1041	1116	−75	.333	7		71–79 73-84	59–67 63-102	85–67	74–81	—	84–63
6	Danang Dragons	15	2	13	1045	1212	−167	.133	10		64–79 72-82	82–72 64-79	74–93	58–67	74–77 63-60	—

Source: vba.vn

Playoffs

Semifinals			Finals



1 Thang Long Warriors	82	69

4 Hanoi Buffaloes	57	58
			1 Thang Long Warriors	78	73	74	79	95

			3 Cantho Catfish	83	68	77	64	80
2 Saigon Heat	80	68

3 Cantho Catfish	85	76

Statistics

Team statistic leaders

Category	Team	Statistic
Points per game	Cantho Catfish	79.2
Rebounds per game	Cantho Catfish	41.0
Steals per game	Cantho Catfish	11.3
Blocks per game	Cantho Catfish	4.7
FG%	Cantho Catfish	0.480
FT%	Hanoi Buffaloes	0.650
3FG%	Saigon Heat	0.310

Awards

Yearly awards

Season MVP: Jaywuan Hill (Thang Long Warriors)
Season Local MVP: Tô Quang Trung (Thang Long Warriors)
Season Heritage MVP: Tam Dinh (Cantho Catfish)
Defensive Player of the Year: DeAngelo Hamilton (Cantho Catfish)
Youth Man of the Year: Nguyễn Hoàng Tuấn (Danang Dragons)
Sixth Man of the Year: Nguyễn Huỳnh Hải (Saigon Heat)
Coach of the Year: Kevin Yurkus (Cantho Catfish)

MVP of the Week

For week ending	Player	Team	Ref.
10 September 2017	Tam Dinh (1/1)	Cantho Catfish	1
17 September 2017	DeAngelo Hamilton (1/2)	Cantho Catfish
24 September 2017	Lê Ngọc Tú (1/1)	Saigon Heat	3
1 October 2017	David Arnold (1/2)	Saigon Heat	4
8 October 2017	Vincent Nguyen (1/1)	Hanoi Buffaloes	5
15 October 2017	DeAngelo Hamilton (2/2)	Cantho Catfish	6
22 October 2017	David Arnold (2/2)	Saigon Heat	7
29 October 2017	Jaywuan Hill (1/2)	Thang Long Warriors	8
5 November 2017	Jaywuan Hill (2/2)	Thang Long Warriors	9

Notable occurrences

The VBA held their annual tryouts for players of Vietnamese heritage at Hope International University in Fullerton, CA on May 6–7, 2017.^[3]
The Thang Long Warriors became the league's 6th franchise.^[4]
On May 19, the Saigon Heat and head coach Anthony Garbelotto mutually agreed to terminate his contract after a disappointing season with the ASEAN Basketball League team.^[5]
On June 14, the inaugural VBA Draft was held in HCMC for unsigned heritage players from the 2016 season and selects from the US tryouts.^[2]
The first ever trade in league history happened on June 28 with the Hochiminh City Wings trading the draft rights for Jimmy Kien to the Saigon Heat for the draft rights for Anthony Vo.^[6]

Notes

^ Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.

References

^ "Thang Long Warriors take VBA second season trophy". vietnamnews.vn. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
^ ^a ^b "Shock picks made on Vietnam Basketball Association's Draft Day". vnexpress.net. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
^ "Vietnam Basketball Association (VBA) to organize tryout for Vietnamese heritage player in the USA this May". vba.vn. Retrieved 4 May 2017.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "The sixth VBA team Thang Long Warriors just revealed their logo". aseansports.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-18. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
^ "Coach Anthony Garbelotto and Saigon Heat decided not to renew the contract". aseansports.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
^ "Saigonheat.com". Archived from the original on 2017-11-07.

External links

Official website

[nationality-3] Nationality indicates the player's national team or representative nationality. If a player has not competed at the international level, then the nationality indicates the national team which the player is eligible to represent according to FIBA rules.

[1] "Thang Long Warriors take VBA second season trophy". vietnamnews.vn. Retrieved 16 December 2017.

[InauguralDraft-2] "Shock picks made on Vietnam Basketball Association's Draft Day". vnexpress.net. Retrieved 16 June 2017.

[4] "Vietnam Basketball Association (VBA) to organize tryout for Vietnamese heritage player in the USA this May". vba.vn. Retrieved 4 May 2017.^{[permanent dead link‍]}

[5] "The sixth VBA team Thang Long Warriors just revealed their logo". aseansports.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-18. Retrieved 15 May 2017.

[6] "Coach Anthony Garbelotto and Saigon Heat decided not to renew the contract". aseansports.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.

[7] "Saigonheat.com". Archived from the original on 2017-11-07.

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