IT wasn't the breakout Chinese Taipei expected from its new naturalized player Mohammad Al Bachir Gadiaga.
Playing his first game for the Taiwanese team in the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers, Abbasi had an underwhelming performance in games against China and Japan with averages of 5.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.0 assist in 11.5 minutes.
But Chinese Taipei assistant coach Cheng Chih-lung said the team is willing to extend its patience on the 23-year-old guard.
"He started his basketball training late. When he was in college, he didn't have lots of opportunity to develop his skills that seriously and learn much about the concepts of basketball," he said through a translator, after his side fell to China, 91-73 on Sunday in Clark.
Gadiaga, who stands 6 feet 2 and was born to a Senegalese father and American mother and was raised in Taiwan, played for powerhouse Shih Hsin University in the University Basketball Association (UBA).
He did post 16.6 points on 35-percent shooting from threes, to go with 6.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.9 steals, and 1.0 block, but Tigers could not overcome National Chengchi University in the title series.
Cheng said that Gadiaga still needs lots of time to develop his game to get to the level of Chinese Taipei's previous naturalized player Quincy Davis.
Davis, 38, was a long-time membe of the national team who helped the Taiwanese reach the semifinals in the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship in Manila.
"For Abbasi's future, we need to really develop his knowledge of the basketball concepts," he said.
It's not that Chinese Taipei is closing any doors on adding a naturalized player to its camp, much like it did with Davis.
"As for the naturalized players, we still have lots of plans and we've talked about it with our federation. Due to the Taiwanese law and restrictions, it's more common for us to bring a nationalized player to help our basketball team. So we have to go and we need to really talk about this stuff."
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