TAIPEI (FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017) - It'll be a lot of unfamiliar faces representing Chinese Taipei at the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, but Sim Bhullar will do his best to carry them to new heights.

The Canadian-born Bhullar is of Indian descent, but he will be representing Dacin - the most recent champions of the Super Basketball League (SBL) - in this competition as the squad's designated man in the middle and top offensive option.

Bhullar leads a cast of characters dotted with names that are probably new to even the most ardent Asian basketball followers. There are exactly zero players from the Chinese Taipei national team who are part of this current Dacin Tigers roster, though star wingman and two-time SBL MVP Chou Yi-Hsiang was their top local scorer when they won the title earlier this year. Chou is now set to join most of Taipei's other top players in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

That doesn't mean that Dacin will sport a shallow lineup at the Champions Cup, though. There are a few players here who have seen ac action at the Asian level, and they will be the chief gunners to backstop Bhullar's imposing presence in the paint. Lin Yi-Hui was the team's third-best scorer last season, and he will indeed be among the squad's main scorers alongside Bhullar. Wingmen Huang Jhen and Chang Chih-Feng are also dependable players on both ends of the floor, but the guy who can really be the Robin to Bhullar's Batman is playmaker Su I-Chieh. Su was a member of the national team in the William Jones Cup 2017, and he has also seen action in the CBA, most recently for the Guangzhou Long Lions. His scoring punch and passing will be crucial for Dacin's success here.

Still, everything hinges on Bhullar. At 2.26m, he is easily the most imposing player in the entire competition, and other teams will certainly be hard-pressed to matchup with someone of his size and heft. Last season, the 24-year-old big man scored 19.7 points, grabbed 15.4 rebounds and blocked 2.6 shots for Dacin, and if he can approximate those numbers in Chenzhou, then the Tigers may be able to break into the Quarter-Finals or even beyond.

The Dacin Tigers were drawn into Group B together with Al Ahli of UAE, Al Riyadi of Lebanon, ONGC of India and defending champions China Kashgar. In Group A are club teams from Thailand, Kazakhstan, Iran, Palestine and Philippines. The top four teams in each group will move on to the knockout Quarter-Finals, where the victors will advance to the Semi-Finals. The winners in the Semi-Finals will dispute the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2017 crown in the Final.

FIBA