“Top two earners sidelined by injury → Best five lineup used zero times”: Amid a life-or-death crisis… KT achieves three straight wins, staging a “comeback”

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

Even amid the worst crisis imaginable, with all momentum lost, the commander’s strategy remained unshaken. Head coach Moon Kyung-eun’s grit and tailored use of foreign players have proven their worth, lifting Suwon KT back to the .500 mark.

KT, led by head coach Moon Kyung-eun, defeated the formidable Daegu Korea Gas Corporation 92–81 at home on the 7th, extending its winning streak to three straight games. Having climbed out of a five-game losing skid early in the season, KT has restored balance with a 6–6 record and firmly laid the groundwork for a turnaround.

The blueprint head coach Moon Kyung-eun outlined before the start of this season was clear. To emphasize high-scoring basketball, he signed Paris Bass, and with a powerful lineup featuring guard Kim Sun-hyung and rim protector Ha Yun-gi, he promised an explosive offensive style that would pour out more than 90 points per game.

However, reality has been a brutal battle against the curse of injuries. Key players have fallen one after another, and KT has not once fielded its full best five lineup since the season opener. According to the 2026–2027 salary data released by the KBL, Kim Sun-hyung earns a base salary of 480 million won plus 120 million won in incentives, for a total compensation package of 600 million won, ranking seventh overall and first within the team. Ha Yun-gi also has a total compensation of 500 million won—comprising a 400 million won base salary and 100 million won in incentives—placing him tenth overall and second within the club. The team is navigating the early part of the season with the devastating blow of its core players, who account for an absolute share of the payroll, being unable to take the court.

At the opening media day, head coach Moon urged fans to “please wait a little longer until the November A-match break, when injured players will have recovered and their condition improved,” and he has been quietly enduring since then. In the midst of the crisis, Asian quota guard Ok Jon has delivered firepower approaching 20 points per game, leading the team on a winning streak and offering a moment of relief.

But another blow struck from above. Ok Jon, who had been a key figure in the team’s upward momentum, was forced to undergo surgery for acute appendicitis on the 6th, removing him from the lineup. Ha Yun-gi, who had been probing his return, also suffered a bone bruise as a side effect of his previous surgery, and it was decided that he would require an additional month of rehabilitation. The team’s roster has been pushed to the brink, prompting head coach Moon himself to sigh deeply, saying, “My head is hurting.”

In this moment of crisis, rather than trying to fill Ok Jon’s void with one or two scorers, KT built its game around a twin-tower foreign player strategy featuring Paris Bass and Trae Porter in a 2-on-2 format. The team also assigned Kang Sung-wook as the primary playmaker and shared ball-handling duties with Moon Jung-hyun, while spreading Jeon Chang-young and Jeon Seong-hyun wide on the perimeter to exploit cracks in the opponent’s defense. Bench players, tasked with hustle plays to secure possession, covered the court with high energy, allowing KT to turn its crisis into a three-game winning streak.

Now, head coach Moon’s gaze is fixed on his long-sought goal of four consecutive wins—a feat he has never achieved since taking over the team. At the post-game press conference following the match against Korea Gas Corporation, head coach Moon subtly expressed his regret, stating, “I have never recorded a four-game winning streak since I took the helm at KT.”

The next opponent is Seoul Samsung, the league leader, whom they face on the 9th. After languishing in last place for the past five seasons, Samsung has become a team of reversal, currently sitting alone in first place with a 10–2 record while writing KBL history by achieving its first-ever perfect sweep of Round 1. It will be worth watching whether KT, which continues to support the team with exquisite tactical setups despite an incomplete roster, can also take down the giant Samsung.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original