Young Chinese center Zhou Qi is reportedly set to join the 2016 NBA Draft scheduled to be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on June 23rd of this year.
The 20-year-old Xinjiang Flying Tigers big man announced his plans last Friday and said that he had also submitted the necessary documents to become eligible, as reported by Shanghai Daily. The report also said that Zhou is now in the United States and had begun training for the said draft event.
As per the latest mock draft conducted league-wide, the 7-foot-2, 210-pound shooting big man could potentially be picked by the Toronto Raptors as the 27th overall selection in the first round.
Zhou has averaged 15.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks in last season's Chinese Basketball Association competitions when the Flying Tigers finished with a 30-8 record, enough for second overall in the regular season, but was eliminated in the semifinals by eventual champions Sichuan Blue Whales 3-0 during their best-of-five series.
Yahoo Sports noted that the development of Zhou is being "closely monitored" by several NBA front offices since two years ago when he was first acquired by Xinjiang, although there was no mention of a specific NBA team.
Aside from being well-known as a center that can shoot from the outside, Zhou is considered as one of the best young defenders in the Chinese premier basketball league as he was the CBA's blocks leader for two seasons, in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile, Xinhuanet reported that while Zhou's entry in the NBA draft is being celebrated by most China basketball fans, his mother club, the Flying Tigers, are "reluctant to let him go".
"Whatever his position is in the draft, I am looking forward so much to seeing another Chinese face in the NBA," said Chinese social media user "extremely indoorsy" in one of his posts.
Zhou is only the fifth Chinese players in history to join the NBA draft. If he gets to be drafted, he will become the first Chinese player to do so since Yi Jianlian was selected sixth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.
The NBA is without a Chinese player since 2014 when Yi went back to play in the CBA for the Guangdong Southern Tigers following an unexceptional NBA career.