The Prims prepare for their second season.
The Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus 스포츠토토 will train in Japan from Oct. 21 to Oct. 2 to improve their organization and prepare for the season.
The team was scheduled to play a scrimmage against a Japanese first division team on the 28th, but due to the local team’s circumstances, the game was pushed back a day to the 29th. Hyundai Mobis started the day with a team training session focusing on defense, something they hadn’t done well in the previous day’s scrimmage.
Foreign player Gage Prim did not participate in the team drills, but simply took part in shooting drills. After suffering a minor toe injury, an X-ray showed no abnormalities and he said he wasn’t in much pain, but coach Cho Dong-hyun didn’t want to push him too hard. He will return home before the other players on the 29th to check his condition again.
Coach Cho Dong-hyun said, “Prim is a very greedy player, so I told him that if he gets sick, I’ll take it into consideration. The season is more important than now. I told him to get enough rest and improve his body from the cup competition. He needs to be healthy now, but he’s greedy and passionate, so I let him rest.”
“I’m in good shape now,” said Prim. Honestly, when I was first injured, I had pain, but now it seems to have almost disappeared, and I will improve my physical condition to prepare for the Cup,” he said about his condition.
Prim chose the KBL as his first professional league last season, and despite joining as a second option, he excelled and became the backbone of Hyundai Mobis. After averaging 18.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game, he unsurprisingly decided to re-sign with the team and stay with them.
However, this season, it will be important for him to control his fiery personality as much as possible. Last season, when Hyundai Mobis lost to Charlotte in the playoffs, Prim’s inability to control his temper was one of the reasons for the loss.
“What I’m trying to do more this year compared to last year is to stay calm. I think there were some things last season where I was too fiery and that was a negative for the team, so I’m trying to communicate with the coaching staff and the players as much as I can to keep myself in check and stay calm,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost in the quarterfinals last year, but this year we’re going to take it one step at a time and try to go higher. I don’t know where we’ll start the playoffs, but I’m going to aim high and climb.”
“It was a no-brainer for me to come back. The culture of the team is good, the atmosphere is good, the players are really good, so it’s a combination of things that made me think that I should re-sign,” he explained.
Last season, Hyundai Mobis struggled with injuries and underperformance among Prim’s partners. As a result, Prim’s role in the team increased dramatically. This season, however, Kebe Aluma will be joining the team to take some of the pressure off Prim.
“I’m excited about him in a lot of ways,” says Prim. He’s only been with the team for about a month and I can already tell he’s a good player. She has so many different attacking options and I can see her working hard on defense,” he said of Aluma.
Cho emphasized off-the-ball movement for Prim. If he can strengthen his off-the-ball movement, Hyundai Mobis‘ offense can be more diverse.
“I’m confident in that, and I can create good opportunities for my teammates. I feel like my teammates can get good shooting opportunities, so I’m going to work on that.”
Going into his second season in South Korea, Prim’s goal is to win. He emphasized that he’s not too interested in personal achievements.
“I don’t have any personal goals. My goal is just to help the team win as much as possible. I will always be grateful to the fans and do my best to repay them.”
