Pick Westbrook

Chapter 207 Can't Beat Us

The NBA preseason continues.

In addition to the Bucks winning the first game, the Heat, Lakers, and Bulls successively showed the state of the team in the new season in the game, and also won the first preseason victory.

Obviously, the goal of these three teams is to hit the championship, otherwise it would be impossible to play such a hot state in the first preseason game.

Especially the Heat, who beat the Thunder 122:90.

After the game, all the media were about to blow the team upside down.

This Big Three team got a lot of attention in the offseason, and the heat in their first preseason game has already surpassed most of the regular season games last season.

What shocked all the commentators and commentators who followed the Heat was that James played in the preseason completely differently than in the previous seasons of his career.

It's just that the opponent only played about 10 minutes in this preseason game. The sample is too small and very accidental. All these commentators are still not sure whether James has really changed his style of play.

It wasn't until the preseason progressed and James' playing time increased that his style of play was fully exposed to everyone's eyes.

This is the time to convince everyone.

"James has really changed the way he plays."

Barkley made a special program specifically for James' change in style of play.

And the guests invited to this show are all bigwigs at the historical level of the NBA.

Magic Johnson recognizes James as a junior very much, so he is very familiar with the opponent's style of play and shortcomings.

"I can guarantee 100% that James has been completely different from any previous season. He has made great changes to his style of play in the middle of his career. This will definitely be a very difficult decision."

Barkley grinned and laughed: "So is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

In his view, as long as fans around the world who know a little bit of basketball can clearly find some detailed changes in James' technical movements.

So it's not surprising that Magic Johnson can see this.

What Barkley wants to know more is whether James's change of play is useful or not for his entire career.

After all, before this, James had reached the finals and won the regular season MVP by relying on his original technical moves and abilities.

Everyone firmly believes that this player will become the top 50 superstars in NBA history in the future, and it is very possible to even enter the top 30.

So it's really good to change the style of play at this time?

The magician did not answer, but asked with a smile: "Charles, what do you think is the biggest shortcoming of James on the court?"

Barkley spread his hands and said, "Who doesn't know about this, isn't it just the ability to shoot?"

"Back then, Popovich of the Spurs used the loss of two meters away to send James to a 4-0 sweep."

"However, in the past few years, James' shooting ability has improved a lot. Last season, his three-point shooting percentage has reached a career high of 34%."

But when it comes to this, Barkley still specially emphasized one sentence.

"But even James, who is shooting from outside the three-point line, if I were the head coach of another team, I would not hesitate to let the opponent shoot three-pointers."

"After all, how terrifying James is when he rushes up, just look at the game between the Cavaliers and the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals last season."

"James played the most personally dominant series in the history of the entire Eastern Conference Finals."

The magician nodded, agreeing with what Barkley said.

In the Eastern Conference finals last season, James alone defeated countless celebrities and superstar players in the league.

They were all impressed by James' personal ability.

If the Cavaliers hadn't met the defending champion Bucks, even if the Lakers might be defeated by James alone, the Magician thought it was possible.

"In the Eastern Conference finals, the Bucks' strategy of killing James without double-teaming also reminded the opponent."

"If the Cavaliers don't have James but Kobe, you see the Bucks dare to defend like this."

"And in the next finals, the Bucks have been using a three-man defense to limit Kobe's performance."

"So, James learned from the pain in this offseason and planned to improve his singles ability, which led to the sudden change of the opponent's style of play."

The magician would like to say that James is really smart.

It is difficult for the stability of shooting and the improvement of shooting percentage to have obvious effects after hard training in an off-season.

Especially James himself is not a player who is good at shooting, and he is not as talented as Curry in this regard.

For a hard-working player like James, he can only improve his shooting ability through persistent hard training.

So in order to make his offense more threatening in a short period of time, James can only find another way to improve himself.

"Back!"

Barkley said: "Post-up singles is indeed a very threatening offensive technique. In the long history of the NBA, there are many players who are not good at shooting. They practice post-up singles to make themselves more offensive."

"Like yourself the magician."

The magician nodded.

When he first entered the NBA, he was also a player who was not good at shooting, so he deliberately honed his good post-up singles skills at the beginning of his career.

At that time, Magic Johnson could often be seen playing post-ups from beyond the three-point line.

In his opinion, James' playing style is very similar to his own, so it is not unreasonable to try this way.

If the magician is to give James advice, he also hopes that the opponent will learn post-up singles skills at this point in his career.

The big dream Olajuwon on the side kept laughing and didn't speak the whole time, watching Barkley and the magician boasting.

Hit back from beyond the three-point line?

Are you a joke, magician, do you really think that this is still the era when you used to guard the restricted area with all your staff?

Barkley was very dissatisfied seeing Olajuwon holding back a smirk the whole time, he frowned and made a mischievous gesture and said.

"Hakim, are you just watching the joke?"

"Come on, tell me what you think of James playing like this."

The magician also turned his gaze over at this time, and he also wanted to know Olajuwon's opinion on James' sudden back attack.

Olajuwon finally spoke at this time: "During the off-season, the whole world was looking for James. Do you know where he went?"

Barkley shook his head and guessed, "A trip to a certain resort?"

Olajuwon didn't let Barkley guess wildly, and said directly: "James is here with me!"

"Since being eliminated by the Bucks, James has secretly vowed that he will never allow anyone to defend him like Bucks coach Li Lai."

"So he came to me and spent three weeks working on his post-up game."

"As you all know, I have never taught students for only one week, and there was no exception when Kobe came to me to study in 08."

"But James is the first player who made me break this rule. He is too hardworking and studious, and at the same time he wants revenge too much."

"I have no reason to refuse him."

This passage stunned Magic Johnson and Barkley.

It turned out that the show where James went that had been staged in the league throughout the summer, turned out that the other party went to the big dream Olajuwon for further study.

Barkley knows that Dameng will conduct a training session every off-season, and the fee is expensive.

The number of players who can come to Dream to learn is Black Mamba Kobe Bryant, Melon Anthony, Warcraft Howard, Little Bully Stoudemire, Little Giant Yao Ming
Which of the players here is not a well-known superstar in the league.

Except for Howard, the above players have all learned one and a half moves from the big dream Olajuwon, and they have been extremely useful throughout their careers.

Therefore, now that James has studied here for such a long time in the big dream Olajuwon, it is completely predictable that James, who plays back in the new season, will become an extremely headache defensive problem in the league.

Magic Johnson asked curiously: "Hakeem, how much of your skills has James learned?"

Barkley also turned his gaze over, curious about the answer.

Dream Olajuwon said with a sigh of relief at this time: "9%."

"This is the second highest achievement among the players I have studied here. Even Yao Ming, an inside player, has only learned 8% of it."

"James is very smart, and he will definitely make everyone's eyes shine in the new season."

Barkley and the magician sighed at the same time.

Allowing Olajuwon to give such a high evaluation, the two no longer need to guess whether James's change of play is feasible.

Instead, it should be said how far James has grown now.

"This guy really never stops moving forward."

Of course, what doesn't require Olajuwon to be strict is that both of them know who the player who has completed all 10% of his studies and ranks first is.

In the entire NBA history, even Jordan dare not say that he is as good as the opponent in terms of offensive skills.

Milwaukee.

The Bucks have finished all preseason games with 7 wins and 1 loss.

Li Lai will give Cousins ​​a lot of low-post and high-post offensive tactics in almost every game.

And the latter lived up to expectations. In just 8 games, he has become more and more familiar with his position and style of play in the Bucks.

It took Li Lai a training camp and a preseason to integrate Cousins ​​into the Bucks to a great extent.

The whole process was a little rushed.

Of course, Li Lai had reasons to be in a hurry.

Because of Yi Jianlian's injury and the physical problems of Iverson and O'Neal, they can no longer play, and the Bucks lost Rasheed Wallace.

They will face great lineup changes and tactical changes in the new season.

If you can't find the state and key to win at the beginning, then the Bucks will be extremely uncomfortable in the new season, and the state will be very ups and downs.

Fortunately, O'Neal has integrated into the team well. Although it is difficult for him to provide the offensive ability like Rasheed Wallace, his contribution on the defensive end is not worse than that of the opponent.

Coupled with the fact that McGrady is also in good condition, Marshall has been following up on the opponent's sore back.

Because McGrady's back injury has been repeated, so even if it is a minor injury such as back pain, Li Lai is extremely cautious in using McGrady.

The average playing time does not exceed 10 minutes, and most of them play in the time period when the confrontation is not strong.

Li Lai is looking forward to McGrady's full recovery. He hopes that McGrady can become an extremely important substitute for the Bucks this season.

"In addition to the reasons of the Bucks itself, external pressure also makes me anxious about the running-in of the team."

Li Lai looked a little serious.

Earlier, he accidentally saw the Barkley show and heard the big dream Olajuwon talk about James.

Li Lai did not expect that James would find Olajuwon in advance to learn back-up skills at the basket because of him.

Unlike Barkley and Magic Johnson, Li Lai still has cautious skepticism about James' sudden change of play.

He is very clear that it is James under this style of play that will surpass Jordan in terms of efficiency value PER, and become the second-ranked player in a single season in the entire NBA history with 30.1 points.

The first is Chamberlain, the ancient god with a PER of 31.8 points.

Therefore, James, the peak of the previous Heat team, may have to appear in advance.

Li Lai's face became more serious.

The Bulls and New York Knicks in the East may bring some troubles to the Bucks, but the two teams have just been formed, and Li Lai still has the confidence to beat them.

But the Heat are different.

Even if James alone brought so much trouble to the Bucks last season, now that Wade and Bosh are still present, Li Lai can already foresee the difficulties facing this team.

Fortunately, the three of them should not have found the best cooperation mode, so the Big Three of the Heat have not yet reached the point where they can be compared with the OK combination and the Bull Dynasty.

The Bucks also have this tiny glimmer of hope.

Li Lai wants to help the Bucks use this chance to find a solution to the Heat's Big Three. This solution can only be answered when they play against each other.

Of course, in addition to the Eastern teams, the Western teams also have several good opponents.

The Lakers are one of the strongest teams.

At this time, Hammond pushed open the office door and walked in with a smile on his face.

"All the preparations for the awards ceremony have been completed, so the arrangements have been completed, and we will wait for the opening match tomorrow night."

"I heard that there will be many superstars of the NBA's historical level coming to participate, and the famous Bucks will also come to witness this very meaningful scene."

"Besides, there should be celebrities from the entertainment and business circles coming."

"In short, tomorrow night is Milwaukee's night."

After Hammond finished speaking, he found that Li Lai's expression was still serious.

He knows that the opponent is not like the other management and players of the Bucks, who can enjoy the championship night tomorrow night.

As the head coach, Li Lai is thinking more about how to get off to a good start for the Bucks in the game against the Lakers tomorrow night.

Li Lai suddenly turned around and said, "The Lakers can't beat us!"

(End of this chapter)