NBA: Top 3D talents to start

Chapter 427 Durant's Nemesis

How strong is Jarrett Allen?In Wang Feng's impression, he should be an inside player with a style similar to Capela. He is good at defending and protecting rebounds. His foot speed is faster than traditional blue-collar centers such as Jordan Jr. and Andre Drummond, although he is not good at shooting. , Lack of offensive ability, but the speed can keep up with the fast-paced offensive and defensive transitions in the small ball era, which can effectively improve the team's defensive ability.

Although it is impossible for such a center to become the core of a team, he definitely has nothing to worry about, because any team hopes that its defensive ability will be guaranteed to a certain extent.

The championship cannot be won by offense alone. Whether it is the Warriors or the Lakers, the teams that have won multiple championships in recent years have a gorgeous offense and a top-level defense in the league.

Wang Feng feels that the current Cavaliers' defensive ability is indeed lacking, and it would be a good choice to sign Jarrett Allen to improve the defensive strength.

Of course, the most important reason is that there are currently no suitable players in the free market.

The conditions of the system upgrade task greatly limited the scope of Wang Feng's choice of teammates.

It just so happens that because of the butterfly effect, Jarrett Allen has yet to reach an agreement on a contract extension with the Nets, and his agent is also actively seeking a satisfactory guaranteed price contract from other teams.

If the Cavaliers can make an offer with an average salary close to 2000 million US dollars, it should not be a problem to get Jarrett Allen.

Wang Feng also knew that the general manager of the Cavaliers actually wanted to sign Jarrett Allen, so it was considered a favor.

Anyway, signing players spends the money of the team owner, he is just talking about it, why not do it?
"Wang, I didn't expect that you are also paying attention to Jarrett Allen! I think he has great potential. If you sign him, you can let him serve as the Cavaliers' inside defensive gate and greatly reduce your pressure on the defensive end. "Altman said with a beaming smile: "Bickstaff is also very optimistic about Jarrett Allen's potential, now we hit it off."

Bickerstaff, full name ***. Bickerstaff, is the current coach of the Cavaliers.

He did not appear at Wang Feng's welcome banquet, because he happened to be on a business trip recently and was not in Cleveland.

Bickerstaff's coaching ability is definitely not top-notch in the NBA, and his experience is not particularly rich. Like most head coaches, Bickerstaff started as an assistant coach and served as a team coach for the first time. The head coach, in the 15-16 season, succeeded "Refrigerator" McHale as the head coach of the Houston Rockets, and became one of the youngest head coaches in the league at that time.

In just one year, the Rockets let Bickerstaff leave and replaced him with D'Antoni, the originator of running and bombing, and embarked on the road of magic ball tactics.

And Bickerstaff worked as the chief assistant coach of the Grizzlies for another two years, and then successfully became the head coach of the Grizzlies.

But the Grizzlies in that period were no longer competitive, and they were at the bottom of the league every year.

Bickerstaff came to the Cavaliers in early 2020, and has been coaching the Cavaliers since then.

So far, he has never proved his coaching ability. The best result of leading the team was also obtained in the Rockets' 15-16 season. Everyone knows that it is the credit of James Harden, not half of him. Dime relationship.

To sum up, when Wang Feng was about to airborne the Cavaliers, Bickerstaff was actually quite uneasy in his heart. He was very worried that Wang Feng would not like his coaching style and asked to change the head coach.

He is very clear that if Wang Feng makes such a request, neither the owner nor the general manager of the team will have any hesitation.

It is very common for NBA teams to change their head coaches, especially for teams with average or bottom records. It is common to change two or three head coaches a season.

Except for champion coaches like Popovich and Cole, other head coaches who have no reputation and achievements are not even as important as an All-Star player.

For Wang Feng, it doesn't really matter who the head coach is.

For some team-oriented basketball teams, the tactical system brought by a coach may be very important.

But for many teams in the NBA, the role of the coach is actually to maximize the strength of the stars.

Basketball is different from football. Although there are many tactics and running plans, they are actually the same. All tactics are born out of off-ball running and pick-and-roll screens.

The key to the real direction of the game is the personal ability of the stars.

Why in today's league, the configuration of the Big Three has become the standard configuration of every strong team?

The reason is simple. In 48 minutes of a game, the Big Three randomly distribute the ball in turn, and the game is basically over.

The rest of the role players don't need to implement too many tactics at all, at most they help the pick-and-roll cover, cut down to the basket or eat a pie at the corner three-point line.

Even the most famous Phil Jackson's triangle tactics are the same. If there are no top superstars like Jordan, Kobe, O'Neal, you let Phil Jackson play a triangle tactics with a group of blue-collar benches and try to win. ?
Wang Feng does not think that a good coach can completely transform a team. It is the players who really affect the team's record.

The job of the coach is more to discover potential players, supervise the daily training of the players, assist in discovering the advantages and strengths of the players that they do not know, analyze the technical characteristics of the opponent players, arrange targeted defensive strategies, and so on.

In these areas, any coach who has worked as an assistant coach for several years can basically be competent.

Therefore, Wang Feng doesn't have any special thoughts about the current head coach of the Cavaliers, Bickerstaff...except that his name ***. Bickerstaff sounds a bit funny, which is actually more straightforward than Butler.

As long as Bickerstaff can be like Luke Walton, he can follow Wang Feng's arrangements with peace of mind, and no labor will be the head coach of the team. You, a player, should obey my arrangements , then Wang Feng will not let the team replace him.

The translation is simpler, that is, there can only be one Haonan in Cleveland, and that is him Wang Haonan.

It doesn't matter, it's making money, it's not shabby.

……

A few days later, Wang Feng arrived at the Cleveland Cavaliers to report, and the news that the Cavaliers offered Nets player Jarrett Allen a five-year, $5 million contract broke out at the same time.

Both messages received widespread attention.

Wang Feng, who beat the U.S. dream team at the Olympics, has finally arrived at the Cavaliers. Everyone is curious about what kind of results the Cavaliers can achieve in the new season under the leadership of Wang Feng, which does not have an All-Star player except Wang Feng.
Is it possible to return to the playoffs after a long absence, or, like in recent years, hovering on the edge of the playoffs or even at the bottom of the league.

As for the Cavaliers' offer for Jarrett Allen, it only received a little attention.

After all, Jarrett Allen is just a blue-collar player. He averaged only about 9 points and 8 rebounds per game in the Nets for several years. Perhaps because of his physical talent and quality, he was favored by many scouts, but in the end Value is limited.

The Nets hope to keep Jarrett Allen, and they also need such a player who does dirty work inside, but the offer given by the Cavaliers is too high, and the Nets cannot match it at all, so they only You can choose to give up the matching contract.

In this way, the Cavaliers poached another important player from the Nets.

Question: Lost the championship in the finals, won the silver medal in the Olympics, and his teammates were poached by high prices. How much is Durant's psychological shadow?
Now Durant simply doubts whether Wang Feng is his destined nemesis.

Ever since Wang Feng joined the alliance, nothing good has happened when he has anything to do with him.

Although the Nets have successively signed Griffin and Aldridge with basic salaries and other internal reinforcements, the departure of Jarrett Allen is still a heavy blow to the overall strength of the Nets.

Last season, the Nets were able to pass all the way in the Eastern Conference and finally reached the Finals. Although the Big Three took the main credit, Jarrett Allen was responsible for all the dirty work, including the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bucks. , is also Jarrett Allen's main defense Antetokounmpo.

If the Nets continue to face the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals this season, who should be allowed to defend Antetokounmpo?

Is it Durant himself, or George, whose body shape is far from Antetokounmpo?

At that time, can the Nets still beat the Bucks like they did in the Eastern Conference Finals last season?
These will undoubtedly plant hidden dangers for the Nets' comeback.

The signing of the Cavaliers did not increase the team's substantial strength, at least in the eyes of many media and sports commentators.

Not only that, the average annual salary of 2000 million also completely locked up the space for the Cavaliers to recruit. If the team wants to introduce strong players, it can only be done through trades. However, in order to get Wang Feng, the Cavaliers have trade potential. Players and draft picks have already been sent out, so Wang Feng can't be used as a bargaining chip for trade reinforcements, right?
Many basketball commentators have begun to predict in advance that next season, the team in the Eastern Conference that can stand out will most likely be the Milwaukee Bucks led by Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.

The Big Three of the Nets are collectively one year older, and at the same time, Jarrett Allen, the main defensive player on the inside, is missing. It is hard to say that they can still compete with the Bucks.

And as for the Cleveland Cavaliers...

With Wang Feng, Love, Jordan Poole, Seth Curry and Osman as the main players, what kind of outstanding performance can the Cavaliers play in the new season?
Considering Wang Feng's amazing personal strength, most people generally believe that the Cavaliers should be able to successfully return to the playoffs, but the process will be very struggling and reluctant, and it is hard to say whether the regular season winning rate will exceed 50%.

This is already an extremely high evaluation given by the outside world to Wang Feng, the four-time regular season MVP, six championships, Olympic champion, and the league's almost recognized active No. 1 strength.

If another player is on such a team, then the proper league bottom will not run away.

Until now, no one has figured out what exactly Wang Feng was thinking, and why did he choose such a team made up of scraps?Could it be that he has a tendency to be masochistic, and ignores a strong team that can win and win the championship, and insists on finding guilt for himself when he loses on this kind of team?
"I don't know if Wang Feng will regret it now. At the beginning, he said that winning with the Lakers was too unchallenging. In the future, he may become the laughing stock of the entire league."

"However, Wang Feng is not really stupid. He still left a backup player for himself. Once he really fails to achieve any results in the Cavaliers, he can just pat his ass and leave after two years. Just treat him as the winner of the three consecutive championships. After retiring for two years, he can still win the championship if he joins any strong team."

"At that time, the unlucky ones will be the Cavaliers. They paid so much and got nothing. In the end, even Wang Feng ran away with a bucket, pure and innocent."

……

While the outside world is talking about the Cavaliers' seemingly terrible signings, Wang Feng is not idle at all in Cleveland.

After the Cavaliers management, head coach Bickerstaff returned to Cleveland to treat him to dinner in his personal capacity.

During the dinner, the two had a friendly exchange, and uncontroversially finalized the main tactics and strategies for the new season-very simple, with only one sentence, "Boy, if you don't want to sit on the bench all the time, just put Pass the damn ball to Wang Feng!"

The head coach Bickerstaff has no objection, neither does Wang Feng, the person involved. As for whether the players of other teams have any objections, Bickerstaff thinks that there is probably no opinion.

A day later, Wang Feng was invited to attend a private high-end banquet hosted by team owner Gilbert.

No one in the Cavaliers does not pay attention to Wang Feng's existence, including team owner Gilbert.

Not only because of Wang Feng's super personal strength alone in the league, but also because of Wang Feng's amazing potential in the vast Huaguo market behind him as a Huaguo player.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are just one of Gilbert's properties. As the owner of the largest mortgage company in the United States, Gilbert ranks 2020 on the Forbes Global Rich List in 65 with a fortune of US$230 billion.

As a billionaire, he is definitely a proper winner in life, the envy of countless people, but compared with the rich people in the world, his assets are still far behind.

Wang Feng was very impressed with Gilbert, not only because of his love and hatred with James, but also because in 2022, in the latest Forbes Global Rich List, he ranked 519rd with US$23 billion, becoming The second richest owner in the NBA.

The reason why Gilbert's worth soared nearly ten times in just two years was mainly due to the impact of the mask incident.

As the CEO and chairman of the largest mortgage loan company in the United States, when the mask incident in the United States was deeply affected, it developed rapidly.

(End of this chapter)