NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 153 The new season begins, Wang Chao's progress?
(Today is a bit busy, only one update, sorry, I will try to make up the third update tomorrow depending on the situation.)
As the time comes to the end of October, the NBA's preseason games are all over, and the regular season is coming, which also represents the official start of the 10-09 season.

On October 10, the Magic ushered in the regular season opener at their home court, Amway Arena in Orlando, against the Philadelphia 28ers.

Last season, the 76ers successfully broke into the playoffs with the joint efforts of Iguodala, Andre Miller and other players. Although they were eliminated by the Cavaliers in the first round, they also showed a certain level.

But in the new season, the 76ers have some problems.

First of all, last season's main point guard Andre Miller left the team. Although Miller's career is not obvious, he is also a player who has won the season's assists. He has outstanding organizational support.

It was the original sixth man Louis Williams who replaced Miller as the 76ers starter.

In the future, Louis Williams will be recognized by many fans as a famous bench gangster, but now he is not worse than Miller at 01:30 points, and Louis Williams is a player who mainly focuses on offensive scoring , The passing support ability is not strong, and the average assists per game in his career is less than 4 times.

According to the original historical process, the 76ers' regular season record this season is only 27 wins and 55 losses, the lowest in the league, and they are not competitive at all.

Facing such a team, the Magic naturally won very easily.

120:106, the opener won simply beautiful.

The 76ers seriously lacked high-quality insiders, so Howard easily scored 29 points and 21 rebounds in 15 minutes of playing, including 7 offensive rebounds, completely blasting the 76ers' insiders.

The Magic also performed very well on the perimeter. Five players scored in double figures. What is surprising is that two of the three players introduced by the team during the offseason scored in double figures. Jamal G. Lawford scored 5 points , Channing Frye made 3 of 15 three-pointers and scored 5 points in the whole game. Even Ariza made 3 three-pointers and scored 11 points in the game.

The starting lineup that the Magic sent in the game is also somewhat intriguing.

Point guard Nelson, shooting guard Efflalo, small forward Wang Chao, power forward Channing Frye and center Howard.

Jamal Crawford, who has the team's third highest salary, actually sat on the bench at the beginning of the game, substituting for role player Afflalo.

Of course, after the whole game, Crawford's playing time was much higher than that of Afflalo, and his playing time of 30 minutes was almost equal to that of Wang Chao.

On the contrary, Efflalo, as the starting shooting guard, only played 20 minutes. Even though his playing time was slightly improved compared with last season, this is obviously not the normal playing time that a starting shooting guard should have.

"Pseudo starter."

This word can't help but come to many people's minds.

In the NBA, this kind of situation is not uncommon. Many teams have some functional players in their starters, who are mainly responsible for some specific tasks on the field. It is the players on the bench who really assume the original responsibilities of his position. .

The most typical case in the league is Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs. As a substitute, his playing time is only a lot more than that of the team's starting shooting guard, and he has the possession of the ball on the court. And shot more than most starters, second only to Duncan and Tony. Parker.

"Do the Magic want Crawford to be in the same capacity as Manu Ginobili on the Spurs?"

"This is a good idea. Crawford's scoring ability and explosive power are very outstanding. He is a well-known nerve knife in the league. If he comes on the bench during the substitute time, it may have a miraculous effect. It's just how the Magic team persuaded Crawford Lawford willing to back up Afflalo?"

In fact, Crawford was also very unhappy when he learned that his team wanted to play as a substitute in the new season.

It wasn't even the head coach of the team who made this suggestion to him, but Wang Chao.

Facing the league's top star who won the scoring champion last season, the finals FMVP, the best team and the All-Star MVP and many other honors, even though Crawford has played some remarkable performances in the past few seasons , is still half a head short.

And Wang Chao didn't threaten directly, but moved with reason and emotion, and helped Crawford analyze it in detail.

Crawford's playing style is mainly based on offense with the ball, because his speed and dribbling are his advantages.

But in the Magic team, there are not many opportunities for him to attack with the ball, because the magic team's ball-handling core is Wang Chao.

Last season, Wang Chao has proved his success after changing from the previous traditional off-ball style of play to attacking with the ball. This season's average of 32.6 points per game defeated many competitors and won the scoring crown.

In the new season, the Magic will inevitably continue to allow Wang Chao to attack with the ball in large numbers, without Crawford at all.

But it will be different if Crawford comes off the bench. During the bench time, the Magic basically owns the ball, and Wang Chao also personally promised that Crawford's average playing time will not be lower than In 30 minutes, the number of shots is at least 12 or more. If sufficient offensive efficiency can be guaranteed, it is not impossible to average 15 shots per game.

This commitment will be recognized by the entire Magic team, and the head coach will also support it.

Then Crawford's heart skipped a beat.

If what Wang Chao promised is true, Crawford will be the second scoring point in the Magic team, even above Howard. After all, Howard has not been the main scoring point of the Magic team. He averaged 12.4 times per game last season. The shot is only ranked fourth in the team.

When he was originally traded from the Warriors to the Magic, Crawford had a certain degree of mental preparation. In this championship team, he certainly could not have as many shots as he did in the Knicks and Warriors, but If he plays according to Wang Chao's suggestion, his statistics will not lag behind the previous two seasons. Even because the opponents he faces are mainly substitute players, scoring will be easier, which will help improve scoring efficiency. promote.

Therefore, after struggling for a while, Crawford simply agreed, which also surprised the head coach Stan Van Gundy.

He really didn't expect that Wang Chao could persuade Crawford to play as a substitute so easily.

Regardless of how nice the sixth man's name sounds, no matter how nice the name is, it cannot be avoided that it is just a substitute.

If it is those players who have just entered the league or their careers are not satisfactory, and they are eager to prove themselves, it is reasonable to take the initiative to play as a substitute.

Crawford has tasted meat. He averaged 07 points per game in the Knicks in the 08-20.6 season and 08 points per game in the Warriors in the 09-19.7 season. He played at the All-Star level properly. It is the worst team in the league, and there is a lot of suspicion of brushing data, but the water-filled pork is also pork, and it is better than nothing.

"Wang Chao is only 26 years old, but his wrists are really good. The general manager of the team and the new players are all subdued by him..."

Van Gundy thought about this in his heart, and secretly decided to try to avoid direct conflict with Wang Chao, otherwise even if he is the head coach of the team, he might have to drink a pot. If you can only keep one of yourself and him, there is a high probability that the team will let your head coach dismiss get out of class early.

……

In the Magic's first victory over the 76ers, there was another surprising thing, and that was Wang Chao's performance in the game.

In this game, because the Magic established a score advantage early, Wang Chao did not play for too long. In 30 minutes of playing time, he scored 27 points, 3 rebounds and 8 assists.

There is nothing wrong with 27 points. After all, he averaged 32.6 points per game last season.

There is nothing wrong with 3 rebounds. Wang Chao, who mainly plays from the outside, is 2 meters tall, but his rebounding is really not very good. Besides, he has also moved from a power forward to a small forward in this game, which is even worse. No chance to grab a rebound.

But those 8 assists...

Although the strength of the 76ers is indeed a bit weak and did not allow Wang Chao to show a sufficient level, many fans who are familiar with Wang Chao still found clues during the game.

Wang Chao's passing assist ability seems to have become stronger.

For Wang Chao in the past, basically more than 80% of his assists came from the pick-and-roll cooperation with Howard, and the interaction with other teammates was not particularly frequent.

But in this game, Wang Chao passed the ball to assist his teammates many times, and even showed a pass behind the back in a breakthrough pass. His movements were chic and elegant, and the angle and strength of the pass were just right. sent to the open player.

But such a pass like a top guard stunned Barnes who received the ball for a moment. As a result, he subconsciously raised his hand and missed a shot, wasting Wang Chao's second pass.

In fact, during the preseason, Wang Chao revealed in an interview with reporters that he had worked hard on passing during the offseason, and his level has been greatly improved. It can be picked up completely.

But at that time, not many people cared about this matter. After all, the rhetoric before the game and the silence after the game happened almost every day in the league.

Every player will say that he has grown a lot before the start of the new season. How many hard trainings have he gone through in the offseason, but how many players can really make great progress?

But now it seems that what Wang Chao said seems to be true.

This point was verified again in the next two games.

10月30日，魔术客场击败新泽西篮网，王超得到25分5篮板7助攻。

On November 11, it was still an away game, and the Magic beat the Toronto Raptors 1:125.

In this offensive battle, Wang Chao scored 31 points, 2 rebounds and 11 assists.

(End of this chapter)