beast basketball

Because of having an opponent, Yao Ming stayed in Los Angeles for a few more days. Although he has his own trainer, if the trainer can't train against him, he can only pretend at most, and what he prefers is this A kind of training with a confrontational nature.

While getting acquainted with Bob Deng Huade, Yao Ming and Coupard also became acquainted. Coupard called Yao "Boss Yao" and Stephen still called him "Boss". Pad is firmly refused.

Except that Seattle and Houston are not as prosperous as Los Angeles, there is also a girlfriend he just met, and at the same time, between the two of them, if given a choice, Coupard will undoubtedly choose Stephen, but he is afraid that when the time comes He was too restrained, after all, he had lived here in Los Angeles for four or five years, and he didn't want to leave here.

Since he didn't want to, Stephen and Yao Ming didn't force it. Although Coppard called Stephen the boss, he was actually older than Stephen and only younger than Yao Ming. Stephen couldn't make decisions for him, usually it was just Just messing around together.

Seeing that the time to report to the team is approaching, the time for the three of them to be together should be over. After a breakup meal, Yao Ming left first. In addition to Juwan Howard in exchange for a Mike James, he used Spanoulis to exchange Luis Scola from the Spurs.

Looking at the two transactions together, the Rockets did a very reasonable thing. They exchanged a useless Spanoulis for a high-quality power forward in the international arena and the number one power forward in Europe, and then used an old-fashioned Zhu Wan Howard traded for a pretty good backup point guard. After coming and going, he just exchanged two unusable players for two decent teams. Two positions are reinforced.

However, this kind of transaction has strong characteristics of the Rockets, that is, small troubles. If Yao Ming is satisfied with such an operation, he is naturally dissatisfied. Watching other teams reinforce one by one, his own team Yao Ming is naturally dissatisfied with just playing around and thinking about going further, but the team is like this, so what can he do.

Stephen is also not very satisfied. In comparison, the Rockets have made at least two transactions. The Supersonics have not had any movement since they traded for Kurt Thomas, but Stephen also understands that Presti , I just became the general manager, and I don’t have any connections. It’s normal to fail to reach a deal. I know from Carlesimo Stephen that Presti also tried several deals, but none of them succeeded.

Due to the large changes in the team, the Supersonic team's training time was a few days earlier. When Stephen reported, the team only had two or three people, and then people began to come to report one after another. However, seeing the mental state of these people, it makes people Very worried.

None of them came in a state of full enthusiasm. They were all sluggish and half-dead. On the contrary, there were a few rookies on the team who were in good condition, but their strength was not very good. However, Carlesimo can be regarded as an old coach. , quickly pulling and hitting made them much better.

With all the players under contract reported, the team's training has officially started, which also represents the beginning of this season, but looking at the teammates around, except for Durant, almost all of them are very strange, although They were opponents before, but none of them had any impression in Stephen's memory.

Now the team has fourteen players under contract, but there are as many as five or six players waiting for the only spot. It’s been three or four days, and Stephen doesn’t remember any of them. It’s not that Stephen is putting on airs, the key It was because these people were so weak that Stephen couldn't be bothered to remember.

Among the existing players, there are six inside players, namely: Chris Wilcox, Nick Collinson, Muhammad Heaney, Robert Swift, Johan Padro, Kurt Thomas, Collinson is the ball The rookie selected by the team in [-], Robert Swift was selected in [-], Johan Padro was selected in the same year as Stephen, and Muhammad was selected last year.

Among these people, except for Johan Padro, they are all first-round lottery picks, even Johan Padro is also No. 25 in the first round, six picks higher than Stephen, but among so many people, none of Stephen can see It's worth it, barely counting, Collinson is not bad, but his height is a little short.

Among them, Wilcox is the most famous. In the same year as Yao Ming, he was selected by the Clippers with the No. [-] pick in the first round, and then switched to the Sonics. He works very hard, but his weakness is that his foundation is relatively poor and his means of attack are lacking.

The Supersonics used so many first-round lottery picks to select such a large number of unreusable players. No wonder the Supersonics record is not good, and finally fell to the point of being acquired. The general manager of the team Xander cannot escape the blame, he should bear most of the responsibility.

It would be unforgivable to say that one year's draft picks were misjudged, but it has been like this every year, for three or four consecutive years, which is unforgivable. The lottery is such a result, which is really disappointing.

After Presti entered the Sonics, it was a good deal to exchange Kurt Thomas with a special transaction, especially with two first-round picks. In the fight, Kurt Thomas I was very impressed with Stephen. This guy has a beautiful mid-range shot, and at the same time, his crazy defense in the low post can also provide great help to the team's defense.

The team has three players at the point guard position. They are Lucidno, the middle-of-the-road representative of the [-] generation. He occasionally performed impressively in the first two seasons, but as a young player, Moreover, the position of point guard is not very confrontational, but injuries continue, which is intolerable.

So his position and playing time were gradually replaced by Earl Watson. Earl Watson was a second-round pick in [-]. He was the same height, weight, and style of play as Ridnor. The offensive ability is inferior to Ridnour, but it is more stable than Ridnour, and its performance is not as fluctuating as Ridnour.

In addition to the two of them, there is also Delonty West in this position. He came to the Supersonics with Ray Allen's trade. His height gives him an advantage, that is, when dealing with tall and large point guards, he is more suitable to play.

Generally speaking, the strength in this position is not too strong, but Stephen doesn't care, because he doesn't need the point guard to have too much ability, as long as he can dribble stably across the half court, so this position can't be strengthened. Reinforcing, it doesn't matter to Stephen.

On the front line, the team has five players, namely Stephen, Durant, Szczerbiak, Damien Wilkins and Michael Graber. Among these five, Szczerbiak It's not the jade-faced handsome killer who used to be in the Timberwolves, but in a limited time, he can still provide some help to the team.

Grabel is a player with a basic salary. He is also the same year as Stephen, and he is also a second-round pick. He is a French player with Johan Padro. The two often talk in French together. His breakthrough and shooting are very good, but his body Relatively weak, slightly less confrontational.

Damien Wilkins has a famous uncle "Human Film Essence" Donick Wilkins. His father has also been in the league for many years. He entered the league directly as a free agent without being drafted, but his physical fitness Good, defensive and offensive are also good, is a qualified substitute.

Based on the calculation of three player reserves for each position, the team is still short of one forward and guard player. However, if Stephen and Durant are not injured, they will take up a lot of playing time, so this position is down. There is no need to reinforce.

The only thing that makes Stephen a little dissatisfied is that the team's internal strength is a bit weak. Although it seems that there are many players, they are all young players in recent years. Only Kurt Thomas and Wilcox have experience. The ability of the two is also a bit lacking, so Stephen pulled Carlesimo and found Presti.

After hearing this, Presti said to the two of them in a difficult way: "I also know this problem, but now the entire league lacks high-quality inside players. I just want to trade, and I have to have a place to trade. That team doesn't have a good inside player, just hold it tightly."

"By the way, I heard that Robert Horry wants to retire. Can you invite him to our team? I can discuss with Pope and come up with chips that can impress him. Robert is going to retire anyway. What do you think? ?” Presti turned to ask Stephen as if he suddenly thought of it.

"I have to ask to know." Stephen is not sure, because Robert Horry chose San Antonio in the first place to take care of his sick daughter, and now it is a bit uncomfortable for him to go from San Antonio in the south to Seattle in the north. easy to say.

"Yes, you can persuade him more. The team needs his experience. At the same time, if he comes, he can help you master the locker room as soon as possible. I will leave this matter to you and finish it as soon as possible. I will give it to the Spurs. Propose a deal." Presti also knew about Robert Horry's situation, so he didn't have much confidence, and could only hope that Stephen could impress him.

Out of Presti's office, before Stephen had time to contact Robert Horry, he suddenly received a call from Coupard: "Boss, tell your team quickly, let me go to your place, I don't want to go Milwaukee, don't want to go to Toronto."