full court guidance

Chapter 17 Two Year Contract
The late contract has not yet been settled, but the Rockets' game will continue. On January 1th, they challenged the Grizzlies in an away game, and on the 17th, they faced the Pacers back-to-back. The Rockets enjoyed a two-game losing streak.

In the game against the Grizzlies, the Rockets only scored 80 points and lost 19 points to the Grizzlies.

In the game against the Pacers, the Rockets scored even lower, only 74 points. Fortunately, the Pacers were also defended by them, and only scored 84 points. In the NBA ten years later, such a low score is simply unimaginable. of.

Yao Ming performed well in these two games, with a high shooting percentage, but his number of shots was the least among the team's starters. As the core of the inside line, this is obviously a bit abnormal.

Veteran Juwan Howard's performance fluctuated a lot. In these two games, his shooting percentage was extremely low, which made the Rockets miserable.

In fact, as far as the current situation is concerned, the Rockets' lineup is really bad. In order to introduce McGrady, the Rockets sent out almost all the rotation players who could play. Juwan Howard and David Wesley did retain a little bit of strength , But even a qualified starter is not counted. An ordinary starter like Bob Sura is already an unshakable main force in the Rockets, and it seems that the Rockets' lineup is indescribably bad.

The ESPN sports column analyzed the Rockets' recent two-game losing streak, and believed that the Rockets' current strength can reach the second round of the playoffs at most, and the ball should be concentrated in the hands of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady as much as possible.

Van Gundy used Yao Ming very cautiously and controlled his playing time most of the time. In recent games, Yao Ming rarely played more than 30 minutes, and it is normal to score less.But looking at high-level statistics, Yao Ming ranks first in the entire league in terms of efficiency and true shooting percentage. At the center position, only O'Neal, who has been specially trained by Pat Riley, can barely suppress Yao Ming.

On January 1, the Rockets challenged the Magic in an away game. Dwight Howard, the top high school student in 20, had no resistance when facing Yao Ming.

他全场出战36分钟，6次出手命中2球，罚球意外地4中4，拿到8分7篮板1助攻的数据。

Obviously his talent still needs more time to be reflected, but the media has already boasted that Howard will be the top center in the league in the future.

姚明这一场表现依旧高效，31分钟内12中8拿到20分6篮板的数据。

麦迪出场41分钟，出手21次，命中8球，12罚10中，拿到27分6板4助攻。

McGrady's style of play is not a small problem, and the efficiency is not very high.

In fact, after he retired, in the historical data of the Rockets, except for the number of strikes, his name was almost absent.

Relying on Yao Ming's efficient performance in the first quarter, the Rockets opened up a nine-point gap after the first quarter. The two sides played very anxiously in the subsequent game. In the end, the Rockets won 108:99.

The Magic's pre-war score was 21-16, ranking fourth in the Eastern Conference. In today's situation where the West is strong and the East is weak, almost everyone believes that the Magic is not as good as the Rockets.

But the current Rockets are so entangled. They can't open the point difference against weak teams, and they can only rely on defensive hard work against strong teams, and they are not sure.

Mingming Yao Ming is a strong offensive player inside, but he doesn't get enough ball possessions, which makes his statistics on the field often seem very ordinary.

On the 21st, the Rockets played back-to-back away games against the New York Knicks, the eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The score between the two sides was extremely tight, and the Rockets finally won 92:91.

Yao Ming performed well, but the team scored mainly on Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, and the other three starters all had low shooting percentages, which dragged down the team.

Now everyone can see that the Rockets really have the inner and outer core of the MM combination, and the performance of other players is particularly unstable, unable to share the pressure on the core players and provide firepower output at critical moments.

The point is that the Rockets have almost no salary space at present, which also makes them unable to strengthen the lineup. You must know that Yao Ming is still on a rookie contract, which is equivalent to doing free work for the Rockets.

Back in Houston on the 24th, the Rockets played against the Magic at home. Yao Ming once again educated Dwight Howard with facts. He played 36 minutes and scored a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Howard's playing time was close, and he only scored 4 points. The only statistic he could get was 11 rebounds.

It is worth mentioning that McGrady missed the game due to injury, but this did not affect the Rockets' victory. Although the score difference between the two sides was not big, the Rockets actually got a huge advantage from the beginning of the game. At the end of the game, they even led the Magic by 21 points.

In the second half, Bob Sura started to make wild shots and returned a lot of points.

It has been a whole week since the ten-day short contract expired, and there is still no good news from the Rockets, which makes Rockets fans very worried.

Fans who often pay attention to the Rockets know that despite the obvious shortcomings of being late, he can provide the Rockets with strong offensive firepower, and he does not occupy the ball at all. He is currently the most needed player for the Rockets. In the previous few games he played, The Rockets all scored rare high scores.

So what happened to the late contract?
In fact, the Rockets are very sincere. They contacted early and came late, and offered a two-plus-one rookie contract, and the third year is the team's option.

However, he was late at the beginning and was not in a hurry to sign. He did not plan to move immediately. California has many top universities that rank among the top universities in the United States. The signing must also consider the surrounding schools. He is probably the most special one among NBA players.

A few days ago, he met with Bill Duffy, and the two sides discussed the economic contract.

Bill Duffy was a bit hesitant at the beginning. He was happy to sign with Late, but the role of Late was very single, which made Bill Duffy worry about whether he could play in the NBA. Until the media broke out that he was a rising star in scientific research, Bill Duffy finally settled down and became the late agent.

Afterwards, Bill Duffy will be in charge of negotiating the contract with the Rockets.

As a professional agent, he is obviously more suitable than being late. Bill Duffy chose to refuse the 2+1 contract offered by the Rockets.

The Rockets' calculations are very loud, just want to take advantage of the narrow positioning problem of being late, and sign him with a cheaper contract.

In this era, there is no clear concept of 3D players, so many professionals have not seen the effect of being late.

In the NBA ten years later, any 3D player can basically get an annual salary of tens of millions, which is not possible in this era.

In the end, after some back-and-forth, especially the Suns and the Lakers seemed willing to sign late, the Rockets finally made a slight concession, and the two sides signed a 1+1 fully guaranteed rookie contract with a total contract value of 121 million US dollars. The second year is a team option.

After the contract is signed, it means that if all goes well, being late will represent the Rockets until the summer of 06.

On the day after the contract was signed, the Rockets couldn't wait to announce the matter on the official website, and the Rockets fans burst into cheers.

Phoenix Suns coach D'Antoni expressed regret in public because the Suns' contract bids were more sincere, and he thought the Suns' tactics were more suitable for late arrivals, but late arrivals did not choose the Suns.

On the 26th, he was late for an away game against the Pelicans.

At this time, the Pelicans were at the bottom of the rankings, and the players on this team were a group of little-known players, such as Dan Cody, PJ Brown, Lee Nairon, Rodney Rogers, etc. The famous one should be JR Smith, but he is only a rookie this year and has not yet proved his strength.

As a well-known nerve knife in the league, JR Smith averaged 10 points per game in his rookie season.

The Pelicans' defensive ability is not strong, and the media generally believes that this is a game without any suspense.

In the original history, the Rockets did win, but the score was not high, 82:77.

But with the addition of late, the Rockets' offensive firepower is simply amazing, and late is still on the bench, playing time increased to 24 minutes.

JR Smith, who was responsible for defending him, found that he had no way to limit his scoring when facing this undrafted rookie.

The late shot is super fast, and there is no hesitation at all. He throws the ball as soon as he catches it. Even if he is fully concentrated, sometimes it is too late to block the shot.

Being late didn’t feel cold because he didn’t play for a long time. He still maintained a very high efficiency. He took 14 shots and hit 9 3-pointers. He scored the second highest 27 points in the team. He had no assists and no free throws .

McGrady had a quasi-triple-double of 33 points, nine rebounds and nine assists -- six of his assists came late.

Because after he dribbled and broke through, he was assigned to the outside line. If he was late, he would not dribble at all, and just opened his hand and threw it to the basket.

McGrady played very happily in this game, almost smiling all the time.

Yao Ming also overwhelmed the Pelicans inside. The weak Pelicans couldn't limit him at all. Yao Ming hit 13 goals in 9 shots, scored 18 points and 13 rebounds, and still maintained his high efficiency.

With the firepower of these three people, the Rockets scored high throughout the game, but the defense did not weaken much. In the end, the Rockets beat the Pelicans by 104:77 by 27 points.

The media gave a high evaluation to the late arrival, thinking that the late three-pointer revitalized the Rockets' offense and raised the overall strength of the Rockets to a higher level. His basic salary contract allowed the Rockets to make money.

On January 1, after only a short day of rest, the Rockets will usher in a focus battle. They will face the Sacramento Kings at home.

Under the leadership of Rick Adelman this season, the Kings are still able to play a smooth and gorgeous offense by virtue of the Princeton system. They are one of the strongest offensive teams in the league. They currently have a record of 28 wins and 13 losses. Temporarily ranked third in the West.

The league also arranged a nationwide live broadcast of the game, with Kenny Smith partnering with Charles Barkley and former Bulls champion guard Steve Kerr on TNT.

(End of this chapter)