NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 113 What will happen if Wang Chong replaces Tracy McGrady?

(Something happened today, there is only one update left, I will make it up tomorrow depending on the situation)

In the summer of 2004, the league's free market was extremely lively. O'Neal's trip to Miami was the most sensational transaction, but in addition there were many signings and transactions, all of which were enough to affect the entire league.

This includes a large-scale multi-player trade between the Rockets and the Magic. The Rockets sent out stars Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and many other players, and acquired Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard and Tyronn Lue from the Magic. et al.

The Yao-Mai combination was officially formed, and the Rockets officially entered the ranks of the Western Conference's powerful players.

Wang Chong is a fan of Yao, so he knows very well that after Yao and Mai teamed up, except for the 05-06 season, when Yao and Mai were both troubled by injuries and the team missed the playoffs, in the other seasons, the Rockets regularly With an average of more than 50 wins, he is a classic inside and outside partnership in the league.

It's a pity that both Dayao and McGrady have some glass bodies. After the two teamed up, they only played more than 04 games at the same time in the 05-70 season.

Although the Rockets had a thrilling 22-game winning streak during this period, their playoff results ended in the second round and they never made it to the Western Conference Finals.

Wang Chong also imagined what would happen if he joined the Rockets instead of Tracy McGrady and formed a partnership with Dayao?

But after brainstorming, he felt that he might not be much better than Tracy McGrady.

It is true that Dayao will be the best center in the league in the next few years, but Dayao's shortcomings are very obvious. He is too heavy and his mobility is too slow. Teams with Dayao can only fight with position. Lord.

Under this premise, Dayao's physical fitness is also an important factor that limits his performance on the field. In addition, subsequent weight gain will lead to injuries, and Dayao's upper limit is naturally limited.

Of course, Wang Chong has seen a lot of "hindsight" remarks. They believe that Dayao has a soft shooting touch. In fact, he should not blindly gain weight when he first joined the league. He can completely maintain a light weight and follow the example of Novi. The playing style of Sky and Pau Gasol has transformed into a space-based inside line. Although the dominance under the basket may not be as strong as Dayao's after gaining weight, it can greatly reduce the burden on Dayao's ankles. At the same time, the reduced weight can also improve Dayao's mobility, save energy, and bring a series of positive effects.

Wang Chong thought what they said made sense, but so what?

If he gave Dayao such career advice and plans, would the other party be convinced and follow it?

Of course not. In the final analysis, Wang Chong is just a 20-year-old rookie. Compared with him, Dayao is more willing to believe in his team and the opinions of professional NBA head coaches and assistant coaches.

Wang Chong, who has the concept and thoughts of a more forward-looking basketball in the future, cannot change all this, at least not what others can do now.

In addition to McGrady joining the Rockets, Mavericks point guard Steve Nash was eventually kicked out by his extremely unhappy boss Mark Cuban.

Nash, who was already 30 years old at this time, was uncompetitive in the free market, and there were very few teams interested in him. His former club, the Phoenix Suns, extended an olive branch to him at this time, and finally agreed to a four-year contract of US$4 million. The contract signed with Nash has become the most cost-effective signing contract in the next few years.

Nash, who joined the Suns, was fully activated under D'Antoni's run-and-gun system. In the 04-05 season, he averaged 15.5 points and 11.5 assists per game. He led the Suns to a 62-20 record, won the regular season MVP, and won the regular season MVP in the second season. He won the regular season MVP with a double-double performance of 18.8 points, 4 rebounds and 10.5 assists.

Nash, who won two consecutive MVP awards, became the second point guard in league history to win back-to-back MVP awards after Magic Johnson, which made the Mavericks management regret it. Mark Cuban was also ridiculed for several years because of his blindness. .

After Nash became a free agent, Wang Chong also considered the possibility of the Lakers missing Nash.

But again, people speak lightly. The Lakers management will definitely not listen to Wang Chong, a first-year rookie, and Nash may not be suitable for the Lakers.

During the Suns' run-and-gun era, Nash was the team's commander and brain center. The ball was highly concentrated in his hands. Then, relying on his strong overall view and court vision, he passed the ball to open teammates for shots.

In the Suns, as the absolute core of tactics, Nash can perform at the MVP level. He is in the right place at the right time and with the right people. The team has a head coach who trusts him, teammates who are suitable for his tactical play, and a set of tactics that can maximize his characteristics. tactical system.

But these are not available in the Lakers.

Playing next to Kobe, it would be good for Nash to have half the ball power of the Suns. There is a high probability that Nash will become a fixed-point shooter who can dribble across the half court.

The Heat, Rockets and Suns are the three teams that have made the most trades and signings since the free market started. Other teams have more or less made trades and free agent signings, but absolutely It cannot be compared with the degree of reinforcement of these three teams.

Just like the Lakers, after trading O'Neal to leave the team, Malone, who had achieved his wish to win the championship, also officially announced his retirement. The team was seriously short of inside strength, so they sent Gary Payton and Rick Fox to the Celtics in a package deal. Green Army's backup center Chris Mihm and small forward Jumaine Jones.

But this is obviously just a drop in the bucket. Chris Mihm played almost all games as a substitute for the Celtics last season. He averaged 6 points and 5 rebounds per game. It is difficult to shoulder the responsibility of a team's starting center.

Wang Chong had some impressions of this player. In the next two years, Mihm would be the Lakers' starting center. It was not until Andrew Bynum grew up that he gradually became a substitute.

However, with the Lakers' current lineup, they cannot make other better adjustments.

Among the chips brought back from the O'Neal trade, Odom must be vigorously cultivated.

Odom, who is 2 meters tall and serves as a power forward, served as the first core core of the Heat last season. During the regular season, he averaged 08 points, 17.1 rebounds and 9.7 assists per game. Considering that Odom is only 4.1 years old, his development The prospects are still very good.

The Lakers management has the idea of ​​cultivating Kobe, Wang Chong and Odom into the Lakers version of the Iron Triangle.

As for the other two trading chips, Caron Butler and Brian Grant, their trading value is much lower, and few people care about them on the shelves.

After the trade, the Lakers can be regarded as severely damaged. Whether they can enter the playoffs next season is unknown. Originally, the Big Three combination of O'Neal + Kobe + Wang Chong was a perfect lineup for three consecutive championships. Now, Lakers fans I still can't figure out why it just broke up for no reason.

However, Wang Chong feels that with him and Kobe, it won't be a big problem for the Lakers to enter the playoffs or even break into the second round. After all, these are two players with an ability value of over 90. The team was not the original single-core leader led by Kobe.

In mid-July, Wang Chong finally left for Las Vegas to participate in the trial training of the Dream Team.

In fact, in the 2004 Athens Olympics, the American Dream Team wanted to send a super fleet. However, because Athens encountered the threat of terrorism before the Olympics, many big-name players were unwilling to participate and announced their withdrawal from the national team. Among them Including Kobe, O'Neal, Garnett and other top American superstars.

The only superstars willing to continue taking risks are Iverson and Duncan.

<divclass="contentadv">On this point, Wang Chong still admires Iverson and Duncan.

To be fair, if it were him, he would feel a little scared without knowing the safety of the Athens Olympics. After all, what is more important than his own life?

This is also the reason why Wang Chong is willing to participate in the trial training of the Dream Team. After traveling back in time, he knows very well that the Athens Olympics is very safe and there is no danger.

In addition to Wang Chong, five rookies from the 03 class participated in the trial training this time, including James, Anthony, Wade, Bosh and Kirk Hinrich.

In addition, there are also rookies Stoudemire, Boozer and others from the 02 class.

It is worth mentioning that two of the 04 rookies who had just participated in the draft were invited to participate in the trial training, namely No. pick Dwight Howard and No. pick Emeka Okafor.

This is not surprising. Although these two are not even first-year rookies, they are both centers after all. The national team is currently in short supply of centers. Although Duncan can play center, other than him, there is really nothing inside the Dream Team. The right person is here.

The national team's trial training is actually not much different from the physical test during the draft. It is also a test of height and weight and various basketball skills.

During this process, head coach Larry Brown also showed up, but he was as unsmiling as ever.

It can be clearly seen that Brown is very dissatisfied with this draft of rookies.

This is in line with Larry Brown's personality. He has always disliked using rookies, believing that too young players are inferior to veterans who have been in the league for many years in terms of experience, psychology and tactical execution.

But there was no way, special circumstances meant that he had no choice at all.

After a few days of trial training, the Dream Team finally determined the 12-man national team roster.

In addition to the two players who have been confirmed for a long time, Iverson and Duncan, the remaining 10 players include Stephon Marbury, Shawn Marion, Carlos Boozer, Amar'es. Tademire, Wang Chong's new teammate Lamar Odom, and the second overall pick in 04, Emeka Okafor.

Four of the 03 rookies were selected. There is no suspense. Naturally, they are Wang Chong, James, Wade and Anthony.

This list is only slightly different from the original Dream Six team that Wang Chong knew, and that is that Wang Chong replaced the dunk king Richard Jefferson.

This is not surprising. Although in the 03-04 season, Jefferson averaged 18.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for the Nets, but compared with any of the forward positions such as Wang Chong, James, and Anthony. Without any advantage, it is natural to be squeezed out by Wang Chong, who just won the championship.

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After the roster of the dream team is confirmed, the next step is half a month of intensive training.

Of course, half a month of training time is far from enough, but the situation of this dream team is special, and there is a serious lack of time due to various reasons.

From this aspect, it can also be seen that the defeat of Athens by Dream Team 6 is no accident. It is really the right time, place and people.

Head coach Larry Brown's face is just like his name, always drawn, with no smile in sight.

Too many bad things happened to him recently. The Pistons lost the finals and lost the championship. 10 players from the Dream Team retired. The replacement players were all a bunch of recruits he didn't like. In addition, the Olympics There was seriously insufficient training time before the game, and almost nothing went as planned.

And until now, he has not determined the starting lineup of the Dream Team.

The three long-established All-Stars Iverson, Duncan, and Marbury must have stopped starting, but he was still wavering in the remaining two starts.

There are actually not many candidates for him to choose from. For the power forward position, Larry Brown prefers Stoudemire, who averaged 20.6 points and 9 rebounds per game this season.

What troubles him the most is the small forward position.

In fact, if you just look at performance, there are many people who are suitable for the small forward position. Three rookie players from the 20 class who averaged 03+ per game in their rookie season, as the core of the Heat's tactics, led the team to the second round of the Olympics. Dom is a good candidate.

According to his own habits, he definitely wants to start Odom, who has more experience in the game.

But in the finals, Wang Chong, who made him and the Pistons whose defense he trained to the extreme were helpless, was still fresh in his memory.

Standing on the sidelines with his arms folded, watching Wang Chong accurately hit one mid-range shot after another in training, Larry Brown hesitated for a long time, but still made up his mind.

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On August 2004, 8, the 13th Summer Olympics officially opened in Athens, the capital of Greece.

Since the men's basketball project is relatively late in the schedule, the first game of the group stage will not be until August 8. Therefore, since the Dream Six team settled in the Olympic Village, apart from daily training to maintain their condition, they have basically had nothing to do.

Some people who are more playful would form teams with several people every day and go out to have a good time and have a good time.

As the most grand sports event, the Olympic Games gathers a large group of energetic athletes, so of course it is necessary to consider allowing them to vent their energy.

As early as the 88 Seoul Olympics, organizers have distributed chewing gum to athletes, and this tradition has been maintained in the future. Even the Tokyo Olympics, which is plagued by the mask problem, is no exception. Even the demand for each session has increased. It continued to increase, and by the time of the Tokyo Olympics, it had reached the exaggerated level of distributing 15 chewing gums.

The basketball players on the American Dream Team, when they were playing in the league, basically had the habit of passing through thousands of flowers without leaving their bodies. Even Wade, who seemed to be honest and honest, would be in trouble due to cheating in the future. Divorce his wife.

A person with an upright personality like Wang Chong had no interest in this kind of thing, but he couldn't resist the warm invitations from his teammates. Moreover, always refusing seemed a bit unsociable, so he reluctantly joined in.

I have to say that Greek girls are really cool, with soft waists and thin legs... cough cough cough.

Among the members of the Dream Team, Wang Chong went out to fool around less often, because as soon as he came to Greece, he kept socializing. The main social partners were the leaders of the Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team and the Basketball Association. some senior leaders.