NBA: James wants to team up with me

Chapter 197: Reaching the top of the strength list, a new Bulls season begins!

The Bulls' main lineup for the new season didn't bother Thibodeau at all, because Wang Chong told him the answer directly.

The starting five are Billups, James Jones, Wang Chong, Garnett and Gasol.

Wang Chong dared to directly use a first-year rookie as the starting center. Thibodeau did not understand, and James Jones was not an outstanding player. As a substitute player for the Suns last season, he averaged only 6.4 points per game and a shooting percentage of 36.8. %.

But after Thibodeau inspected the Bulls' current lineup, he found that only these two players seemed to be the most suitable starters. Both of them were personally selected by Wang Chong. Jones has rich playoff experience with the Suns. Although Marc Gasol is just a rookie entering the league, he has also played in the European Basketball League for several years.

And just a few days after training, Thibodeau was surprised to find that these two people were not as bad as he thought.

James Jones's three-point shooting ability from the outside is quite outstanding, even more accurate than Billups. He is not a small threat as a fixed-point shooter on the court, and his ability to run without the ball and his sense of smell are not bad, including defense. Although his defensive ability is not particularly outstanding and his athletic ability is average, at 2 meters tall, he is very tall for the shooting guard position and at least has a good effect in defending shots.

As for Jones, if he faces defenders with strong breakthrough abilities, such as Iverson, Wade and other players, even if he cannot guard him, it won't be that big of a problem, because the Bulls now have the players with the strongest defense and defense capabilities in the league today. Kevin Garnett.

Any defender who holds the ball to break through and attack the basket must pass Garnett's level. How can scoring be so easy?

Garnett has been selected to the All-Defensive Team for the past eight consecutive years, six of which have been on the All-NBA Team. His defensive ability is definitely worthy of being among the top in the league, and he can even compete with four-time Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace. Arm wrestling.

The main reason why Garnett's defensive honors are not as high as those of Garnett, who only won the DPOY Award for Best Defensive Player with the Celtics in his career, is that Garnett not only has to be responsible for defense on the court, but also needs to take care of both. The team attacks.

In the past few seasons, Garnett has averaged more than 22+5 assists per game on the offensive end. In terms of scoring ability, he is second only to Nowitzki among power forwards.

While maximizing his offensive capabilities, he also needs to take into account defense. Naturally, he cannot be as perfect as Ben Wallace.

But if you compare it in a single season, then in the 07-08 season, Garnett, who joined the Celtics and focused on the defensive end, his defensive contribution is definitely not inferior to any of the four seasons in which Ben won DPOY.

Everyone always likes to mock Garnett for his willingness to fight and retreat, his iron-blooded jump shot, and the so-called toughness is only as tough as it seems on the surface. These are also facts, including Anthony who later had bad breath and was blocked by the latter on the bus and dared not get off. These are all real things that happened.

But in the past few years of the Celtics, Garnett's contribution on the defensive end was definitely one of the toughest insiders in the league. There is absolutely no doubt that he almost single-handedly supported the entire Celtics defensive system.

Now that the Bulls have Garnett, the defensive requirements for other positions are actually not that high.

And the defense of other Bulls players is not that bad.

Both Billups and Wang Chong have been selected to the All-Defensive Team, and their defensive abilities are among the best in the league.

James Jones' defense is mediocre. He plays shooting guard at a height of 2 meters. His defense in terms of outside shooting alone ranks in the upper middle of the league.

What surprised Thibodeau the most was first-year rookie Marc Gasol.

Originally, he was not optimistic about this little fat guy at all. He was fat, slow, and had poor confrontation ability. Can such a player really adapt to the high-intensity NBA competition?

Of course, Thibodeau could not understand the value of fat, and he never dreamed that more than ten years later, the same fat man who loved to drink fat house happy water would dominate the league and become James. Curry was the first to successfully win two games. A top star who won the MVP award and successfully won the NBA championship.

In essence, Gasol and Jokic are really similar players, or Jokic is an enhanced plus version of Gasol.

Both of them have rich offensive methods, their shooting range can reach beyond the three-point line, and they can also support and assist teammates with the ball in the high position. Both of them are fat.

The difference is that Jokic's scoring ability, ball control ability and organizational ability completely overwhelmed Gasol, while Gasol's defense is stronger.

In the training of the Bulls, Gasol also showed good offensive and rebounding abilities. Although the defense is slightly worse because of his slow speed, if he is only stuck at the basket, he can With a weight of nearly 250 pounds, his ability to protect the basket is quite good.

Thibodeau even feels that even if Gasol directly serves as the team's starting center, he is fully qualified and can do a very good job.

Is this Wang Chong’s unique vision?

During the training period alone, Thibodeau could not help but admire Wang Chong more and more. ,

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Soon, the time came to July.

The NBA preseason for the 2007-08 season has officially begun.

The Bulls' first preseason game was held in Milwaukee on October 10, against the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the eyes of many Chinese fans, this can be regarded as the first Chinese derby of the new season.

Arab League, who entered the NBA for the first time this season, is already wearing the Bucks' No. 9 jersey. Everyone is paying close attention to Arab League's debut performance in the NBA, even though it is only a preseason game.

The Bulls, who won 69 games last season, faced off against the Bucks, who had the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. Of course, there is no need to take it seriously, and this is still a preseason game.

Therefore, although the Big Three of the Bulls - Wang Chong, Garnett and Billups all started the game, they only played for less than 15 minutes in the entire game. They only symbolically satisfied the fans who were present to see the stars playing up close. Just a dream.

The main players on the Bulls side are Gasol and Sessions, who are in the same class as the Arab League and have just landed in the NBA, James Jones, who joined as a free agent, and Paul, who is in his second season with the Bulls. Millsap.

One thing to say, just looking at the players in this lineup, if all the players are at the peak of their respective careers, led by Gasol and Millsap, there seems to be no big problem in reaching the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. .

Millsap at his peak was really not much worse than Zach Randolph.

Although they are known as the black and white duo and were the dominant interior twin towers in the league at their peak, Randolph's height is actually only 2 meters, which is not very tall in the interior and is no different from Millsap who is 06 meters tall. big.

Randolph may be better in terms of scoring and rebounding, but Millsap's defense is better, so the two can basically tie.

Coincidentally, Millsap is also a black man, so the Bulls can be regarded as having a replacement version of the black and white duo.

Although the Bulls' replacement version of the black and white duo is still very immature, a first-year rookie and a second-year rookie.

But it’s not too easy to bully the bunch of bad guys who bullied the Bucks.

Gasol, in particular, was not afraid of Andrew Bogut, the No. 05 pick in .

The two are close in height, and in terms of weight, Gasol is even a little heavier than Bogut by a pound or two.

The two fat guys were fighting fiercely in the penalty area.

But the fans in Milwaukee only felt very sad when they watched the two men fighting each other.

It’s strange to be happy!

<divclass="contentadv">Bogut was the No. 05 pick in 10, but he only averaged 8+ per game in the first two seasons of his career. He has been far behind by fellow players Paul and Deron, and even ranked behind No. Andrew Bynum, the high school player with the tenth overall pick, has no advantage at all.

Now, in the preseason, Bogut was unable to secure the upper hand against last-round rookie Marc Gasol. Isn't this funny?

What's the meaning? Our No. 1 pick can't even win against the second-round picks that were acquired with scraps?

That's not the only thing that's uncomfortable.

The Chinese player they selected this season, Arab League, was directly suppressed when facing Millsap.

Although Millsap is 2 meters tall, nearly 03 centimeters shorter than Ah Lian, he is really strong. The Ah Lian who first entered the league is the same as the original Yao, with a standard thin bamboo pole body and extremely poor confrontation ability. , and he is not as tall as Yao at 10 meters, which resulted in him being squeezed by Millsap in the penalty area and unable to attack normally even after receiving the ball.

This makes Bucks fans even more melancholy.

The Bulls' two second-round players successfully suppressed the Bucks' No. 1 pick and the seventh pick in the first round (seventh pick in this time and space). When have second-round picks been so shabby?

The result was that the Big Three of the Bulls played only 15 minutes on average. Without doing anything at all, the Bulls defeated the Bucks 107:99 in an away game and won their first preseason win.

On October 10, the Bulls ushered in their second preseason game at their home court in Chicago, facing the Dallas Mavericks.

In this game, the playing time of the Bulls' Big Three increased slightly. Wang Chong played 20 minutes, while Billups and Garnett both played about 28 minutes.

The Bulls easily defeated the Mavericks and ushered in two consecutive preseason victories.

Next, the Bulls continued to advance in the preseason, defeating the Wizards, Raptors, Pacers and other teams one after another, and unknowingly achieved a preseason victory record.

Although no one takes the preseason record seriously, the Bulls' strong dominance is still shocking.

"It seems that Wang Chong and the Bulls are really sharp in the new season and are aiming for the championship. I wonder if the defending champion Spurs can withstand the fierce Bulls!"

The opening game of the 07-08 regular season starts on the last day of October, which is the 10st.

The Bulls' opponent in the regular season opener was last season's finals rival, the San Antonio Spurs.

The league understands the traffic code and knows exactly what the audience likes to watch, and will arrange some focus games on some of the more critical dates.

In the Bulls' new season schedule, the opening game is a repeat of the Finals against the Spurs, and the Christmas game on December 12 will be against Cleveland, which also formed the Big Three of James + Ray Allen + Ben Wallace. knight.

After the preseason, ESPN updated the latest strength list.

The Chicago Bulls, who have won 8 out of 8 games and achieved a complete victory in the preseason, are undisputedly ranked first in the strength list, followed closely by the Los Angeles Lakers, who brought qualitative changes to the team's tactical system after Gasol joined.

Ranked third is the Cleveland Cavaliers, and fourth is the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

Although they are ranked fourth on the strength list, no one will underestimate the Spurs, and the preseason record itself is not of any reference.

Therefore, in the regular season opener, the Bulls challenge the Spurs away from home. The outcome is hard to say, but given that the Spurs are at home, the majority of fans are optimistic that they can win and get off to a good start in the new season.

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In the visiting team's locker room.

Head coach Thibodeau is still telling us what needs to be paid attention to during the game.

It was obvious that Thibodeau was a little nervous.

But this is normal. Even though he has more than ten years of assistant coaching experience, this is still his first game as a head coach of a team. The opponent is last year's defending champion and the Bulls' strongest opponent, the San Antonio Spurs.

In contrast, Wang Chong performed calmly and calmly, as if the Spurs were not much different from their preseason opponents.

Garnett was even more nonchalant, "Look how I beat Tim!"

Although their career achievements are completely incomparable to Duncan's, in a total of 52 head-to-head matches between the two in their careers, Duncan, who has 33 wins, is still far ahead of Garnett, who has 19 wins.

But if we simply compare the two players' matchup data, it's really hard to tell.

52场比赛，邓肯场均19.3分11.9篮板3.3助攻2封盖。

加内特场均19.8分10.6篮板4助攻1.4抢断1.9封盖。

The two men's shooting percentages are extremely close, both around 45%.

Garnett's statement that he will beat Duncan on the court is a bit bragging. It's basically hard to say who will suppress the other in the matchup between the two. Duncan's historical status is higher than Garnett's just because he has more honors than him. Garnett just gained more.

But as long as Garnett and Duncan can form a one-for-one exchange on the court, there will actually be no problem for the Bulls to win the game.

Because after the two were replaced, the Bulls still had Wang Chong, while the Spurs only had Parker and Ginobili.

To be honest, teaming up with a top star like Garnett is actually a bit of a shortcut for Wang Chong.

But this is a normal thing in the league. Kobe's first three championships, Wade's first championship, James, Durant, and even Magic's championships, weren't they surrounded by top stars in the league?

It is true that there are some positive cases in the league, such as Duncan, Nowitzki in the 10-11 season and even Kobe during the two consecutive championships. The helpers around him are not top or even top ten players in the league.

But it is still too difficult to win the championship.

Wang Chong is still very eager to win the NBA championship and FMVP as soon as possible. After all, this is related to the issue of when he can complete the system upgrade task.

So even if he takes some shortcuts, he is still young anyway. When his ability further improves in the future, Wang Chong can prove that he can win the championship without taking shortcuts by winning the single-core championship.

Moreover, to put it another way, the Bulls almost dismantled half of the team in order to get Garnett and paid a huge price. This is comparable to the Warriors who didn't pay any price and got Durant for nothing. If there are too many, why don’t you feel at ease?