NBA: James wants to team up with me

When interviewed by reporters at the press conference, Wang Chong behaved in a very high-profile manner.

"As I said before, the purpose of coming to Cleveland is to challenge myself. I want to try to see if I can still lead the team to win the championship without the team environment of the Bulls. And I will achieve my goal in the new season and realize the dream that only belongs to me. Three-peat dynasty.”

Such an arrogant declaration of winning the championship naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of many media reporters.

When a reporter asked.

"Mr. Wang Chong, are your words too arrogant? With the Cavaliers' current lineup, you dare to claim to win the championship. Aren't you looking down on all other teams in the league?"

Wang Chong shook his head and denied: "It's not that I underestimate other stars from other teams in the league, but that I have confidence in the Cavaliers and my teammates."

"We have Kyrie Irving, who has outstanding offensive ability. In my opinion, he is not inferior to Curry at all. We have Marc Gasol's brother, Pau Gasol, who has more offensive methods, and his physical fitness can rival James. , Andrew Wiggins, a holder of visible talent, the Cavaliers are definitely not as weak as you think. I have confidence in them and even more confidence in myself, so winning the championship is by no means impossible.”

Wang Chong's words left the reporters speechless.

There's something wrong with being arrogant, but there's nothing wrong with believing in your teammates.

So a reporter asked: "So who do you think is the biggest opponent for the Cavaliers on their way to winning the championship in the new season?"

"Of course it's the Bulls." Wang Chong replied without hesitation: "Although they lost me this summer, that is the team I have been with after all. I believe they will not be depressed because of this. Curry will stand by when his teammates need him." Come out and become the new leader of the Bulls, and with the growth of Marc Gasol and Jimmy Butler, he will definitely become the Cavaliers' biggest opponent on their way to the championship."

Reporters imagined that Wang Chong, the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, who should be mentioned, was not even mentioned.

In his opinion, these two teams are by no means opponents of the Cavaliers.

Needless to say, the Heat will only become weaker and weaker as time goes by. What can James alone do?

As for the Celtics, Durant did become the only player in the league who could rival Wang Chong in scoring after winning the regular season MVP, but the Celtics' current lineup is not ideal.

The twin interior towers Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap are indeed cost-effective players with contracts worth more than 1500 million, but now both of them have completed contract extensions with the team, and their new contracts are both Above yuan, it's a little expensive. Coupled with the large contracts of Durant and Rondo, the Celtics' salary pressure is so great that the veteran Pierce did not renew his contract and directly chose to give up Pierce.

Pierce was also unlucky enough. After playing for the Celtics for more than ten years, he was abandoned by the team when he was old. He could only join the Washington Wizards for 2 million US dollars in 1100 years.

As a result, the Celtics' salary has increased, but their strength has declined instead of rising. Let alone compete with the Cavaliers, whether they can pass the Bulls and Heat is a question.

As for the Western Conference, Wang Chong currently sees the Spurs as a slight threat. However, the Spurs in the 15-16 season are already in a period of sluggishness. Leonard has not yet reached his martial arts skills, averaging 16.5 points and 7.2 points per game in the regular season. The data of rebounds and 2.5 assists can only be said to be pretty good. At least compared to the achievement of DPOY on the defensive end, Leonard is indeed not strong enough on the offensive end.

Duncan's further degradation has also caused the Spurs' internal defense to have a lot of problems. The only special situation is that Rudy Gobert is now with the Spurs.

Gobert on the Spurs cannot be completely equated with Gobert on the Jazz. After all, he has a top interior defensive player with a long career and rich game experience. Under the guidance of words and deeds, Gobert's progress has been rapid. It is definitely much faster than the Jazz at the same time.

In the original 14-15 season, Gobert had not yet fully become the main center of the Jazz. He played in 82 games, including 37 starts. In an average of 26 minutes of playing time per game, he contributed 8.4 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks. His efficiency was still very good. of.

Because of this performance, Gobert successfully became the Jazz's starting center, and in the subsequent 15-16 season, he averaged 9 points, 11 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game, completely evolving into a defensive powerhouse inside.

With this exception, the Spurs' internal defense will probably not be exposed due to Duncan's aging. Even if the team's offensive firepower is not strong enough, with its strong defense, it can still make a comeback in the currently leaderless Western Conference. A bloody road.

At least in Wang Chong's view, neither the Los Angeles Clippers with Paul and Harden nor the Oklahoma City Thunder with Westbrook and Griffin are opponents of the Spurs.

Of course, even so, the Spurs are no match for the Cavaliers, and the strength gap is still too big.

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Wang Chong's "arrogant words" on the media day, unsurprisingly, once again received a lot of criticism. After all, it is difficult for anyone to give an excellent evaluation when looking at the Cavaliers' lineup.

Young, young, old, only Irving can be called a fighter, but Wang Chong compares Irving, who leads the team to the bottom of the league every year, with Eastern All-Star starter Stephen Curry, who has been selected to the All-NBA Team twice. , still makes people feel that it is a bit exaggerated.

On the contrary, Curry was flattered by Wang Chong's evaluation.

Who is Wang Chong? The number one player in the league today, the superstar who has threatened Jordan's position as the number one player in history. When Irving was playing basketball in high school and college, he was also one of Wang Chong's little fans. Although his favorite was Kobe, he couldn't stand it. Kobe was defeated by Wang Chong in the finals in consecutive years, so it is not surprising that he fell in love with him.

Wang Chong relied on this comment to directly increase Irving's favorability. Later, when the team trained, Irving would always greet Wang Chong enthusiastically, not caring that Wang Chong's arrival took away the opportunity to play with the Cavaliers. The spotlight should be his.

During the training match, head coach David Blatt briefly had some differences with Wang Chong over the issue of the team's starting lineup.

One is a legendary coach who is famous in Europe, and the other is a ball dominating player who has been in the Bulls for several years. The atmosphere was tense for a time.

In fact, the biggest difference between the two lies in the selection of the starting center.

Blatt prefers to use Pau Gasol as a guest center, Wang Chong as the power forward like he did with the Bulls last season, Wiggins as the small forward, and a role player with good defensive ability in the team as the shooting guard.

Wang Chong, who has already planned the team's starting lineup, certainly disagrees. He believes that the starting lineup of Irving, Wiggins, himself, Gasol and Whiteside is obviously more oppressive and dominant inside.

Both men insisted on their opinions and refused to give in to each other. The Whiteside people at the center of the dispute were dumbfounded.

How could he, a transparent person with a basic salary, be so valued? He never dreamed that Wang Chong actually trusted him so much and wanted to play the starting position by himself?

After some fruitless arguments, Wang Chong realized that after all, Blatt had just started coaching in the NBA and had been playing in European leagues before. He was still different from other NBA coaches. The best way to convince him was to use facts.

So at Wang Chong's suggestion, the Cavaliers conducted a team training simulation match.

After the training match, Blatter changed his mind and agreed with Wang Chong's suggestion of starting candidates.

I don’t agree. In the training match, Whiteside, a seemingly unknown guy, actually grabbed 5 offensive rebounds over Gasol. His amazing rebounding sense, jumping ability and mobility made him Blatt understood why Wang Chong insisted on asking Whiteside to start.

Although this guy's offense is terrible, except for the second offense after catching the ball under the basket and grabbing offensive rebounds, there are almost no means of attacking with the ball, but even this is enough, plus he is extremely good at the basket. Strong shot-blocking judgment ability can definitely become the team's defensive backbone.

It was at this time that Blatt finally realized why the NBA respected Wang Chong so much. Not only was he a great player, but he also had such excellent vision. This must be because he had developed a pair of discerning eyes through years of playing games.

If Wang Chong knew what Blatt was thinking, he would definitely feel a little embarrassed.

He has a keen eye for numbers, simply because as a time traveler he is very familiar with Whiteside's technical characteristics and abilities.

This episode further consolidated Wang Chong's position in the Cavaliers. Even the team's former boss Irving and head coach Blatt were convinced. Who else dares to dissent?

Soon the time came to early October 2014, and the preseason started as scheduled.

Different from the Bulls' preseason games in later years, Wang Chong had no idea of ​​​​watering in this year's preseason.

After all, the Cavaliers are a new team that was only formed this summer. Their tacit cooperation is completely incomparable with that of the Bulls. Naturally, they need a lot of games to get used to it and create a sense of tacit understanding.

In the 10 games of the preseason, the playing time of Wang Chong and other starting main players was maintained at about 28 minutes, which is neither high nor low. However, the super offensive firepower displayed by the Cavaliers' entire lineup still surprised the entire league. Incessantly.

In fact, the Cavaliers' offensive tactics are very simple, with only a few sets of tactics in most cases.

1. Wang Chong plays singles with the ball.

Second, Irving plays singles with the ball.

Third, focus on Gasol's inside attack.

But with such a simple offensive tactic, teams that played against the Cavaliers found it difficult to compete.

There is no need to say more about Wang Chong. His attack is inherently impossible to defend against.

As for Irving, as Wang Chong said, in terms of offensive ability alone, the current Irving can definitely compete with Curry. When attacking with the ball, the combination of various gorgeous dribbling skills and breakthrough rhythm makes a difference. The unique beauty of breakthrough masters such as Rose and Westbrook.

Pau Gasol's inside attack surprised Cavaliers fans. The 34-year-old Gasol has superb footwork inside and a soft shooting touch. His strength is not even diminished compared to previous years. It seems that The poor performance in the Rockets last season was really not his own fault.

With the performance of the above three people, the Cavaliers achieved a complete victory in the preseason, which made many media who were waiting to see the Cavaliers' jokes a bit dumbfounded.

But they still have an excuse.

"The record in the preseason cannot explain everything. Whether the Cavaliers' lineup is really that strong can only be concluded through actual testing in the regular season or even the playoffs."

Although they still refuse to admit defeat, the new season team strength list released by ESPN after the preseason has said it all.

In the strength rankings, the Cleveland Cavaliers top the list, with the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls ranked second and third.

But this is actually not surprising at all. The team with Wang Chong ranks first in the strength list, which is reasonable.

The Cavaliers' regular season opener took place on October 2014, 10. The Cavaliers faced the challenge of the Chicago Bulls at home.

As always, the league clearly understands the traffic code.

The first battle of the new season between Wang Chong and his old club will definitely explode in ratings.

In fact it is.

On game day, the Quicken Loans Arena, home of the Cavaliers, was packed with fans. Cavaliers home fans poured into the stadium to cheer for the team that has been reborn.

Although Cleveland is a small ball market, the enthusiasm of the fans is no less than that of teams such as the Bulls.

When the on-site DJ began to introduce the Cavaliers' starting players one after another, the atmosphere at home reached its peak, and the fans stood up and cheered and screamed crazily.

As the last player of the Cavaliers to play in the finale, Wang Chong felt as if the court was about to explode.

This is Wang Chong’s popularity and influence!

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After the Cavaliers players appeared on the court, the two teams began to warm up.

Wang Chong took the initiative to come to the Bulls and greeted his former teammates and coaches cordially.

He left so suddenly that many people still can't figure out why Wang Chong left.

But this does not affect the relationship between them. At least Curry, Gasol, Butler and other players who have received favors from Wang Chong have not changed their friendship with Wang Chong. They hugged Wang Chong enthusiastically.

"From today on, we are rivals."

Looking at Curry and others, Wang Chong smiled and said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "No one knows your strength better than me, so I won't let go of the game for a while and will go all out to deal with the game."

"Of course, we will do the same." Curry and others' eyes were glaring.

In the past, when we were on the same team, we never had a chance, but now we finally have the opportunity to challenge Wang Chong, the league's number one active player. Even Curry, who is not competitive in character, can't help but want to defeat Wang Chong.

After a short warm-up, the game officially started.

Bulls starting lineup: Stephen Curry, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Luol Deng, Marc Gasol.

Cavaliers starting lineup: Kyrie Irving, Andrew Wiggins, Wang Chong, Pau Gasol, Hassan Whiteside.

The players from both teams took their positions, Whiteside and Gasol Jr. jumped the ball in the center circle, and the game was about to start!