NBA: James wants to team up with me

The most direct manifestation of the impact of this incident on James' popularity is the results of the first round of All-Star voting.

At the end of December, the league announced the first round of voting results for the All-Star Weekend.

Wang Chong unsurprisingly once again led the All-Star voting list, ranking above everyone else, while Durant, who averaged 30 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists per game, ranked just below Wang Chong.

Ranked third is the current leader of the Bulls, Curry, who averages 28+4+7 per game.

LeBron James, the chosen one, only ranked fourth in the voting. Although this is already a very high ranking, it is a Waterloo for James, who had only lost to Wang Chong in voting in the past.

It would be fine if he is not as popular as Wang Chong, but even Durant and Curry can now bully him. His uncle can tolerate it, but his aunt can’t!

But James still endured it, he had no choice but to endure it.

James has been pushed to the forefront of public opinion due to his unethical behavior during the Christmas game. At this time, he has no choice but to remain silent and keep a low profile.

Fortunately, this is only the first round of voting, and there will be second and third rounds of voting. With the support of a huge fan base, it is not impossible to overtake later.

To take a step back, even if James really loses to Wang Chong in the All-Star voting, Durant and Curry will still be the starters of the Eastern Conference All-Stars, and it will not actually have any impact.

After the league canceled the separate voting window for centers, the competitiveness of traditional centers has declined significantly. After all, in terms of popularity, forwards, especially outside players, are obviously more popular with fans with their more flamboyant playing style.

Among the Cavaliers, in addition to Wang Chong leading the voting list, Irving and Gasol are also on the list.

Irving ranks third on the Eastern Conference guard list. Although his vote count is much lower than that of Curry, who ranks first, the gap between him and Rose, who ranks second, is actually not that big. If the team works hard and does more publicity in the future, it is not impossible for him to surpass Rose and become an Eastern Conference All-Star starter.

But in fact, except for Curry, the other guards in the Eastern Conference received almost the same number of votes. Derrick Rose ranked second, Kyrie Irving ranked third, John Wall ranked fourth, and Dwyane Wade ranked fifth. It would not be surprising if any of these players eventually ranked second and became a starter in the Eastern Conference All-Star Game.

The competition for guards in the Eastern Conference is already fierce enough, but the forward position is actually even more fierce. Apart from the three major players of Wang Chong, Durant and James, from fourth to ninth are Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, Dwight Howard and the Gasol brothers. The competition is quite intense.

Like previous years, compared to the extremely competitive Eastern Conference, the Western Conference is much more relaxed, especially after Kobe Bryant was ruled out for the season due to injury. The only teams that are still competitive in the Western Conference are Anthony Davis, Paul and Harden of the Clippers, and Westbrook and Griffin of the Thunder.

No matter how you look at it, the Western Conference All-Stars cannot be compared with the Eastern Conference in terms of both quantity and quality. If the strength of the All-Stars is completely unequal, the viewing experience will decline accordingly.

Just when the league was racking its brains over how to solve this problem, Wang Chong made a timely suggestion in his personal capacity, which immediately made the league officials feel enlightened.

Captain selection system.

This system is derived from the rules of the 2018 All-Star Game. This All-Star Game cancelled the previous East-West showdown mode and switched to a captain mode. The East and West vote-getters were first selected through All-Star voting to become captains, and then the two captains selected their teammates through a draft to compete against each other.

This mode is quite interesting. On the one hand, fans can see a new confrontation mode that is different from the previous confrontation between Eastern and Western stars. On the other hand, the captain's selection process can be made into a live broadcast which can also gain a lot of ratings, thus killing two birds with one stone.

For the current league, Wang Chong's strategy can be said to kill three birds with one stone, and it also solves the problem of unequal strength of Eastern and Western All-Stars that has plagued the league.

Wang Chong's suggestion immediately astonished the league, and they couldn't help but sigh that Wang Chong was truly a genius. Not only was he a good basketball player, he also had such a sharp business acumen.

There was no need for much discussion. The league immediately held an overtime meeting and unanimously approved Wang Chong's suggestion and publicly announced the news of the reform of the All-Star Game.

The All-Star Game, which has been going on for decades between the East and the West, has actually been reformulated. This news caused an uproar once it was announced, but after carefully understanding the new game rules, the vast majority of fans were in favor of it.

The league's concerns are not without reason. In the past two years, the confrontation between the East and the West has become a foregone conclusion due to the gap in the strength of the stars, and the fans have not been impressed. If this system of captain selection is implemented well, the two teams will have a evenly matched confrontation, which will definitely be exciting.

Of course, there are fans who are opposed, but their number is negligible compared to the number of supportive or neutral fans.

The league's reform in the 15 All-Star Game was a foregone conclusion, and when fans learned that it was Wang Chong who suggested the reform, they were extremely impressed by his wit.

In fact, this is not the first time that Wang Chong has demonstrated his wisdom outside the court. In addition to the huge profits he made from investing in movies in the past, and his ability to always pick potential players with outstanding strength during drafts and signings, all of these demonstrate Wang Chong's outstanding vision and foresight.

The current Cavaliers' continued success has once again proved this point.

With the end of the December schedule, the Cavaliers have unknowingly played 12 games in the regular season. In these 31 games, the Cavaliers have achieved a record of 31 wins and 28 losses, with a winning rate of up to 3%. The reason why the Cavaliers' record is so outstanding is certainly important due to the addition of Wang Chong's personal strength, but more because the overall strength of the Cavaliers' lineup is far beyond everyone's expectations.

31场比赛下来，场均31+8+5的王崇和场均20分3篮板6助攻的欧文表现都在人们预料之中，以这两人的实力打出如此表现也合情合理。

However, the performance of other Bulls players was far beyond expectations, especially Pau Gasol and Hassan Whiteside, who were signed by the Cavaliers in the summer for 2 years and 1600 million and 1 year and 127 million respectively.

Everyone thought that the 34-year-old Gasol's competitive state must have declined. Unexpectedly, after joining the Cavaliers, Gasol actually regained the second spring of his career and became the main scorer of the Cavaliers' inside offense.

As of the end of December, Gasol averaged 12 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists per game for the Cavaliers, with a shooting percentage of 3%. Even among the inside players in the entire league, his efficiency is among the best.

You should know that Gasol's contract is only 2 million for 1600 years, an average of 800 million per year. It is absolutely good value for money and has explosive cost performance!

But Gasol is not the most cost-effective player, because the Cavaliers also have Whiteside who joined the team at a minimum salary.

Although Whiteside is completely unable to compare with Gasol on the offensive end and his average score is only about 8 points per game, he still has 9.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks.

As a minimum-salary player, such data is truly cost-effective, and there is no other player like him in the entire league.

The result is that the Cavaliers spent less than 26 million in the summer to get two main players who can contribute 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and blocks per game to the team.

Compare this to Howard who makes over 17 million dollars a year, but only averages 10 points and rebounds per game this season due to injuries. It's really too good to be true.

If when it was the Bulls, everyone was still unsure where the Bulls' luck in selecting top players every year came from, then now the same situation has happened to the Cavaliers as it did with the Bulls, and everyone can understand who deserves the credit for all this.

In addition to the two starting players, Gasol and Whiteside, the Cavaliers' bench players also performed well. Louis Williams

The fans of the Cavaliers are excited about their team's perfect record. Every player within the Cavaliers is also very happy, especially Pau Gasol and Whiteside. As long as they can continue their current performance this season, they will definitely get a big contract next season.

Whiteside signed a one-year minimum salary contract and will be a free agent after the end of this season, while Gasol signed the same 1+1 contract as Wang Chong, and can also choose to opt out of the contract and become a free agent after the season.

Speaking of which, the only player on the entire Cavaliers whose performance did not exceed expectations was the No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins.

As the No. 2014 pick in the NBA draft, Wiggins was the highly anticipated chosen one when he participated in the draft. However, after becoming a starter for the Cavaliers, he became a bit of a transparent person.

On the court, his brilliance is not as good as Wang Chong or Irving, but even Pau Gasol is more dazzling than him.

Of course, Wiggins' talent is there after all. Although his performance is a little ordinary, he still averages 14 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists per game. And because Wang Chong planned Wiggins' positioning from the beginning, Wiggins' current responsibilities in the Cavaliers are similar to Butler's in the Bulls. While being responsible for offensive scoring, he is also the team's perimeter defensive vanguard.

With his height and wingspan as a small forward and his outstanding athletic ability, he is able to basically suppress most of his opponents at the shooting guard position, combining both offense and defense, and does not hold the Cavaliers back.

The reason why the evaluation is average is mainly because as the No. 1 pick in the NBA, such performance is a bit cheap. However, if you make a comparison, Wiggins' performance is at least several blocks ahead of the previous No. 1 pick Anthony Bennett.

The result is that after looking around, there is nothing wrong with the five starting positions of the Cavaliers. Together with Louis Williams and Tristan Thompson on the bench, at least in terms of the overall combat effectiveness shown so far, there is no team in the entire league that can compete with them, not even the Bulls.

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As the schedule entered January, the Cavaliers' hot momentum cooled down a little.

After all, the team has veterans like Pau Gasol and glass men like Irving, so Wang Chong is still relatively cautious in using people. Although because of James, the troublemaker, the league has strictly investigated the situation of players resting without injuries, as long as the thinking does not slip, there are always more solutions than problems.

Since they are not allowed to rest, it is also possible to reduce the players' playing time.

Whenever the Bulls face consecutive back-to-back or more troublesome road games, Pau Gasol and Irving's playing time will be reduced accordingly.

Although this move will slightly reduce the data of both players, it will only happen in consecutive back-to-back away games, so the impact is not that big. In addition, both of them have substitutes. Irving can let Louis Williams take his place, and Gasol can let Tristan Thompson come on the bench.

Under such circumstances, the Bulls achieved a record of 1 wins and 17 losses in 14 games in January, with a winning rate of 3%. Although it was 82 percentage points lower than before, it did not affect the team's leading record in the league at all.

With the end of the January schedule, the All-Star voting has officially ended.

James made a strong effort in the latter part of the voting and surpassed Kevin Durant. However, in the last two rounds of voting, Curry's fans also began to make an effort and their fighting power was not bad. In addition, James' previous bad behavior made him lose a lot of popularity. Therefore, in the end, James only got third place in the All-Star voting.

Wang Chong and Curry won the first and second place in the All-Star voting respectively, but because the league adopted Wang Chong's plan while taking into account that it could not completely abandon the characteristics of the East and West, it still chose to select the East and West vote winners as captains.

Wang Chong became the Eastern Conference top vote-getter, while the Western Conference top vote-getter ranked fifth in total votes, lower than Wang Chong, Curry, James and Durant's thick-browed brother Anthony Davis in the Eastern Conference.

The Western Conference's All-Star voting leader is actually a third-year player, which shows to what extent the stars in the Western Conference have declined.

Curry and Durant, who were supposed to be in the West, have both come to the East, while Kobe, the veteran Western Conference leader, is out for the season due to injury. The Western Conference really can't find a superstar to hold up the team.

The five All-Star starters from the Eastern Conference who appeared based on the number of votes were Curry, Irving, James, Durant and Wang Chong.

Irving eventually stood out from a group of competitors, defeating a number of competitors including Rose, Wade, Wall and others, and won a starting spot.

As for Wang Chong, James and Durant, as long as they are in the Eastern Conference, it will be difficult for anyone to shake their starting positions.

The five All-Star starters from the Western Conference are Westbrook, James Harden, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis and Tim Duncan.

Duncan, who is already 38 years old, was once again selected as an All-Star starter. On the one hand, it was the result of his die-hard fans' tireless voting. On the other hand, there were indeed few competitive players in the Western Conference who could get more votes than Duncan.