Legend of Tomorrow

On October 1, the Suns held a media day at their home arena.

Guo Xu, Stoudemire, Roy, Grant Hill, and Haslem took core makeup photos and are expected to be the starting lineup for the new season.

Guo Xu said in an interview: Our goal for the new season is the championship. If we fail to win it, it will be a failure. I personally have 100% confidence in defeating all opponents. The loss last season was just due to bad luck.

The reporter asked: The Suns did not introduce big-name free agents in the summer despite having salary space. How do you view the team's reinforcements?

I am very satisfied with the operation of the team. The Suns' lineup is very strong now.

Guo Xu also commented on his new teammates. Even undrafted rookie Anthony Morrow and Jamario Moon, who played in the exhibition game, expressed his optimism.

I believe they can play a role, and I believe they have potential that can be tapped. They just need to run and throw the ball when they receive the pass from me. It's a simple job.

New teammates praised Guo Xulai even more. Gerald Green said: He is the best player in NBA history. It is an honor for me to be a teammate with him. I can't wait to cooperate with him.

Gasol said: The two games against the United States in the Olympics were my nightmare, and now it's my turn to be a team with Jason and give other people nightmares.

After the interview, Guo Xu invited his teammates to have dinner together. D'Antoni briefly talked about the tactics, which is to run, both offensive and defensive ends. Only Gasol doesn't have to play fast breaks. He can't run at first glance.

The positional battle is equally simple, open the ball and hand it over to Guo Xu. The Suns' tactics are so simple, crude, and effective.

The next day was an open training session, and the performance of the Suns' newcomers surprised the fans who came to watch the training. What they played was less like an intra-squad game and more like an All-Star Game, even more exciting than the dunks in the All-Star Game.

Everyone knows that Green has good physical fitness. His jumping ability is probably the best in the league. He can switch hands to dunk with his bare feet, and he can also blow out the birthday cake candles placed on the basket while dunking.

What people didn't expect was that the 28-year-old rookie Moon was also such a flyer, and his head went above the frame when he dunked.

The two men are not bad at defense due to their physical advantages. They are both 203cm tall and weigh 93kg. They are fast but weak in confrontation.

During the counterattack, Guo Xu sent out many alley-oops, Green performed a right-hand windmill with a flat head, and Moon had two long-distance gliding dunks.

One of the shots took off just one step beyond the free throw line.

The Suns missed it again. Green was seriously underestimated, and Moon entered the league a year late. In Guo Xu's previous life, Moon joined the Raptors in 2007. Now the Raptors have Marvin Williams. There is no shortage of players at the small forward position, so he was not signed.

Morrow's physical fitness is a little worse, but his three-point ability is first-class if not top-notch, and he is very sure of the open position.

Among the inside players, Stoudemire, Gortat, and DeAndre Jordan also dunked every chance they got.

Jordan's style of play is the most fierce, even more fierce than Stoudemire. He is very fast on air cuts after pick-and-rolls. As soon as he receives the ball, he dunks. He makes alley-oops with both hands and one-handed chops, all of which are unstoppable. It is impossible for fierce fouls between teammates in training games. This kind of situation is most suitable for Jordan to perform.

Because his teammates did not foul, Jordan scored a lot of points without exposing his weakness in free throw shooting.

His performance shocked the fans. He was able to select such a strong insider with the 28th pick in the first round. It was a huge profit.

In Guo Xu's previous life, no one paid attention to Jordan during the draft, and he was selected by the Clippers only in the second round. It is indeed a bit puzzling. Even if he is a rough guy and cannot develop offensive skills, he is still worthy of selection based on his physical condition alone. At least he is an excellent blue-collar player.

Considering that Hasheem Thabeet was the second overall pick in 2009, it can only be explained by the fact that most of the team's scouts are mentally retarded.

Polish Hammer Gortat has gradually adapted to the Suns' game rhythm after a season of running-in. He is also very fast after picking and rolling, and he is not a vegetarian when it comes to dunking. He also has good low-post footwork, but his range is lacking.

No matter how beautiful the dunk is, it's only two points. The insider who can shoot is the star. Stoudemire was able to play both inside and outside. After playing pick-and-roll in the middle, he caught the ball and hit two three-pointers. The hard training in the summer paid off.

It's a pity that he only has one point in the middle and can't practice it on both sides. He tried but it didn't work.

It is worth mentioning that Millsap also practiced three-pointers in the summer and made two in training games. His mid-range shots were also better than last season. His performance in the first training session was better than Haslem's, and it's not necessarily who will start the new season.

The worst performer inside is Gasol. He is the only slow-moving player on the team. He can only defend near the penalty area, and his ability to protect backcourt rebounds is not very good.

The team must have a capable meat shield center. Gasol can be said to have a balance of offense and defense, but there is no room for him to perform in the team's training games because none of his teammates likes to play in the back.

On the offensive end, Gasol's task is to provide off-ball coverage to his teammates on the baseline and side, and then catch the ball and make a mid-range shot or cut to the basket to catch the ball and hit hard. The embarrassing thing is that both Gortat and Stoudemire can resist the bigger one.

He has no weight and poor explosive power, similar to the Jazz's Big White Bear Ostertag. His back-up position was not deep enough, which resulted in his feet feeling weak when playing in singles. His hooks and shots were far from the basket, and his touch was not very soft.

Until now, no one believed that Gasol could gain a foothold in the NBA. Many experts said that he was seriously overrated before being selected at the end of the first round. Gasol made a total of 1 of 5 shots in the match and scored 2 points.

In the match, Guo Xu didn't take many shots. He passed the ball selflessly to create opportunities for his teammates. The best outside performer was the third-year Roy. If Roy's selection to the All-Star Game last season was due to the league's strong support, now he definitely has the ability to be an All-Star.

Roy practiced shooting more in the summer and imitated Guo Xu's style of play, which is different from last season.

He usually runs to catch the ball first and looks for three-point shooting opportunities. After switching defenses, he holds the ball to find space and distributes the ball to the cutting inside line. When counterattacking, he will use the European step to break through and hit the porcelain, and one-on-one dribbling under his hips from outside the three-point line. Step-back jump shot.

Roy abandoned the two techniques of drastic changes of direction while running and full-strength take-off and pull-up layups. Two seasons later, the Suns coaching staff's transformation of him has achieved remarkable results.

In his previous life, Roy played like Derrick Rose. Now he is more like James Harden after joining the Rockets. He has developed a good habit of not jumping around and playing with rhythm.

Roy, who has taken more three-pointers, will have a much higher scoring efficiency and true shooting percentage, reaching about 60%, as long as his shooting percentage can remain at 37% like last season.

Last season, Roy accounted for 30.3% of his long-distance two-pointers, hitting 2.1 goals in 4.8 shots, and his shooting percentage was 44.2%. This data is very eye-catching among shooting guards, and is more accurate than the peak seasons of the big four shooting guards, but D'Antoni requires him to take a step further and shoot three-pointers, and it is best not to shoot any two-pointers.

Either one step closer or one step further away. Any outside player who shoots more than two points will have trouble with D'Antoni. He annoys that kind of person the most. Of course, if the opponent does this, D'Antoni has to applaud him from the sidelines. This kind of talent is his favorite.

Of course, someone has to shoot in the mid-range. The task is Haslem and Hill. Because these two people can't practice three-pointers, they can give up trying. Mid-range shooting is their important scoring method.

After the public training session ended, the fans applauded one after another, and they were still unsatisfied...