NBA: This Center Is So Stable

The Lakers fans were shocked.

Chapter 315 O’Neal softened

The fans’ doubts made O’Neal a little dazed.

This three-time champion hero who has played for the Lakers for several years felt bad looking at these fans who kept scolding him.

This is like the backlash after winning the championship that year. How O’Neal was worshipped as a god back then, and now the Lakers fans are going to pull down this Lakers hero who is in a declining period in the same way.

On the sidelines, the Lakers players’ bench.

Taking advantage of the timeout, the Zen Master closely arranged the tactics for the next game.

He naturally would not listen to the rumors of the fans. If he really coached according to the plan of these fans who changed their minds, Phil Jackson would not be here today.

Unless O’Neal himself asked to go off the court to rest, the Zen Master really couldn’t find any inside player in the Lakers who could replace O’Neal at this moment.

He might consider letting Brian Cook replace O’Neal for one or two minutes in normal times to give this old shark some breathing time.

But in the current situation, once O’Neal goes off the court to breathe, it is very likely that he will not wait for one or two minutes of rest.

But the final whistle!

Seeing that O’Neal did not take the initiative to say anything, the Zen Master stepped forward and asked:

“Shaq, can you continue to play?”

Phil Jackson is not blind to how bad O’Neal’s current condition is, but he really can’t find a better replacement, even for only one minute!

Admittedly, O’Neal’s role on the court is not as good as before, but even if O’Neal can only play 50% of his strength, it is definitely not something that the rookie substitutes of the Lakers can touch.

In the offseason, the Lakers management spent too much energy on the starting lineup and the starting rotation in order to rebuild the Lakers who were defeated in the Holy City.

They are constantly looking for Kobe’s replacement, hoping that the Lakers’ outside line will have enough say in the new season. After all, this team is built on Kobe’s foundation.

But for O’Neal, the Lakers management obviously didn’t take it seriously in the interior.

Kobe has Fisher, Payton, Devin George, and even Fox; but he, except for occasionally letting the forward guest play his position, the rest of the time he doesn’t even have a decent substitute.

It can be said that today’s situation is not only a problem between OK, but the Lakers management can’t escape the blame.

“Huff~Huff! Phil, can you give me two minutes?”

O’Neal panted heavily.

The Zen Master nodded in acquiescence.

At this time, it is not a matter of whether he is happy or not. Compared with the Zen Master, O’Neal himself must be more familiar with his own state.

At present, his eyes are black, his limbs are weak, and his calves are cramping slightly…

This is a sign that he is about to run out of energy. Although O’Neal can be said to be the only inside player in the league who can maintain an average of 35+ points per game despite his large weight, he is still a big inside player in the final analysis.

Compared with other inside players, the physical strength problem is indeed not big, but it always exists.

Especially under the intensity of today, the Big Shark felt his physical strength draining so fast in history. In less than three quarters, he was actually walking on the edge of physical strength.

Those 20 free throws can be said to be the most devastating to his will!

Obviously, there are scoring opportunities at hand, but he just can’t make free throws.

Of course, this can’t be blamed on him. Most of the famous centers in NBA history have a terrible free throw shooting rate.

It can be said that Yao Ming and Wang Song, the shooting Asian big men, are the outliers.

But the reality is like this. You have to keep up with the modern center. Chinese people are not only popular in China, but Chinese players have brought this trend abroad.

If you don’t keep up with the tide of the times, you will be eliminated by the times.

This is also the NBA 15 years later. After the small ball storm initiated by the Warriors, space-type inside players are becoming more and more popular in the league, and various big contracts are getting soft.

It doesn’t even matter if you are a little soft in the penalty area. As long as you can open up space and have good rebounding ability, you can get a middle-class contract.

Of course, it’s too early to say all this.

After all, it’s still the beginning of the 21st century, and the era of the four major centers has not yet completely ended.

It’s just that space-type inside players like Wang Song can expand the team’s style of play and improve mobility, but absolute tough guys like Shaquille O’Neal are not without room for survival.

Back to the game.

Cook, 206, replaced O’Neal!

It seems to be just an ordinary change, but for Lakers fans, it is like a big stone suddenly thrown into a lake.

Enter, and it exploded.

At this time when there were still eight minutes left before the end of the game, the coaching staff actually chose to make a substitution.

And they replaced the big shark, the Lakers’ restricted area beast, who was second only to Kobe in the game.

In the eyes of Lakers fans, this move of the Lakers was basically equivalent to half-raising the white flag.

You know, although they scolded the shark fiercely, their true love for O’Neal was from the heart, especially after O’Neal left the court, looking at the comparison between Wang Song and Cook, they became more aware of the importance of the fat man to the Lakers.

Facts have proved that the game was as they expected.

Knicks.

Originally, the pick-and-roll between Nash and Wang Song was used as the benchmark offense, but now it has directly evolved into Wang Song’s back-to-the-basket offense with the ball in the low post.

D’Antoni didn’t try to test the Zen Master at all.

He chose the most direct way to conquer Staples.

Since the Lakers dared to replace O’Neal, the Knicks used their fists to verify this truth of the first center in the East.

Poor Brian Cook just became Wang Song’s toy!

Although both of them were rookies in 2003 and both were inside players, even Cook himself knew that the gap between the two was as big as the sky.

The Asian kid on the opposite side was not someone that a Lakers role player like him could mess with, but a superstar of OK level.

Since the regular season’s best rookie award was announced, Cook has never regarded Wang Song as a rookie of the same class.

Two players who are not in the same dimension, or not at the same level, stand together to fight, and there is only one ending.

Wang Song is like an NBA star player returning to college campus, facing Cook whose skills are not yet fully mature and starting his campus tour.

Turning back, turning around and twisting his hips, a simple and unpretentious move.

Cook was stunned.

Then, Kobe made a shot and the Knicks continued to attack.

It was still a familiar formula. Facing Cook, Wang Song wanted to try a different way to complete the attack in this round.

Facing Cook, who was shorter than him, Wang Song chose O’Neal’s most classic move.

High-lift shot!

Directly broke into the penalty area and swung the defender away to dunk.

There was no emotion, no skill, only pure power.

If Wang Song wanted to complete this set of moves against O’Neal, it would be like playing with a sword in front of Guan Gong.

But for Cook, Wang Song is O’Neal in his world today.

Although he looks thin, the strength of his chassis and limbs makes people feel terrified.

(End of this chapter)