From today on is the king

Chapter 791. Chapter 790. The Beginning of the New Season

The training camps of each team are in full swing. The Eagles have started tactical training early. The training is always harmonious. The practice of tactical movement is much simpler than playing games. In addition, the newly added two ball-handling players, Tracy McGrady and Iguodala, are players with extremely high IQs, so the progress is smooth.

In particular, every tactic of McGrady only needs one or two practices, and it looks the same as playing for many years, which makes people jealous and excited.

From the perspective of two-person cooperation, Liu Mang and McGrady's passing and receiving cooperation is too easy and smooth.

Tony Allen and Trevor Ariza mainly practice open three-pointers from the bottom corner. The offensive end of the two can have room to play. It is these two points, and the two may not have much playing time.

On the other hand, Varejao and Josh Smith, two rookies on the inside, have trained more on the defensive end in order to compete for the second substitute inside.

In the past summer, in addition to the consecutive defeats of the U.S. team in the basketball aspect of the Olympics and the start of the world basketball boom, there have been many changes in the NBA. First, the Bobcats joined the NBA, and the Hornets were officially assigned to the West.

The most significant change is that the NBA unanimously decided to cancel HandCheck after voting by the management of 30 teams, which means entering the era of NO-HandCheck.

The so-called HandCheck is a distance beyond the free throw line, where you can use your hands to defend against the opponent's outside line with the ball, which greatly limits the scoring of outside players, making Pat Riley's iron-blooded style popular throughout the NBA. The defensive intensity has increased year by year, and the league's average scoring has plummeted. By last season, only three NBA teams, the Eagles, Mavericks, and Kings, scored more than 80 points per game.

The cancellation of HandCheck now means that for strong defensive teams, there has been a huge weakening in terms of defending the perimeter. Areas beyond the extension of the free throw line can no longer use their hands to block the waist of the ball holder and perform pull-type defensive actions as before.

However, many teams have not noticed this change. It is not breakthroughs that make the outside line easier. Those breakthrough masters actually don’t care about pulling them. Most of the team’s coaches and management have not noticed. Canceling HandCheck will benefit the most from three-point shooters.

With Liu Mang's suggestion, the Eagles have already started to develop in this direction before most teams have paid attention to this point.

In the training camp for the Eagles this season, the positional battle still focuses on various tactical changes that emerge one after another, and at the same time strengthens the role of three-pointers in the tactics.

But the main direction of development is the defensive three-point counterattack at the basket, so Josh Smith's physical fitness brings defense talent and Varejao's rebound protection ability is a very important part of the substitute inside.

As early as after the selection of five rookies, Tony Allen, Ariza, Iguodala, as well as Calderon and Korver, the previous guards, all focused on three-pointers. Before Iguodala went to Los Angeles with Liu Mang and Tracy McGrady for training, he had been following Chip Englander to train three-pointers with several rookies.

The training camp of the Eagles is proceeding in an orderly manner...

……

As the training camp passed day by day, it was getting closer and closer to the start of the preseason, which meant that the new season was about to start!

The player rankings and team rankings of major websites and newspapers have been announced one after another and began to release their respective rankings.

Eagles players are also very concerned about the team ranking and player strength list.

In terms of team rankings, the most authoritative Sports Illustrated and ESPN have the same rankings in the top ten.

As the defending champions, the Eagles are not as unpopular with the media as the Spurs. According to convention, they are ranked No.1 in the team strength list.

The Timberwolves, who reached the Western Conference finals last season and have three monsters, were ranked second.

The Spurs are third and the Nets are fourth.

The Heat, which got Shaq O'Neal during the offseason, climbed from No. 14 at the end of last season to fifth in the league when the team still has Wade and Eddie Jones.

The Kings were ranked sixth, the Mavericks seventh, the Pistons eighth, the Sonics who got Francis were ranked ninth, and the Rockets ranked tenth.

The Lakers, which had been ranked No. 12 in the team rankings for a long time last season, were only ranked No. [-] this season.

In terms of player strength, Sports Illustrated, Garnett is ranked first, Duncan is second, McGrady is third, Kobe is fourth, O'Neal is fifth, Liu Mang is sixth, Iverson is seventh, Kidd and Carter both entered the top ten, ranking eighth and ninth, and Raheem is ranked tenth.

In terms of ESPN, Tracy McGrady is ranked first because he came to play in a strong team, and his performance will definitely be different. Duncan is second, Garnett is third, O'Neal is fourth, and Kobe has been unpopular in ESPN's rankings.

In terms of the top nine, although the rankings are different, the two most authoritative media announced that the top nine candidates are all those people, but the tenth, here comes the problem.

Last season's best rookie LeBron James, ESPN ranked James No.10!
Kidd was squeezed out of ten!And it is No.12!Whether it is Sports Illustrated or ESPN, Yao Ming is ranked No.11.

Obviously ESPN's ranking has received more attention, it's too topical!

Since the last lockout in the NBA, there has never been a second-year player ranked in the top ten in the power rankings, and James is the first!
Liu Mang performed so well in his rookie season. In his second grade, he was only ranked No.15, while James was actually ranked No. 24, overtaking Yao Ming, who was just selected to the third team last season and just turned [-], which immediately aroused heated discussions.

Before the last lockout, this situation was very common, because in the 90s, there were still a large number of players who entered the NBA after finishing their junior or senior years, like Duncan. However, after the lockout, a large number of freshmen and high school students entered the NBA. "Children" became the pillars of a city's basketball, and those with poor mental capacity collapsed immediately.

For the Eagles, on October 10th, the last morning of the training camp, they came to the Phillips Arena early together, in order to see the top 7 player strength lists announced by the two major media at nine o'clock in the morning.

As for the team strength list, the Eagles players don't need to think about it to know that they are number one. The defending champion is not the number one. It is rare.

There was no super team born this summer. Although the Eagles split the lineup, they introduced Tracy McGrady, which should be ranked first.

The Eagles players care about the power rankings.

Among the rookies selected by the Eagles, Iguodala ranked 67, and the other four failed to make it into the top 60. Muhammad No. 410, Kevin Willis... [-] five.

The Eagles' five starters plus the sixth player all made it into the top 29. Kwame Brown's No. 20, Prince's No. 20 seven, and Jason Terry's No. [-] three. This has long been determined.

Only Liu Mang, McGrady, and Rasheed Wallace have not been confirmed yet.

In the end, Rasheed Wallace ranked No.16. He is personally very satisfied with this ranking, which is much better than the top [-] in previous years.

When the rankings of Liu Mang and McGrady were announced, everyone congratulated McGrady.

"Our team also has the number one in the league! Congratulations, Tracy." Although Jason Terry was a little dissatisfied with not being in the top [-], his congratulations to his teammates were sincere, like those rookies, he ignored them.

"Hahahaha... I'm just lucky. They think that I can play well after joining the team because of your teammates..." McGrady was also very happy. He never thought that he would be in the top three of the two most authoritative lists, and ESPN directly ranked him first!

Seeing the cheap and good-looking McGrady, Liu Mang ignores this guy, it's so annoying, he became the number one in combat power when he first came, where do you put the young master?Don't pass the ball to this guy... It seems that McGrady is the support core this year, don't give this guy an assist!Cast by yourself!
However, what Liu Mang cares about is not the power rankings, but the team rankings.

"No one ranks the Suns in the top ten?" Liu Mang knows why the Suns are so memorable. Apart from their good play, they were not favored at all before Nash joined the Suns. They all thought that the team was just a bunch of stats. The most impressive thing was the explosion without expectations.

……

The Eagles are ranked first in the strength list, and not many fans are dissatisfied. The defending champion, McGrady is ranked in the top three. There is nothing wrong with it. After joining the Eagles, if the Eagles continue to maintain their previous record, McGrady is already strong.

Of course, it's a big problem to be ranked first, but, James is tenth!This is a big problem!

Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Marbury, Peja, Ray Allen, Stoudemire, Marion, O'Neal, Artest, Ben Wallace... a lot of first-class or top stars, starting to hate James!

Like McGrady and Liu Mang, who are definitely in the top ten, they enter the top ten, even if McGrady ranks first, it is just a controversy.

But ESPN ranked James in the top ten, that is to hate James!
Moreover, even neutral fans feel that this ranking is a bit unreasonable.

On Liu Mang's side, he saw many stars attacking ESPN and James, and seeing online fans' dissatisfaction with ESPN and James. Liu Mang mourned for Xiao Zhan. He knew that ESPN and the league were creating topics for James. Pushing him to the topic was a means of the star-making movement.

However, James' Cavaliers do not have the strength to support James' entry into the top ten.

"Poor little Lebang, come on." Liu Mang laughed for a long time looking at the posts on the online forum, felt sorry for James for a few seconds, and laughed for more than ten minutes.

Liu Mang doesn't think there is any problem with James' ability to rank in the top ten next season. During the Olympics, James' ability rating had already reached 87. By the end of the training together, he had already reached 89. However, 89 to 90 is a hurdle, but Liu Mang believes that with James' talent, he will definitely be able to break through to the top star before the end of this season.

But based on James' performance last season and the team's record, 100% does not have the strength of the top ten. Ranking [-] or [-] like in Sports Illustrated is based on talent.

Liu Mang turned off his computer and packed his things, headed to the airport and prepared to fly to Miami with the team. The Eastern throne was finally won, and there was another challenger like the Heat. Liu Mang felt a lot of pressure. There were fat people and big cheeks waiting there. The preseason game has already arrived.

……

The appearance of six or seven o'clock in the next chapter will be updated.

(End of this chapter)