NBA: I am the god of basketball

Chapter 152 The Magic's New Ship Lineup
The time came to the end of September, and the preseason of the NBA9-2009 season is coming.

All teams in the league have begun to call players to report to the team and start preparing for the new season.

The Magic team recently held a new season photo shoot and a press conference to welcome new players.

At the press conference, the general manager of the Magic team enthusiastically introduced Jamal Crawford and other new team members to the local fans in Orlando, and gave a look forward to the new season of the Magic team.

But most fans didn't buy it, and they can't be blamed for that.

The outside media can generally give a B rating to the Magic’s signings in the summer, which is not too low. After all, even the Cavaliers, which brought in O’Neal and Carter at the same time in the summer, only got an A- rating. , Of course, this is also related to the high salaries of the two superstars and the state past their peak.

For Magic fans, in their perspective, the team missed Carter in the summer and chose Crawford and two unknown players.

For this reason, they also let Turkoglu go. The strength of the new season may not rise but decline, and the future is uncertain.

However, Magic fans are still reasonable. Although the general manager of the team has used various methods to blame Wang Chao, but not many of them will blame Wang Chao. After all, Wang Chao is the rise of the Magic team in the past two years. The reason is also the biggest contributor to winning the championship.

Compared to criticizing Wang Chao, they scolded the management even more.

Is this the deal that Wang Chao forced the palace to ask for?Who the fuck are you fooling around with?Will the general manager of a dignified team be manipulated by a player?That's not how to shake the pot!Even if this is true, it only shows the incompetence of your management.

The general manager of the Magic team shot himself in the foot. At least when Wang Chao was still the core of the Magic team's scoring, his relationship with the fans would be in a honeymoon period, and it was definitely not something that could be shaken by some manipulation.

It's not just Orlando fans who are not optimistic about the Magic. Before the start of the new season, the Magic can only rank fourth in the strength rankings given by ESPN.

There is no suspense in the first place. It is the Cleveland Cavaliers who have just formed the Big Three. James + O'Neal + Carter is equivalent to two MVPs and three All-Star votes. The sun is declining, but it is enough to bring people infinite reverie.

Ranked second is the Los Angeles Lakers, who successfully retained their main lineup from last season.

Although they lost to the Magic in the tiebreaker of the finals, the Lakers, who were reversed by Wang Chao's three-pointer at the last moment, are generally considered to be a little bit of luck. If the tiebreaker is played again, it is still difficult to judge who will be the champion .

Ranked third is the Boston Celtics. Even though they lost to the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years, the Big Three are the Big Three after all, and Garnett's salary cut and contract extension this summer also freed up the Celtics. There is some salary space and the successful signing of former All-Star power forward Rasheed Wallace. Although they are all a group of veterans, their strength must not be underestimated.

The defending champion Orlando Magic ranks fourth. There are many factors to consider, the most important of which is the departure of starting forward Turkoglu.

As the most important ball handler of the Magic's rise in the past two years, Turkoglu is still very important to the Magic's tactical system.

Don't look at the Magic's so-called one-star four-shot, but there is an essential difference between Howard's one-star four-shot and James' one-star four-shot. Howard has never averaged more than 2 assists per game in his career. In his one-star four-shot system, he is actually a super blue-collar who grabs rebounds and defends inside.

It is Wang Chao and Turkoglu who really make the Magic have a strong offensive ability outside.

The existence of Wang Chao provides the highest ceiling for the Magic's outside firepower, while Turkoglu's existence determines the minimum lower limit of the team's outside firepower. His supporting assists can help other teammates shoot three-pointers under open positions.

Now that the Magic don't have Turkoglu, who should take over his original duties?Wang Chao?Or Nelson?
At least a group of professional basketball commentators feel that Turkoglu's position in the Magic is irreplaceable after some analysis, and the Magic's offensive ability in the new season without him will inevitably be affected.

Wang Chao dismissed the analysis of these so-called bricks called beasts. They know how to play basketball with a hammer?

As for the status of Turkoglu later, can Wang Chao, who is a time traveler, not know?
The two seasons of 07-08 and 08-09 were the two brightest seasons of Turkoglu's career. After these two seasons, Turkoglu is really dispensable to the team. Considering that the other party still needs an annual salary of 1200 million, it really doesn't matter.

The current lineup of the Magic is already perfect in Wang Chao's view.

Point guards: Jameer Nelson, Goran Dragic.

Shooting guards: Jamal Crawford, Aaron Afflalo.

Small forwards: Trevor Ariza, Matt Barnes.

Power forwards: Wang Chao, Channing Frye.

Center: Dwight Howard, Marcin Gortat.

All five positions have good substitutes, and these players will have excellent competitive status and performance in the next few years. In addition, Wang Chao and Howard, who have become stronger, are definitely the strongest players in the new season. None of the teams.

The complete and reasonable lineup makes Wang Chao full of confidence in the team's defense in the new season.

On the day the team took makeup photos, he also accepted media interviews.

The question that the reporters are most concerned about, of course, is to verify whether the Carter deal disclosed by the general manager of the Magic is true.

Regarding this question, Wang Chao chose not to talk about it as a diversion.

His goal has been successfully achieved, if he still brags proudly in front of the reporters, it will be a bit too crazy and boundless.

In the future, Wang Chao may dare to do this when his achievements reach Jordan's level, but there is no need to sow hatred now.

Seeing that there was no answer to this question from Wang Chao, the reporters could only change a question.

"SEPN's assessment of the strength of the Magic in the new season seems to be unsatisfactory, only ranking fourth in the league. Do you think the Magic still have a chance to defend their title?"

"Last season, we were No. [-] in the regular season and the NBA champion. Do you think we have a chance to defend the title?" Wang Chao looked at the other side and asked. "As a championship team, we have only one goal in the new season, and that is to successfully defend the league championship. If we fail to achieve this goal, it will be a failure. All the operations of the team throughout the summer are also aimed at defending the championship."

Wang Chao's sonorous and forceful answer, anyone who heard this interview can feel his strong will to compete for the championship.

In early October, the NBA preseason begins.

As in the past, as a warm-up match for each team before the regular season, there is not much time for the main players to appear in the preseason, and more time will be given to the role players on the bench to play.

The players with the most playing time for the Magic are undoubtedly the three players they acquired in the summer, Jamal Crawford, Trevor Ariza and Channing Frye.

Unexpectedly, the Magic achieved 8 wins and 2 losses in the preseason, and the performances of several substitute rotation players were remarkable. Even the head coach of the team, Stan Van Gundy, was a little surprised.

"Did Wang Chao already understand their technical characteristics and abilities at that time?"

No wonder Van Gundy was surprised. The three players introduced by the team in the summer showed excellent personal abilities at least in the preseason and even in daily training.

The first is Jamal Crawford. He has demonstrated excellent ball-holding offensive ability as a shooting guard on the court. This kind of skill was only possessed by Wang Chao in the previous Magic team, including Nelson and Turkoglu. abilities are not particularly outstanding.

First-class dribbling skills, nerve-knives mid-range and long-range shooting, and one of the best breakthrough speeds among guards, these undoubtedly make Crawford have a very strong scoring explosive power on the field.

As for his shortcomings, his height of 1 meters is a little short for the shooting guard position. At the same time, he is light in weight, lacks strength, and lacks physical confrontation ability, so his performance on the defensive end is not stable.

But such shortcomings are completely irrelevant. The other player on the shooting guard, Aaron Afflalo, is a top-level defensive player with a tough style and is not afraid of physical confrontation. The two can complement each other very well on the field. effect.

Trevor Ariza's performance on the offensive end is not stable, especially as a 3D player, his three-pointer accuracy is really disappointing, and the nickname of Tiezha is not for nothing.

But as a striker, Ariza's defensive ability is enough to make up for his lack of stability in three-pointers.

Although Ariza has never been selected to the best defensive team in his entire career, his defense has been recognized by the league, and he is also recognized by the league as a high-quality 3D player template. In the future, Ariza will definitely be on the list for all 3D player rankings.

The Magic do not lack defenders at the forward position. Afflalo can play as a small forward, and Matt Barnes is an orthodox small forward. But even if the two are added together, the defensive effect is not as good as that of Ariza alone. strong.

In fact, in the daily training after the team assembled, Ariza had already defended the Magic's outside players all over. Except for Wang Chao, the offensive efficiency of the Magic's other outside players would be greatly weakened when they faced Ariza.

Compared with Crawford and Ariza, Channing Frye is relatively low-key.

But low-key does not mean that ability is also low.

After understanding Channing Frye's technical characteristics, Van Gundy clearly understood his role on the field.

As a big man with a height of 2 meters, Channing Frye's three-point shooting rate is quite amazing.

This is also what surprised Van Gundy, because in the first four years of his career, he didn't take many three-pointers. Last season, he averaged only 0.5 three-pointers per game, and his shooting percentage was 33.3%.

Van Gundy couldn't understand it, but Wang Chao knew very well that Channing Frye was still influenced by the team and coach at the beginning of his career.

He himself is an outside shooter with a style similar to Nowitzki and Jamison, but due to his height of 2 meters, both the Knicks and the Blazers require him to play as close to the inside as possible.

How can Frye, who has average physical confrontation ability, play outstandingly in the paint?
In the 09-10 season, after the rookie contract expired, Channing Frye chose to sign with Phoenix. At this time, the Suns traded the cancer-like Shaq to leave the team. The team returned to the era of running and bombing, and Frye was completely liberated. Almost perfectly integrated into the Suns' run-and-gun tactical system.

His average number of three-point shots per game has surged from 0.5 last season to 4.8, and he can hit 2.1 goals, and his three-point shooting percentage is as high as 43.9%, ranking third in the league that season. is par for the course.

If it is luck to select a player, then all three players have shining points, which can fully explain Wang Chao's vicious vision.

Van Gundy is keenly aware that Wang Chao has an amazing sense of smell in selecting players. In his third season with the Magic, Wang Chao has introduced as many as several players, except for Jamal Crawford. , Ariza, Channing Frye, last season Dragic, Barnes and Afflalo were also introduced under the advice of Wang Chao. These players have now become the main players of the team. Rotate role players and even develop objects.

What surprised Van Gundy even more was that Wang Chao had already figured out the positioning of these players.

Before the preseason, Wang Chao privately provided him with a list of starters and substitutes.

To his surprise, Wang Chao suggested that Afflalo should be the starting shooting guard in the new season, and Jamal Crawford, who had the third highest salary in the team and averaged 19.7 points per game last season, would be placed on the bench.

And Wang Chao himself will move from the position of power forward to small forward, and let Channing Frye be the team's starting power forward.

Originally, as a well-known head coach in the league, Stan Van Gundy subconsciously wanted to pick out the starting roster suggested by Wang Chao, in order to demonstrate the authority of his professional head coach.

However, after careful research and analysis with the assistant coaches, he was shocked to find that Wang Chao's starting roster was perfect, and it was completely designed for the current situation of the Magic.

The starting lineup is a standard one-star shooter. From Nelson at position [-] to Channing Frye at position [-], they are all players with astonishing accuracy from beyond the three-point line. At the same time, because position [-] is good at lateral movement and defense Afflalo, the team's perimeter defense has not declined compared to last season, but has increased. Only the offensive end has declined slightly due to the lack of Turkoglu and Pietrus, but considering that Wang Chao and Howard are both In the starting roster, as long as the pick-and-roll cooperation between the two is as effective as last season, the team's offensive ability will not drop too much.

Corresponding to this is the Magic's bench lineup.

The arrival of Jamal Crawford is like a shotgun change for the Magic bench. His offensive ability with the ball is a dimensionality reduction attack on the bench. Van Gundy can fully imagine that when the game progresses to the second quarter , When both sides are replaced by substitute players, what kind of mood will the other side face Crawford, who scores like cutting melons and vegetables.

Looking at the league, there are very few teams with this level of sixth man. One is the Spurs with Manu Ginobili, and the other is the Dallas Mavericks with Jason Terry.

"Huh? How come I don't know how to settle this account?"

Stan Van Gundy snapped his fingers, feeling blindsided.

"Didn't it mean that the team lost money by letting Turkoglu go? Why does it seem like a bloody profit now?"

(End of this chapter)