Zhiba NBA

Chapter 41 (Forty) Hunting

Cuban boss is an optimist. At the moment he is sitting in the home locker room and looking at the favorite players in front of him, and he is quite happy in his heart.

The lineup of the Mavericks in the new season is nothing short of luxurious.On the basis of retaining the three Musketeers of Finley, Nowitzki, and Nash, Xia Tian introduced the power forward Antawn Jamison in his prime.Before the start of the regular season on October 10, LaFrentz plus the 20 first-round pick and two additional players were exchanged for Anthony Walker, one of the Celtics' twin stars, who has a maximum annual salary of 04 million.

Since taking over the team in 2000, Cuban's boss has watched the team's record continue to improve.Especially last season, they eliminated the Kings, a traditional strong team, and lost 6 games against the championship Spurs, finishing runner-up in the Western Conference. This gave Cuban and Don Nelson too much confidence.They are ambitious and determined to bring Dallas a championship. For this reason, Cuban did not hesitate to squander money and snap up big-name players.

"The Rockets are a good team. The playoffs even caused a lot of trouble for the Spurs." Old Nelson encouraged the players: "But we swept them last season, and they didn't make any big moves in the summer, and the main players didn't change."

"Yeah, shooting rockets gets me excited. It's like a hunter finds his game," Finley said with a wide grin.

"The Rockets are quite capable, so they shouldn't be so careless." Dirk Nowitzki thought in his heart, but didn't say it out loud.Although he is already the boss of the team in terms of strength, Finley is older.Dirk is still a foreigner, and at the age of 25, he is still unwilling to stand up and dominate the team's locker room atmosphere.

"Then let's experience what Michael said about hunting!" new players Anthony Walker and Antawn Jamison laughed.

"That's right, our real opponents to win the championship are the Spurs and the Lakers! Down with the Rockets!" Nelson spoke impassionedly.The head coach and owner of this team are passionate. They think that the start of 5 wins and 3 losses is just the pain caused by the running-in of the new lineup, and they don't realize that the players have already swelled up.This season will not be as smooth as the two of them imagined.

***
In the visiting team's locker room, the atmosphere is much more serious.The Rockets soldiers who usually chatted non-stop also fell silent, which is understandable, after all, they lost too much against Dallas before.

Tang Shuai had no choice but to stand up and break the silence. He took the initiative to ask: "The Mavericks are our old rivals. Hakim, tell me what you know about the Mavericks this season?"

Dameng respected Lao Tang from the bottom of his heart, and he replied earnestly: "The Mavericks swept us 4-0 last season. Although they lost a few players such as LaFrentz and Van Exel this season, the main three cores have not moved. They have also introduced several new players with good strength, especially Walker and Jamison. They are considered stars. I think they are very strong and are one of our main competitors in the West."

"I think the Mavericks are too eager for success. This kind of random signings is undoubtedly self-defeating." The person who dared to refute the old captain face-to-face was naturally Wang Yuanfei. He stated unhurriedly: "Walker was known as a statistic brush in the first half of his career. He didn't shoot well. It can more accurately reflect the scoring efficiency of a player than the field goal percentage. Last season, Walker’s TS% was an outrageous 46.7%, which is obviously lower than the league average of 51.9%. Relatively speaking, Jamison’s offensive efficiency is a bit better, reaching 54.2% last season, but his rebounding is also weak.”

"That is to say, if I am facing Walker, I might as well let him shoot more and block his inside cuts more." Wallace immediately followed Yuan Fei's thinking.

"That's right, and pay attention to blocking his passing lanes. Walker has organizational skills. But his wave shot is too deadly, even surpassing his advantages." Yuan Fei continued to analyze: "In addition, Dallas' biggest mistake is ignoring the diversity and compatibility of players. They replaced the defensive center LaFrentz, so that only the big bamboo stick Bradley is left as a pure center, and the rest are marginal substitutes with little strength. A shooting power forward with mediocre confrontation ability. Positions and styles of play overlap, which is short-sighted for team building.”

"Isn't their fourth position very crowded now?" Wang Zhizhi's interest also came. The Mavericks are his old club, and Da Zhi was Nowitzki's substitute back then.

This time, assistant coach Curry (who was responsible for researching the opponent's video) answered: "In the past few games, their solution was to move Nowitzki to the 5th position and start with Walker. Jamison and Bradley came on as substitute insiders."

"We have played against the Mavericks a lot, and it is very clear. Nowitzki is a very capable star, but he is a pure power forward. As a center, although he has sufficient height and skills, he lacks tonnage and athletic ability. His rebounding is slightly insufficient, and his ability to protect the frame is not enough." Tang Shuai analyzed.

"That's right, the Germans are different from Duncan. Duncan has no problem playing power forward and center, but the Mavericks' three power forwards are very difficult to play center. This will cause loopholes in their interior defense. And this problem is not easy to solve with tactical arrangements. It may plague the Dallas people throughout the season." Yuan Fei concluded: "The Mavericks are not as strong as last season. This is a good opportunity for us to end our losing streak and kill them!"

(Supplementary Note: 1. In the 2002-03 season, the Mavericks ranked ninth in the league in defense. In the 03-04 season, they fell to the 26th in the league, which is the fourth from the bottom. The data proves that the above analysis is correct, and Nowitzki is not suitable to be a center. 2. How bad is Walker's COSCO shooting? As of the creation date, he hits the 28th most three-pointers in NBA history, but his shooting percentage is only 32.5%, the bottom of the top 30 in history.)
***
As soon as the Mavericks players appeared on the field, the home fans immediately gave them warm cheers.Walker and Finley laughed even more, shouting: "The hunt has begun!"

Does this provocation make sense?Of course there is.McGrady squinted his sleepy eyes at Finley, and there seemed to be some anger in his eyes.

Wallace stared hard at Walker and grinned.

Billups looked at Nash with a wary look.He is well aware that other players on the Mavericks will carelessly underestimate the enemy, but the calm commander Nash will not.

However, Yuan Fei, Tang Shuai, Smith and Curry did not pay attention to the subtle changes among the players, and were still exchanging their views on the game.

"The Mavericks' starting frontcourt trio is Nowitzki, Walker and Danny Fortson. Fortson played for the Warriors last season, but was taken away by the young Murphy. In the end, he averaged only 3.5+4.3 per game, and his performance was sluggish." Curry introduced.

"This player still has some strength. He has a good sense of rebounding and is not afraid of confrontation. Combining him with Nowitzki and Walker should be Nelson to make up for their lack of toughness on the defensive end." Smith has been in the league for many years and is familiar with these unknown players.

The game is on!Nowitzki and Okur came up to each strike once, Nash passed the ball to Walker, and Wallace, who was defending Walker, stood 2 meters away in front of him and made an arrogant "come on" gesture.

Walker was also the second-in-command in the Celtics before, and he has always been treated by big-name players. How could he stand the provocation of the young Wallace? He did not hesitate to shoot a three-pointer, and the ball bounced out of the frame.

But the ball bounced far, Yao Ming and Okur Shuangta failed to grab it, but Finley grabbed the offensive rebound and passed it back to Walker.Walker attracted a pass to Finley, who successfully broke through and scored a layup.

"The hunt has begun!" The two masters shouted again arrogantly!

　This chapter mainly talks about the operating rules of the NBA. Good players may not be suitable for the team. When signing up, you must choose the right ones, not necessarily the good ones.There have been examples of this in recent years, do you remember?Still in Dallas, the Mavericks ranked first in offense in the first half of the 14-15 season. After the introduction of Rondo, it declined in all aspects, and was eventually bloodbathed by the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)