Versatile Point Forward

Chapter 414
In fact, this season is quite sad for the Trail Blazers. The competition in the West is too fierce.

In addition to them, the three young Thunder gradually matured, the Clippers after Paul joined, the Lakers who refused to accept the old Kobe, the Spurs led by GDP and Popovich, and the Grizzlies who renewed the contract of Gasol... These are all Difficult opponents, especially the Spurs, Lakers and Thunder, are definitely obstacles on the way for the Blazers to defend their title.

This also means that every team needs to make reinforcements before the trade deadline to further improve their own strength.Forget about other teams, as long as it is a team that thinks it has a chance to compete for the championship, it will definitely set off a bloodbath in the trading market.Many people think that the Trail Blazers won the championship just because of good luck. The western teams' eyes are almost all on the Heat. They think that as long as they accumulate more stars to handle the Heat, it will be fine.

Even so, their reinforcement operation has greatly threatened the situation of the Blazers, which forced the team to further improve the strength of the lineup.Paul Allen is an ambitious boss. At first he didn't think much of it, but after the Blazers won the championship last season, he was looking forward to the next championship. He even paid the luxury tax for the team. The signings are also in favor, after all, a champion has proved their vision.

Fortunately, the Trail Blazers' record has always been maintained at a very high level, closely following the Spurs and ranking second in the West, and even surpassing their old enemies, the Lakers.Speaking of the Spurs this season, they are indeed a bit abnormal. Popovich's team has always played dead in the first half of the regular season and waited until the end of the All-Star Weekend to start exerting force, but this season has performed from the beginning. So aggressive, no one knows what the old man is thinking.

But the Trail Blazers' second is not easy. The Lakers and Thunder have been closely behind, with a difference of less than 1.5 wins. For the long regular season, this is a very small gap. The stage has been pared down to 66 games as well.As long as the team in front is not careful and has a losing streak, it doesn't even need to be very long, the ranking will slide down like a slide in an instant, and it is normal to fall to the bottom half.

This season, after the draft, the Spurs got a rookie they are very optimistic about. To be precise, it is a newcomer who is very optimistic about general manager Buford, and he persuaded Popovich to come up with the young point guard George. • Hill was traded from the Pacers for Kawhi Leonard from San Diego State.Leonard is a small forward with strong defense and weak offense. His joining makes GDP spend a lot of energy on the defensive end, and Popovich also has to admire the vision of the old man.

This guy seems to match the Spurs' style. He never has any expression on his face. Even after a fast-break dunk, he always has a poker face, but his strength is indeed very strong. Although he looks inexperienced, he has Showed the potential to be one of the league's top perimeter defenders.

The Blazers lost against the Spurs for the first time this season. The reason was this young small forward. The victim was naturally the new Finals MVP Ye Feng.Ye Feng didn't realize how difficult this small forward who was put into the starting lineup by Popovich was after the game started. Leonard is not very experienced, but he has an indomitable energy, and his physical fitness is very good. His movements are also quite clean, his performance on the defensive end caught Ye Feng by surprise.

Although Ye Feng scored a double-double of 27 points and 11 assists, he used 27 shots to get these 23 points. The hit rate can be imagined, which fully reflects Leonard's power on the defensive end. .Had it not been for Aldridge's 32 points and 9 rebounds, the Blazers' loss might have been even uglier.Since that game, Leonard has been registered with the head coaches of the remaining 29 teams in the league. Not every rookie can defend the Finals MVP.

The only thing that makes McMillan feel gratified is that both Roy and Oden, who have returned from injury, performed well. He gave Roy nearly 20 minutes of playing time per game, and Roy can average 12.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, The data of 2.3 assists, the shooting percentage is close to 50%.Oden's time was less, and McMillan felt he needed more protection, resulting in Oden averaging only 15.1 minutes per game, but he still contributed 6.7 points and 7.2 rebounds.

But having said that, the Blazers are still a bit weak inside, except for Aldridge and Camby, there are basically no players who can make a name for themselves.The management has always hoped to strengthen the inside line, but unfortunately failed to find a suitable target.

But after the All-Star weekend, the Blazers management unexpectedly saw a suitable candidate in the free agent market, that is, power forward JJ Hickson, who had just been waived by the Kings.To say that Hickson is also a weirdo, when the league was suspended, he went to Europe to play for the Israeli Bnei Hashalon team, but he was cut off after only one game. The reason is very funny. He trained for two consecutive days If he was late, the team kicked him out.In the only game he played, although he scored 20 points and 8 rebounds, the team lost 39 points, which is really embarrassing.

Hickson was waived by the Kings on March 3 and is still unemployed, but he is the best choice that the Blazers management can find in the free agent market.Although Hickson averaged only 20 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in the Kings before, he started 5.1 games in the Cavaliers last season, averaged 66 minutes per game during the regular season, contributed 28.2 points and 13.8 rebounds, and shot Reaching 8.7%, it is an out-and-out strong insider.

In contrast, Babbitt is more like a small forward, and Kurt Thomas, who was signed with a one-year veteran's basic salary, is too old. You must know that he is 39 years old this year, and he should have retired at this age when he switched to a backcourt player.At that time, McMillan didn't expect him to be able to share the team's worries at the fourth position, just let him play occasionally to pass the garbage time.Now that he encounters a powerful power forward like Hickson, he naturally has to attack.

Originally, Hickson had reached an agreement with the Warriors to sign a contract with the Warriors once the severance period ended, but the Blazers decisively took over the remaining contract of Hickson and promised to renew his contract in the summer. A big protector is in the bag.

(End of this chapter)