shooting guard era

Chapter 2 2. The Charlotte Bobcats

Compared to other second-round picks who had to wait until after the summer league to determine whether they had a chance to stay in the NBA, Ye Han was lucky. Bobcats manager Byrne Price invited the two of them to a coffee shop the next day. Discuss contracts with Okafor.

The Bobcats are different from those old teams that need reinforcements. This new team has no so-called attractiveness. The most important thing is to stabilize the team's existing assets as soon as possible.

As a new team, the other Bobcat players were selected from the eight players retained by other teams. To put it bluntly, except for Ye Han and Okafor who are not wanted by other teams, so it is better to sign them first Top priority for the Bobcats.

After Noah's hard-talking negotiations, the contract amount was successfully increased by 170 million for two years, the second year is non-guaranteed, Ye Han happily signed the contract.

After the hot rookies signed their contracts, they participated in many activities, many press conferences, and Okafor, Ben Gordon even signed endorsements with Adidas.

As for Ye Han, no one cares about him all the time, and he came to the small town of Charlotte with Noah.

Charlotte, can be regarded as the most backward capital in the United States, more than 60.00% of the people are farmers.

As the capital of North Carolina, Charlotte perfectly represents the state, with a sparse population. As the capital, the population is actually less than one million.

The urban area of ​​Charlotte is very small and primitive, with an area of ​​13 square kilometers and less than 1000 million people, and [-]% of the population is farmers.

Ye Han has stayed in China for 16 years, and he was not used to it when he first came to the United States. One of the things is that the United States is too "rural" compared to China.

Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, is similar to the third-tier cities in China, and far inferior to the provincial capitals in China. It can be seen in New York and Los Angeles with high-rise buildings like Shanghai and Shenzhen, and it is also a bustling area. Others To people who have seen places like Shanghai and Shenzhen, the place looks like a county town.

Charlotte... In Ye Han's eyes, it is just a small town. There are very few buildings with more than five floors. There are only four tall shopping malls in the city center and the building that is the center of the World Bank. They are very conspicuous, but they are really simple.

In fact, although there are few people here, and most of them are farmers, but like most wealthy cities in the United States, the economy here is developing very well, and the light industry and agricultural and sideline products are very famous in the United States.

It is not unreasonable for the Bobcats to choose to bring the NBA team back to this city again. At least people here will not begrudge money to buy tickets to watch the game. No, the first season of the Bobcats has not yet started, and the package tickets have long been sold out.

Due to the sparse population, the housing prices here are very cheap, and the rent is also very cheap. I rented a single-family villa located in the suburbs of the city, less than three kilometers away from the Time Warner Center at the Lynx Arena, for just $[-].

It is said that it is a suburb, and it is only a 10-minute drive from the city center.

When they came to their new home, Ye Han and Noah would live here for at least a year.

Ye Han was startled when he heard the landlord say that this villa covers an area of ​​200 pings, that is, about 600 square meters, with 5 rooms, 3 living rooms, a swimming pool, a home theater, and a basketball court. Staying for a while, the property tax of nearly 30% a year is a headache for ordinary middle-class families, but it is not a problem for Ye Han now! If you want to buy such a big house in China for 240 million, you can only buy it in the mountains.

The landlord wanted to sell the house a long time ago, and now he rents it out just to avoid losing money, and there is nothing left except the property tax.

After fixing the house, Ye Han came to the team meeting the next day.

The first thing that will be reconciled is the team training.

Bobcats lineup really sucks, except for Steve Smith, an old All-Star, everyone else is a fringe figure from other teams.

Gerald Wallace, a first-round pick in 01 from the Kings, this year is the last year of his contract. He has played in the NBA for three years and averaged 3 points per game. A regular, even a contender for the championship, there is no space for him, and he was given up in the past in the contract year.

With a height of 98 meters and a weight of [-] kilograms, he has excellent physical fitness and a standard small forward figure. Nee Bickerstaff was very pleased.

Okafor is very tough!There is also a jumper in the penalty area, and he used a crushing attitude to blow up all the insiders of the matchup in the team training. Jamal Thompson and Jahidi White, the two centers who played in the Magic and the Suns last season, are not Olympic at all. Cafu's opponent, let Bickerstaff breathe a sigh of relief.

In the past few years, there have been too many high-ranking big men on the inside. Okafor has flourished in the NCAA. The Bobcats were able to select him thanks to the high school student selected by the Magic, but Bickerstaff and the management are still very worried. After all The No. [-] big man selected by the Grizzlies two years ago was a mess, and the Pistons' No. [-] big man last year was even worse. Now that Okafor has a bit of Duncan's shadow, the Bobcats management is worried. Finally let go.

In the summer league, Gerald Wallace and Okafor were simply an invincible combination. As long as the two were on the court, the opponent's team composed of rookies, undrafted players, and NBDL players could not stop them.

Okafor's voice for the best rookie is getting louder and louder. Howard, the No. [-] pick on the Magic's side, has made Orlando fans unhappy. There is basically no offense with the ball. In the summer league, where everyone is eager to express themselves, they are completely lost.

Ye Han also couldn't get the right to shoot. The team's point guards Eddie House and Jason Hart, two 1.8-meter-five point guards, are two lone wolves. In order to compete for the starting lineup, they fought hard. Life cast.

But it also allowed Ye Han to show his own characteristics, grabbing a lot of offensive rebounds, which made Bickerstaff shine.

Ye Han played an average of 15 minutes per game in the summer league, and got seven or eight rebounds in each game, most of which were offensive rebounds, and the outside line was too strong.

But this is only the summer league, and it didn't make much impact.

After the summer league ended, the Bobcats lineup was finalized.

Point guards: Eddie House, Jason Hart, Blevin Knight, the first two are backup point guards obtained from other teams, Knight is a free agent this year, and was signed by the Bobcats A three-year 1000 million contract.

The three point guards are all short, and Knight is shorter than House and Hart, only 1.7 meters five.

Compared with House and Hart, what Bickerstaff likes about Knight is his passing. Although he is short, he passes the ball well. He averaged 7.2 assists per game in his seven-year career. He averaged 10 points and 8.6 assists per game in the Cavaliers, which was his rookie year.

Knight played for the Suns last season. Unfortunately, the Suns already had Marbury. Unlike Kidd, Marbury needed a lot of possessions. Knight was given up by the Suns, which happened to be cheaper for the Bobcats. The 30-year-old is in his prime. A high-quality point guard.

Shooting guards: Ye Han, Termar Sly.

Well, the Bobcats only have Ye Han as a shooting guard, and Sly is the end player of the Nets' bench. He has played for two years and scored 12 points in total, and basically has no chance to play.

This is also the point that Noah and Ye Han are very satisfied with being selected by the Bobcats. When Ye Han was selected, the Bobcats didn't even have a shooting guard!Therefore, there must be many opportunities for Ye Han to perform in his rookie year.

This is also the reason why the Bobcats rushed to sign the contract after selecting Ye Han. In the past year, while observing Okafor, the Bobcats management was very impressed with Ye Han.

Small forwards: Gerald Wallace, Steve Smith, Jason Kapono, Theron Smith.

Wallace relied on his excellent performance in the summer to lock the Bobcats' starting small forward position. Although Steve Smith is old, it is still no problem to play as a substitute.

Jason Kapono, the rookie of the Cavaliers last year, can play both positions of small forward and shooting guard. His defense is extremely bad, but his three-point accuracy and close to [-]% of the three-pointers made Bickerstaff in the summer. The league signed him, hoping to fill the firepower of the bench.

Theron Smith, well, another big roster pick.

Power forwards: Melvin Eli, Emeka Okafor.

Centers: Jahidi White, Jamal Sampson, Primoz Brezek.

In this prosperous age of power forwards and shooting guards, every team has good power forwards and shooting guards. Except for the Bobcats, the high-quality power forwards of other teams are naturally impossible for the Bobcats to pick from those lists that the Bobcats randomly pick. , the best is Eli, who averaged 11 points and 5 rebounds per game in 4 minutes of playing time for the Clippers last season, which is a good efficiency.

In this era of withering centers, the Bobcats can get Okafor, let Charlotte fans see the hope of the team, at least not a permanent bad team.

Bickerstaff finally decided to play Okafor at power forward and form a twin-tower lineup with Primoz Brezek, acquired from the Pacers.

Blaizek's height of [-] meters, lateral movement and single defense make people shine. He didn't get a chance to play in the Pacers in the past three seasons. The Pacers have Jermaine O'Neal, Artest, and Stephen Jackson. The frontcourt is full of iron men, so naturally there is no room for others to play.

It can be said that the Bobcats have found a good role player again.

In this way, the lineup of the Bobcats is actually not bad, at least much better than the Eagles next door. Except for the big ass Anthony Walker, the Hawks are not as attractive as the Bobcats lineup.

In September, the owner of the Bobcats who confirmed the lineup finally had a month off, waiting for the training camp in October.

(End of this chapter)