Legend of Tomorrow

In October, the Suns played 7 preseason games, and the results were not very good.

Because Marion played in the World Championships on behalf of the Dream Team 5, he didn't get much rest in the summer and reduced his playing time. Guo Xu plays a lot of time and uses the preseason games to get in touch with his teammates.

Frank Johnson gave the marginal players a lot of playing time, inspected the players, and determined the final candidates to stay on the team. This is the best selection method among the dwarves, and it is of little use to stay.

Davon Brown is 206cm tall and weighs 91kg. He relies purely on his body to play. His offense with the ball is average and his shooting is poor.

Adam Harrington is 196cm tall and weighs 91kg. His defense is very poor and his ability to catch and shoot is acceptable. When attacking with the ball, he just hits randomly and his shooting rate is very low.

Only Maurice Evans is somewhat useful. He is 196cm tall and weighs 100kg. He is very strong, can catch and shoot, and is relatively active on the defensive end.

In Guo Xu's previous life, Morris left his name in the NBA. He entered the NBA without the draft and played for 9 seasons, playing for 7 teams. His peak was with the Magic, averaging 9.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1 assist per game.

The Suns' preseason tactics are very simple, just pick and roll. The two inside lines are separated. Guo Xu plays the pick-and-roll and then breaks through with the ball, attracting double teams and passing the ball. When no one is double-teaming him, he plays by himself. Joe Johnson on the wing can also run to catch and shoot in the No. 2 position.

The Suns' offense is good, especially when Guo Xu is on the court, but their defense is a mess and they can't defend the pick-and-roll.

When Tsakalidis and Gugliotta are on the court together, the Suns' pick-and-roll defense is probably worse than that of the Chinese national team. It's like sending the twin towers of Yao Ming and Battelle. The opponent can cover and shoot from the outside.

Haslem is too fat to run and can't keep up with defenders in pick-and-rolls. Stoudemire has defensive awareness issues and can keep up with defenders, but he flies away as soon as the opponent sways him, and his head is flat when he jumps.

Nene has the strength to fight in the low post and the speed to defend pick-and-rolls, but he has problems communicating in English and the coach doesn't like to use him.

The Suns lost to the Nets 97-103 in the first game and lost to the Knicks 93-97 in the second game.

The Suns finally won Game 3, defeating the Bulls 92-75.

The Bulls have been hyped by the media all summer, but the offense is still in a mess. No. 1 pick Jay Williams is out with a slight injury, and the Bulls have almost no points inside.

Haslem performed well in the game, guarding Baby Shark Eddy Curry, who frequently used his height advantage to challenge Haslem for jump shots and hook shots.

Most missed the basket.

Unfortunately, veteran Kukoc injured his knee and will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks.

In the fourth game, the Suns defeated the Rockets who lacked Yao Ming. The inside advantage was very obvious, and Guo Xu's performance on the outside was also better than Steve Francis.

After that, the Suns lost to the Lakers, SuperSonics, and Warriors in O'Neal's absence, ending the preseason with 2 wins and 5 losses.

What makes Guo Xu depressed is that the Suns lost so many games not because of the difference in strength, but because of head coach Frank Johnson's random formation and unreasonable combination of players.

Before the start of each game, Frank must emphasize defense and positional offense to ensure the success rate of offense. His so-called success rate is to arrange the extremely slow Twin Towers to be on the court together, slowly attack slowly, slowly guard the penalty area, let the opponent shoot from the outside, and then protect the rebounds, which is euphemistically called zone defense!

Now many teams in the NBA have begun to study and implement zone defense tactics, dividing 5 or 4 areas, and each player has a fixed area to defend. Usually the point guard is responsible for defending the opponent's point guard and is not responsible for the area.

The problem is that the Suns play a zone defense, and the heavy inside line really stands near the penalty area. The opponent runs to the two corners to catch and shoot without ball cover, and the inside line does not interfere.

How is this a zone defense? It’s clearly “not on guard”! O'Neal did this when the Big Three of the Lakers were brushing up data. But O'Neal's opponents can vomit blood on the offensive end, and Tsakalidis and Gugliotta are also on the offensive end.

The Suns' defensive method is effective against a team like the Spurs that focuses on offense. It is also difficult to defend against the Lakers, but against a team that focuses on outside shooting, it is almost certain to lose.

After the preseason, the media was even less optimistic about the Suns, thinking that their style of play was no different from last season, relying on the stars' personal ability to attack and having poor defense.

The preseason games are just practice games, for the purpose of running in the lineup and testing the new players. It is difficult for Frank's tactics to score more than 100 points, and Guo Xu did not raise any objections. After all, Marion only plays fifteen minutes per game, so he will definitely be stronger if he plays well in the regular season.

D'Antoni has come to the Suns as the first assistant coach. He will discuss tactics with Frank. Guo Xu believes that D'Antoni will definitely propose to speed up the tempo and play run-and-gun, and will not keep pushing the position so half-heartedly.

Many people also say that Guo Xu is a defensive black hole. It's like the Suns' defense was so good before he came. They only lost fewer points by slowing down the rhythm of offense and defense transitions.

The first phase of the NBA's strength rankings was released. The Suns were underestimated by all experts, ranking only 19th in the league. They were not predicted to make the playoffs. Even with this evaluation, many experts felt that they were overestimating the Suns.

There is a huge gap between the strength of the Suns' interior players and O'Neal, and Marion, the second in charge, is far inferior to Kobe. Jason Guo leads these newcomers to achieve good results, unless a miracle happens. He may not do better than Marbury. Before Kidd left, The Suns were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Jason's high shooting percentage in the Lakers is based on the premise that his superstar teammates attract defense. Now he will bear more pressure on the offensive end. Many fans think he has the potential to become the scoring champion. The truth will be revealed this year.

More than singing and dancing, Jason Guo is number one in the league, but no one knows how good he is at leading a team. He has not done this yet. I am not optimistic about him becoming the core of a team at the age of 21.

During the preseason, the China Asian Games ended. The Chinese team defeated South Korea in the final and successfully won a gold medal. The black 30 seconds did not appear when Wang Zhizhi was on the court. China's inside line completely destroyed the South Korean penalty area, and the outside players made bold shots. , there is a high chance of getting the rebound even if your teammates don't hit it.

Yao Ming scored 23 points and 22 rebounds. Wang Zhizhi also scored 20 points and 6 rebounds. Battelle did not play for a minute. After the setback in the World Championships, the Chinese head coach understood the importance of guarding against pick-and-rolls. Battelle and Yao Ming were on the court together, which was a dead end. .

South Korea failed to shoot three-pointers from the outside and was exhausted on the defensive end.

Wang Zhizhi returned to the United States and joined the Celtics on October 20 for 6 million in three years.

The Green Army management and coaching staff are very relieved after seeing Wang Zhizhi's performance in the international arena. 2 million is not expensive to dig a space-out big man who can play two positions and shoot three-pointers. What's more, Wang Zhizhi can also attract Chinese fans. .

After signing the contract, Chinese fans have begun to look forward to the Chinese Derby, although the Eastern and Western teams only play twice a season.

All teams took a break to prepare for the regular season. The Suns did not have a game on the first day. They challenged the SuperSonics away from home on the 30th. They had a full 4-day break and could make up for all the energy they had consumed.

After discussions with the uniform team, the Suns' 15-man lineup was determined, with eight insiders.

Center: Jake Tsakalidis, Nene Hilario, Udonis Haslem, Scott Williams.

Power forwards: Amare Stoudemire, Tom Gugliotta, Chris Crawford, Toni Kukoc.

Small Forward: Shawn Marion, Casey Jacobson.

Shooting guards: Joe Johnson, Maurice Evans, Adam Harrington.

Point guard: Guo Xu, Rafe Alston.