The Strongest Bishop in the NBA

The start of the NBA2013-14 regular season is October 5th. On this day, the Wizards will fly to Wukesong Arena in the capital of China, where they will have a preseason matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers.

As a head coach, although Wang Xiao's exposure rate is not as good as that of players, the honors he has won still make him well-known in China, not to mention that the Wizards team also has Yi Jianlian, the current top player in China's men's basketball team.

After Dayao retired, the Wizards basically became the home team of Huaxia, and the record of the Wizards also made Huaxia fans feel very proud. After all, there are more people in this world who like strong players, and no one likes to watch them lose all the time. ball game.

Naturally, Stern would not let go of such a good publicity opportunity. He hurriedly arranged the Wizards and the Lakers, the two most popular teams in China, together in the preseason, and specially called the general manager of the Wizards before the game Grunfeld, I told you to try to let the team's stars play a game in this game, even if it is only a few minutes.

This made Grunfeld very unhappy. The reason for his displeasure was naturally not that Stern was dictating the team, but that Stern's behavior was completely exposing his scars.

As a general manager, he has no control over the team at all, and the Wizards are completely in the hands of Wang Xiao.

Of course, Wang Xiao would not refuse such a thing.

It has not been a year or two for the NBA to collect money in China. Basically, every year in the preseason games, China's arenas are full of seats, and this time it may be the same.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally a good reward to allow the team's stars to appear on the field and give the fans the greatest sense of satisfaction, at least it should be worth the fare, right?

Throughout the preseason game, Curry and other team core players played for more than 25 minutes, and they performed very actively on the court. Various halftime three-pointers, inside lobs and dunks, the atmosphere in the entire arena was not good. down too.

Compared with the Wizards, the Lakers look a bit bleak.

Kobe was reimbursed for the season, Howard left Cleveland, and the biggest stars in the Lakers were Steve Nash and Pau Gasol.

And the time for the two of them to appear on the stage is not much.

Nash is over 40 years old, and he still has an injury. He just played a symbolic two minutes in the first game and then left.

Gasol's appearance time was slightly longer, but only less than ten minutes.

The main players of the Lakers' appearance are all a group of unknown young players.

As a result, the situation on the court was completely one-sided, and Wukesong seemed to be the home court of the Wizards.

In the end, the score of this preseason game was fixed at 131:97, and the Wizards beat the Lakers by 34 points.

Subsequently, the few remaining preseason games of the Wizards were all played in the United States.

At this time, people were a little surprised to find that the Wizards actually changed the habits of the previous seasons. They did not use a lot of rotations and lineup attempts in the preseason, but only used a few fixed lineups. The most used lineups of the season.

Such a result is that the Wizards ended their preseason journey with a complete victory.

This is actually not surprising at all.

Not to mention that Curry and others participated in every game before the season, and the average playing time reached about 20 minutes. Even if Curry and other cores are left aside, it is not easy to mess with the Wizards' bench lineup.

Isaiah Thomas + Jimmy Butler + Chandler Parsons plus Draymond Green + Rudy Gobert...

Such a lineup, even if it is directly used as the starter, and then paired with Caron Butler as the sixth man, placed in the Eastern Conference, is still at a level that can reach the playoffs!

Using this lineup to play against a team that basically played games on the bench in the preseason is definitely quite a bullying thing.

It's not that Wang Xiao wants to abuse food, but since his goal is to break the Bulls' 72 wins, he must make some preparations for it.

It is absolutely necessary for the players to better find their status and to be familiar with each other's style of play.

From this point of view, the Wizards have a unique advantage this season-teammates are familiar with each other.

The four-man combination of Curry, Thompson, Leonard and George has been around for two years, and this season is about to mark its third.

They are very familiar with each other and have a tacit understanding, and they can also play a better coordination effect on the field.

Last season, the only main players who left the team were Whiteside and Jamison. The newly added Gobert was very similar in style to the previous Jordan, McGee and Whiteside, and he became familiar very quickly.

And Draymond Green can take on more tasks on the court after a season of training.

With the blessing of these factors, the Wizards have a great chance of breaking the Bulls' 72 wins. This is also the reason why Wang Xiao dared to say such "big words".

After the preseason ended with all victories and all big victories, the momentum of the Wizards team has reached its peak.

Up to the main core like Curry, down to the bench substitute like Thackeray who has almost no playing time, they are all united by the same goal... The Bulls have a record of 72 wins and 10 losses!

Finally, the NBA regular season has officially begun!

...

On October 30, the Wizards ushered in a challenge from the Cleveland Cavaliers at home.

I have to admit that Stern knows how to attract fans' attention, and he doesn't pretend at all in the schedule.

Fans all over the world are very curious about what will happen to the Cavaliers, who have won two consecutive championships and can be called an invincible team, when they meet the Cavaliers who have formed the Big Four in the new season.

For the Wizards, the starting five are Curry, Thompson, Leonard, George and Gobert. Except for Gobert who replaced Whiteside, there is no change in the lineup from last season.

On the other hand, the Cavaliers' starters are Irving, JR. Smith, James, Love and Howard.

In the summer, the Cavaliers signed shooting guard JR Smith with the only mid-level contract option available.

At that time, the Cavaliers faced a very difficult decision. After all, there was only one mid-level contract, but there were many players who could match this price in the free market.

In the end, after many considerations, they chose JR Smith, who averaged 18.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in the Knicks last season.

Smith's contract, in Wang Xiao's view, is still worth the money. Although JR. Smith was criticized by fans for his brain-dead moment in the 18th Finals, his own strength is still remarkable. What's more, what the Cavaliers offered him was just a mid-level contract worth around six million.

Compared with the tens of millions of contracts paid by another Space Knights team to renew his contract in 2016, this middle-class contract can really be described as high quality and low price.