The NBA started with helping Iverson win the championship

Chapter 312 The New Season Begins

There is no doubt that the Clippers signed Howard while sitting on the All-Star starters of Paul and Griffin, making this team full of competitiveness.

At least from the perspective of book strength, they already have the strength to compete with all teams in the league.

The Raptors and Warriors also rose one after another.

The Heat and the Pistons, the two powerhouses that have dominated the Eastern Conference for many years, have now officially announced that they have entered a lonely period.

The so-called 30 years in Hedong and 30 years in Hexi, the alliance is now in such a situation.

But this has little effect on the Mavericks.

Li Xun came to the Mavericks just to create a dynasty, no matter how strong the opponent is, Li Xun will definitely step over.

And now the Mavericks are not what they used to be.

With the release of the two draft picks, the Mavericks' lineup is gradually getting younger, and the powerful rookies in the lineup are now gradually moving closer to their peak.

For example, Clay, who is now in the third grade, in Li Xun's opinion, at least has the strength of the league's top three-point guard.

And Jiba is playing better and better now, and slowly ranks among the first-line on both offensive and defensive ends.

But don't expect Jiba's offensive and defensive ends to be top-notch, his upper limit is the first line.

But because it is very versatile, even if it is the first line, Jiba's role is not small.

During the entire offseason, Li Xun has been thinking about one thing, and that is how to find a way to trick Leonard of the Pistons into his own hands.

Don't look at Howard and Curry's departure from the team, which caused the Pistons' strength to decline sharply.

But the skinny camel is bigger than the horse, and now they still have Cousins ​​​​plus Vucevic's inside combination, and Leonard on the outside.

It's just that Leonard is still regarded by the Pistons as a blue-collar outsider.

If Leonard can be exchanged, then the Mavericks Dynasty will definitely succeed, without any doubt.

Unfortunately, Nelson's several attempts were rejected by the Pistons.

It may be that their boss is still angry about Li Xun's departure. If Li Xun hadn't left, how could the Pistons have collapsed in just one year.

Li Xun had no choice but to wait and see if there was a chance in the future.

Time flew by and it was mid-September.

The Mavericks team began to gather for training and prepare for the new season.

The veterans in the original team, after winning their first championship in their careers, retired and left the team.

Nowitzki certainly can not retire now, he still has a lot of fuel in the tank.

And Terry obviously has no intention of retiring, let alone leaving the team. The Mavericks are where he has dedicated half his life.

Kidd has retired and is currently working as an assistant coach for the Mavericks.

Marion left the team and got a two-year contract with the Cavaliers, worth a total of 1000 million. He may retire after these two seasons.

Before the training camp, Carter finally made a decision.

He also left the team.

The championship has already been won, and he feels that it is meaningless to stay with the Mavericks.

Are the Mavericks short of outside line now? Not at all.

If he stays, he won't get much playing time. As a high-spirited veteran, he still wants to get more playing time at the end of his career.

Carter's departure is actually good news for the newcomers of the Mavericks.

If Carter was there, it would be impossible for Carter to sit on the bench all the time due to affection.

At least 15 minutes of playing time must be guaranteed for him.

These 15 minutes may cause some newcomers to be unable to play.

Now that Carter is gone, the rookies will definitely have more playing time.

"Rick, I want Middleton to start [-] or [-] games in the new season."

"With his potential, it's too wasteful to put it on our Mavericks."

"It's better to let him play out, and then we sell them in exchange for some chips, so as to ensure that the Mavericks will continue to prosper."

During the training camp, Li Xun approached coach Carlisle to chat about Middleton's problem.

After a year of cooperation, the relationship between the two has been sublimated, and Li Xun directly called Carlisle's name.

"Of course, but Clay or Jimmy won't have any ideas?"

"These young people have just won the championship, and they are very proud. Let them play as substitutes for a period of time. I am afraid that they will have negative emotions."

Carlisle said worriedly.

Li Xun shook his head, "It's okay, Clay will definitely not have any ideas."

"As for Jimmy, he certainly doesn't dare to have any ideas."

"There are only twenty or thirty games, and it's not a long time."

Carlisle nodded, "However, are you sure that little guy can play in twenty or thirty games?"

"It's not going to be easy."

Speaking of this, Li Xun is very confident.

Middleton's style of play is very similar to singles Joe, which is well known.

And singles players like Joe can actually show their talents very easily.

They belong to the kind of offensive end point on the court. When their own ball is in possession, their teammates pull away and let them play singles.

As long as luck is not too bad, the data will not be bad.

Waited until the beginning of October, when the preseason started, and the Mavericks' lineup was initially determined.

The starting lineup for the preseason, center Gobert, power forward Green, small forward Giba, shooting guard Middleton and point guard Antetokounmpo.

Two people like Li Xun and Nowitzki did not appear in the preseason roster at all.

When the starting lineup of the Mavericks appeared, it directly caused the Suns fans on the scene to collapse.

Isn't the height of this ghost lineup a bit outrageous?
Of the five people on the field, none of them was less than two meters tall.

The most outrageous thing is, the point guard with a height of 211 cm?What the hell is this?

Li Xun did not come to the scene, but Kidd, as an assistant coach, came to the scene with the team.

Seeing the shocked appearance of the Suns fans, Kidd was very satisfied.

It's only here now, and it will be a shock when we start fighting in a while.

From the beginning of training in July to October, for a full three months, Kidd was very satisfied with Antetokounmpo's growth.

In the early stage, Kidd was not very concerned, because he felt that a 211 cm point guard was simply unrealistic.

But as the training progressed, he felt more and more that this matter was very reliable.

Antetokounmpo has an amazing talent in ball handling, and his speed and jumping ability are definitely not like a 211 cm big man.

The only thing that makes Kidd feel a little sorry is that Antetokounmpo's basket doesn't seem to be very good.

It didn't hurt at all, though, and Kidd's own basket wasn't any better.

And even Magic Johnson didn't know how to shoot in the early stages of his career, and many people felt that he was destined not to be able to shoot because his shooting posture was very weird.

It's not weird to the extent of Marion's three-eight push, but it's a bit similar to Green's current shooting posture.

But then it worked out.

This is nothing to Kidd. As a point guard, if he can control the ball well, pass the ball well, and have a good defense by the way, he is a good point guard.

Point guards and point guards must be able to control and organize, and scoring ability, at least in Kidd's view, is secondary.

After three months of training, Kidd felt that Antetokounmpo is very talented as a point guard. He has a very good ball-handling talent and excellent ball feel. And because of his height, he has a passing vision far superior to other small point guards.

In terms of defense, his defense against the breakthrough of small men is definitely not effective, but when it comes to defense against shooting, it is really one defense and one accuracy.

The opponent is a small point guard, and the pick-and-roll is useless.

"Dudududu!"

With the referee's whistle sounded, the Mavericks' preseason game against the Suns began.

Gobert, who was 216 cm tall at the beginning, easily grabbed the ball.

Antetokounmpo began to control the ball and advance towards the frontcourt.

His advancing speed is astonishingly fast. If it weren't for his body being much thinner than Li Xun, it really looked like Li Xun was playing point guard on the court.

The stride span is huge, and he crossed the midfield line in three or five steps.

After arriving in the frontcourt, seeing that the opponent's defense was lax and the defense under the basket was empty, Antetokounmpo directly started to break through with the ball from outside the three-point line.

Ramped all the way, and easily completed dunks after reaching the basket.

This shocked the Suns fans at the scene again.

What the hell?This guy actually started a three-step layup from beyond the three-point line?Then can you complete the dunk?

Surely this guy is a point guard?
Whose point guard can be outrageous to this extent, even a peak magician can't play like this?
"Pass the ball!"

"Pass the ball!"

Kidd yelled loudly from the sidelines.

Because this is a preseason game, the Suns didn't have any decent players, they were all pure substitute lineups.

Kidd is worried that Antetokounmpo is used to playing like this. When the main game is played, the defensive intensity has risen several levels. If he does this again, he will definitely make a fool of himself.

Carlisle was sitting on the bench, looking at him like an assistant.

Antetokounmpo looked at Kidd apologetically, and nodded solemnly.

When it came to the Suns' round, the newly acquired Ukrainian center Alex Len in their draft was directly slapped by Gobert.

Alex is at the fifth position, and the pick is much higher than Gobert.

This naturally made Gobert very unconvinced, and he burst out all his energy as soon as he met.

The block was taken by Green, who had quick eyes and quick hands, and passed it directly to Brother Antetokounmpo, and the Mavericks began to organize the second offense.

This time Antetokounmpo did not continue to try to rush to the basket, but made a gesture of spreading out, signaling his teammates to distance themselves.

Next, Antetokounmpo passed the ball to Middleton.

He took the initiative to stand up and do pick-and-roll for Middleton.

The Suns fans almost vomited blood, this big man is getting more and more outrageous.

His high pick-and-roll has exactly the same effect as the center pulls out to do a pick-and-roll.

But if the center forward pulls out to do a high pick-and-roll, it will inevitably lead to empty rebounds under the basket. If the shot is missed after the pick-and-roll, the rebounds will definitely not be kept.

But now that Antetokounmpo is doing the pick-and-roll, there are still people protecting the rebounds under the Mavericks basket.

This is strong.

Middleton lived up to expectations and scored a three-pointer at the beginning.

He cherishes this opportunity very much, and realizes that if he wants to rise, he must seize the opportunity to start for more than a month.

If you can produce good data, then everyone will be happy.

I will be traded by the Mavericks, sold to an underdog, and I will become the team leader or the team's second leader.

But if he didn't grasp the start time of more than a month, then his career would be difficult.

It is likely that the calf will have been left to watch over the water cooler.

The situation on the court was almost one-sided.

Although the Mavericks have many rookies on the court, they still have two experienced players, Jiba and Green.

Especially Green, he seems to be able to see him in everything except scoring on the court.

Rebounds, passes, blocks, steals, saves, blocks and more.

It's just that the offensive end is a bit speechless. He made a mid-range shot and two three-pointers, but missed both.

It's no wonder that this guy's idol is Daben, his offensive ability is really comparable to Daben's.

Green was at the peak of the Warriors, and his offensive ability still had something, but not much.

He only shot 32% from the field in his rookie season. It is really benevolent enough for the Warriors to keep him.

Later, in 15-16, because of the tension between Clay and Curry, Green got a lot of open shots, so his shooting percentage this season is quite impressive.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Suns fans looked at the point difference between the two sides speechlessly.

If it wasn't for the Suns' fear of losing too badly, they would send some main players later, otherwise it is very possible to lose this game by [-] points.

Middleton is undoubtedly the MVP of tonight's game. He played 35 minutes and scored 37 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

This statistic is very much in the style of singles Joe.

Not only is the score high, but the scoring efficiency is also quite good. These 37 points were obtained with 25 shots.

But to say that the Suns are speechless, it's not Middleton, who has a high offensive efficiency and can find several players in any game.

And scoring more than 30 points in the preseason is not a big deal.

What made them really speechless was Antetokounmpo.

This guy is too buggy, he is simply a monster.

As long as your own basket is empty, you can immediately see this guy holding the ball and hitting the basket with a three-step layup outside the three-point line.

This style of play is very rare in Li Xun, and it seems to have become his regular offensive method for this Greek with a strange name.

Kidd is also speechless, this offensive method seems to be really effective.

But if you play like this, can you really be regarded as a point guard?
After much deliberation, Kidd didn't bother to think about it anymore. Anyway, it is enough that his proud disciple can play his due role in the point guard position.

字母哥今晚拿到了17分7篮板8助攻2抢断2盖帽。

这17分的得分，也就只出手了8次，8中6，另外还有罚球8中5。

The way the hell he plays, it's no wonder he doesn't take a lot of free throws.

The duel between Gobert and the Suns rookie center is also at an absolute crushing advantage.

Gobert scored 14 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks tonight, all of which were obtained by the Suns rookie center.

The other side has already covered him.

Whether it's scoring, rebounding, or defense, Gobert, who was at the bottom of the first round, seems to be more than a grade better than the Suns center at the fifth position.

Suns fans are wondering right now.

How the hell did this guy end up at the bottom of the first round, just because he's French?

This idea is actually correct.

Although Alex is also an international player, he has an NCAA background and played for the prestigious University of Maryland in the United States.

Gobert, on the other hand, has no NCAA background and has been playing in Ligue [-].

Because of the NCAA background, it is easier for scouts to observe, so the pick is higher.

And if Gobert has an NCAA background, it is impossible to fall to the bottom of the first round.

(End of this chapter)