I was determined to be bad, but I went straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame

Chapter 512 Times change
Although psychologically shocked by Min Congda's boldness and fearlessness, Krakow, as a seasoned investor, calmed down and was not swayed by his emotions, so he rashly signed a gambling agreement with Min Congda.

He said that it is necessary to see the performance of the Clippers afterwards to determine whether he is willing to make this investment.

Of course, Min Congda was not very happy. He thought it would be safe for the Clippers to enter the Western Conference finals, and the Thunder were not the Clippers' opponents.

But if they make it to the Western Conference Finals, would Krakow still want to see the performance of the Clippers again?Do you want the Clippers to enter the Finals?
This is the result that Min Congda does not want to see.

Entering the Western Conference finals, signing the agreement, getting the money, and then the Clippers were eliminated smoothly and went home to fish. This is the ideal scenario in Min Congda's heart.

It's a pity that investors don't want to follow Min Congda's script. They have to "seeing is believing" and see the true potential of the Clippers in the NBA.

After the meeting, Shelley Sterling asked Min Congda privately: "Are you so confident in the Clippers' record?"

Min Congda thought to himself, where does my confidence come from? It would be good to be able to reach the Western Conference finals, and said, "Of course, of course I have confidence!"

Xie Li said: "If you are so confident, then I also have the confidence to participate in this bet with you."

Since it is necessary to bet against each other, the participation and consent of the Clippers owner is naturally indispensable.

Xie Li's trust is very important to Min Congda.

If Xie Li refused to join the game, he alone as the general manager would not be able to do this.

Min Congda was very grateful for the old lady's trust, but felt a little ashamed in his heart.

"I'm sorry, old lady, if you trust me, you will go bankrupt in the future. But you are over 80 and have enough wealth. If the team goes bankrupt, you can still live a good life. Don't blame me."

Min Congda comforted himself a bit.

The next day, the semifinals between the Clippers and the Thunder will begin.

In the East and West, other semi-final matchups have also been released.

Not surprisingly, the Lakers passed the first round smoothly and avenged the Dallas Mavericks 4:2.

After the Mavericks experienced last year's glory, Chandler is missing this year, and Nowitzki is one year older, and he has lost the style that swept the Lakers last year.

However, they still won two games, and the Lakers didn't have an easy time with the Mavericks.

In fact, in terms of lineup, the Lakers are extremely strong. On the trade deadline, the Lakers also traded small forward Gerald Wallace from the Trail Blazers.

The lineup of the Zijin Army can be said to be luxurious to a certain extent.

Paul, Kobe, Gerald Wallace, Metta World Peace, Kenyon Martin, Grant Hill, Billups, Bynum, Michael Reed...

In terms of book strength alone, the Lakers lineup is simply an All-Star.

It's just that in terms of tactics, after a regular season, the chemical reaction has not reached the best state.

However, under the guidance of Phil Jackson, this star-studded team continued to move forward towards the championship.

They will face the young Grizzlies in the semifinals.

The Grizzlies played seven games with the Denver Nuggets in the first round, and finally defeated their opponents 4:3 to get tickets to the semifinals.

The young combination of Griffin-Conley-Jr. Jordan showed great potential, and their matchup with the Lakers also attracted great attention.

In the East, the script for the semifinals is exactly the same as last year. The No. [-] Cavaliers in the East will meet their old rivals, the Boston Celtics.

Last year, the Cavaliers successfully crossed over the demons of the Big Three in the semifinals. After having Irving this year, they will naturally not be afraid of the one-year-old Celtics.

The Heat, third in the Western Conference, once again took advantage of opportunities and encountered the Bulls in the semifinals.

It seems that the Heat are addicted to playing the Bulls, because from the perspective of the lineup, the Heat do restrain the Bulls.

The only strong point of the Bulls is Derrick Rose, but it is really difficult for Rose to take advantage of Wade.

What's more, when the Bulls faced the 76ers in the first round, Rose was also injured, and the semifinals will undoubtedly be affected by the injury.

The Bulls, whose offense is extremely dependent on Rose, will obviously lose their combat effectiveness.

It's just that the Heat can beat the Bulls by opportunistically, can they beat the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals?

The Heat lost Battier and got Odom. From the effect point of view, there are good and bad.

The problem is that Battier went to the Cavaliers, which is very troublesome.

After the first round, the Cavaliers have the highest odds of winning the championship.

They don't have as many stars as the Lakers, but the team has deployed a group of players that fully meet James' needs. The Cavaliers' combat power is obviously stronger than last year.

The semi-finals have not yet started, and many fans have begun to imagine that the long-awaited 23vs24 is likely to come this season.

Relatively speaking, the Clippers have become the more low-key one of several teams.

Because they exposed a lot of problems in the first round against the Spurs.

First of all, they are young and inexperienced. Although they have performed amazingly in the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, the core members of the Clippers are still very young.

Curry and Harden are in the third grade, George is in the second grade, Leonard and Butler are all rookies.

Gasol is only in his fourth NBA season, and Randolph is just 30 years old.

The only true veteran of the team is Derek Fisher.

Their average age is only 24.7 years old, not even 25 years old.

From this point of view, the Clippers are too young.

Looking back at the teams that won the championship, the average age is generally relatively old. The average age of winning is 28 years old. In recent years, many veteran teams have won the championship.

Because the competition for the NBA championship is extremely fierce and cruel, and the playoffs adopt a 7-game 4-win system, it is not a game with a lot of chance to determine the outcome, so experience is very important.

Like last year's championship Mavericks, the average age of the team is over 30 years old, and the core players are all over 30 years old.

The Lakers in 09 and 10 were also an old team. The Celtics' core Big Three in 08 were all veterans over 30 years old, and they were paired with a bunch of old players who were on the verge of retirement, such as PJ Brown and Cassell. So the average age of the team is also very high.

The Spurs in 07 and the Heat in 06, not to mention their age, are all veterans.

This idea of ​​veteran team building began almost in the late 90s.

The Chicago Bulls in the 1997-1998 season were the championship team with the oldest average age in NBA history.

Their average winning age is 32.09.

If you count back, you will find that the teams with the highest winning ages are basically concentrated in the mid-to-late 90s until now.

Such as 07 Spurs, 97 Bulls, 11 Mavericks and so on.

The exception is the 1969 Boston Celtics.

From the 1970s to the 80s and early 90s, the average age of the winning teams was relatively young.

The youngest of them was the Blazers in 1977, who was only 24 years old and started a row of second-year and third-year rookies.

There are many reasons, two of which are more important. One is that modern medical technology is advanced, and the state of veterans is getting better and better.

In the past, when the medical system was underdeveloped, many players were not in good health at the age of 30, and they were considered veterans.

Now 30-year-old players can last for several years at their peak, and in the future, the professional life of players will get longer and longer.

Another point is the league's style of play. From the 70s, to the 80s, and then to the end of the 90s, there was a general trend from unrestrained offense to tighter defense.

By the middle and late stages of Jordan's reign, and into the early 21s, the defense's overall gains had outstripped the offense's.

The defense is strong, the offense is weak, the pace of the game is slow, and the role of stars is prominent. This game form is beneficial to veterans.

Veterans have more experience and can play a better role in games with low scores, few rounds, strong confrontation, and weak running.

Then old oily coaches like Popovich and Phil Jackson developed the idea of ​​​​building a team with a lineup of core superstars + balloon stars + experienced veterans.

It can be said that from Jordan's retirement in 98 to today, this team building idea has included most of the championships.

So every offseason, veterans who want to win a championship will join the Lakers and Spurs to win a ring.

The 10-year Finals between the Celtics and the Lakers can be regarded as the ultimate embodiment of this characteristic.

The Mavericks won the championship last season, and there are still shadows of the previous era, although they have begun to bring the breath of a new era.

This year, the Spurs were eliminated in the first round, and the young Grizzlies, Clippers, and Thunder will start to encircle and suppress the Lakers.

These three teams all have a common feature, that is, they rely entirely on the draft to build their lineups, and they have almost no gains in the free market, let alone the habit of collecting veteran stars, and veterans are not willing to come.

The only Clippers player who can be regarded as a veteran star is Okafor, but Okafor is not really old, he will be 30 years old when he is at his peak, and in terms of cards, he has never been selected as an All-Star, and he is not a big name.

The core lineups of these three teams are basically self-selected and traded from the starting lineup to the substitutes. They are all in their prime or very young, and there are at most one or two veterans in the team who are ballast.

In the East, the situation of the Bulls is very similar to that of the Clippers, Thunder and other teams. The core of the Heat is also in their prime. Riley imagined collecting balloon stars like in 06. Unfortunately, they are unwilling to come. The combination of Wade + Bosh Unattractive.

The Cavaliers' lineup is quite reasonable in age. The ratio of rookies + years of play + veterans is very good, and the team's age structure is the healthiest.

The only two remnants of the old era in the East and West are the Lakers and Celtics.

Especially the Lakers, it can be said that they have been a balloon star and a stamp collection of veterans. They have collected all the old guys who have had some influence in the last 10 years and have not retired but their strength has declined sharply.

In the eyes of the fans, a lineup like the Lakers is naturally very strong and looks like a champion.

And they performed very well in the regular season. They beat the Clippers twice, and the players have rich experience. The playoffs should go smoothly.

In fact, the league's style of play is in transition, and the importance of offense is becoming increasingly prominent.

In particular, the early retirement of David Stern and the arrival of Adam Silva have accelerated the progress of this transformation.

The overall style of Silva's desperate League of Hope has a big change compared with the past.

Defensive battles have been proven not to bring ratings, and offense can attract fans more.

The 05 Spurs vs. Pistons Finals was a bloody lesson.

Of course, this transformation is relatively slow and will not change immediately.

Especially in this year's regular season, the team's scoring average has decreased.

Due to the shortened season, the players are in average condition and the team's tactics are poor.

But in the playoffs, this change began to gradually appear.

The confrontation in the game is still very fierce, but it is common for scores to be over a hundred.

In several games between the Clippers and the Spurs, they scored over [-] points every game.

Ten years ago, 10-80 points was the norm for the two teams in the playoffs, and 90 points were common, but rarely broke 70 points.

When the offense is emphasized more, the overall score increases, the pace of the game accelerates, and the role of stars and veterans will be relatively weakened.

Your little bit of experience and the contribution of a few offensive and defensive rounds are not so important, especially some past-balloon stars of the previous generation are not capable of fixed-point three-pointers, which has become a flaw in supporting roles.

Moreover, the offensive rhythm is fast, and veterans can easily lose track of the rhythm, and there are too many rounds to run.

Unlike in the late 90s and early 21st century, due to the limited offensive space, superstar singles were prevalent, and the pace of the game was slow. Sometimes it was enough to stand still and watch the core alone in positional warfare. Now such situations are becoming less and less, and you must move. Participate in the coordination of pick-and-roll and passing and cutting.

Especially with the prevalence of pick-and-roll coordination, it is difficult for veterans to integrate into the system, and the problem of not being as good as young players to guide will become more and more obvious.

Almost from the past few years, the lineup building method of NBA core players + balloon star veterans will gradually be eliminated by history and enter the pile of old papers.

Of course, many people have not realized this at this time and have maintained good confidence in the Lakers.

As a result, the Lakers hosted the Memphis Grizzlies the day before the Clippers and Thunder semifinals began.

Facing the combination of Griffin + Jordan inside, the Lakers were shocked.

Griffin, who was still stumbling in the first round, scored 25 points in the first game against the Lakers in the second round.

Jordan scored 5 points, 11 rebounds, and sent 3 blocked shots, making Bynum ashamed.

Of course, what really played a decisive role was the outside line of the Grizzlies, Tony Allen + Butler + Mike Conley, who hit the Lakers with defense and three-pointers.

In the end, in the first game of the Grizzlies, 95:90, with a 5-point advantage, Stamps stole a victory, which surprised NBA public opinion. The Lakers actually lost the first game to the Grizzlies?
This aspect makes people start to re-examine the potential of the Grizzlies and Griffin's ability.

In theory, this is Griffin's second season, but he has already shown a high level of competitive skills and court intelligence in the game.

Obviously, the Grizzlies' training for Griffin is quite effective.

Wallace followed Min Congda's advice and did not let Griffin develop towards a pure basket finisher and scoring machine, but focused on developing his support and ball-handling ability, especially the ability to shoot from mid-to-long distance.

In the game against the Lakers, the offensive end was very effective, which made the Lakers' defense very uncomfortable.

Except for Jordan, four of the Grizzlies' starting five have the ability to shoot in the long range, and it is not simply "have", but the kind that can make you feel uncomfortable when you really shoot.

How did the Lakers die last season?It was cast to death by the Mavericks' four starters who could vote.

In the early years, it was good to have three such roles in the starting lineup, and some even had only two. For example, in the Spurs in 07, only Ginobili and Bowen were able to stabilize the long-range shots in a real sense, and Parker counted as half.

Now, three are standard, four is normal, and five are also available!
And the Lakers can?Paul, Kobe, these two add up, in fact, they can only be counted as one and a half.

They continue to follow the traditional way of thinking, can they really reach the finals and win the championship?

After Phil Jackson played the first game of the semifinals, he felt more and more in his heart that the times had really changed.

(End of this chapter)