I am super giant

Chapter 157 Before the Game (Christmas Battle)
This year, the league has arranged a total of three Christmas games.

Rockets vs Lakers, Kings vs Mavericks, Magic vs Cavaliers.

What Ye Feng couldn't figure out the most was how a team like the Cavaliers could qualify for the Christmas game.

The Lakers have fantasy F4, the Mavericks have 5 All-Stars, the Kings are the best-looking team in this era, and the Rockets have at least two All-Stars starting.

Looking at the Magic vs. Knights, it's simply not at the same level as the two games, and they can't get on the stage at all.

Magic is okay, at least there is a super popular star, Tracy McGrady.

Before tonight, Tracy McGrady served as the Eastern All-Star starter for 3 consecutive years, won 1 scoring title, entered the All-NBA Team 3 times, won the Most Improved Player 1 time, and became the best player of the month 4 times.

Coupled with his handsome appearance and elegant, unsolvable style of play, McGrady's popularity is very high.

So far this season, McGrady has averaged 25.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, and has been on the rise. He is second only to Iverson in scoring and ranks second in the league.

(That era was different from the small ball era. In 2003, the NO Handcheck rule had not yet been introduced, but the defensive strength had entered the era of the strongest in the entire NBA. It was very difficult for a star to score more than 25 points.)
（数据显示，2003——2004赛季几乎是近30年防守强度最强的一年，球队场均得分只有93.4分，仅多于98——99赛季的91.58分。

The team's field goal percentage was as low as 43.85%, only higher than the 98% in the 99-43.73 season.

Considering that the 98-99 season is a shortened season, the schedule is very tight, the players are in poor condition, and they are always in a state of fatigue. There are objective factors, which should be ruled out.

Therefore, the 2003-2004 season is the strongest defensive year in the NBA in the past 30 years! )

From the perspective of later generations, at the end of that season, only McGrady scored more than 25 points per game in the league, which was the highest in the league at 28.0 points. At that time, only 18 players in the league averaged more than 20+ points per game. The middle also includes two super rookies, James and Anthony.

You can imagine how high the gold content of McGrady's scoring champion was, but it was achieved in the most difficult scoring era in the league.

In addition, McGrady's defensive ability is equally strong.

When he first entered the league, his role in the Raptors was a defensive leader.In the forward position, no one can take advantage of him.

However, after leaving the Magic, McGrady took on more offensive tasks, less energy on the defensive end, and a significant decline in defensive awareness, and those suffocating defenses were hardly seen.

But in any case, McGrady in the Magic period was the strongest McGrady. Although he began to wither before he reached his peak, he was far more brilliant than ordinary people.

As for the Rockets period, McGrady has been declining due to injuries, and he is far less unsolvable than the Magic period.

In fact, McGrady's worth doesn't need to be shown by data at all.

Jordan: The only person who makes me willing to play as a substitute is McGrady.

Howard: Before I entered the league, I only knew one guy, the No. 1 player on the Rockets.

Olajuwon: I'm not qualified to comment on Tracy McGrady, I'd better catch up with Jordan first.

Garnett: I might be able to defend Jordan, but let me defend McGrady, I would rather exit.

Billups: Not to mention being McGrady's teammate, I'm honored to be his fan.

Grant Hill: Compared with McGrady, the talents of Jordan and Kobe can only stand aside.

Kobe: The enemy of life.

In the era that belonged to East Isico and South McGrady, McGrady's talent was much higher than the other three.

7 pm.

City of Disney, Orlando, Amway Center.

Ye Feng sat in the locker room, his teammates were still gagging and chatting, Ye Feng dealt with it one by one, focusing on the scout report in his hand.

The Magic originally built the team with McGrady and Grant Hill as the dual core.

One is the strongest Jordan heir after "Penny" Hardaway, and the other is a high school player with better talent than Jordan. People are full of expectations for this combination.

However, Grant Hill was plagued by injuries and only played 47 games in four seasons with Tracy McGrady.

So many people say that when McGrady was the strongest, he was cheated by Hill.

As long as Van Hill can play, this combination is enough to make the entire league tremble.

Looking at the current lineup of the Magic, apart from Juwan Howard, there is no decent helper at all.

Center forward: Andrew de Klerk, 30 years old, 208 cm, 104 kg.

This season, he averaged 3.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.5 blocks per game. At this level, only the Magic can make him a starting center.

Power forward: Juwan Howard, 30 years old, 206 cm, 109 kg.

Once, Uncle Huo was the first player in NBA history to receive a contract of [-] million yuan, which shocked the entire league.

Now his performance is acceptable, but he is definitely not worthy of the first [-] million yuan contract in history.

He is very versatile on the offensive end, and his mid-range shots have become more and more accurate because of hard training, but his defense is almost zero.

Small forward: Gordon Girisek, 26 years old, 198 cm, 100 kg.

The offensive end is very versatile, three-pointers, breakthroughs, emergency stop jumpers, superb skills, standard European players.

But resisting physical confrontation, the defense is very soft, almost useless.

Shooting guard: Tracy McGrady.

25 years old, 203 cm (205 cm by visual inspection), 101 kg, wingspan of 221 cm, run-up bounce of more than 101 cm.

One of the four shooting guards, the strength needless to say.

Point guard: Rod Strickland, 37 years old, 191 cm, 84 kg.

If you push forward 5 years, Strickland is also one of the best point guards in the league, and he will definitely become the most powerful support around McGrady.

But now, it is not easy for him to continue to play the starter.

In addition, the Magic also has strong substitutes such as Drew Gooden, Tyronn Lue, and Bogans.

In addition, Ye Feng also saw the notorious Zaza Pachulia, who was also a rookie in 2003 and was selected by the Magic, but now he basically has no playing time.

This year's No. 15 rookie Reece Gaines did not perform well, averaging only 1.8 points, 1 rebound and 1.1 assists per game, and made 30% of his three-pointers. He has been dissociated from the Magic's rotation.

This made Ye Feng sigh.

Ye Feng still remembers clearly that during the summer league, this guy was second only to Wade and Prince, and received a lot of attention and coverage from the media.

In the summer league, this guy did not disappoint everyone, he scored good statistics and was selected to the best team.

But today, this guy can't even get into the rotation in the Magic.

Thinking of Rhys Gaines, Ye Feng couldn't help but think of Nixon, Brown, Surfchik, and Campbell in the summer league. I don't know what happened to them now.

(End of this chapter)