warrior godfather

Chapter 226 The Warriors No One Cares About
The deal between the Warriors and the Nets is progressing very well. Johnson is a coach who advocates "dislocation offense", which is actually a singles coach. He has long coveted the Warriors' strikers and guards.

After two days of bargaining between Larry Riley and Billy King, the Warriors sent out Azubuike and Reggie Williams, who have the offensive ability to hold the ball, and got Yi Jianlian and two second-round picks from the Nets. One is the Nets themselves. The 2012 second-round pick, one is the Mavericks' 2011 second-round pick.

Zhang Yu is quite satisfied with this deal. With Clay, Azubuike's tactical status in the new season is bound to decline greatly, and the data will inevitably decline. Cashing out at a high point is the best choice.

The Warriors' front line is supported by Butler and Matthews. Reggie Williams will only be the third substitute in the new season. Together with Azubuike, these chips are already very profitable.

And the Nets will still be a bad team if there is no accident in the new season. They will have sufficient playing time and shooting rights in the Nets, which is a win-win situation.

As for whether the Nets can benefit from this deal, it is not something Zhang Yu considers. When a team at the bottom of the league is still piling up half-handed ball-handlers, it will be difficult for this team to turn around.

After the transaction was completed, Yi Jianlian immediately came to Oakland to report. The Warriors arranged a rented apartment for him, and he quickly joined the Warriors' training.

The coaching staff was pleasantly surprised to find that Yi Jianlian's technical characteristics that he spent a lot of time polishing in the summer are very suitable for the Warriors' tactical system. Lord, he hardly stays in the paint, and he will also support at the top of the arc, but basically the blue-collar style of play is the main one.

On the defensive end, the Warriors will always keep a big center on the court to protect the frame. Yi Jianlian is not needed to defend the inside line.

Of course, Yi Jianlian's finishing success rate, shooting ability and defense are only average in the league, but he is definitely qualified as a substitute.

This allowed Yi Jianlian to initially integrate into the Warriors' system in a very short period of time without too much running-in. Although the Warriors lacked two secondary attackers with the ball, Curry and Butler's ability to hold the ball The improvement is enough to make up for this shortcoming, and Green can take on part of the task of dealing cards, and the team's offense has not been greatly affected.

It’s just that Clay and Tony Allen in the second position are not as balanced as Azubuike, but overall the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Clay is a better shooter than Azubuike, and Tony Allen’s defense is far from perfect. Azubuike is comparable. They give the Warriors more choices in lineup configuration, instead of relying on Azubuike, who is good in all aspects but not outstanding like last season.

And after Yi Jianlian came to the team to report, Zhang Yu also announced to the team that no more trades would be made before the start of the season to reassure everyone, and asked Larry Riley to take the initiative to disclose this news to the media. Teams that covet these young players from the Warriors turned them away and prepared for the game with all their strength.

……

10 month 9 day.

After more than a month of hard training, the Warriors' training camp is finally coming to an end.

Today, the Warriors will play their first preseason game. They have a total of 8 preseason games to play. The opponents are the Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Kings and other teams that belong to the Pacific Division. The latter are all relatively close opponents.

Today, the Warriors played against the Clippers at home. Although it was a preseason game, fanatical Warriors fans still filled the entire Oracle Center, creating a hellish home atmosphere.

Since the beginning of the preseason, the attendance rate of Oracle Center is full, which is second to none in the entire league.

It is foreseeable that the Warriors will be another commercially successful season this season, but how successful it will be in the end depends on the team's performance.

Last season, the Warriors achieved great commercial success. Zhang Yu looked at the financial department’s report and the third agency’s assessment of the Warriors’ market value—in the 2009-2010 season, the Warriors’ market value reached 5.1 million US dollars. It ranks fifth in the league after the Lakers, Knicks, Rockets and Bulls.

Zhang Yu's $5 million premium contract when he bought the Warriors is no longer a premium.

Last season, the Warriors' operating income reached 1.6 million US dollars, ranking fourth in the league, higher than the Bulls, and the gap with the top teams is very small. The annual operating income of the top-ranked Lakers is only 2.09. With the crazy money-absorbing ability demonstrated by the Warriors, it is no exaggeration to say that the annual operating income of the Warriors this season can approach 2 million US dollars.

Last season, Huaxia companies were still watching the development of the Warriors. They didn't know whether the Huaxia market could accommodate a second "all-democracy team" other than the Rockets. Moreover, there was a gap between the appeal of the head coach and the stars. Enterprises had doubts and did not cooperate with the Warriors in the first place. Only a few bold companies became sponsors of the Warriors.

A season has passed, the Warriors have Curry turned out, and Zhang Yu's blessing has attracted countless Chinese fans. This summer, many domestic companies have come to their door to cooperate with the Warriors. The domestic sponsorship contract alone, It brought tens of millions of dollars to the Warriors. Larry Riley even joked that Zhang Yu, the boss, is the Warriors' "cash cow".

Not only domestically, the Warriors are also very popular in the United States. Zhang Yu's skin color, nationality and age make him have a very strong legendary color, with its own drainage effect, and the Warriors are a rare offensive team in the league. The team's style of play is gorgeous and beautiful, and Curry's style of play is revolutionary, which has attracted many Warriors' followers and made them supporters of the Warriors.

Curry's jersey sales last season ranked fourth among all players, which is a very strong evidence. In front of him are the three superstars Kobe, James, and Garnett. His good brother Rose ranked fifth , These two supernova point guards have a huge number of fans across the United States, ranking ahead of Howard, Wade, Paul, Pierce, Anthony and other stars.

Today, these fans who are full of Oracle Center are also here because of Curry, but their goal has not been achieved. Curry only played 18 minutes, leisurely scored 14 points and 5 assists, and then went to rest. Jeremy Lin played point guard for 30 minutes.

From the first season of coaching the Bulldogs, Zhang Yu regarded the preseason game as an opportunity to practice tactics, test lineup collocation and train substitute players. Find status.

In his view, the offseason training has a decisive impact on the player's new season status. Even if it works, it will take a long time and affect the team's record.

For this reason, he issued a strict order that all players must maintain proper training during the offseason, at least to maintain the state of the previous season, otherwise they will just wait for the bench to wear it out.

Fortunately, the Warriors lineup is dominated by young players. Most of them hold rookie or basic salary contracts.

Of course, Zhang Yu is well aware that Clay has a "record" in this regard. In his previous life, Clay often had a solid first half of the season and a good second half. In the first half of the 2018-2019 season, Clay was even worse Iron out of the sky, known as "Tieguanyin" by the fans, did not return to normal state until he scored 14 three-pointers in the away game against the Bulls, breaking the NBA history single-game three-pointer record.

He reminded Mitchell Thompson and Clay's agent to pay close attention to Clay's training in the summer. It seems that there is no problem yet, but it will be hard to say in the future.

With Zhang Yu's attitude, the Warriors played very unrestrainedly. Zhang Yu not only put on the five-shooter lineup of Curry, Clay, Butler, Anthony Tolliver, and Yi Jianlian, but also played Tony Allen, Butt. The pure defensive lineup of Le, Chandler, Green and Matthews makes fans have a value-for-money experience of watching two games with one ticket.

Moreover, the Warriors players are also very bold in their tactics when running on the field. Green boldly dealt cards at the top of the arc, and once assumed the responsibility of point guard, but there were many mistakes. , Many imaginative and penetrating passes were intercepted by the Clippers players in the middle.

This also made Zhang Yu decide that before Green's passing improved significantly, he should not be allowed to take on too many card dealing tasks.

Curry took several logo shots in his short playing time, and the shooting percentage was still very high, which stunned the Clippers players. Zhang Yu had to replace him quickly, so as not to make the point difference too big on a whim. .

Jeremy Lin frequently used pick-and-rolls to attack the Clippers' defense, and the Clippers knew little about him. Jeremy Lin repeatedly attacked the inside and succeeded. After they focused on Jeremy Lin's defense, he drove his teammates to attack by passing the ball. The Warriors' offensive offense off the bench is booming.

On the defensive end, the Warriors insisted on a defensive strategy based on unlimited switching and supplemented by pinching the ball holder.

With so many good defenders in the team, it is impossible for Zhang Yu to switch defenses infinitely. Even Curry, Jeremy Lin, and Klay, who have relatively average defenses, can achieve the league's average defensive level.

Moreover, the Warriors' infinite switching defenses are not mindless switching defenses. Zhang Yu will try his best to let the defensive strengths take over the opponent's ball-handler and protect guards like Curry and Jeremy Lin.

If they are facing the opponent's ball-handler's attack, the Warriors' striker will empty the opponent's non-space point to attack, force the opponent to pass the ball, and then fill in the gap left by the auxiliary defender through rotation.

And if the opponent targets the Warriors' defensive weakness with a pick-and-roll, for example, in the case of Zhang Yu's previous life and James calling a guard by name, the targeted guard will not choose to switch defenses, but will come back after a big delay, delaying the opponent as much as possible The pace of finding defensive weaknesses consumes the opponent's attack time, so that even if the opponent finds the Warriors' guard, there is not much time for follow-up operations. Even if the opponent finally finds it, the Warriors will decisively carry out defense protection.

Zhang Yu's meaning is very clear - please use your powerful personal offense and fairy ball to kill me, otherwise it will be unnecessary, I will never give you an easy chance to score.

But the Clippers haven't thought of using this method to target the Warriors' guards. They are a little confused by the Warriors' unlimited defenses. This strategy makes it almost impossible for the Clippers to get simple scoring opportunities and can only end the offense through singles.

It's just that the Clippers' offensive strengths Gordon, Griffin, and Kaman, and the Warriors have corresponding Tony Allen, Green, and Chandler to deal with them. They can only score points through difficult shots, and the efficiency is not high. , and the Warriors at this time will quickly launch a counterattack, and the point difference will be quickly opened.

Ron Adams couldn't help sighing when he saw the scene where Kaman managed to sway Chandler away with his exquisite low-post footsteps and made a low-handed layup, but was slapped and slapped the basketball by Green who rushed over from the other side to help defend him. road;

"Ronan, we have the strongest single defense and top assist defense. I can't wait to play the regular season."

At this time, Griffin was still standing on the edge of the penalty area on the other side, waiting for a rebound.

He has almost no shooting ability, and there is no offensive threat no matter how far away, which is why Green can help defend in time. Of course, even if he stands outside the three-point line, Green will ignore him.

This is another Warriors defensive strategy, which is to put Green on the opponent's non-spatial point, which allows him to boldly play defense and make full use of his top defensive sense.

After the whole game, although the Warriors were testing the lineup and rehearsing tactics, and made a full 20 turnovers, they relied on good discipline and strong personal abilities of the players to finally beat the Clippers 114:91.

And this is just the beginning. In the following 7 preseason games, the Warriors won more than they lost, and they still achieved a record of 5 wins and 3 losses without serious play, mainly because they lost to the Lakers and Trail Blazers. strong team.

In every game, most of the Warriors' bench players will make an appearance. Curry, Butler, and Chandler, who started the team last season, only play about 20 minutes per game, and even if they play, It is also mainly about playing tactics. Butler's rapidly improving ability to hold the ball and Curry's greatly improved ability to finish at the basket have not been shown much.

On the contrary, Matthews, Zhang Yu gave him about 36 minutes of playing time every game, specially let him run Clay's tactics, and gave him the right to the ball to attack with the ball, which made Matthews more motivated. Playing the preseason as if it were the playoffs, I worked hard every minute.

The coach is going to reuse me, I must not live up to the coach's expectations, I must seize this opportunity!
Driven by this kind of psychology, coupled with Matthews' hard training in the summer, he has made great progress and developed a half-handed ability to hold the ball. He played very brilliantly in the low-intensity preseason game, averaging He was able to score 18.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals, which is quite different from last season.

For a while, the outside world focused on Matthews' amazing performance, but ignored the progress of Curry and Butler, as well as Tony Allen's amazing 73.4% shooting at the basket.

Of course, they don't think that Clay's 45.2% three-point shooting rate can be maintained in the regular season, and they don't pay attention to Green's seemingly ubiquitous defensive performance.

Two low-ranked rookies in the draft year, how could they have such a strong strength?
People's eyes are all focused on the defending champion Lakers and the super team Heat, and no one cares too much about the Warriors' young army.

A columnist wrote what people were saying:
"Coach Z didn't trade powerful stars to assist Curry, but picked a bunch of rookies. Does he think that as long as there are enough young people, he can win the game? He is ruining the Warriors' good situation! They really won 5 games down, but this is just preseason, the Warriors will show their true level in the regular season..."

(End of this chapter)