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

Chapter 574

Although there is an undercurrent in Los Angeles, and Min Congda turns his big head with not enough IQ, calculating this and that for fun, but in the eyes of the fans, everything is thriving. The death of Bass did not stop the drama of the NBA. Step down to the show.

After the All-Star Game, the competition among the top teams in the league has become increasingly fierce, especially the teams in the Western Conference.

The Eastern Conference has formed a duo of Heat and Cavaliers, and there is no third team to challenge.

The West is still full of powerful players, and 50 wins is not enough in the West.

The four strongest teams in the West, the Clippers, Thunder, Spurs, and Lakers, are two new and two old.

The Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Warriors in the second group are closely behind, and their records are very close.

In the rankings of NBA teams released by ESPN in March, among the top ten, Western teams occupy seven seats, and Eastern teams only have three seats.

The pattern of strong west and weak east has not changed after more than ten years.

However, the team ranked first in the strength list is the Miami Heat.

The Heat, a galaxy battleship, experienced struggles at the beginning of the season and after mid-term adjustments, it began to enter the sprint stage at the end of the season.

During the period, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard were affected by injuries respectively, but after the All-Star Game, the two superstars both returned.

The Heat played a horrific 2-game winning streak in February and March, pushing the team's record to the top of the league in one fell swoop.

The Heat's first place in the combat power list is indeed well-deserved.

Spoelscola showed his excellent field coaching ability, of course, this is inseparable from Pat Riley's full support behind him.

Ranked second in the combat power list is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The performance of the Thunder this season is very stable. Kevin Durant and Westbrook have played extremely explosive personal performances. From the data point of view, they can be called twins. star ceiling.

When Eric Gordon was plagued by injuries, the two teamed up to score 70 or 80 points repeatedly, and the two scored more than the opponent's team.

Ranked third on the combat power list is the Cleveland Cavaliers. After the arrival of Steve Kerr, the Cavaliers have been quite successfully transformed.

Even LeBron James has gone down a different path than in the past.

In the fourth position, he feels like a fish in water.

In addition to being harder on defense, giving up part of the ball in offense and providing more assistance makes James play more easily and freely.

The Cavaliers also gave up the cumbersome style of play in the past, becoming lighter and faster, and winning more easily.

However, the Cavaliers have been plagued by injuries repeatedly since February, and veterans such as Jamison, Battier, and Miller are further aging.

James knows in his heart that his time window for the Cavaliers to win the championship is not very long, that is, this season and the next season.

Following the Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Clippers rank fourth.

Compared with the grandeur of the defending champion at the beginning of the season, after Cole left and Mike Malone took office, the Clippers seemed much more stable.

The game is won or lost, a lot of lineup experiments, and a lot of practice time for young players. The Clippers are walking on a track that is completely different from other teams.

The Clippers aren't competing against other teams, they're really competing against themselves, against the clock, against their biggest mole.

Fortunately, this kind of tactical play with no obvious record makes the Clippers look a lot more low-key, and those media reporters who only look at the regular season record and game data think that the Clippers' strength has declined.

In fact, when the Clippers' defensive system is completed, their combat power in the playoffs will be more stable.

Min Congda hadn't watched the game seriously for a while. He just checked the news every day, and the rest of the time was fishing and paying attention to the construction trend of Huawei Center.

He didn't have any requirements on the construction period, only to ensure the quality. For the best quality, it doesn't matter if it is delayed.

As for exceeding the budget, the more the better.

At the same time, in order to subvert the Bass regime next door, Min Congda regrouped the members of the two small working groups established to implement the "Troy Project" and re-established an information sharing center inside the Clippers, named "Telescope Project". It is independent from the media department and is controlled by Min Congda himself.

On the surface, Min Congda set up this department to "better respond to public relations issues, team transactions, drafts, and internal information confidentiality issues in the new era of the Internet, and better carry out team building."

In fact, Min Congda wants to use this "information sharing center" to obtain more NBA intelligence information, especially the internal information of the Lakers, so as to prepare for the Lakers to change their day in the future.

When the information center was established, Rob Richley, the director of the media department, thought that if a team set up an information center like this, would it be suspected of collecting information and violating privacy?

Min Congda replied, "Haven't Americans always done this?"

At that time, Richelle was still a little angry, and wanted to argue with Min Congda, saying that the United States attaches great importance to personal privacy.

But only three months later, when the Prism Project was exposed, Rui Qielai understood what Min Congda meant.

The main personnel of this center, besides the media department headed by Ruiqielai, Min Congda also transferred some people from Sloan's security company, and asked five scouts from the scout team to join the center, and one from the video center. Data analysts and a video analyst make up the Clippers' intelligence department.

The reason why scouts, data analysts, and video analysts are needed is because Min Congda needs them to deceive others, saying that they are engaged in basketball intelligence.

At the same time, these scouts and analysts, while obtaining information on basketball, must also be able to obtain various things other than basketball.

In addition, Min Congda also used his contacts in the league office to invite Arnold Lankey, who previously worked at the NBA's New York headquarters, to the Clippers as the deputy director of the information center.

Lan Qi hooked up with Min Congda from the very beginning, waiting for this day.

So he left New York without hesitation, tidied up a bit and then came to the Clippers to take office.

Before Lan Qi was an ordinary employee at the NBA headquarters, he became the deputy director of the department.

But generally speaking, there is still less money and more work, and there is not much room for improvement. This is the way it is in this life.

Now that I come to the Clippers, my salary has doubled, and the living environment in Los Angeles is more comfortable than New York.

Anyway, as someone who has worked at the headquarters for four or five years, Lan Qi already has enough social connections and sources of intelligence.

Less than two weeks after the information center was established, they obtained an important piece of information related to the Lakers from the grapevine: Chris Paul and Kobe seemed to have some conflicts in training, and the two had signs of discord.

"Are you sure it's true? Kobe and Paul are at odds?"

Min Congda couldn't believe it when he heard Lan Qi's report.

"According to the information obtained, this is indeed the case, but it will not be published in the newspapers for the time being, and only a few people know about it. You know, if there is a conflict among the star players in the team, once the report is reported, it means that the conflict is very deep. Often It means the team is going to change."

What Lan Qi said is not wrong, where there are people, there will be rivers and lakes, and where there are rivers and lakes, there will be conflicts.

Especially in a place like the NBA, it is impossible to say that there are no conflicts between players and stars.

A group of celebrities with excess hormones, excess self-awareness, a lot of fans, and a lot of assets, it's only normal that they don't like each other.

Especially for a person of Kobe's personality and origin, on the one hand, he is very paranoid and competitive, on the other hand, his family background and growth experience make it difficult for him to get along with ordinary black players.

Unless someone can fully suppress him in terms of ability and other aspects, with Kobe's personality, he must be the boss.

Coincidentally, Paul is almost exactly the same as Kobe in character and growth, and he is born with the temperament of wanting to be the boss.

Last season, the two were in a honeymoon period, and the Lakers had a very good record in the regular season. The team was full of stars, and Phil Jackson was in charge. Everyone was holding back their energy and wanted to prove themselves in the playoffs. , to win the championship.

The shrinking season in the original version was indeed a good opportunity for the Lakers, but the Clippers suddenly emerged, and the waves behind the Yangtze River pushed the waves ahead, shooting the Lakers to death on the beach.

Championships and victories are the best covers of all contradictions.

At the beginning, Kobe and O'Neal did not like each other so much, but under the pressure of the three consecutive championships and the finals, they can still cooperate smoothly.

But once they are defeated in the finals, there will be no room and necessity for relaxation between the two.

As a result, the Sharks left the Heat, the league structure changed, and the Heat won the championship the following year.

After Paul and Kobe's honeymoon and failure last season, once the team's record this season is not going well, or the hope of winning the championship is not high, contradictions will naturally appear.

Kobe's problem is that his state is declining, and he is no longer the league's number one scorer in the past.

And Paul is in his prime. It stands to reason that he should be the future of the team and the Lakers are in charge, but as long as Kobe is around, it is impossible for him to give up his position as the boss.

If Paul wants to grab Kobe's boss, he must use his performance in the game to prove that he is a player who can beat Kobe.

It's a pity that Paul is very strong, but Paul is not strong enough to overwhelm Kobe.

In the 2008 MVP competition, Paul also lost to Kobe.

At the beginning of the season, the momentum of the Lakers is quite good. With Iguodala, the team is younger and has a suitable third leader on the outside.

But the Lakers have two problems that are still difficult to solve. One is Kobe's aging age, and the other is that the Lakers always lack a powerful pillar inside.

The record of the Lakers fluctuated after the All-Star break, from the previous second position in the Western Conference to the third in the Western Conference.

After successive losses to the young Grizzlies and Nuggets, the Lakers have dropped to fourth in the Western Conference, gradually widening the gap with the previous Spurs, Thunder, and Clippers.

Judging from the Lakers' lineup and performance on the field, it is really difficult for the Lakers to rush out of the West and win the championship this season.

If Kobe is at his peak, the combination of him and Paul can indeed solve many problems in the playoffs.

In the two seasons of 09 and 10, the Lakers' lineup was not super luxurious, mainly due to their strong core competitiveness.

Now that the core competitiveness has declined, and the peripheral role players are still not as good as before, how can they compete with the monsters in the west?

Once the prospect of winning the championship is uncertain and the team loses consecutively, it is not surprising that the two star players quarreled.

And the Lakers are still facing a dilemma: Jerry Buss has passed away for a month, and the infighting between Jenny Buss and Jim Buss and the battle for team control have gradually come to the table.

Everyone in the Lakers team is panicking. Once they fail again in the playoffs, no one knows whether they will experience another big split in the 2004 offseason.

This information is very important to Min Congda, because once the Lakers have a huge turmoil in the lineup, whether it is Kobe leaving or Paul leaving, it will be a major blow to the Lakers management.

At the same time, the fans will definitely be dissatisfied with the Bass brothers and sisters. At that time, public opinion will be fierce. Once they lose power in a certain public opinion incident, they will soon meet the same fate as Sterling.

However, Min Congda can't say these words to anyone. He still has to consider this news and related issues from the perspective of the Clippers' playoff pattern.

"If the Lakers are in turmoil, then their combat effectiveness in the playoffs must be limited. They are currently ranked fourth and we are ranked third. Unfortunately, we can't meet them."

Min Congda just casually said that internal discord within a team will definitely be a disadvantage in the high-intensity team confrontation in the playoffs.

When encountering a slight headwind situation, the morale of the team will suffer, and then it will collapse and disintegrate.

Lan Qi heard Min Congda's words, but he kept them firmly in his heart. After leaving Min Congda's office, he reported the situation to Rachelle and said: "Mr. Smart believes that the Lakers are not strong enough. Maybe we can compete with them earlier in the playoffs." They collide, and it's in our favor."

Rickley understood the meaning, and said to the team manager Olshey: "Our current ranking is too low. If we can be higher, we will meet the Lakers earlier in the playoffs. We will play against the Lakers in the semifinals. , Whether it is the box office or the final game result, it will be beneficial to us."

Olshey thought about it, now the Lakers are fourth, and may fall to fifth.

If the Clippers want to touch the Lakers in the second round, they must rush to No. [-] in the Western Conference.

The Clippers are now third in the Western Conference, behind the Spurs and Thunder. This position is really not good.

So, Olshey quickly found Tyronn Lue and the coaching staff during training, and said: "Mr. Smart said that it would be better to win the first place in the Western Conference this season in the regular season. He wants to meet in the semifinals. Lakers. Playing the Lakers is beneficial to us, so everyone must work harder in the remaining games, don't take turns or let the water go, and improve the record!"

Spreading the word like this will indeed kill people.

(End of this chapter)