First in scoring

Chapter 419 418. King: My chance has come!
The three superstars are indeed attractive and have attracted many talented players to contact the Grizzlies management, but the salary issue has stumped the Grizzlies, as each of their asking prices is very high.

The Grizzlies management went to great lengths and gave away two second-round picks and some cash to free up space, and eventually signed three players, including Radmanovic, John Samuels, and Quinton Ross.

Last season, Samuels played as a substitute for the Kings, averaging 12 points and 4 rebounds per game. The Kings offered him an annual salary of 500 million, and no other team made a higher offer. However, the Grizzlies offered a starting salary of 600 million and a total of 3 million over three years before he was willing to come to Tamura from California.

Milicic played well as a starting partner with Gasol last season, averaging 8 points, 6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. He opted out of the second-year player option of his 7+1 contract before July and asked for a pay raise. The Grizzlies made room by trading him mainly because of him. Without the Bird Rights, they were reluctant to let go of such a quality inside player, and finally managed to keep him for 1 million over two years.

After completing these two signings, the Grizzlies used a three-year full mid-level contract to dig Radmanovic from the Timberwolves, which is also higher than the market price. The skier, who averaged 3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game last season, was offered $3.3-300 million by popular teams such as the Lakers, Bobcats, and Bulls.

Quinton Ross is cheap. He is 27 years old, in his prime years. He is good at scoring, rebounding and passing. He is a versatile third choice for the two positions. He gets the minimum salary of 1 per year for players with more than three years of experience.

Renewing the contract with Milicic and signing Samuels and Radmanovic, with annual salaries that are one to two million higher than the market price, at least the dilemma of having only six main players last season was solved.

In addition, there is Lowry, who averaged 8 points and 3 assists per game last season, Hakeem Warrick, who averaged 10 points and 5 rebounds per game, Brandon Rush, the last rookie selected in the lottery, and Darrell Arthur, who was selected at the end of the first round.

Parker, Gerald Wallace and Gasol now have eight capable teammates, and the Grizzlies have a 8-10-man rotation.

As for Haddadi, Greg Buckner, Darius Miles and others, they are purely there to make up the numbers. After five games, the Grizzlies have never sent out a 5th player in any game.

The Grizzlies have played 5 games at the start and have a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. In the Western Conference, only the Lakers and Mavericks, who have not lost since the start, are ahead of them.

杰拉德-华莱士首周场均14分7板5助攻2抢断2盖帽，还拿下了西部周最佳球员。

At 7:40 p.m., players from both teams entered the stadium.

After not seeing each other for several months, Zhang Yang, Felton, Alan Anderson and others had a lively chat with Gerald Wallace before the game.

However, Zhang Yang felt it tonight, that relationships need to be maintained through getting along with each other.

I had a very pleasant chat with the Crown Prince, but the content of our conversation was just some polite remarks.

This is related to Gerald Wallace's attitude towards basketball. Apart from games and training, he has little interest in basketball. He has little time to play with his teammates in private, let alone contact his former teammates. He prefers to watch police and gangster movies with his son...

Rondo, whether he is playing away in Charlotte or at home against the Bobcats, will take the initiative to contact his old teammates and make arrangements to get together.

Gerald Wallace has been away from the team for a year and a half, and has not had a single get-together with his old teammates. Felton took the initiative to invite them, but they declined.

The friendship of winning the championship is definitely there, and we can always chat for a few minutes when we meet. That feeling is still there, but after not being in touch for a long time, the relationship is inevitably unfamiliar.

...

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats' away game against the Grizzlies will start.

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Pietrus, Millsap, Okafor.

Grizzlies starting lineup: Parker, John Samuels, Gerald Wallace, Gasol, Milicic.

Milicic defeated Okafor to win the jump ball and the Grizzlies took the first attack.

Parker's breakthrough could not be defended, but fortunately the Bobcats' lineup shrank very quickly, blocking Parker's space for lobs. Parker passed the ball back to the high position, Gasol received it and passed it again... Milicic received the ball, and Pietrus made up for the defense and made a high layup!

Milicic played so actively and proactively on the offensive end, which was very different from the fake second pick Zhang Yang saw when he first entered the NBA!

Playing for a strong team that is on the rise will cause great changes in the players' psychology and even body. Milicic has changed his body shape and lost weight in the one and a half years since he joined the Grizzlies.

It is clearly shown in the scout report. In March 07, Milicic, who was still on the Magic team and was not yet 3 years old, weighed 22 kg. By March of this year, it had dropped to 128 kg. By this season's training camp, it had dropped to 3 kg. With a physique of 125+120, he has achieved the best form of both mobility and confrontation.

It is worth mentioning that Milicic has played in the NBA for 5 years and he will be 6 years old in June this summer. But unfortunately, he had no ball to play in the first two and a half years after entering the NBA, and he hardly had any proper training with the Pistons and Magic in the first four years. The growth cycle of a center is very long, but a long growth cycle is to hone basic skills and correct mistakes in actual combat before accumulating strength and making breakthroughs.

Milicic's enthusiasm in his early years was not as good as Kwame Brown. Even if Kwame Brown didn't give him a chance, he would still practice hard, thinking that he would wait for a few years until Jordan retired. As a result, Arenas came after Jordan retired...

Milicic gave up on himself in those years. After finishing his rookie contract, his weight was close to 130 kilograms. He only started to control his weight and train well last season... It was a bit too late. So far this season, he has averaged 8 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. Maybe in the future he can become a top blue-collar worker with an average double-double?
It was the Bobcats' turn to attack, and Felton started the attack by singles against Parker.

Parker was completely overwhelmed, but the Grizzlies did not give the Bobcats any chance to score in the interior. Gerald Wallace, Gasol and Milicic's close-range defense was at full intensity.

Felton passed the ball to the tall Okafor, who passed it again.

Millsap received the ball on the left side of the free throw line, ignored Parker's help defense, and took a mid-range shot...and made it!
The advantages of positions 1-5 all have good mobility and shooting are reflected.

Last season, the Bobcats and the Grizzlies played against each other. Both the triangle offense and the Princeton offense were difficult to play. The opponent's frontcourt trio blocked the entire three-second zone. Although Brad Miller had both shooting and positioning awareness, his feet were too slow. By the time he moved into position, the opponent had already made up for the gap, and most of the time it was the two big men Milicic and Gasol who made up for it. The first match was a 7-point loss. In the second match, they had experience and used Okafor more often as a center to fight a war of attrition. In the end, they used the depth of the lineup to wear out the Grizzlies, who were short of players.

This season, the Bobcats no longer have a power center in their starting lineup. Instead, they play with two shooters and a power forward as a supporting force, which largely avoids the impact of the Grizzlies' defensive front three.

But relatively speaking, the Bobcats' lineup suffered on the defensive end. Their lineup is good at double-teaming, switching defense, and helping out shooters, but the Grizzlies' starting lineup only has one shooter, Samuels, and Samuels is a one-on-one shooter.

Facing Milicic's height advantage and Gerald Wallace's impact, Millsap and the thin version of Okafor found it difficult to withstand this frontcourt combination, coupled with the high-post support of the offensive engine Parker + Gasol, the Bobcats' defense was also blown up by the opponent.

In the starting phase, the two teams launched a fierce offensive battle.

The Grizzlies mainly attacked the basket, and occasionally when they encountered a situation where they could not attack, they would pass the ball to Samuels for a single shot.

Samuels's weakness in positioning and his ability to disrupt situations perfectly matches these players.

In fact, the Grizzlies have a stronger shooting guard option during the offseason - Masked Man Hamilton.

The Pistons were willing to give Hamilton to the Grizzlies for almost nothing as long as they gave them a first-round pick.

The media analyzed that the Pistons were doing this in order to better fight for draft picks and, in the process, create trouble for the Lakers and Spurs, the two rivals of the Pistons for many years.

But the Grizzlies didn't want Hamilton. Price was definitely one reason. Hamilton's salary was 1081 million, but this was not the main reason.

The Grizzlies also have a player on a junk contract, Greg Bagner, with an annual salary of nearly 500 million. This is a contract that expires in 09. Some media reported that Joe Dumars is willing to take Bagner, and the Grizzlies only need to give him a second-round pick or cash.

The main reason is that Hamilton is good at playing without the ball, but relatively weak in singles, especially when his partner's long-range shooting is not to distract him, he can hardly score in singles. His thin body makes it difficult for him to score once he is double-teamed when attacking with the ball. The Grizzlies do not have a high demand for off-ball shooting players, and spot shooters like Radmanovic and Brandon Rush are enough for them.

Samuels' overall strength is definitely worse than Hamilton's, but his characteristics are more suitable for the Grizzlies. Before the start of the season, the Grizzlies' general manager Chris Wallace's refusal to bring in Hamilton was questioned. After playing for a week, he was praised for his logo-like style - superstars are dug hard, and ordinary players are chosen instead of expensive ones.

On the other side, the Bobcats focused on long shots and counterattacks. Zhang Yang and Felton were both long shooters with a three-point shooting percentage of about 40% and a large volume. Pietrus and Mike Miller took turns to do well in long shots. In the early stages, except for Mike Miller, other players on the court were threatening to attack the basket, playing a beautiful combination of inside and outside, creating good conditions for long shots.

At the end of the first quarter, Zhang Yang switched to the wing and then retreated to make up for the defense, blocking Parker's jump shot out of bounds. The Grizzlies did not have enough time to pass the ball again. Parker received the ball and threw a three-pointer but missed. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 31 to 29, and the Bobcats led the Grizzlies by two points into the intermission.

The Bobcats made 24 of 13 shots in the first quarter, and the Grizzlies made 21 of 13 shots, both of which were very efficient. The Bobcats took more shots because they had a more concentrated ball possession point, fewer turnovers, and a more mobile lineup, and they had more offensive rebounds than the Grizzlies.

The Bobcats, who were playing away from home and in consecutive away games, had better overall performance than the Grizzlies in the first quarter.

But in the second quarter, after entering a deeper lineup rotation phase, the Bobcats quickly fell behind.

Although the Grizzlies did not have enough lineup depth last season, their offensive and defensive systems have been basically built. The draft, signings and other signings were all suitable players. The new players were basically seamlessly connected, and the transition from the starting lineup to the rotation lineup was very smooth. During the rotation phase, the three core players took the court in pairs to lead the team, and the continuity of the play was guaranteed. The fluctuations in strength were not as large as those of the Bobcats.

Parker led the three-forward combination of Radmanovic, Darrell Arthur, and Hakeem Warrick, and added Brandon Rush who could run and shoot, and beat the combination of Felton, Afflalo, Pietrus, Ibaka, and Brad Miller. The Grizzlies beat the Bobcats 5 to 14 in 9 minutes and overtook by 3 points.

After Carlisle replaced Zhang Yang early, the Grizzlies took advantage of the Bobcats' lineup change and scored 6-0, extending their lead to 9 points.

Although the Bobcats held their ground in the back, Zhang Yang and Okafor scored consecutive singles and boosted the team's offense, with a score of 16 to 11 in the second half. At the end of the first half, the Bobcats were still 56 points behind the Grizzlies at 60 to 4.

During the halftime break, the coaching staff of the Grizzlies discussed with the core players and discovered the current flaws of the Bobcats. The main lineup faced the trio of Felton, Zhang Yang, and Okafor, with Millsap assisting and pitching. There was really no lineup on the Grizzlies that could beat them, so they would just do their best. When it came to the rotation stage, after one or two of the trio went down, they would fight the opponent with all their might!
In the third quarter, the Grizzlies executed this plan and successfully widened the gap to 8 points in the middle stage. Carlisle had no choice but to replace the three core players in advance. Although they successfully reached a climax in the second half of the quarter and overtook the score at the beginning of the final quarter with consecutive three-pointers from Zhang Yang and Felton, the Bobcats then fell into a scoring drought and were overtaken by the Grizzlies again.

At the end of the game, the Grizzlies led the Bobcats by 116 points, 109 to 7.

With only 1 minute left, the score difference was a bit difficult, but the Bobcats did not give up.

When the Bobcats attacked, Zhang Yang used a screen to break away from Gerald Wallace's defense, and hit a three-pointer in the face of Samuels' switch defense, bringing the score to 112 to 116 and creating the possibility of a comeback.

But then Gasol made a tip-in after Parker missed a layup, widening the gap to 6 points. This shot killed the Bobcats' hopes of a comeback.

Neither side scored in the last 20 seconds, and the game ended at 10:21 pm.

加索尔17分8板4助攻、帕克的21分6助攻、杰拉德-华莱士的15分6板3助攻1抢断1盖帽、米利西奇的11分6板2盖帽、萨缪尔斯的16分、拉德马诺维奇的12分、哈基姆-瓦里克的12分3板……灰熊队7人得分上双，以118比112力克来访的山猫队，将战绩提升到5胜1负！
Zhang Yang made 25 of 13 shots, 5 three-pointers, and 6 of 5 free throws, scoring a game-high 36 points, but still failed to save the game.

...

4连客前3场1胜2负，山猫队战绩来到3胜2负。

The Bobcats suffered their second defeat in just five games, marking their worst start in three years.

However, in the match against the Grizzlies, Zhang Yang really lost his temper and used every trick he could. The opponent's main attack widened the gap during the rotation phase, but they also relied on the three cores to make up for the disadvantage and withstand the opponent's offensive. They scored three-pointers at critical moments, but the opponent also scored key goals...

After the game, Zhang Yang reviewed the past three games with Felton, Hill, Okafor, Brad Miller, Millsap and others and summarized many problems.

There are two main problems - the first is that the offense is not stable enough, and the second is that the offense has poor continuity.

Even in the game where they defeated the Celtics, this problem occurred. Otherwise, with their main players in good shape and the opponent's performance not explosive, they would not have been pushed to that extent by the Celtics.

The reason for these problems is that we have to focus on defense...

The day after playing against the Grizzlies, the Bobcats left Memphis and flew to Cleveland. After a night's rest, on October 10, the Bobcats came to the Quicken Loans Arena. The last opponent of their four-game road trip was the Cavaliers.

Before the morning team meeting, Felton went to the main seat and emphasized to his teammates: "We didn't start well, and I know everyone has doubts in their hearts.

We have clearly strengthened our lineup and are playing offensive basketball like we did last season, so our results are absolutely guaranteed. Why do we still have to build a defensive system, which is uncertain whether it will succeed and will affect our offense and strength?
The media is also questioning our choices.

However, when we switched to offensive basketball last season, we were also questioned by the media. When we made in-depth adjustments to our offensive system, we ourselves also had many questions. We chose to persevere at that time, and ultimately we were able to win 60 games by relying on offensive basketball.

As for the playoffs, we have tried it. We cannot go too far relying solely on offense. Our offensive potential was fully tapped last season. Our lineup structure is not like the Suns' that can only play offense. We still have very high defensive potential to tap.

What we have to do is to develop our potential. We have the best coach, the best players, and we are the best team. Even if everyone doubts us, I believe that our choice is correct. We will succeed if we stick to it!"

The fat boss kept saying a lot of short sentences. Most of the teammates hadn't figured out the previous sentence when the next one came, so they were completely confused. But in the end, the fat boss raised his voice and shouted "We are the best" and "We will definitely succeed", and his teammates followed suit and shouted in unison.

The fat boss was very satisfied with the reaction of his teammates. As a big boss who is only one world championship away from the "Grand Slam", with the support of Little Duncan and Zhang San, his words are effective.

Not just today, he has been prepared. Whenever there is something going on, he will lead his teammates in shouting slogans and ask them to remain patient.

During the Bobcats' offensive system adjustment period around the All-Star Weekend last season, Zhang Yang said to Felton: "Everyone understands the principle, but you still have to say it and keep urging your teammates, otherwise they will forget, slack off, and think that it's enough... Boss, not everyone is as smart as you, who understands the principle and strictly implements it."

When he first arrived at the Quick Loans Arena, Zhang Yang overheard his teammates chatting and felt that they were worried about tonight's game. But after Felton's speech, his teammates were all excited, and Zhang Yang secretly gave Felton a thumbs up.

The boss has become more mature... Yeah, with this style of speaking, how much news did the fat little boss watch on the imperial TV when he was playing in the Olympics?

So after losing to the Chinese men's basketball team once, I kept a close eye on them for half a month?

During the morning training session, the enthusiasm of the Bobcats players increased dramatically. It was not like they were playing four consecutive away games. Normally, consecutive away games would make players more tired than before. The season has just begun, so they may not be physically tired. However, mental fatigue will accumulate as they fly everywhere and change courts to play games.

It was 6:40 in the evening. After warming up, Zhang Yang and his teammates entered the stadium together.

Looking at the Cavaliers players entering the field later, Zhang Yang felt the pressure. He felt this kind of pressure the last time he played against the Cavaliers. It was his first time playing against the Cavaliers in his rookie year. After that, he won all the way. As of tonight, their Bobcats had won exactly 20 consecutive games against the Cavaliers.

The pressure tonight comes from the opponent's updated lineup and... the aggressive start.

Currently ranked first in the Eastern Conference is not the defending champion Bulls, nor the Magic team that started off with a strong performance... it is the Cavaliers team that has played 6 games without a loss!
With the Lakers and Mavericks both suffering their first losses of the season last night, the Cavaliers took the top spot in the league!

首周西部周最佳是王储，东部周最佳正是首周4场比赛场均33分7板8助攻2抢断的King！

James, the last player to appear on the home team, also looked towards the other side...

King: Here it comes! The chance to defeat Zhang San has finally come! I have already won the Olympics once, and I will definitely win this time too!
(End of this chapter)