Basketball's No. 1 Anti-Fan

Chapter 265 Owen only has one instruction manual
In "history", Zion Williams stepped on the PG2.5 shoes under his feet and blew them up in his NCAA debut, which directly caused Nike to lose 13 billion.

Hansen's opening game ended with the Grizzlies changing owners, which is similar to the previous one.

However, team trading is not something that can be completed all at once, because it involves a series of complex issues such as finance, law, debt, etc., especially for owners like Heisley who do not have much financial resources, it also involves loan issues.

Moreover, the league will need to conduct a series of reviews and evaluations at that time, and the transaction will only take effect after their approval.

Therefore, it is expected that this deal can be completed at the earliest with the All-Stars.

If that happens, the All-Star Game will become very interesting.

Time flies and it is already December. The first month of the new season has ended.

The team with the most amazing performance this month is not the Lakers, Heat or Rockets, but the Warriors.

在斯坦预测中排名第十二的勇士队，在11月打出了14胜2负的战绩，如今以15胜2负的总战绩高居联盟第一！

This kind of performance not only slapped Stan in the face, but also made Nike lose face.

They had been planning for so long in the summer, and had been keeping a close eye on Hansen and the Cavaliers, but they didn't expect that Curry, the No. 2 figure in UA, would steal their home!

After Kerr took over the Warriors, he boldly promoted Green and Barnes to starters and put two All-Star players, David Lee and Iguodala, on the bench. That not only greatly increased the offensive space of the Warriors' starting lineup, but also made the Warriors' bench depth the best in the league.

But what is more crucial is the performance of the team's core Curry.

库里在11月场均能够贡献25.8分5.3板7.8助攻1.9抢断，三分命中率达到44%，生涯首次当选了西部月最佳球员。

After becoming the team's first choice in tactics, he burst out with amazing energy.

The Eastern Conference Player of the Month went to Hansen.

韩森在11月场均能够贡献30.7分5.6板8.9助攻3.1抢断1.6盖帽的劲爆数据，投篮命中率达到51.4%，率领骑士队取得了11胜5负的战绩。

No matter how hard Nike's executives racked their brains, they could never have imagined that their perfectly planned season would start with UA taking all the Player of the Month awards!
This is really a blow to the head.

Fortunately, the season has just begun, and the Nike-affiliated Heat and Rockets are still performing well in terms of record.

The Heat are at the top of the Eastern Conference with a record of 13 wins and 3 losses, while the Rockets are in second place behind the Warriors with a record of 13 wins and 4 losses.

However, the Lakers, who were highly favored before the season, performed somewhat below expectations, ranking third in the Western Conference with 12 wins and 5 losses.

Their main problem still comes from James.

This time it wasn't that James was doing anything weird on the court. When he was on the court with Kobe, he just played the role of organizer with peace of mind.

This is somewhat unexpected, but considering that it is Nike's layout, it is reasonable.

The key to the problem lies in James's ability to attack.

There are too many strong teams in the West, and their wing configurations are also top-notch.

The Warriors have Iguodala, the Spurs have Leonard, the Rockets have Ariza, the Grizzlies have Gay and Wiggins, and even the Trail Blazers have Batum. For James, every day is like licking blood on the edge of a knife.

Once James encounters problems in attacking, Kobe can only solve it.

Although Kobe did not suffer a broken ankle as in "history", he is 36 years old after all, and it is difficult for him to maintain offensive efficiency while attacking for a long time in the game.

On this day, Griffin handed Hansen the Player of the Month trophy.

Big awards like MVP have special award ceremonies, but this kind of small award is just a trophy, and only some groups who like to compete for honors will use it as an honor when they can't win.

Of course, Griffin didn't just come to give Hansen the trophy. He also gave Hansen a hint that the team could make a deal if Hansen needed it.

The Cavaliers' record is now ranked third in the Eastern Conference, only worse than the Heat and the unexpectedly rising Hawks.

But in fact, some problems were also exposed.

The first thing to be affected is defense. Although Hansen played abnormal defensive data in November, the Cavaliers' defensive efficiency ranked only tenth in the league.

Defense is never a one-man show.

Irving and Hawes are always the focus of the opponent on the court.

In the game against the Spurs, their defensive performance was even more disastrous.

Because the Spurs are the team that is best at playing 15 pick-and-roll, the Cavaliers' wing defense was too late.

This also explains why the Cavaliers failed to make the playoffs last season despite having a great lineup.

Defense is the key to winning in any era.

Even the Warriors are the same. They have played the current basketball system before. Old Nelson's run-and-gun tactics were more thorough than Kerr's. But the current Warriors only became capable of both offense and defense after Mark Jackson injected defensive genes into the team.

The second issue is Irving's performance.

He averaged 11 points and 15.8 assists per game in November, with a shooting percentage of only 6.8%, which obviously did not meet the team's expectations of him.

There were even many voices from outside calling for the Cavaliers to trade Irving.

After all, Irving has never proven himself and is not playing well now. It would be a better option for the Cavaliers to stop the bleeding and trade him as soon as possible.

"David, I'm not LeBron." Hansen said with a smile.

Although Griffin only became the general manager last season, he also came from the James era.

Substituting players when teammates perform poorly has become a subconscious reaction.

Putting aside the fact that the season has only been played for a month, the chips the Cavaliers have now cannot be exchanged for better chips.

Irving is the only one who is valuable, and now is the time when his trading value is the lowest.

However, Griffin's words reminded Han Sen.

After seeing Griffin off, Hansen went to Malone's house.

Malone now lives in the accommodation provided by the team, a small villa. In addition to him, his wife Jocelyn Malone also lives with him.

Seeing Han Sen coming, Jocelyn made coffee for them, then went out and closed the door for them.

"You have a good wife," Han Sen praised.

"You might also consider getting married." Han Sen's love history over the years was very well-known, and Ma Long had heard about it.

Han Sen smiled and said nothing.

"Actually, I was looking for you too." Ma Long gestured to Han Sen to drink his coffee and then spoke.

Han Sen picked up the coffee with a puzzled look on his face.

"I think there may be some problems with the use of Kyrie," Malone continued.

Han Sen took a sip of coffee, put it down and said, "That's why I came to see you today." It seems that the master and disciple want to go together.

Hansen had previously persuaded Irving to adjust his playing style, similar to how O'Neal persuaded Kobe back then, in order to make Irving understand the meaning of teamwork.

Irving is not Kobe, and Hansen is not O'Neal, so Irving finally listened.

But in the actual game, Irving did not get better, but worse.

He stopped the ball when he should have passed it, and couldn't finish when he should have scored, and became very hesitant.

It can be said that after playing for this month, Irving has proved that he is not a player who can find a balance between organization and scoring.

In other words, Irving's playing style was already established before he entered the NBA.

Therefore, it is meaningless to hope that Irving will play as expected by the previous tactics. What we need to do now is to design a finishing tactic for him in the existing tactical system and let him play as a pure finisher like Hansen did back then.

"I'll go talk to him." Malone said as he took a sip of the still warm coffee.

The two people thought alike and communicated quickly.

Han Sen nodded, it would be a better choice to let Ma Long do the talking.

After all, he just got Irving to play as a team a month ago.

As for whether this is not good for Irving's future, that is not something he can consider now.

After all, everyone chooses their own life, and he cannot force others to live a certain way.

In the first game of December, the Cavaliers played against the Hornets at home.

Maybe some old fans are still more accustomed to calling them the Bobcats, but in May of this year, they changed their name to the Hornets and inherited the team history of the Hornets.

As for the Hornets, which changed ownership not long ago and changed their name to the Pelicans, they are already a brand new team like the Thunder.

Last season, the Hornets returned to the playoffs after many years under the leadership of Kemba Walker and Al Jefferson. This season, they signed Lance Stephenson, and their desire to improve is obvious.

Jordan, as the owner of the Hornets, also came to watch the game.

Because Hansen said last season that he wanted to surpass Jordan to become the best in history, when the live broadcast before the game was split, it was a rare occasion that the player and the boss were shown in the same frame.

However, Jordan did not stay at the scene for long. He got up and left soon because the Hornets were quickly defeated by the Cavaliers.

It was expected that the Hornets couldn't stop Hanson, but the key point is that they also couldn't stop Irving tonight.

The tactic Malone designed for Irving was very simple, which was to pull him away and let him face off one-on-one.

It turns out that Irving is the kind of guy who can come up with a hundred ways to do it if you ask him to just focus on putting the ball in the basket.

The previous slump against the Grizzlies was simply because the Grizzlies' defense was too strong.

But this is in the Eastern Conference, and there are only a handful of teams with the defensive strength of the Grizzlies.

Hansen also discovered an interesting thing in this game, that is, after Irving was having fun, he was able to find a balance between scoring and organizing, and made several pretty good passes.

I can only say that Irving is really the most special person in the NBA.

骑士队最终三节击溃了黄蜂队，韩森三节轻松得到26分8助攻4抢断，欧文也有20分5助攻进账。

Although the Hornets' strength is limited, this game is very helpful for Irving to restore his self-confidence.

After the game with the Hornets, they flew back home and then faced the challenge of the Bulls.

The Bulls also pursued Gasol this summer, but unfortunately the latter eventually chose to go to Miami.

But that didn't have a big impact on them because they signed Mirotic and, with Taj Gibson, they had enough power forwards.

The most important thing for them is that after waiting for two seasons, Rose finally made his comeback.

And in the two seasons that Rose was absent, Jimmy Butler has also grown.

With Rose and Butler on the outside and Noah and Gibson on the inside, plus Robert Covington, who was signed in the free market in the summer, the entire starting lineup has very strong defensive strength.

This is also a tough battle for the Cavaliers this season.

The two teams took turns leading the game until the final moment.

Rose's final attack was blocked by Hansen, and the Cavaliers had a chance to end the game.

Hansen was finally double-teamed. He passed the ball to Irving on the outside through the gap between the players. Irving made a buzzer-beater with a three-pointer before Butler's help arrived.

When the basketball hit the basket, Irving started running wildly on the court like a child. Finally, after running around the court, he ran back to Hansen, shouted and gave him a strong high five and chest bump.

This was the first time Hansen felt Owen's genuine excitement since arriving in Cleveland.

"I'm very excited and very grateful to Han for his trust. He has been trying to make me more comfortable playing since he came to Cleveland. If there is anyone who can make Cleveland finally succeed, I believe he is the only one."

Just like he can find the calmness to score and organize when he's having fun, Irving's emotional intelligence becomes less "normal" after he's having fun.

But in fact, if you put yourself in his shoes, you can completely understand his emotions.

When this era of Jordan comes to your team, he doesn't act superior.

And when you perform poorly, he doesn't scold you, but instead tries to find ways to help you play better.

Even if you've been struggling for a month, he's still willing to believe in you unwaveringly.

And you are just a No. 1 pick who has led a team for four years and has never made the playoffs and has been greatly questioned by the outside world.

With such an experience, how many people could resist expressing their true feelings?
"I've said it before. We all know Kaili's strength." Han Sen's answer was still calm.

It’s not that he didn’t feel touched by Irving’s sincere expression of emotion, but this was just a regular season game.

Some things can only be truly proven in the playoffs.

In fact, another reason why Irving was excited was that he finally had an influential masterpiece in his career.

The media coverage after the game made him feel for the first time in a long time that he could still be the focus of attention.

He played better and better in the subsequent games.

In the first half of December, his average points per game in 12 games soared to 7 points, and his shooting percentage reached a career-high 22.8%. Even his three-point shooting percentage was also a career-high 48%.

The Cavaliers finally found Irving's instruction manual.

In other words, Han Sen knew about this instruction manual, but it was only after he tried it that he realized that Owen only had that one instruction manual.

(End of this chapter)