Chapter 65: Floating outside shooting doesn’t work?

Author: Aiying Shutan

Chapter 65: Floating outside shooting doesn’t work?

"Wang Chao?" Smith raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Compared with Stoudemire's efforts in recovering from injury, you care more about Wang Chao? Why?"

"There is no special reason." Barkley said: "I just want to see if after last season, the teams in the league are still being used by this kid with simple off-the-ball tactics like they were in the previous playoffs.

You can average 20+ points per game just by running the ball in an opportunistic way."

As a representative figure in post-ups during his peak period, Barkley never looked down upon players who shot three-pointers from the outside.

"I just can't figure it out. What's wrong with today's post players? Why don't they use the method that the closer they are to the basket, the easier it is to score, and they insist on shooting from the outside?"

"Like Wang Chao, he is obviously 2.06 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.18 meters. As long as he practices his footwork and gains weight to strengthen his confrontation ability, he will definitely be able to do well on the inside, but he has to sacrifice everything to run to the outside.

Shoot the three-pointer."

Smith, who was listening to Barkley's words, was a little unhappy.

Kenny Smith has been a standard shooter during his playing career. Although his main position is guard, which is different from Wang Chao, this does not hinder his appreciation of Wang Chao's outside shooting skills.

"What's wrong with three-point shooting from outside? As long as you can score, it's a good basketball skill. Last season in the playoffs, Wang Chao averaged 21 points per game, the highest scorer in the Suns. Isn't this enough to prove that Wang Chao is here?"

Is it successful?"

"Of course not." Barkley shook his head and said: "In the playoffs last season, we can only say that Wang Chao was lucky. He could still score high points with such a single offensive method. This was mainly due to the fact that he played against the Suns.

The team's main focus is on Nash and Marion, and not too much emphasis on defending Wang Chao."

"It's just running without the ball. As long as the player is more mobile, he can follow Wang Chao, who is not very fast. If the defensive awareness is a little better, Wang Chao will not be able to catch the ball the whole time.

It’s not that it can’t be done.”

"Wang Chao's offensive method is too simple, relying heavily on Nash's passing assists and his own outside shooting touch. I don't believe he can maintain such a hot outside shooting touch in every game. After the playoffs last season,

Every team in the league must have carefully analyzed Wang Chao's technical characteristics. I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to perform like that again this season."

After saying a lot, the core meaning that Barkley wanted to express was very simple, that is, the new season of Wang Chao is definitely not as good as before.

Many Suns fans watching the live broadcast were angry when they heard Barkley's comments.

Before the game even started, he had already begun to badmouth Wang Chao's performance.

"Wang Chao, come on! Hit this fat guy in the face hard!"

"Shoot a few more three-pointers in this game and let Barkley see if you can do it!"

…

On the field, the players from both teams finished warming up and walked onto the field one after another.

The Lakers' starting lineup is not much different from last season. The only change is at the center. Kwame Brown, the top draft pick, was finally replaced from the starting lineup in the new season after his poor performance last season.

Replacing Kwame Brown in the starting lineup is rookie big man Andrew Bynum who was selected last season.

Of course, the little shark is still young at this time. Although he seems to be full of talents, he is far from mature and needs a long time to hone and cultivate.

Compared with last season, the Suns' lineup has one more All-Star star, Amare Stoudemire.

The starting lineup composed of Nash, Bell, Wang Chao, Marion and Stoudemire looks obviously stronger than last season.

During the jump ball stage, the battle between Stoudemire and Bynum ended with the latter winning.

Bynum is 2.13 meters tall and has a wingspan of 2.29 meters. His static talent is terrifying.

Although Stoudemire has amazing jumping ability, his height and wingspan are much smaller than Bynum's.

The Lakers had the ball and the basketball was handed to Kobe. The latter launched an attack at the top of the three-point line. Facing Bell's defense, he forced a breakthrough to the free throw line with the ball and made an emergency jump shot.

On the first goal of the new season, Kobe had a good touch, hit the shot steadily and scored the first point.

The offense and defense transitioned, and it was the Suns' turn to attack.

Nash dribbled the ball across half court, and other players also took their positions.

Then Nash lobbed the ball to Stoudemire, who was stationed inside, and the latter held the ball and beat Odom in a post-up.

Odom is one of the better power forwards in the league, but there is still a gap compared to Stoudemire.

Stoudemire, who was originally good at face-to-face offense, directly used a post-up when facing Odom, shaking his shoulders and then sideways to pick up the basket and score.

Stoudemire was in pretty good shape after returning from injury, and Nash also intended to let his best partner find more form. In the next few rounds, the ball would be handed over to Stoudemire.

During this period, Wang Chao was running back and forth on the court to make fun of himself. He was not anxious about this. The game had just begun and it was still very long. There were many opportunities for him to perform later.

And even if he is running back and forth on the court at this time, Wang Chao is still playing a role. It is precisely because of his presence on the court that the Suns have three fairly stable three-point shooting points. Wang Chao, Nash, and Bell had three three-point shooting points last season.

The three-point shooting percentage is above 40%, especially Wang Chao, whose three-point shooting percentage is even as high as 50%.

The Lakers don't dare to relax on these three points. In addition, although Marion's three-point shot is not as accurate as these three, there is still a basket in the open space, so it cannot be completely ignored.

As a result, all four Lakers defensive players were pulled out to the outside, leaving Stoudemire alone inside.

At first, the Lakers used the relatively mobile Odom to defend Stoudemire, but as Marion suddenly cut inside the basket several times from the outside, the clumsy Bynum couldn't keep up.

After being easily scored by the opponent on a layup, the Lakers had to let Odom guard Marion and leave Stoudemire to Bynum to defend.

The second-year rookie center performed even more poorly against Stoudemire than Odom.

When playing against Bynum, Stoudemire no longer has to back up, and instead uses the technique of facing the frame. Standing in the middle distance with the ball depends on whether Bynum can defend him. If Bynum dares to defend against him, Stoudemire will defend him.

Demier directly broke through with the ball, and Bynum's slow pace couldn't keep up.

But if he is not guarded, Stoudemire's mid-range, especially one step inside the free throw line, is very accurate, and he can shoot with just a raise of his hand.

In the first quarter of the game, with Stoudemire as the main attacker, the Suns' offense was extremely smooth, scoring 33 points in a single quarter. Stoudemire himself made 6 of 8 shots and 2 of 2 free throws to score 14 points.
Chapter completed!