For the NBA, there are many ways to distinguish between powerful and ordinary strong teams. Sometimes, some teams that are not ranked very high, in the minds of the media and fans, their strength and even the quality of strong teams is stronger than that of some high-ranking teams. Although this situation is generally not many in the NBA, only one or two teams like to pretend to be dead in the regular season in a season.

Generally speaking, it is quite simple to distinguish a powerful team from a regular season team. That is, look directly at the ranking of the regular season. The top four in the division are the powerful teams. Such a team has a very high possibility to compete for the division championship, or even win the championship in the playoffs. In the history of the NBA, in the past 50 years, the NBA's championships have appeared in the top four teams in the regular season division. In other words, the teams ranked lower than the top four in the regular season will definitely not be able to win the championship!

In fact, this is also very simple. Teams ranked lower than the top four means that there is no home advantage from the first round. From the first round, to the second round, to the third round, and finally to the finals, there is no home advantage in every round of the four rounds of games, and they are also teams with stronger strength than themselves. Such a situation can be understood once, and it is a miracle that is a surprise twice. As for three surprises and four surprises, it is basically impossible!

So, don’t look at it before, Lin Han liked to say that his Lakers have always set his goals at the championship position in the past, so everyone can say that. After all, his mouth is on his mouth, and no one can care about what he wants to say. However, Lin Han’s declarations, or the Lakers’ declarations. Many NBA experts or reporters and media all smiles and put them off, and no one believes them at all!

Even after a while ago, the Lakers performed very well, and even achieved fourteen consecutive victories, no one would believe Lin Han said that his team was going to compete for the championship, because the Lakers always ranked sixth!

In the history of the NBA, there is no regular season team that ranked sixth and won the championship. Not to mention sixth, even fifth. The reason why the Nuggets, as the seventh in the West, was so crazy that almost all the United States was shocked because the Nuggets almost scored the Supersonics and Rockets in the seventh ranking, was only one step away from creating a miracle, but in the end it failed!

Therefore, in the current NBA, if you want to compete for the championship, it is useless to just talk about it, and you still have to take real actions. If the regular season division ranking cannot enter the top four, it is empty, and the top four and the bottom four are really a world of difference.

It is precisely because of this that when the Lakers killed the Suns away and entered the top four, the reason why the American media and fans were so crazy is that it was very simple. Lin Han and the Lakers are really qualified to compete for the championship!

A team that was considered to have no chance of entering the playoffs before the start of the season, and a team that was considered the most popular in the No. 1 pick, is actually qualified to compete for the championship. Who can think of this? This is even more incredible than Lin Han's regular season MVP this season!

After all, although the regular season MVP is closely related to the record, the most important thing is actually the data ability based on a certain record. At least before the start of the season, there are definitely more people who believe that Lin Han get MVP than those who believe that the Lakers enter the top four in the Western Conference!

Of course. After the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Suns away and entered the top four in the West, the entire NBA public opinion circle was really sensational. Last season's finals MVP seemed to have appeared in the waiting list for the championship again this season. Although the Lakers are only fourth in the West, in the top four in the West, even in the third-place Jazz, they even seem to be able to defeat them. The first Rockets and the second Spurs seem to be one step ahead of the Lakers. Even the Rockets are unbeaten when facing the Lakers this season. Therefore, from now on, this team is impossible to rush out of the West.

But it doesn’t seem impossible or it’s impossible. At least, the Lakers have this qualification. In the past, they didn’t even have this qualification!

Therefore, when the Lakers came back from Phoenix, when these guys walked out of the Los Angeles airport, they were almost greeted by a large number of Los Angeles media and fans.

There is no way. The last time the Lakers entered the top four in the division was the 90-91 season. That season, the Lakers also had Magic Johnson. After that season, four seasons have passed. As the former top team in the league, most of the Lakers fans are now growing up watching the Magicians’ games. Although the fans of the Los Angeles Lakers and Celtics seem to be more patient than fans of many other teams and will not have the mentality of nouveau riche, this does not mean that they can really be content with their team being in a low-ranking position. Usually they don’t put pressure on the team and players, just feel that it is unnecessary, rather than they don’t want their team to rank higher.

And now, when the Lakers finally make it to the top four again, this is indeed a very memorable moment.

Of course, Los Angeles Lakers fans have been a little crazy after the Lakers entered the top four in recent times. The whole of Los Angeles has even fallen into ecstasy. Lin Han and Jerry West have once again become the targets of Los Angeles media and fans. If Jerry West rejected the Suns' deal before and chose to keep Lin Han, a large part of the media was not so supportive. Then now, when the Lakers stepped on the Suns and reached fourth in the West, almost all of these voices disappeared at this time.

Joke, the championship-level Suns, who looked extremely powerful before, is now sixth in the West and is still below the Los Angeles Lakers. In other words, the Los Angeles Lakers have surpassed the Suns in terms of value, and this value is still the current value. With Lin Han's growth in strength and the growth of Lakers players, the Lakers will definitely be stronger in the future than they are now!

In this case, unless a fool is a fool, he will be willing to accept the Suns' trading offer. It has to be said that Suns' general manager Colangolo is really far-sighted. He directly chose to knock the Lakers and Jerry West out of the beginning. However, in the end, although most of the Lakers' management and media did show signs of being knocked out, Jerry West finally defended the bottom line. When the Los Angeles Lakers stepped on the sun and climbed to the top four in the West, I am afraid that the Lakers boss Bass, who is still in Phoenix, will feel quite complicated!

For the Los Angeles Lakers, as long as this team can maintain the fourth place in the West at the end of the season, with the team's financial resources and the team's powerful ranking, the team's attractiveness in the free market this summer will definitely be more than one level stronger than last summer. Last season, the reason why the Bulls' inside lineman Grant went to the Magic was because the Magic had a powerful position? I believe that the Magic could defeat the Bulls after he had him. If the Lakers had a fourth place in the division, Grant might have come to the Lakers.

Of course, this summer is still a bit far away. Now, the Los Angeles Lakers players don’t think so far after returning to Los Angeles.

When the Lakers players returned to Los Angeles after their consecutive away trips, a very big change occurred within the team, that is, the old man who has been in the legend, former Princeton head coach and the creator of Princeton's tactics, Pete Carell, this short and fat old man who had already gained weight and smiled slightly did not look like a godfather coach full of majesty and fame. Instead, he looked like an old grandfather next door.

When this white-haired, bald and short, fat old man came to the team, the Lakers were on a road trip. This guy came to the team two days ago. According to the previous coach of the team, Magic Johnson, the old man originally planned to come to the team at the end of the All-Star, but for some reason, he finally came early. Then he heard the operation director of the Los Angeles Lakers, the old man's most proud disciple at Princeton University. Jove Pitrie said that the reason why this old man came to the Los Angeles Lakers early was that the old man had no family at all and had no time to settle down. After resigning from Princeton University, he came directly to the Los Angeles Lakers and moved into his home.

As the deputy general manager and operation director of the Los Angeles Lakers, and also the largest actual operator of the Trail Blazers, the former first vice president of the Trail Blazers. Although Jove Petrie is not as rich as the current NBA players and lives in such a large mansion, there is also a room left for this old man in the Los Angeles house. The key is that this old man is like his father. If he lives in a father at home, he is already quite frightened. How about it? He moved directly into two fathers.

Although the Lakers were quite sympathetic to the team's deputy general manager, it was also quite beneficial to the team that the old man was able to come to the team in advance. However, what a little unhappy for the Los Angeles Lakers players was that after the old man came to the team, he did not start to spread his tactics, nor did he start to teach other Lakers players how to run tactics and how to play Princeton. After this guy came to the team, he was very interested in Wang Zhizhi, the eighteen-year-old player of the team, who was sparring and trainer!

This old guy has no interest in the Los Angeles Lakers' NBA-level insiders, and is actually full of interest in that little sparring team. I heard that when this old man came to the team two days ago, there were no Lakers players at all on the team's training ground, and only some sparring teams were doing daily training. Soon after a round, the old man fell in love with Wang Zhizhi, an 18-year-old young man!

If this old guy falls in love with Wang Zhizhi, there is nothing wrong with this. After all, for today's Lakers players, they really don't treat Wang Zhizhi as an outsider. Since this little guy taught Rodman a lesson on the first day of coming to the team, this extremely shy boy is quite good at the Lakers. With the care of Lakers head coach Jerry West and the team's head coach, this guy is a sparring coach. In fact, he enjoys player-level treatment in the Lakers, and his salary is the highest among sparring coaches, but he does not do much hard work in sparring coaches. Instead, he has been training with the team's official players. Even the team's assistant coach will guide his training alone, and the team's physiotherapist will even do physical debugging for him. Even when this little guy hopes to learn from Lin Han's wolf roaring footsteps, Lin Han also taught him step by step.

It can be said that even a fool can see that Jerry West and Magic Johnson are interested in cultivating him. And he will be selected into the team in the draft next season.

Therefore, the Lakers really did not regard Wang Zhizhi as an outsider, but even so. This old man is more interested in an 18-year-old young man than those of them, NBA players. Isn’t this obvious that this old man looks down on them?

Therefore, in the past two days, the opinions of Lakers players, especially the team's inside players, are quite big, especially Aron Williams and Antonio Harvey. These two guys are the team's starting centers this season. Although their strength is average, they are also the starters of the top four teams in the Western Conference. With their abilities, if you put the garbage teams like the Clippers, they are also at the starting level. Although Wang Zhizhi's potential is indeed outstanding, he has such technical ability at the age of 18. This is unbelievable. He is said to be top in the United States even in the United States, but after all, this kid is still young, and they are already famous players of the NBA. As a famous player, he is compared by such a little guy and is directly ignored by an old man. This makes anyone who encounters this situation is quite unhappy.

Lin Han also thought it was very interesting. Originally, Lin Han thought this old man was a grandfather with good eyes, but judging from the old man's approach, it was obvious that he wanted to give Lakers players a warning. If this old man pointed at the Lakers as soon as he came up, I'm afraid that this group of Lakers players with good record in recent times may not be able to accept it. In this case, he deliberately ignored the Lakers players who were extremely proud of their outstanding record at this time, and deliberately focused his attention on other things. Isn't this approach the way Lin Han conquered Rodman? It just changed a little!

So, other Lakers players really can't tell what this old man is doing, but Lin Han, who is not the highest IQ of the Lakers, could see what this "scared" old man wanted to do at a glance. Lin Han's idea was to wait for Rodman to crawl over and admit his mistake and ask to join. This old man might not have such an idea, but he definitely had the same thoughts.

Although this somewhat sinister old man was using Wang Zhizhi as a tool, it can be seen that the old man was quite satisfied with this tool. Even Lin Han could see that the old man was enthusiastically teaching Wang Zhizhi how to pass the ball, how to find his teammates, how to stand on the offensive end and find the opportunity to cover it. This is definitely from the heart, rather than pretending to be a different person. It seems that this old guy is like the Magician and Jerry West. He is really optimistic about this Tianchao player who is only less than 18 years old but has very mature technical skills.

“What an interesting old man”

Looking at the godfather of Princeton University who was smiling and training Wang Zhizhi alone with great seriousness, Lin Han also said with a smile at this time.

This new technical consultant of the Lakers gave the Lakers' inside players a warning as soon as he arrived at the team, which made many inside players of the Lakers very unhappy with the old man at this time. However, thinking of the old man's status in the team, they can't show their dissatisfaction. This old man is really the one who can determine their position in the team. As the team's tactics, he is even more qualified than head coach Magic Johnson to say who can start, who must substitute, or even who must leave!

Of course, this old man was beating the Lakers' inside players, which had nothing to do with Lin Han and the outside players, but when a guy entered the team, Lin Han and the outside players really couldn't hold it in!

"FVK, what does this old guy want to do? After coming to the team, he kept putting his mind on Wang. What is that big butt high school student? Is it necessary that old guy be so excited? Could it be that he fell in love with his big butt?!"

As a high school player invited by Lin Han this year's All-Star Rookie Challenge, and also a local in Los Angeles, there are only 2 days left before the All-Star Rookie Tournament. It is a very normal thing for this senior high school player to come to Los Angeles to find Lin Han. As the captain of the Legends, if Paul Pierce wants to have more opportunities in the Legends, he naturally needs to have a good relationship with Lin Han. At that time, as long as he performs well in the All-Star Rookie Tournament, whether he enters college or directly drafted. This is a very good stage. You must know that Garnett is not just because of his outstanding performance in the All-Star Rookie Tournament last year. This year, he wants to participate in the draft as a high school student, and it seems that the pick is predicted to be in the top five or even the top three. Maybe it is not necessarily the best player to be a high school student.

You should know that proving yourself in the All-Star rookie game means that the players have the strength to gain a foothold in the NBA, which is very important for the draft of each team, because even the NCAA players may not be able to prove that they have the strength to gain a foothold in the NBA, because they have never played in the NBA games. Even if their data in college are really amazing, except for a few talented ones, most players cannot prove that they can really succeed in the NBA. Even some talented players may not guarantee that they may not be able to guarantee that they can do so.

They can adapt to NBA games, but because of the league's regulations, NBA teams are not allowed to organize NBA-level games in drafts. In this case, their investigation of rookies is also very single, and they also have very little understanding of rookies. In this case, it further encourages some teams to choose talented people. There is no way, talented players, even if they really don't adapt to NBA, they still have the opportunity to have time. If they don't even have talent, if they really don't adapt to NBA, it will be really useless!

Garnett's performance last year proved that he was not only talented, but also able to adapt to the NBA game rhythm. Therefore, this is a double insurance player, and he will definitely not lose money if he chooses a player! So it is understandable that some American draft media believe that Garnett will become the No. 1 pick this year, because he has played in the NBA game and has succeeded, that's all. Even the group of geniuses in NCAA have no advantage in front of Garnett.

This is also why after the league creates a rookie reform, a high school student quota will be so scarce, because this is a better way to join NBA than entering NCAA!

Of course, Pierce's life was difficult when she was a child due to family reasons, but a few years ago, after his two brothers started their own families and started their own businesses, one of them was still in the American Professional League. He was different from other black children, not as short of money as Garnett or Iverson. Therefore, Pierce's wish was to go to a university and play NCAA. After all, in the United States, most young people yearn for NCAA very much. Of course, Garnett is a weird one, not included.

However, when Jordan made a comeback this season, Paul Pierce gave up this idea reluctantly!

As the best player in high school in California this year, he has always been called Little Lin Han, but Pierce's idol is not Lin Han. Just like this guy is in Los Angeles, his favorite team is not the Lakers. This is a very special young man. He joined Lin Han's training camp from the beginning to make the high school place.

Although he really wants to play in NCAA, what he expects more than going to NCAA is to be able to compete with Jordan earlier!

Although Pierce is different from many young players, he doesn't have any team he likes particularly. As a native of Los Angeles, in the era when all of Los Angeles liked the Lakers and Magicians, his whole family was a fan of Lakers and Magicians. He was not very interested in the Lakers led by the Magicians back then. This kid even hated the Lakers No. 33 who looked scary with glasses during the game.

Similarly, he doesn't have any players he particularly likes. Whether it is Lin Han or Jordan, he doesn't like it so much. Of course, he likes watching these two games, but he doesn't admire these two people very much. Even if he can, he hopes to defeat Jordan or defeat Lin Han!

Well, this is a very special and ideal young man, just like Lin Han vowed to defeat Jordan after seeing Jordan's game.

But what made Pierce very unhappy was that when he came to Los Angeles, the Lakers wanted to find Lin Hanlala, hoping to perform in this year's rookie game and prepare for his entry into the NBA, he was caught by an old man and refused to let him go after being caught. This made the young high school student very unhappy. However, because he was a young man and the old man seemed to have a very high status in the Lakers, he could not resist at all. He could only be tricked by the old man casually.

When Pierce saw the increasingly excited eyes from the old man's eyes, he was a little scared for a moment, and was already wondering in his heart. Does this old man have a special hobby? Especially when he saw Wang Zhizhi's fat cheeks and his equally not small butt, Pierce felt more and more likely.

Of course. At this time, in Pierce's heart, the old man Carell was a [perverted], but this young man did not expect that he was not a good person in the eyes of other outside players of the Lakers.

If Pierce knew that these Lakers players would think like this, they would probably not be able to find a place to cry.

Of course, facing Carell's group of outside players who beat the Lakers with Pierce, most of the outside players of the Lakers were really unhappy. It would be fine if the team's inside line was not as good as Wang Zhizhi. On the offensive end, no one in the Lakers' inside line is worse than Wang Zhizhi, but as Eddie Jones said, what's going on with this big-butt high school student?

Without Lin Han and Dominic Wilkins taking action, even Van Eksel and Eddie Jones have the ability to torture this guy to death!

Although the potential shown by this big butt looks good when the old man is randomly fiddled with, this potential is really not enough among the outside players of the Lakers. Even Ruffin and Ellis may not be able to like this big butt high school student. They really don't know what Carell likes Pierce.

Lin Han looked at the old man with a sinister way of bullying Lakers players, especially when he saw Pierce's reluctant look and the same look he asked for help every time he looked at him, Lin Han really thought this old man was really interesting.

I'm afraid that not only Lin Han would think so, even Magic Johnson, the head coach of the team, would have such a view at this time. Of course, unlike Lin Han who has been paying attention to Carell, Magic Johnson's eyes have been on Pierce, and as time goes by, the eyes in his eyes are even brighter and brighter!

When Peter Carell came to the Lakers with his Princeton tactical system, Lin Han and the Lakers players really didn't expect that this old man would make the team like this. Although many Lakers players were really unhappy with this old man. But there was no way, who made his status in the team really have a high level?

In this case, the Los Angeles Lakers players almost threw all their anger on the team's next opponent, especially this opponent, who won their Nuggets twice in a row this season!

The Lakers are really innately deficient in the face of the Nuggets. The Nuggets play in the first and fourth-level teams, especially after successfully using pressing to kill the Supersonics and almost forced the Rockets to death last season, the team's pressing tactics have become the team's mainstream tactics. The first and fourth-level teams play pressing again, which makes it very difficult for the Lakers, especially the inside line of this team is still a defensive inside line like Mutombo.

This makes the Lakers' tactics quite difficult to play. It's too slow to play double inside, and a single inside can't stand Mutombo at all. In addition, the Lakers' inside is mainly defense, or has no offensive ability, so the restraint on Mutombo is quite limited, which makes Mutombo able to completely put all his goals on Lin Han or other Lakers players.

More importantly, although the Nuggets' pressing is more than one level worse than the Jazz's, this is also the tactical system of the Supersonics and nearly defeated the Rockets. In terms of the Lakers' integrity, how do you play with this team? In the previous two encounters, the Lakers almost lost a crushing defeat. Mutombo made 16 blocks on this team in two games, 9 in the first game and 7 in the second game, almost directly forced the Lakers to shoot wildly on the outside like the Supersonics in the playoffs last season. The Supersonics were destroyed last season. They couldn't get in from the inside and kept shooting outside. They encountered the opponent's tight defense, and there was not much room for attack. If they felt bad, it would be strange if they didn't lose!

The Lakers had this meaning in the first two games. In addition to Lin Han, who can also play with Mutombo, the others are really dead. However, without the cover of teammates, Lin Han took his defenders one-on-one to the inside to compete with Mutombo. Lin Han’s chances are actually not very big.

However, in this game, the Lakers made a tactical change, and Lin Han actually appeared in the center position again in this game!

Obviously, the Lakers are preparing to let Lin Han play Mutombo with his own basket footsteps on the offensive end!

Because the Nuggets' defensive approach determines that they cannot play shrinkage. This is both a trust in Mutombo and their helplessness. Without a sharp outside knife and everyone defends and is generally around, it is said that they are playing pressing, but in fact, they transfer all the defensive pressure to Mutombo.

In this case, if Lin Han can really use his own basket footsteps to defeat Mutombo on the offensive end, then the Lakers will not have a chance to win!

Of course, Mutombo is not David Robinson, and the two have different defensive styles. Although Mutombo is also a jumper, this guy is more able to block than David Robinson and has a better vision in defense. You should know that Olajuwon's original fantasy footsteps did not kill him last season's playoffs. As for whether Lin Han's non-original fantasy footsteps can kill him, Lin Han himself is not very clear.

And when this game started, when Lin Han appeared at the center position, and played the basket several times in the inside and had a average success rate. Lin Han knew that it was not so possible to play Mutombo like David Robinson, but it was obvious. Lin Han didn't need to really play Mutombo to death. When the Nuggets faced the Rockets at the last moment last season, what was the reason for the Rockets' final counterattack? Wasn't it because Olajuwon restrained Mutombo, and in the end, a sharp knife who was played by Lin Han hit the Nuggets' heart directly from the outside, and the Nuggets were killed?

In this game, although Lin Han could not defeat Mutombo, after restraining Mutombo's energy, Dominic Wilkins and Eddie Jones' offensive opportunities instantly became more!

Not to mention these two, even Van Eksel was the same. When the Nuggets' outside line was a little shaky under the Lakers' attack, and Mutombo was restrained by Lin Han, the situation in this game changed completely!

Although the Lakers did not complete their pre-match deployment, they were definitely successful in the results!

"Teacher. How about it, this team is very good, right?"

When the Los Angeles Lakers unexpectedly suppressed the Nuggets at home, in the stands on the court, the Lakers' operations director Petrie was accompanying his teacher and the Lakers' new technical consultant Carell. Looking at the Lakers' performance in this game, Petrie was quite satisfied.

However, although he was very satisfied, he was not very clear about what the old man thought. He could only know that the old man had a smile on his face at this time.

"It's indeed a very good team, there are many players here that match my goal."

After Petri said that, Carell looked at the Lakers No. 24 player on the court, and the Lakers consultant also said with a smile.

This is not his flattery. This team does have many players that meet his requirements, such as Lin Han, the boss of this team. Although Lin Han showed something that Princeton needed in this game, as the consultant invited by the team, how could he have not watched the Lakers' game video?

Whether it is a three-pointer, a running position or a breakout with the ball, Lin Han is very suitable for Princeton, or Lin Han's comprehensiveness can adapt to any tactical system. The key is whether he is willing to sacrifice his freedom of playing style like Jordan for the team's tactical system.

In addition to Lin Han, Van Eksel is also a very suitable Princeton player. If this guy is willing to run, it will be perfect. He can make three points, cut, run, and has a certain passing ability. This is the most perfect point guard in his tactical system. Van Eksel is qualified, but he does not fully meet his requirements like Lin Han, and he still needs to be tuned [Teacher]

As for Eddie Jones, the same is true. His qualifications are sufficient, but they need to be improved and improved. As for Rodman, this kid is usually not showing off, but for this old NBA player, Carell can still see that his football quotient is definitely the highest among the Lakers!

The only thing that is worse is probably Dominic Wilkins. Even if Dominic Wilkins is not suitable for Princeton's tactical system, it is okay to play a substitute with his ability. Therefore, there are many players who are qualified to play his tactical system. Even if there are two organizational insiders that are most lacking, there is one of this team, but it has not yet entered the NBA.

Petrie did not lie to him. This Lakers are indeed qualified to play against Princeton's tactical system. Even if it needs to be improved, the improvement points are not big, which is very easy to operate.

At this time, the Lakers, who were pressing the Nuggets on the court, naturally had never thought that the old man was actually observing them, and it was not just the old man who was also observing them. When Paul Pierce, who was in the stands, saw Lin Han sitting at the basket with his butt to play Mutombo alone, the young high school student also felt a little excited, and even his eyes were already shining!

Amid the crazy cheers of Lakers fans throughout the game, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Nuggets 98-88 in their last game before the All-Star Game, and finally avenged the revenge for being defeated by this team in succession.

At the end of the game, as the host's player, Lin Han still approached Mutombo as usual and gave him a hug with a smile.

Nothing else, it is because this guy is a substitute player in this year's All-Star Game. If Lin Han wants to pursue this year's All-Star Game, he must unite those players who don't have much opinion on him!

After the Los Angeles and the Nuggets game ended, the Lakers also ended all the games before the All-Star Game, with a record of 34 wins and 12 losses in 46 games. Such a record is already excellent enough for the Lakers.

Just look at the Forum Arena at this time and the Lakers fans shouting Lin Han’s name will be clear!

"This year's Lakers are definitely not just that!"

Looking at the crazy fans at the scene, Lin Han was also excited and shouted silently in his heart! (To be continued)

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Chapter completed!