At 12 noon local time on the 15th, the two landed in Los Angeles, and their agent Lance Hoxman came to pick them up.
"Brother Changfeng, how do you feel?" He asked while sitting in the car.
Liu Changfeng looked at the bustling streets on both sides of the car and sighed in two words: "Developed."
"It's developed, but you didn't pay attention to those slums, where there are many people sleeping on the streets. I slept in the sewers for five months back then," he said.
"Tie Jun, it's really not easy for you. Fortunately, you are getting ahead now." Liu Changfeng said.
"Remember, Brother Changfeng, no matter where you are, you must stay at home at night. In the United States, it is very dangerous at night." He warned.
"I know." Liu Changfeng nodded as if he understood.
After staying in Los Angeles for one night and suffering some jet lag, he returned to Phoenix with Liu Changfeng at noon on the 16th.
"Tie Jun, this is your home in the United States? It's not as big as your hometown!"
"That's enough, it's useless if it's too big."
When he saw his villa, Liu Changfeng was not surprised. The villa was only in a western style, but it was not as grand as the five-story building in his hometown.
"Brother Changfeng, this is my room. You can choose an empty room by yourself."
After putting down his luggage, he contacted Kevin Johnson and the others and found out that Barkley had already left Phoenix and the villa had been put up for sale.
Some new players have come to the team, and some old ones have left.
For example, Tom Chambers, the former core inside player, one of the leaders of the Suns' locker room, a black belt master in Jeet Kune Do, was seriously injured last season. This 35-year-old veteran was traded to the Jazz.
In addition, the team is playing a preseason game outside, which will end on the 20th, and the whole team will gather to report on the 22nd and start full training before the game.
"System, redeem me a physical training card."
Now that all the training was completed, he decided to use up the last two hundred points and there was no use keeping them.
"Yes, redeemed."
The content is out. In two months, I will upgrade to two levels without interruption. I will maintain one hour of training every day and it will end in mid-December.
This physical training cannot be done too hastily. It is a process of physical training and reserve. It should be fixed for one hour every day, no less or more, and it should be done in a quality and quantity manner.
In the following regular season, he plans to continue to gain weight after gaining points, at least for one period, and increase his weight to 130 kilograms before the playoffs.
In the next few days, in addition to physical training, he conducted shooting training and other ball training.
Although it is not a systematic training content, it is also helpful for improving strength.
After training, he paid attention to the media's evaluation of the Suns.
However, I am very disappointed that no media is optimistic about the Suns' new season. Even the local media has a very pessimistic attitude. The Suns, which gave up the super giant Starbucks, seem to have become a weak team in the media's writing.
At around 8 a.m. on the 22nd, Wang Tiejun drove to the Suns headquarters.
"Hey, old K, welcome back." The big black security guard at the door greeted cheerfully.
"Hello, Harriman," he greeted.
I met Dan Malley in the underground parking lot, and the two said hello, and then Kevin Johnson's Ferrari came in.
"Dan, you played in the preseason?" he asked.
"Yes, it's time to prepare before the regular season." Dan Marly said with a smile.
"Old K, you're a little stronger again. Have you been practicing more during the offseason?" Kevin Johnson walked over and looked at him and shouted.
"126 kilograms." He said with a smile.
"Will you continue to gain weight in the new season?" Dan Marley asked with a smile.
"Yes, I plan to gain weight to 130 kilograms this season," he said.
Dan Marley suddenly sighed: "It's a pity that Charles is gone. It's difficult to defend the title this time. The outside world is not optimistic about us."
The three of them were silent for a while, and they walked away. The Suns' strength this season is indeed far less than last season.
However, after Kevin Johnson fell silent, he suddenly became energetic and said: "Although I am one year older, I also practiced more in the off-season. I am in good shape now. We still have hope for the new season."
Wang Tiejun nodded quickly and said: "That's right, Kevin, you are not old yet, you are only 27 years old. It is in your prime of playing, so we may not be incapable of it. My strength has improved compared to last season. We will work hard together and we won't know until the end."
Who is the strongest."
He is also under a lot of pressure now, which is different from last season.
Last season, he basically had no pressure at all. Barkley was on top and it had nothing to do with him if he lost. Moreover, his desire to pursue the championship was not strong and he did not care much about gains and losses.
But this season he is the core, and he is responsible for this team. If the team loses, it is his responsibility, and the media will target him.
If he cannot defend his title, no matter what the reason is, he will have a big responsibility.
At least there is one thing that cannot be escaped. The team gave up Barkley for him, but he did not lead the team to defend the title. The responsibility is his, and the media will madly spray him.
As the three of them talked, they arrived at the training hall. The other teammates had already arrived, and they were the last to arrive.
The management and coaching staff also arrived, and the head coach was still Paul Westphal.
He just led his team to win the championship, and last season he won the honor of best coach with the first place record in the regular season. He is considered a rising star among coaches in the league.
"Players assembled."
Assistant coach Lewis shouted immediately after seeing the three of them arriving.
After the players gathered, Westphal stood in front with a few pieces of paper and said loudly: "Welcome to the 93/94 season. We are about to usher in a new season full of hope..."
After a few opening remarks, he read the list of players.
The twelve contract players are Wang Tiejun, Otis Thorpe, AC Green, Oliver Miller, Cedric Ceballos, Robert Horry, Corey Blount, Kevin Johnson, Dan Marley, Frank Johnson,
Danny Ainge, Elliott Perry.
Among these people, seven are members of last season's championship, five are newcomers, and one of them is a rookie.
Westphal glanced at the players and said: "Guys, Barkley left. We are missing a superstar who averaged 25.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 1 block per game. This is a huge gap, no matter what
Whether it's offense or defense, someone has to make up for it."
After saying this, almost all the players became excited, especially people like Ceballos.
He started a lot at the third position last season, but his shots were limited. Now that Barkley is gone, he should be expected to take part in the huge scoring gap.
Westphal said seriously: "Old K, Kevin, Dan..."
At this point, he paused again, and when Ceballos was worrying about gains and losses, he continued: "And Ceballos..."
"There is me."
Ceballos felt excited and his adrenaline surged instantly.
The head coach's words are undoubtedly saying that he will get the main position in the new season and have a lot of shots, and will no longer be restricted like last season.
"The four of you will be the main players at positions one, two, three and five, and you must shoulder the main scoring task." Westphal continued.
"marvelous!"
Ceballos clenched his fists excitedly.
Behind him was Robert Horry, who had just been traded and was the starting small forward for the Mosaics last season. He was a little disappointed when he didn't get a chance to start with the Suns.
He feels that he is more suitable for the Suns lineup, because he knows that after being traded to the Suns, he practiced three-pointers in the offseason. He rarely shot three-pointers in his rookie season. In addition, his mid-range shot is not bad, so he does not need to be like
Like Ceballos, he occupied the space under the basket of Old K.
Westphal added: "No. 4..."
Otis Thorpe and Ironman AC Green (Ace Green) immediately focused their energy. They are the most likely to play the main power forward. The former was the main power forward of the Mosaic team last season, and the latter is the Lakers' main power forward.
Mainly small forward, but can also play power forward or even temporarily serve as center.
Iron Man Green joined the Suns as a free agent, and the Suns gave him a good contract, worth 15 million in three years.
Both Green and Thorpe have been selected to the All-Stars. Both are good at rebounding and have scoring abilities of more than 10 points per game. Thorpe is stronger. Both are classic blue-collar players.
The reason why Colangelo chose them was first of all because of their rebounding ability, which can basically make up for Barkley's vacancy.
Their scoring ability only belongs to blue-collar workers, but it can make up for part of it.
Thorpe's offensive area is closer to the paint area, and his shooting percentage from the near two-point range is close to 40%, while Green's far two-point shooting is good, with 43.8% of his shots there, with a 44.4% shooting percentage, and the ability to stretch.
The important thing is that the two of them are also good defensively. Green was also selected to the defensive second team once. This is one of the reasons why the Suns selected them. They can make up for Wang Tiejun's weak defense.
To put it simply, they have a very important task, which is to do the dirty work beside Wang Tiejun. This is what the power forward does.
"Otis, AC, you will rotate this position. I need to choose who will be the main power forward based on the opponent. One of you can stretch near the three-point line, and the other can only stretch to the edge of the paint area, but both of them will have
Opportunity." Westphal said at this time.
Both of them couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, but that's all they could do. They were similar in type. Even their height was 206 centimeters, and their weights were also 100 kilograms and 102 kilograms.
After the head coach talked for a while, it was Colangelo's turn.
He looked at the lineup he had built for the new season. Although there were a few All-Stars, except for Kevin Johnson, who was starting to age, including Dan Marley, the stars were actually very weak, and the real strength was not enough to be an All-Star.
According to the standards, even Thorpe and others can only be regarded as blue-collar players.
As for his goals for the new season, in terms of record, he hopes to advance to the second round, but his real goal is Wang Tiejun.
He hopes that through one to two seasons of training, Old K can truly become the core and leader of this team.
So in fact, his goal for these two seasons is to hone and establish a new team core, and at the same time, through continuous reinforcement, re-create a finals-level lineup after one or two seasons.
"Gentlemen, the new season is about to begin, and our team has a new lineup..."
Having said this, he stared at the tall players in front of him and said very seriously: "...and the new core."
As soon as the words came out, all the players looked at Wang Tiejun.
Wang Tiejun couldn't help but puff up his chest. While the pressure doubled, a feeling of excitement also arose spontaneously.
"Defend the title! Win the championship! Whatever Barkley can do, I can do too." He clenched his fists and thought to himself.
"Old K?" Colangelo shouted loudly.
"Arrived!" Wang Tiejun shouted back.
"It's your turn," Colangelo said.
He was stunned, what...what should I do?
"Idiot, you are the boss now, please say a few words to boost morale." Kevin Johnson, who was standing next to him, raised his hand to poke him and whispered.
"Whoever disobeys you, beat him up!" Dan Marley on the other side whispered.
Colangelo and Westphal in front heard what these two people said, but pretended not to hear them.
"oh oh!"
He quickly took two steps forward, turned around and looked at the players. After thinking for a while, he shouted loudly: "Guys, I went to Japan recently. Do you know what I did?"
"What are you doing?" Danmar asked cooperatively.
"My agent negotiated three sponsorship contracts for me and gave me US$5 million in commercial income a year." He said with a smile.
"Shet!"
Kevin Johnson and Dan Malley cursed secretly, damn old K, I asked you to say words to boost morale, not to show off in front of us.
When the other players heard this, they were shocked, envious and jealous.
He continued to shout: "But that's not important. What's important is that those sponsors arranged a long row of Japanese beauties for me, including some Japanese little stars. You know how long they are lined up together."
?”
He really stretched out his arms and shouted: "The queue is longer than yours now, haha! It's too bad. When I left Japan, I couldn't walk. Now I have to eat one kilogram a day."
Goji berries are used to replenish the body, hahaha..."
"Damn it, old K, is he tempting us?"
"It's so wonderful, I want to go to Japan too."
"Xie Te, why don't any Japanese sponsors come to me?"
The eyes of all the players lit up, brighter than a light bulb, and the hormones in their bodies surged rapidly.
Colangelo, Westphal and other management and coaching staff all want to face-palm. Is this what a core leader should say? Old K is too unreliable!
Kevin Johnson and Dan Malley looked at each other, old K, do you know what you are talking about?
At this time, Wang Tiejun suddenly put away the smile on his face and shouted loudly: "But you are not qualified to enjoy all this now, because you are nothing."
"well!"
Everyone couldn't help but lament.
"So do you want to have it all?" he asked loudly.
"think."
Everyone shouted with excitement, even veterans like Danny Ainge.
"Then work with me for one season and we can successfully defend the title. Then I will take you to Japan to have fun and experience Japan's art culture. What do you think?" he shouted.
"Defending the title! Defending the title! Defending the title..."
A uniform roar rang out in the Suns' training hall, and the morale was twisted into a ball and was very strong.
Colangelo and others looked at each other, is this okay?