Due to system task restrictions, Wang Feng cannot have teammates in the team who have been selected for the All-NBA Team or All-Stars within three years. Therefore, when it comes to recruiting players, Wang Feng can only choose those whose statistics and reputation are relatively low-key and unobtrusive.
But he has a very capable player.
All the above three players meet the criteria, and Jordan Poole, who was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Cleveland Cavaliers with him, is also one of them.
Although the Cavaliers' lineup has been dilapidated due to trades, and all the few promising emerging players have been traded away, the team still has several good players.
This includes Love.
Since James left the Cavaliers, the leader of the Cavaliers has naturally become the last of the Big Three, Kevin Love. Unfortunately, Love has been plagued by injuries. His performance has been mediocre in the past few seasons, and in 2018-19 and 2020-21
In the two regular seasons, he only played about 20 games. Especially in the 2020-21 season, Love's points per game dropped sharply from the previous 17.2 to 12.2, and his field goal percentage and three-point shooting percentage also declined significantly.
Proportional to his poor performance is Love's ridiculously high salary.
Love's salary for the 20-21 season is as high as US$31.26 million, and next season it will still be more than US$30 million.
A player worth more than 30 million can only contribute 12+7 per game. It is definitely a garbage contract.
No one thinks that Love, who is about to celebrate his 36th birthday, can regain his worth in the future. Inside players usually reach a rapid decline when they are over 35 years old, let alone Love, who has been injured continuously in the past two years?
But Wang Feng knows that the 21-22 season is one of the rare seasons in recent years in which Love played almost full-time throughout the regular season. Love, who was persuaded by the coaching staff to serve as a substitute, played in 74 regular season games and only started 4 games.
In the game, he averaged about 22.5 minutes per game, scored 13.6 points and 7.2 points, shot 43% from the field, and 39% from the three-point range. He could make 2.5 three-pointers per game, and his performance was quite efficient.
If you ignore Love's annual salary of US$31.26 million and just look at his performance during the 21-22 regular season, Love can definitely be regarded as one of the best spatial insiders in the league, with excellent three-point shooting ability.
Help teammates expand space to a great extent.
The Lakers' championship-winning lineup included Brook Lopez, a typical space-based inside man. If Lopez is compared with Love, in addition to having a lower salary than Love, Lopez will be completely suppressed by Love.
In terms of three-point shooting percentage, Lopez is only about 35%. His ability to protect the frame and protect rebounds has always been Lopez's weakness, which is far from comparable to Love, who once won the rebounding title.
In terms of height, Lopez, who is 2.13 meters tall, is much taller than Love. However, Lopez's steps are slow, and despite his height advantage, he cannot guard against smaller players who are faster and faster. On the contrary, Love has become more flexible after losing weight.
It has improved a lot and can keep up with most small guards.
The most classic scene in Love's defensive highlights was the last-minute defense of Curry in the Finals. It was Love's near-perfect defense that prevented Curry from hitting the final buzzer-beating shot, and the Cavaliers truly won.
Won the first championship in history.
Of course, that was in another time and space, and that scene did not happen here, but it did not affect Love's defensive ability.
Wang Feng believes that Love in the 21-22 season is fully qualified to serve as the Cavaliers' starting center. He doesn't need to play a lot of playing time, just about 30 minutes.
Just like Brook Lopez during the Lakers days, Love's job on the court is not even to score points at all, but to use the three-point range to draw out the outside to attract the opponent's defense and provide enough space for Wang Feng to break through with the ball.
Wang Feng has already thought about what kind of tactics he will use in the Cavaliers - the same classic one-star, four-shooting tactic as James once did.
The so-called one-star four-shooter tactic is a tactic in which there is only one core ball-holding point on the court, supplemented by four powerful outside shooters, relying on the offense of the ball-holding core to pull the opponent's defense, and then passing the ball to the outside shooters to shoot three-pointers. .
At that time, James' best and most common tactic with the Cavaliers was to shoot one star at a time. At his peak, Howard also used the same tactic with the Magic, and successfully defeated the Cavaliers led by James in the Eastern Conference Finals and reached the Finals.
The one-star-all-shooting tactic has its pros and cons. The advantage is that as long as the team has a core player with good ball-handling offensive ability, even if the other players are just role players, as long as they have a certain shooting range, this tactic can work well. The power of.
But the disadvantages are also very obvious.
As the "one star" in the one-star four-shooter, you must have extremely outstanding personal abilities, otherwise it will not be able to contain the opponent at all. Moreover, what is really important in this tactic is the feel of the outside shooters. Once the "four-star shooter" "The shooting percentage is not good. No matter how good the "one star" plays, it will be difficult to win the game.
This is fine in the regular season, but in the playoffs, it is very fatal when the defensive pressure increases.
Wang Feng understood the truth, but he had no choice.
The mission conditions of the system dictate that he cannot have powerful assistants and can only rely on himself, so the tactic of shooting all over the place is the most suitable for him.
In terms of offensive ability with the ball, no one in the league can compete with Wang Feng, not even James at his peak.
There is a golden first step master badge for breaking through with the ball, multiple purple shooting badges for outside shooting, and three fatigue badges, so there is no need to worry about physical problems when holding the ball.
More importantly, the purple ten-cent organizational badge held by Wang Feng can effectively improve the shooting percentage of teammates in open spaces. It is definitely one of the badges most suitable for the one-star four-shooting tactical system!
If Wang Feng's goal is to chase the championship, it may be a little difficult to rely solely on his personal ability and one-star system. However, if his goal is to reach the finals, he still has a great opportunity in the relatively less competitive Eastern Conference. of.
…
On July 10, the Cavaliers made another move, first signing Heat player Max Struss with a two-year, $4 million fully guaranteed contract, and then subsequently reaching agreements with the Philadelphia 76ers and Memphis Grizzlies. The trade agreement sent Isaac Okoro, the fifth overall pick in the first round of 2020, and Lamar Stevens, also an undrafted pick in 2020, plus two second-round picks, to get 76ers guard Seth Curry and Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane.
As before, it is still a small transaction enhancement.
Who are Max Struss and Desmond Bane? Even many NBA reporters have no impression of them and need to look up information to find out.
Struss was an undrafted player signed by the Heat with a minimum salary last season. He played less than 40 games with the Heat last season, averaging about 13 minutes per game and contributing 6.1 points and 1 rebound. He was completely a rotation substitute.
Bane is not much better with the Grizzlies. Although he is a first-round pick in 2020, he is indeed the 30th overall pick from the bottom. After being selected by the Celtics, he was immediately traded to the Grizzlies.
The season averages are 9.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. As a role player, he is slightly better than Struss, but it does not seem to be much different from Lamar Stevens, who was used as a trading chip by the Cavaliers.
With a second-round pick, it's a waste of money.
Of course reporters don't know that the Heat's Strus will average 10.6 points per game next season, while the Grizzlies' Bane's numbers will soar to 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists next season.
More importantly, both players will shoot over 40% from three-point range next season!
Since Wang Feng has decided to play a one-star, four-shooter strategy with the Cavaliers, the more cheap and high-quality three-point shooters he has, the better.
The same goes for using Okoro, the fifth overall pick in 2020, plus a second-round pick from the 76ers to acquire Seth Curry.
Wang Feng and Seth Curry were teammates in the Lakers. At that time, Seth Curry was traded to the Lakers at Wang Feng's request.
However, after playing for the Lakers for two seasons, Seth Curry's value skyrocketed and he was poached with a high salary. The Lakers were limited by their salary space and had no choice but to let him go.
In the 20-21 season, Seth Curry had the best performance of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers, averaging 15 points per game and shooting 40% from three-point range in 60 games.
The 76ers are quite satisfied with Seth Curry's performance. If the Lakers hadn't given Okoro plus a second-round pick as a bargaining chip, and there was already a partnership of Harden + Maxey on the back line, there would have been no
There is a way to give Seth Curry more playing opportunities, but they may not be willing to let him go.
In just a few days, the Cavaliers made six signings and trades to strengthen the team, but the six players acquired disappointed Cleveland fans who were originally very excited about Wang Feng's return.
This is all rotten fish. With such a reinforced lineup, how can the Cavaliers become very strong next season? Even with Wang Feng, it is impossible!
The same doubts are also in the minds of Cavaliers owner Gilbert and general manager Altman.
These transactions by the Cavaliers were all carried out under Wang Feng's instruction.
This kind of thing is already familiar to the Cavaliers. It was like this when James was with the Cavaliers.
In order to better lick Wang Feng and feel comfortable, the Cavaliers management will certainly not be stingy in giving Wang Feng the same rights.
But after these transactions, Altman was a little panicked.
As the general manager, he vaguely learned through the gossip in his own circle that the Lakers' dynasty lineup seemed to have been formed at Wang Feng's request and had almost nothing to do with Irvin Johnson.
In order to obtain a maximum salary extension for Butler, Wang Feng also threatened to leave the team to force the Lakers to submit.
From this point of view, Wang Feng's vision should be very good, which is why Altman let go with peace of mind.
But Wang Feng struggled for a few days and succeeded in making his originally relaxed mood tense.
"What is Wang Feng doing? Is he messing around? Can this kind of deal really make the Cavaliers stronger?"
As the general manager of a professional basketball club, Altman keenly discovered that most of the players Wang Feng signed were defenders, but there was a serious shortage of interior players, especially with the No. 3 pick in this year's draft.
After the selected Mobley was traded to the Lakers, the Cavaliers were left with only Love inside.
The Cavaliers can't just rely on Love as an inside player in the new season, right? Moreover, Love himself is not very tall. His real height is actually only a little over 2.03 meters. Will the Cavaliers' inside players be turned into scum by then?
If the Cavaliers still fail to perform with Wang Feng next season, then he, the team's general manager, will definitely be the first to be treated as a scapegoat.
When he thought of this, Altman felt a little restless and couldn't help but call Wang Feng.
At this moment, Wang Feng is already in China.
Although there are still many things to do in the NBA, including the continuous contract and the trade to the Cavaliers, Wang Feng returned to China without stopping because there are more important things that he needs to do at home.
National team preparation training for the Tokyo Olympics.
Although there has been no epidemic, the Tokyo Olympics has been postponed to the end of July 21. It can be regarded as one of Wang Feng's most important competitions, because the system upgrade task includes a task goal of winning two championships in international events.
Wang Feng led the Chinese men's basketball team to win the Men's Basketball World Cup in 2019, so this task is only one championship away from being achieved.
If he fails to win the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Feng will have to wait until the 2023 Men's Basketball World Cup, which will take two full years, and he can't afford to wait!
For this reason, Wang Feng even reached the previous transactions by contacting the Cavaliers management over the phone.
The difficulty of the Tokyo Olympics is much greater than that of the 19th Men's Basketball World Cup.
In fact, the reason why Wang Feng was able to lead the Chinese men's basketball team to win the 19th Men's Basketball World Cup was due to many external factors.
First of all, the host city is China. Wang Feng and the Chinese men's basketball team naturally have the home court advantage. Secondly and most importantly, the lineup of their biggest opponent, the American men's basketball team, is the worst in history. The most impressive players are Kemba Walker and Kayleigh.
Lowry and Jayson Tatum.
It is precisely because of these off-court factors that Wang Feng was able to lead the Chinese men's basketball team to win the first world championship in history.
But when it comes to the Tokyo Olympics, the situation is completely different.
The collapse of the Men's Basketball World Cup has caused the American men's basketball team to lose face. Many American basketball stars who chose to withdraw from the national team out of their own interests had to declare their participation in the Tokyo Olympics under pressure from public opinion to help the American men's basketball team rebuild its dream.
The glory of the team.
This includes Damian Lillard of the Trail Blazers, Bradley Beal of the Wizards, Draymond Green of the Warriors, Anthony Davis of the Pelicans and the Big Three of the Nets.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Paul George!
This list has greatly changed from Wang Feng’s lineup of the U.S. national team at the Tokyo Olympics in another time and space.
At least at that time and space, Davis, Irving, George and others did not participate, because these three people were injured in July 21.
But in this time and space, the three of them have remained healthy so far. More importantly, they all really want to avenge their playoff defeat in the international arena... Yes, they are actually aiming for
Wang Feng is here.
If we can't beat Wang Feng from the Lakers era, we can rely on the deep lineup of the American Dream Team to beat the weaker Chinese men's basketball team, right?
Moreover, several people who have not achieved any substantial personal honors in recent years also hope to win an Olympic gold medal as a consolation.
In fact, the reason why Durant participated in the Tokyo Olympics was for the same idea.
The participation of these top stars in the Tokyo Olympics has undoubtedly put great pressure on Wang Feng, who is aiming for gold medals.
This battle is not easy to fight...
In the international arena, the only people in the Chinese men's basketball team who can give Wang Feng some help are Arab Lian, Guo Ailun, Zhou Qi and others, and their standards are still far behind those of the American men's basketball team.
This is also the main reason why Wang Feng is eager to return to China to participate in Olympic training for the first time.
During the period before the official start of the Olympic Games, he must make the overall strength of the Chinese men's basketball team stronger!
…
"Altman, don't worry. I can assure you that after the new season starts, these players will bring you unexpected surprises. I won't hide it from you. The main reason why I chose the Cavaliers is because of the Cavaliers."
The team's record is bad enough. I want to lead such a team to achieve an outstanding record to further prove my strength, so I will not make fun of the team's lineup. My goal next season is to lead the team into the
The finals..."
After appeasing General Manager Altman for a long time, Wang Feng hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I feel the pressure...it is indeed a system upgrade task!"
Even Wang Feng has felt it. Whether it is the World Championship or the NBA season, the pressure has obviously increased several times compared to when he was with the Lakers!
But it is precisely because of this that Wang Feng can be inspired to have greater fighting spirit.
"Wang, what's wrong?"
In the training hall, an assistant coach of the national team came over and asked.
"The general manager of the Cavaliers called and it was about some things about the team."
Wang Feng said casually: "Continue training."
The assistant coach nodded. "Okay."
In fact, during the national team training camp, all players are prohibited from carrying mobile phones with them during training, but Wang Feng is an exception.
He had no choice but to do his job. In order to be able to participate in the national team training in time, Wang Feng hurried back to China without even completing the NBA transaction and contract extension. The finals ended in mid-June, which was less than half a month.
At the beginning of the training camp, Wang Feng made such a big sacrifice for the performance of the Huaguo men's basketball team. Everyone saw it. It would be too unkind if he was not even allowed to make phone calls.
Putting his phone aside, Wang Feng returned his attention to the training ground.
At this time, all the members of the Chinese Men's Basketball National Team have been assembled. Dozens of players are conducting various trainings on the court. Dozens of assistant coaches are responsible for the training of these players and recording the players' status.
In the past week, the coaching staff will select 12 players from the men's basketball roster as the official roster for the Tokyo Olympics. Of course, Wang Feng is not included in the inspection team.
No one wants to miss this opportunity to be seen in front of fans across the country and even the world. If we can really win a place in the Tokyo Olympics, it will really be the glory of our ancestors.
"This alone is not enough..."
Looking at the players sweating profusely on the court, Wang Feng was not very satisfied.
This is normal. He is used to the training of NBA players. Even the national team training of the Chinese men's basketball team seems to him to be far from intense enough.
But there is nothing he can do. Wang Feng cannot hold them to the standards of NBA players. Otherwise, except for a few players such as Arab Lian and Zhou Qi, most of the others will simply not be able to keep up.
Besides, Wang Feng is not a professional assistant coach. Improving strength really requires talent and understanding, and it cannot be achieved by just practicing hard.
It's a very simple truth. If you follow the NBA's training methods and intensity, you can cultivate a group of NBA players. How is it possible that China still has only a few players who have played in the NBA?
"Fortunately! I still have the ace at the bottom of the box..."
Wang Feng thought in his mind and couldn't help but shake his head.
"It seems that the choice of badge can only be this way."
At the end of the 2020-21 season, the system rewards have already arrived, but Wang Feng has not added points yet.
Due to the system upgrade task, the next Tokyo Olympics and the 2021-22 season are very important to Wang Feng, and this time the points will be added with more attention and seriousness than before.
Throughout the 2020-21 season, Wang Feng received the following season rewards.
The overall championship + FMVP will be rewarded with a purple badge of your choice.
If you are elected as the regular season MVP, you will be rewarded with a purple badge of your choice.
The final evaluation of the season is graded S, and you will receive 100 free allocation points and 10 elite attribute points.
If you are elected as the league's scoring champion in the 2020-21 season, you will receive a reward: 5 elite attribute points (limited to shooting attribute enhancements).
Be elected as the league's steal king in the 2020-21 season and receive a reward: steal ability value +1.
If you are elected as the league's assist king in the 2020-21 season, you will receive a reward: assist ability value +1.
Selected into the 2020-21 All-NBA First Team, you will receive a reward: free allocation points + 20.
Selected to the 2020-21 All-Defensive First Team, receive random defensive attribute rewards, defensive rebounds +1.
Judging from the fact that he still only received an S season rating despite averaging 40+10+10 triple-doubles per game, unless there are some very major changes, it will be difficult for Wang Feng's season rating to improve.
This is probably one of the reasons why the system issues upgrade tasks.
Of course, the current focus is not on studying the issue of season evaluation. The enhancement of ability values is put aside for the time being. Wang Feng's main attention is now focused on the two purple badges of his choice.
Wang Feng had previously thought about how to choose to obtain a self-selected badge.
It is to further improve the offensive ability, activate such as the frame-rushing master who holds the ball to attack the frame, the finishing badge of the giant nemesis, which is a special badge for small and large players, or the difficult shooting king that improves the shooting percentage of difficult shots in the shooting category, significantly reducing interference.
There are shooting badges such as Steady Shooter that have negative effects at the time, or you can choose the last fatigue badge, which is the veteran dribbling badge that can reduce physical energy consumption during possession.
But with the release of system upgrade tasks, Wang Feng has realized that what kind of badges to choose can significantly help him better complete the extremely difficult upgrade tasks.
With Wang Feng's current overall rating of 99 and the blessing of more than a dozen badges, the effect of further improving his own strength on the game is no longer obvious. On the contrary, if he can help his teammates improve the badge effect, it will be more intuitive.
Therefore, Wang Feng is interested in two badges, namely the organizational core in the organizational badge and the defensive core in the defensive badge.
The effect of the playmaker badge is that when the badge holder is on the court, it can bring offensive attribute gains to teammates, and when the badge is upgraded to the purple Hall of Fame level, the player's potential shooting percentage can be seen.
The effect of the defensive core badge is that when the badge holder is on the court, it can bring defensive attribute gains to teammates, and when the badge is upgraded to the purple Hall of Fame level, the opponent's potential shooting percentage can be seen.
These two badges themselves have no bonuses and will not provide any benefit to Wang Feng after activation. However, as team-type badges, the effect is too exaggerated.
The offensive core can increase all offensive attributes of teammates by 1/2/3/4 respectively according to the level. The defensive core has the same effect, except that it increases all defensive attributes.
Some people may think that even though they are already at the Purple Hall of Fame level, they can only increase their ability points by 4 points. What is the use of this?
But you must know that the so-called offensive attributes here include all offensive attributes, including near-, long- and mid-range shooting, free throws, layups, dribbling, etc., and even include offensive awareness, anti-interference, stability and other mentalities.
Related offensive attributes.
If all these abilities are brought together, a purple playmaker badge can increase a player's ability value by more than 50 points.
This is no joke. Wang Feng has worked so hard in one season and only received more than 100 freely distributed points. This purple Hall of Fame-level badge can allow players to gain 50 ability points for nothing.
And the badge is not just for one player, but for all players on the field except the badge wearer, that is, the four players who play on the field.
One player's ability value is increased by 50 points, and four players have a full 200 ability points. Isn't this scary enough?
But this is not the real exaggeration.
The ability value added by the playmaker and defensive core badges completely ignores the player's own ability value.
For example, if a player's three-point shooting ability value is 50, then with the blessing of the badge, his three-point shooting ability value will only increase from 50 to 54, and there will be almost no obvious change.
However, if this player's three-point shooting ability value is 86, the playmaker badge can directly increase his three-point shooting ability value to 90, achieving a qualitative leap.
Of course, if this player's three-point shooting ability value is 95...
Yes, it’s that exaggerated!
What's even more exaggerated is the additional feature that comes with the badge reaching the Purple Hall of Fame level - the ability to see the potential shooting percentages of teammates.
Badge holders can completely judge the touch of their teammates based on the potential hit rate fed back by the badge, thereby selecting teammates with relatively hot touches to feed the ball and increase the probability of winning.
As classic badges that existed when the concept of badges was proposed in the 2K series, the organizational core and defensive core have always been relatively well-known badges. Unfortunately, the popularity and usage of these two badges in the game are not high, and the reasons are very
Simple.
Games and reality are two different things.
In the game, players can freely control their players to score 100 points, 150 points or even 200 points in a single game, and single-handedly change the situation of the battle.
In this case, the cost-effectiveness of wasting precious badges to activate the organizational core and defensive core that make computer teammates stronger is really poor. Only players who specialize in playing street ball parks will choose these two badges as auxiliary tools.
Add BUFF to teammates.
But Wang Feng's current situation is exactly when he needs these two badges the most!
Whether it is the Chinese National Men's Basketball Team or the Cleveland Cavaliers he is about to join next season, their overall strength is extremely worrying. These two badges, which can provide teammates with a large amount of ability value bonuses, are the most important reliance.
Therefore, Wang Feng did not hesitate and gave the two badges of his choice to the organizational core and defensive core respectively.
The purple-gleaming badge lit up on the badge wall in Wang Feng's consciousness space, shining brightly.
Wang Feng couldn't help but smile.
At the same time, Guo Ailun, who was training on the court, was suddenly startled.
I don't know if it was an illusion or something, but he suddenly felt that his dribbling feel and condition were much better. Originally, he had not found the feeling during today's training, but now he tried to make a few dribbling movements, but all of them failed.
Smooth and free, like clouds and flowing water.
"What's going on?"
Guo Ailun had some doubts in his heart, but he could never imagine the reason.
After activating the badge, Wang Feng glanced at the players on the court. In a moment, translucent percentage statistics bars appeared above the heads of these players.
Arab Lian 63%, Zhou Qi 78%, Guo Ailun 37%.
Wang Feng: "..."
Is this the ability to see the potential shooting percentages of teammates that comes with the Playmaker Badge reaching the Purple Hall of Fame level?
Because the way of expression was slightly different from that in the game, Wang Feng seemed a little uncomfortable, but the simple and easy-to-understand expression method allowed him to quickly understand how this ability works.
"Based on this numerical value, Zhou Qi's potential hit rate today is the highest among several players, which means he feels good today."
Sure enough, with Wang Feng's deliberate attention, he discovered that Zhou Qi's shooting touch was indeed slightly better than the others today.
It's just that this potential hit rate is not a constant value and will change over time based on the player's fatigue and the intensity of the defensive end.
About ten minutes later, Zhou Qi's potential shooting rate dropped sharply from 78% to 51%, while Guo Ailun, who was originally only 37%, quickly adjusted his touch while constantly shooting, and his shooting rate gradually recovered to over 60%.
"It's very useful..."
Wang Feng secretly thought: "With this ability, it will be much easier to pass the ball to anyone on the field in the future."
The only pity is that the purple hall of fame effect of the defensive core badge is to see the opponent's potential hit rate, and there is currently no way to test the actual effect.