Four hundred and twentieth chapters Durant nemesis
What is the strength of Jarrett Allen? In Wang Feng's impression, he should be an inside player with a similar style to Capela. He is good at defending and protecting rebounds, and his foot speed is faster than DeAndre Drummond and DeAndre Drummond.
Traditional blue-collar centers such as Germany are faster. Although they are not good at shooting and lack offensive ability, their speed can keep up with the fast-paced offensive and defensive transitions in the small ball era, which can effectively improve the team's defensive capabilities.
Although such a center cannot become the core of a team, he will definitely not worry about making a living, because every team hopes that its defensive ability can be guaranteed to a certain extent.
You can't win a championship by relying on offense alone. Whether it's the Warriors or the Lakers, the teams that have won multiple championships in recent years have both a gorgeous offense and top-level defense in the league.
Wang Feng feels that the current Cavaliers' defensive ability is indeed lacking. It would be a good choice to sign Jarrett Allen to improve the defensive strength.
Of course, the most important reason is that there are currently no suitable players on the free market.
The conditions for the system upgrade mission have greatly limited Wang Feng's choice of teammates.
Coincidentally, due to the butterfly effect, Jarrett Allen has not yet reached an agreement on a contract extension with the Nets, and his agent is also actively seeking a satisfactory guaranteed contract with other teams.
If the Cavaliers can offer an offer with an average salary of close to $20 million, it shouldn't be a problem to get Jarrett Allen.
Wang Feng also knew that the general manager of the Cavaliers really wanted to sign Jarrett Allen, so it was considered a smooth favor.
After all, it’s the team owner’s money to sign players, and he’s just paying lip service, so why not?
"Wang, I didn't expect that you are also paying attention to Jarrett Allen! I think he has great potential. If you sign him, he can be used as the Cavaliers' interior defensive gate, which will greatly reduce your pressure on the defensive end.
." Altman said with a smile: "Bickstaff is also very optimistic about Jarrett Allen's potential, and now we all hit it off."
Bickerstaff, full name ***. Bickerstaff is the current coach of the Cavaliers.
He did not appear at Wang Feng's welcome banquet because he was on a business trip recently and was not in Cleveland.
Bickerstaff's coaching ability is definitely not top-notch in the NBA, and his experience is not particularly rich. Like most head coaches, Bickerstaff started as an assistant coach and served as a team player for the first time.
The head coach, in the 15-16 season, succeeded "Refrigerator" McHale as the head coach of the Houston Rockets. At that time, he became one of the youngest head coaches in the league.
In just one year, the Rockets let Bickerstaff go, replaced him with D'Antoni, the originator of running and gunning, and embarked on the road of magic ball tactics.
Bickerstaff served as the Grizzlies' chief assistant for two more years, and then successfully became the Grizzlies' head coach.
But at that time, the Grizzlies were no longer competitive and were last in the league every year.
Bickerstaff came to the Cavaliers at the beginning of 2020, and has been coaching the Cavaliers ever since.
So far, he has never proven his coaching ability. The best result he led the team was achieved with the Rockets in the 15-16 season. Everyone knows that it is James Harden's contribution, which is not half as good as him.
dime relationship.
To sum up, when Wang Feng was about to land with the Cavaliers, Bickerstaff was actually quite uneasy. He was worried that Wang Feng would not like his coaching style and asked for a change of head coach.
He knew very well that if Wang Feng made such a request, neither the team's owner nor the general manager would hesitate.
It is very common for NBA teams to change head coaches, especially teams with average or bottom records. It is common for teams to change two or three head coaches in a season.
Except for famous championship coaches like Popovich and Kerr, some other head coaches who are not famous and have no achievements are not even as important as an All-Star player.
For Wang Feng, it doesn't actually matter who the head coach is.
For some team-oriented basketball teams, the tactical system brought by a coach may be very important.
But for many teams in the NBA, the role of the coach is actually to maximize the strength of the stars.
Basketball is different from football. Although there are also many tactics and movement plans, in fact they remain the same. All tactics are derived from running without the ball and pick-and-roll screens.
The key that really determines the direction of the game is the personal ability of the stars.
Why has the configuration of the Big Three become the standard configuration for every strong team in today's league?
The reason is very simple. For 48 minutes in a game, if the Big Three take turns allocating the ball, the game will basically be over.
The rest of the role players don't need to perform too many tactics at all. At most, they can help with pick-and-roll screens, cut to the basket or take advantage of the three-point line in the corner.
Even the most famous Phil Jackson's triangle tactic is the same. If there are no top-level superstars such as Jordan, Kobe, and O'Neal, you can let Phil Jackson lead a group of blue-collar benches to use a triangle tactic to win.
?
Wang Feng does not believe that a good coach can completely transform a team. What really affects the team's performance is the players.
The coach's job is more to discover potential players, supervise the players' daily training, help discover the advantages and strengths that the players themselves do not know, analyze the technical characteristics of the opponent's players, and arrange targeted defensive strategies, etc.
In these aspects, any coach who has been an assistant coach for several years can basically be qualified.
Therefore, Wang Feng has no special thoughts about Bickerstaff, the current head coach of the Cavaliers...except that his name is ***. Bickerstaff is a bit funny, and he is actually more straightforward than Butler.
As long as Bickerstaff can be like Luke Walton and can follow Wang Feng's arrangements with peace of mind, and there will be no labor force who is the head coach of the team, you, a player, should obey my arrangements.
, then Wang Feng will not let the team replace him.
To translate it more simply, there can only be one Haonan in Cleveland, and that is Wang Haonan.
It doesn't matter, it's just making money, not shabby.
…
A few days later, news broke that Wang Feng had arrived to report to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and that the Cavaliers had offered Nets player Jarrett Allen a five-year, $100 million contract.
Both messages received widespread attention.
Wang Feng, who defeated the American Dream Team in the Olympics, has finally arrived with the Cavaliers. Everyone is curious. What kind of results can the Cavaliers, which does not have an All-Star player except Wang Feng, achieve in the new season under the leadership of Wang Feng?
Will it be able to return to the playoffs after a long absence, or will it be like in recent years, lingering on the edge of the playoffs or even at the bottom of the league?
As for the Cavaliers' offer of Jarrett Allen, it has only received a little attention.
After all, Jarrett Allen is just a blue-collar player. In his few years with the Nets, he only averaged about 9 points and 8 rebounds per game. Perhaps because of his physical talent and quality, he is favored by many scouts, but
After all, it has limited value.
The Nets hope to keep Jarrett Allen, and they also need such a player who can do the dirty work inside. However, the price offered by the Cavaliers is too high, and the Nets simply cannot match it. Therefore,
The only choice is to give up the matching contract.
In this way, the Cavaliers poached another important player from the Nets.
Question: He lost the championship in the finals, won the silver medal in the Olympics, and his teammates were poached at high prices. Can you please tell me about Durant’s psychological shadow?
Now Durant almost doubts whether Wang Feng is his destined nemesis.
Ever since Wang Feng joined the alliance, nothing good has ever happened to him.
Although the Nets have successively signed Griffin and Aldridge and other interior reinforcements with minimum salaries, the departure of Jarrett Allen is still a heavy blow to the Nets' overall strength.
Last season, the Nets were able to go all the way in the Eastern Conference and finally reach the Finals. Although the Big Three took the main credit, Jarrett Allen was responsible for all the dirty work, including the Eastern Conference Finals against the Bucks.
At that time, it was Jarrett Allen who defended Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo throughout the entire game.
If the Nets continue to face the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals this season, who should they guard Antetokounmpo?
Is it Durant himself, or George, whose body shape is far different from Antetokounmpo?
Will the Nets still be able to defeat the Bucks like they did in the Eastern Conference Finals last season?
These will undoubtedly lay hidden dangers for the Nets' comeback.
The Cavaliers' signing has not substantially increased the team's strength, at least in the eyes of many media and sports commentators.
Not only that, the average annual salary of 20 million has completely locked up the Cavaliers' recruitment space. If the team wants to introduce strong players, it can only do so through trade. But in order to get Wang Feng, the Cavaliers have trading potential.
The players and draft picks have already been given away, so you can’t use Wang Feng as a bargaining chip for trade reinforcements, right?
Many basketball commentators have already begun to predict in advance that next season, the team that can stand out in the Eastern Conference will most likely be the Milwaukee Bucks led by Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.
The Big Three of the Nets are collectively one year older, and they are also missing Jarrett Allen, the main interior defensive player. It is difficult to say whether they can still compete with the Bucks.
As for the Cleveland Cavaliers...
With Wang Feng, Love, Jordan Poole, Seth Curry and Osman as the main players, what kind of outstanding performance can the Cavaliers perform in the new season?
Considering Wang Feng's amazing personal strength, most people generally believe that the Cavaliers should be able to successfully return to the playoffs, but the process will be very difficult and reluctant. It is difficult to say whether the final regular season winning rate can exceed 50%.
This is already a very high evaluation given by the outside world to Wang Feng, a four-consecutive regular season MVP, six-time champion, Olympic champion, and almost recognized as the number one active player in the league.
If it were any other player on such a team, they would definitely be at the bottom of the league.
Until now, no one can figure out what Wang Feng was thinking, and why he chose such a team that was made up of scraps? Could it be that he has a masochistic tendency and ignores strong teams that can win games and championships with good results?
Do you want to make yourself miserable when a team like this loses?
"I wonder if Wang Feng will regret it now. What he said back then was that winning with the Lakers was too unchallenging. He may become the laughing stock of the entire league in the future."
"But Wang Feng is not really stupid. He still left himself a backup plan. Once he really fails to achieve any results with the Cavaliers, he can just slap his butt and leave after two years. Just treat him as the winner of three consecutive championships."
He retired for two years, and when the time comes he can join any strong team and still win the championship."
"When that time comes, the unlucky team will be the Cavaliers. They paid so much and got nothing. In the end, even Wang Feng ran away with the bucket. They are just a big injustice."
…
While the outside world is talking a lot about the Cavaliers' seemingly poor recruiting efforts, Wang Feng is not idle at all in Cleveland.
After the Cavaliers management, Bickerstaff, the head coach who returned to Cleveland, treated the guests to dinner in his personal capacity.
During the dinner, the two had a friendly exchange and undisputedly finalized the main tactical and strategic guidelines for the new season - very simple, just one sentence, "Boy, if you don't want to sit on the bench all the time, just sit on the bench."
Pass the damn ball to Wang Feng!"
Head coach Bickerstaff has no objections, and neither does the person involved, Wang Feng. As for whether players from other teams have any objections, Bickerstaff thinks they probably don't.
One day later, Wang Feng was invited to attend a private high-end banquet hosted by team owner Gilbert.
There is no one in the Cavaliers team who does not value Wang Feng's presence, including team owner Gilbert.
Not only because of Wang Feng’s super personal strength that is unique in the league, but also because of Wang Feng’s amazing potential as a Chinese player in the vast Chinese market.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are just one of Gilbert's properties. As the owner of the largest mortgage company in the United States, Gilbert ranked 230th on the Forbes Global Rich List with a fortune of US$6.5 billion in 2020.
As a billionaire, he is definitely a winner in life and the envy of countless people. However, compared with the richest people in the world, his assets are still far behind.
Wang Feng was very impressed by Gilbert, not only because of his love-hate relationship with James, but also because in 2022, in the latest Forbes Global Rich List, he ranked 23rd with US$51.9 billion, becoming
The second richest owner in the NBA.
The reason why Gilbert's net worth has soared nearly tenfold in just two years is mainly due to the impact of the mask incident.
As the CEO and chairman of the largest mortgage company in the United States, he has thrived at a time when the United States was deeply affected by the mask incident.