One Thousand and Eighty-Two. ESPN Again!
In the last two days of preparation before the regular season, the Grizzlies have set the tone for the start of the season, but they don't know anything about the current Lakers.
The opponent's lineup has changed greatly! The Lakers were a slow-paced team last season. This season they have only few slow-paced players left and have introduced a large number of young and athletic players. The style of play is bound to change suddenly.
Not much can be seen in the preseason. The Lakers are just running tactics. The first match in the new season. The goal of both sides is to win the championship. This game is a trial process.
Moreover, before the start of the training camp, the Lakers made a series of tricks, renewing last season's assistant coach Bernie Bickerstaff with a two-year, 9 million contract, and replacing the 68-year-old old coach Bernie- Bickerstaff and Mike Brown swap positions.
Bernie Bickerstaff became the head coach of the Lakers, and Mike Brown served as an assistant coach with a 16 million contract with four years left, becoming one of the most expensive assistant coaches in the NBA.
According to media reports, this is an adjustment that Paul strongly requested from the Lakers management. Through cooperation last season, Paul knew very well that Bernie Bickerstaff was a better coach than Mike Brown, and Mike Brown had the ability to build the team. He has defensive ability, but he doesn't have the overall perspective and on-the-spot response that a head coach should have, and Bernie Bickerstaff has these.
Sun Ce was also surprised by the Lakers' cunning operation at the time, but Sun Ce knew the ability of Bernie Bickerstaff. In the original time and space, after the Lakers formed the Big Four in the 12-13 season, Mike Brown coached 5 games and won 1 After 4 losses, he was fired. Interim head coach Bernie Bickerstaff coached 5 games and had 4 wins and 1 loss. It became a very popular thing at the time.
But at that time, the Lakers were in civil strife. Jenny Buss supported Bernie Bickerstaff as head coach, Buss Jr. wanted to sign D'Antoni, and finally Buss Sr. listened to his younger son's advice.
But this time, Paul used the contract extension as a weapon, and with the support of Kobe Bryant, he strongly demanded that Bernie Bickerstaff be made a regular player, so he made this cool move.
Regarding how the Lakers will play in the new season, Sun Ce and the Grizzlies coaching staff have a rough guess. It will definitely be a pick-and-roll offense, but how the opponent will play will only be known in the first game.
On October 31st, the Lakers came to Memphis to prepare for the game.
The Grizzlies are also busy preparing for the first game.
Although the team has many problems, everyone wants to get off to a good start, and the first game is the day when championship rings are awarded. Of course, they want to win this game.
The Grizzlies' morning pre-game meeting and last training session ended.
Rest in the afternoon and prepare for the game at 7:30 in the evening.
At the end of the training, Sun Ce said to assistant coach Bickerstaff Jr.: "Jerry, do you know how your father would coach? I heard that you served as his defensive assistant for four years."
Bickerstaff Jr. replied: "My father is a very thoughtful person. Although he is almost 70 years old, he is very capable. In 2007, the Mavericks invited him to be the head coach but he did not go. In the end, he did Now that he’s an assistant coach, I can’t guess what he’s thinking.”
Even the son doesn't know what his father is thinking. It's difficult to deal with such an opponent!
However, Sun Ce didn't expect Bickerstaff to come up with any constructive suggestions. If there were any, they would have been mentioned at yesterday's team meeting and would have been provided to the team long ago.
After all, there are no fathers and sons on the court. Even fathers and sons want to play against each other.
…
After the morning training, Sun Ce returned home. At 11:30, after eating a nutritious meal sent by the nutritionist, before 12 o'clock, Sun Ce was in the study reading the news.
Today is the announcement day of the final list!
In the NBA team strength rankings, only the top three have not yet been announced.
The player strength rankings, only the top five have not yet been announced.
In terms of team strength rankings, the rankings given by the three major authoritative media all ranked the Thunder at fourth. The remaining Bulls, Lakers, and Spurs were all ranked fifth to seventh, and the Mavericks were unanimously ranked eighth. Both ranked the Nuggets and Pacers ninth or tenth.
Only three teams, the Grizzlies, 76ers and Heat, have not yet been announced.
In terms of player strength rankings, Evans and Rose were ranked sixth or seventh by major media. ESPN and .T both ranked Kobe at eighth, but Sports Illustrated has not yet announced Kobe's ranking. That is, Kobe's ranking in Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated ranked Howard in the tenth place in two other unannounced rankings.
Now only Sun Ce, James, Paul, and Durant have not yet appeared in the rankings, while Kobe and Howard have already appeared once.
For the Grizzlies, Randolph's highest ranking is 11th. This is the highest ranking in Randolph's career. After winning the championship, Randolph finally gained the respect of the three major media and entered the three major lists. Top twenty.
However, Randolph did not respect his stomach and spent the whole summer eating and drinking...
Gasol's highest ranking is 19th, Nash's highest ranking is 20th, Paul George, Klay Thompson, and Tony Allen have all entered the top 100 in the three major lists, and Yi Jianlian's highest ranking is 101st. The highest ranking is 149 for Shane Battier and 171 for Prince...
The remaining players are all outside the top 200, especially Beverley, who ranks after this year's 60th pick rookie Sacre. Sacre's three major lists are between 411-415. Beverley, who was signed later, is exactly one place behind Sacre in all three lists after the three major media updated the list.
4 players entered the top 20, and 7 players entered the top 100. The three authoritative media gave enough face to the defending champions, and also to other teams. The high ranking of the Grizzlies players can make the stars of other teams lose.
At 12 noon, the three major media announced the final rankings at the same time. Sun Ce directly refreshed the entire browser, and all three web pages were refreshed.
First of all, of course, we have to look at the player strength rankings, which is also the headline!
.T has been supporting Sun Ce in recent years, and there is no doubt that Sun Ce, who has won the MVP and double MVP, has been given the first place! The headline is "The Lord tops the league."
The second is James, the third is Paul, the fourth is Durant, and the fifth is Howard.
As for Sports Illustrated, Sun Ce also put him first, James second, Kobe third, Paul fourth, and Durant fifth.
As for ESPN, James is still first.
Sun Ce guessed that ESPN would definitely put James first, after all, they support James.
But what Sun Ce didn't expect was that ESPN only put him fifth!
The top four are James, Durant, Paul, and Howard!
Moreover, ESPN's evaluation of him is: Because the lord has played superstar performance in a system that suits him, he is one of the five best players in the league in our opinion.