Chapter 1331 1330. Money Is Important to the Team (4/5)

Chapter 1331 1330. Money is important to the team (45)

"Ace, look at our arena, isn't it great!" Duncan took Liu Mang to show off their brand new arena after the expansion last season, the merger last summer and the renovation of the old arena.

"It's really great..." Liu Mang looked at the newly built museum at the ATT Center and felt... a little creepy...

Through the introduction of Tim Duncan, one of the two most educated master's students among NBA players, Liu Mang learned that the area of ​​the ATT Center has expanded by half compared to before, and it has an additional museum function.

The ATT Telegraph Agency was acquired by SBC Radio and Television and merged into the ATT Radio and Telegraph Television. The antique appraisal program previously owned by SBC Television was recorded at the ATT Center.

Liu Mang felt a wave of fear as he looked at the Spurs Arena, which was becoming more and more colorful...

In the past, there were occasional other colors, but now it has completely become mainly black, white and gray. Except for the game previews, ticket prices, remaining tickets and other information on the LED screen, which are red and yellow, the entire arena is filled with a sense of déjà vu of a large charity cemetery...

After Duncan's contemptuous reminder, Liu Mang knew that in September 2006, Duncan's 2.5-year academic master's degree had completed his graduation thesis and was only half a year away from getting his master's degree. There was another NBA player who successfully passed the master's degree exam. He was Duncan's long-time opponent... Shaquille O'Neal...

The two entered their peak at about the same time, both in the late 1990s. One peaked as a rookie, and the other was fat to the peak.

After O'Neal arrived in Phoenix, he heard that Duncan was going to get a master's degree. He was unwilling to fall behind and took the master's degree examination in the Department of Business Administration of the University of Phoenix. He was actually admitted...

Liu Mang followed Duncan to visit the ATT Center for two hours. They arrived in San Antonio in the morning. Just after lunch at noon, Duncan came to find Liu Mang. He didn't look for other people, and didn't even invite McGrady from the same class. He only took Liu Mang to see their new arena.

Originally, Liu Mang thought that this stuffy man was going to take him to have fun, but it turned out to be a visit to the arena.

And after the visit, Duncan drove his pickup truck to send Liu Mang back to the hotel, and there was no more...

Liu Mang felt that Duncan was too boring. The whole person was full of "boredom". He finally understood why Duncan was deceived by his wife...

Duncan was very satisfied with taking Liu Mang to visit the new arena. He thought Liu Mang would be very happy because he liked the renovated arena very much. The color tone was simple and plain...

Rookie No. 21!

Duncan got a nickname that made him feel pretty good.

This nickname sounds much more distinctive than any basic skills...

...

...

Playing against the Spurs is different from playing against other opponents.

The Lakers and the Spurs are the two teams that Liu Mang thinks are most likely to make the finals in the Western Conference this season.

The Mavericks were very strong in the regular season, but Liu Mang felt that they might have overexerted themselves in the regular season.

It was not just a matter of tactics being restrained or the difference in coaching ability. In Liu Mang's memory, in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs in 2007, the Mavericks had no power to fight back against the Warriors. With Nowitzki's regular season MVP-level performance, and the performance that won the MVP, his playoff state was extremely sluggish. It was not just a matter of being restrained. When Nowitzki played against Garnett, his hit rate was only four percentage points lower than Garnett's. It was just a drop in points and a few fewer rebounds. It was not to the point where his hit rate was less than 40%, and there was no explosion in the series. The overall slump showed that they had overexerted themselves in the regular season.

Therefore, the stronger the Mavericks perform in the regular season, the less Liu Mang worries about how far the Mavericks can go in the playoffs.

If Nowitzki doesn't play well, the Mavericks will be no different from the Bulls without Garnett.

Relatively speaking, Duncan's Spurs, who have entered another peak mode, have Artest, which makes Liu Mang more afraid, and Parker has also reached his peak!

Liu Mang and the coaching staff read the relevant posts and news on the topic of "How to limit Tim Duncan" which has been very popular online recently. They didn't get any effective suggestions on how to defend Duncan. Basically, they were some methods that Liu Mang had said, or they were just some nonsense.

On the contrary, how to use the advantage of the three eagles to target the strongest inside and outside defense gate in history composed of Duncan and Artest has given Liu Mang some inspiration...

Although some media have been saying that Artest has not been able to integrate into the Spurs, Liu Mang and the Eagles coaching staff, as professionals, found that Artest has not integrated only on the offensive end. The Spurs' current offensive tactics are very simple, with three horses, of course, it can be as simple as possible. If it is complicated, it will not bring out the strength of the stars. Artest has no ball in his hands and his running position is average, so of course he has no performance on the offensive end.

Moreover, Liu Mang found that the Spurs deliberately did not give Artest the feeling of performing on the offensive end, and used him as an enhanced version of Bowen.

This is Popovich's idea. It may be that he has not figured out how to use Artest's strong offensive ability. After all, Popovich has never used such a star.

But the Spurs did a good job on the defensive end. When the league average score has increased to 97.9 points this season, the Spurs' average score per game is only 98.1 points, which is just above the league average.

Among the only two teams in the league that have conceded less than 90 points, one of them is the Spurs and the other is the Bulls in the Eastern Conference.

Among them, the Spurs ranked first in the league's defensive efficiency list with an average of 87.8 points conceded per game!

They only averaged 98.1 points per game, with a margin of victory of more than 10 points. That is to say, except for the Spurs' own offensive inefficiency, it is difficult for them to lose and limit their opponents' scoring too low.

The Spurs' opponents averaged only 78 shots per game, ranking first in the league for allowing opponents the least number of shots! The league's average number of shots this season is 81!

Therefore, how to deal with the Spurs' defense is the focus of the Eagles coaching staff's research. It just so happens that there are tens of millions of netizens, and there are always some who really understand the game and come up with ideas. Although it is a bit weird, Liu Mang and others really think it is feasible. After further research, there are several methods that can be tried.

Anyway, this is the first match this season, and the Eagles decided to give it a try. No matter whether the effect is good or not, they have to give it a try...

…

On November 30, the last day of the first game month, the Eagles ushered in the seventeenth game of the season, the last of three consecutive away games in the Southwest Division and the most difficult game.

After the team held a tactical meeting in the morning, Liu Mang and his teammates came to this greatly changed arena again.

Suffering from the lack of compatriots, this group of American black guys and white guys don't understand what the Spurs' colors mean to the Chinese. Liu Mang can't find a friend to complain about, which really makes him feel a little sad...

In the afternoon, we conducted training on the new tactics discussed by Liu Mang, Coach Kruger and others last night. It is still a tactic with Princeton as the core. The prerequisite for playing Princeton is that Liu Mang does not play alone. If Liu Mang plays alone, then he cannot win. For Princeton, it's a Larry Brown-style four-player-and-one-player tactic.

But there are no hard requirements. Liu Mang feels that singles is the best way.

For superstars, this has always been the case, otherwise there would be no success in the triangle offense.

…

The Hawks are preparing for the game, the Spurs have been waiting for a long time, and Popovich has been struggling with something this season.

For example, the use of Artest is very suitable for the role he wants to play as the outside core in the construction of the new system after Duncan ages, but Duncan is in his prime again, which caught him off guard.

The future Spurs system has begun to take shape, but Duncan is too strong, so why should we use the Spurs system? The troika are all at their peak, so just start. Is there any more effective tactic than this?

Popovich wants to keep Artest for a long time, but he is unwilling to pay too high a salary. Now Popovich's use of Artest is enough, that is, he uses him as a defensively enhanced version of Bowen. .

It's not that I can't integrate, but I don't want to give so many offensive opportunities.

The media and scouts expressed their inability to integrate because Artest averaged 9 points per game, which was the lowest in his career.

To suppress the value of one's own stars, one has to negotiate on a human basis, like Duncan and Ginobili did. Parker has never had a salary cut. Parker's contract extension price is the same as Duncan's 2000 contract extension after his rookie contract ended. Yes, both have a starting salary of more than 9 million. The difference is that Duncan's starting salary of more than 9 million in 2000 was a maximum salary. At that time, the salary cap was only that high, and Parker's was not a maximum salary.

But Parker really can't get the maximum salary.

Ginobili's contract extension in 2004 had a starting salary of 6 million. In the 2004-05 season, Ginobili had already had an All-Star performance, which was obviously lower than his worth.

On Artest's side, Popovich feels that, like Parker, there will definitely be no agreement on a salary cut, so Artest must be made "not worthy" of a higher salary. If his scoring data is even worse, he must be the best. choose.

The team culture of a team not only depends on the team atmosphere and the coach's human touch, but also whether the team has money is also important. The Spurs' lineup this season has a salary of only 59 million, which is less than the luxury tax threshold. The boss The purpose of the invitation was not to pay taxes, so what else could Popovich do.

If you want to keep Artest, you have to do this.

Fortunately, even if Artest doesn't score, even if he is just a player like Tony Allen who doesn't know how to attack, he is still very useful to a team!

Any team can have a qualitative improvement with one more perimeter player of the best defensive player level.

The Eagles are making offensive adjustments against the Spurs, and the Spurs are also making defensive adjustments against the Eagles.

With Artest, the biggest difference for the Spurs is that from shooting guard to power forward, defending in the mid-range is not as painful as before!

This is a huge improvement for the Spurs to defeat teams with excellent mid-range shots such as the Lakers, Mavericks, Hawks, and Bulls!