Chapter 1343 1342. Granger's Belief, the Eagles' Team Culture (5,000 Words Long Chapter)
After playing 15 minutes, he scored 9 points and 4 assists. Rondo looked at his statistics and found that he was one point away from scoring in double figures. He was heartbroken.
It was because of his 0-for-4 free throws in the first half that the opponent began to commit tactical fouls on him in the middle of the third quarter. After 1-for-2 free throws became 1-for-6 in the third quarter, he was replaced and never played.
4 of 6 shots and 1 of 6 free throws were not so bad for O'Neal.
He was not allowed to play in garbage time, but Jason Terry led Korver, Shane Battier, Granger, and David Lee on the court.
"Practice your free throws more. If your free throws are accurate, you will have more playing time." Granger patted Rondo on the shoulder and said.
"Yeah, I know." Rondo was very moved, but his expression was still cool.
"Yeah, if you can make free throws more accurately, you can imitate me and make fouls. That would be great." Liu Mang said from the side.
"..." Rondo glanced at Liu Mang and swore in his heart: I will never be that kind of player! It would be too shameful to call for a foul!
Liu Mang looked at Rondo's free throw performance that almost broke the record for the worst free throw percentage in history, and thought of the second pick more than ten years later. It is estimated that no one except that guy can break Rondo's free throw percentage in his rookie year...
After experiencing the children's clothing scandal and being secretly photographed by staff and posted on the Internet, Rondo has become more relaxed about many things...
In fact, Rondo is not good at free throws in college, but he is at least similar to James, with a shooting percentage of over 60%, at least a little better than O'Neal, Duncan, and Kwame Brown.
But in the NBA, confrontation has become stronger. Rondo's layups were not greatly affected. His steps under the basket were one-on-one, the kind that James envied. However, the confrontation he experienced when he was fouled made him lose weight when making free throws. It was greatly affected, and the longer the confrontation lasted, the stronger it became.
There is also the difference between the Hawks and the Celtics in training Rondo. The Celtics mainly train Rondo's vision and passing, while the Hawks make more use of Rondo's existing characteristics. Speed, defense, rebounds, breakthroughs, etc., especially Rondo's defense, are key to guarding against the opponent's speedy players when Liu Mang is away.
Also, when encountering a situation like the Cavaliers, there are two running three-point masters in Damon Jones and Peja, and the speed of Liu Mang and Rondo come in handy.
Rondo had 9 points and 4 assists. In addition to his good performance on the defensive end, he also played a lot of roles on the offensive end. He knew how to take advantage of Rondo's characteristics. Liu Mang was as willing to give the ball to Iguodala and Josh Smith. When the ball is sent out, it is either given to McGrady or to Jason Terry for the third point like in the first half.
Granger, who has high hopes, contributed well on the defensive end. He blocked two James and also made a quick steal. He scored 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks.
Judging from the data, second-year Granger did not perform as well as rookie Rondo.
There's nothing we can do about it. Granger didn't really grow until he won the Most Improved Award in the fourth grade. From a superstar's perspective, Granger's progress is considered very slow. After all, it's the Pacers who give him the right to play football. time.
Granger didn't score much in the first two years but was still patiently cultivated by the Pacers, mainly because of his defensive and psychological quality, and his shooting talent.
It is easy to find a pure scorer, but it is not easy to find a core that integrates offense and defense.
The Eagles' training of Granger focuses on defense and three-pointers, that is, strengthening Granger's strengths.
Obviously, the Hawks value Rondo more than Granger. The Hawks have no shortage of strikers and appreciate Granger, so they are also training him, but mostly to use him as a bargaining chip.
Of course, Granger's contribution is obvious to all. For example, today he defended James very well against the basket.
The Pacers have tried their best to train Granger, but in the original time and space, the second-year Granger averaged 34 minutes per game and only scored 13 points. However, after the fourth-year improvement, he averaged 36 minutes per game and was able to score 13 points. 25 points.
The main reason is that Granger is unwilling to shoot casually when he is not sure. He has a leader-like character. Jason Terry is the strongest on the bench, but young players like to follow Granger. .
As for Granger personally, what he has to learn in the Hawks is very similar to Iguodala and Josh Smith. He plays next to superstars, polishes his skills, and learns from the superstars how to deal with difficulties in the game.
Iguodala, who went to the Rockets, is now a first-line swingman and knows what it takes to make his team a strong team; Josh Smith, who has been honed in the Hawks, is a pie-eater. Ability, and focus on attacking the basket, have not been cultivated towards all-around. Although Nash has a lot of fat, he still performed well, averaging 21.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, becoming the Suns' scoring leader and offensive rebounding leader. .
After understanding this, Granger has a clear positioning of himself. He will do whatever the team needs him to do. He will study hard and absorb, and learn to become a leader of the new team like Iguodala!
With great future prospects coming from Iguodala and Josh Smith, Granger believes the Hawks front office will not treat him badly. This aspect of the Hawks team culture has been established with NBA players and media , the fans have widely recognized it, which can be seen from the beginning of sending Josh Smith, Iguodala, and Rasheed Wallace to the same team.
With such a great team, Granger is even more determined in his goals.
Granger firmly believes in this.
…
…
The Cavaliers' best player was guarded!
James failed to break the Eagles' defense!
With James' early strengthening of three-pointers and his increasing proficiency in four-step layups, his unparalleled breakthrough ability is estimated to be on par with Wade and Iverson, and better than Liu Mang, Kobe, and Tracy McGrady. This season, in addition to facing the Spurs, Lakers, and Rockets, which are three teams that either have strong forward defense or strong team defense, they are unfavorable against other teams.
Seeing that the Hawks lost Iguodala and Josh Smith, people thought that the Hawks might be able to beat the Cavaliers, but there is a high probability that they will not be able to continue to guard James as before.
But I didn't expect that the Hawks relied on defensive tactics to restrict James to his worst performance of the season, making 6 of 22 shots, a shooting rate of less than 30%!
Liu Mang said in an interview after the game: "I like LeBron very much, so I thought of about a hundred ways to defend him..."
The media and fans think that there are a hundred ways to defend James are exaggerated, but as long as there are a few effective ones, it will be enough for James.
This is based on the fact that the Hawks have assist defense experts such as Tracy McGrady, Prince, Battier, Granger, Marion and even Korver. They have completed a hundred kinds of defense against James. Other teams want to It’s not easy to learn!
The only reliable ones are the Spurs and the Lakers. The Lakers have Kobe, Odom, and Barnes, and the Spurs have Artest and team defense.
But they are already very restrained against the Cavaliers, so there is no need to learn this.
In addition to the restrictions on James, people are also surprised by the performance of the Cavaliers' two major pitchers.
Peja and Damon Jones combined for only three three-pointers, one for Damon Jones and two for Peja.
Liu Mang from the Eagles made three three-pointers by himself!
They were faced with a situation where open three-pointers were blocked. Liu Mang still shot 3 of 8 from the three-point range. The two Cavaliers shot a combined 3 of 15!
Before Liu Mang played against the Cavaliers, people thought that Peja was a three-point shooter who was not inferior to Liu Mang. With James, Peja's three-point ability was even better than that of the Kings, and was even regarded as better than Ray A. Lun must be stronger.
But now I find that Ray Allen is still better. Ray Allen can at least break through against Liu Mang, and he has the threat of breaking through. He also shot 3 of 9 three-pointers from three-point range, while Peja was 12. Hit 2!
And whether it's Ray Allen or Peja, they feel so different compared to Liu Mang!
There is a feeling that Peja and Ray Allen are competing for third place, Liu Mang is the only one, and second place is free!
Many teams have seen Liu Mang's even better three-point performance this season, averaging almost 4 three-pointers per game again, and have begun to pay close attention to some college players with outstanding three-pointers.
There are also more thoughts on some of the teams’ standout pitchers.
Nowadays, the rules are more and more conducive to outside players scoring, and the value of pitchers has increased with Liu Mang's performance...
…
"Jeff, go buy Apple stock... Yes, it's the Apple of Steve Jobs. Buy as much as you can... I got news from a college classmate who works at Apple. Steve Jobs will give people an epoch-making product. When the stock price next year It will definitely skyrocket, you can also try to buy some..."
Asking Schwartz to get the authorization to use the money in his account to buy Apple stocks, Liu Mang hung up the phone.
There was no doubt that Schwartz had him there. Liu Mang was talking about bargain hunting during the last period of December. There was less than half a month left, so he had to do it quickly.
When you study in college, you learn knowledge and understand the wider world. After graduation, you gain more connections.
Liu Mang... really doesn't have many university connections. The only person who has contact with college classmates is her mother. Alexia and Liu Mang are not in the same class. Alexia has contacts with classmates, and occasionally He would go out for coffee, and classmates with children could discuss parenting together. Liu Mang had no contact with his college classmates, but he graduated from Georgia Tech in economics, so no one would think there was a problem.
Liu Mang calculated his own account and found that except for his rookie season when he had little money, and in order to sign a bigger endorsement contract, he did not accept any endorsements during his rookie year, Liu Mang’s income has exceeded 20 million US dollars since his second year. Last season After winning three consecutive championships, Liu Mang's after-tax income reached 49 million U.S. dollars. In addition to the money he used to buy a house, there was still more than 110 million U.S. dollars. Schwartz was authorized to have a budget of 100 million U.S. dollars. The remaining The next part may be useful in daily life.
It is impossible to sell the school district building in the imperial capital now. Just wait until before the purchase restriction. Those two buildings... Liu Mang pays more attention to the $100 million Apple stock.
"Uncle, what are you writing? One hundred million! Oh my god, uncle, you are crazy!" Little Loli exclaimed as she got into Liu Mang's arms and looked at the number written by Liu Mang.
"One hundred million? Ace, what stock do you want to buy and how much money do you need?" Levia was also shocked.
"What do you women know? Nowadays, technology is becoming more and more advanced. In the future, there will be an era of artificial intelligence. Apple is the pioneer. Dinah, next year you will be able to use a completely different mobile phone." Liu Mang said to the little Lolita Putting it on his lap, he rubbed the little loli's face and said.
"I've heard about this. Jobs has been financing, but the media and some of my friends say that Jobs is a liar. Ace, you have to be careful." Levia reminded.
"Believe in my vision! You will definitely make money this time!" Liu Mang said it was very difficult.
Liu Mang occasionally pays attention to it. From 2004 to now, after the storm brought by Apple's iPod at the beginning of the century gradually cooled down due to the launch of new MP3 devices by brands such as Sony, Apple fell into a long period of silence, and no new products that attracted much attention were launched. 2006 is coming to an end, and the trading volume of Apple's stock this year is less than 200 million US dollars.
But Liu Mang knows that in January 2007, Apple will launch an epoch-making product. From the first generation in 2007 to the iPhone 4S in 2011, these few years are the era of Apple, and it will last for a long time afterwards.
Levia thought about it. Liu Mang has always been very good at this aspect, but he usually doesn't like to do these things. He focuses on basketball every day. This time, he rarely pays attention to such things so attentively. He must be confident to throw out 100 million directly.
Levia and Liu Mang are financially independent. Unlike Alexia, who uses Liu Mang's card to swipe because she has a child, Levia returned to the room to think for a while, called her father, the head of the Shavishiya family, and took out the money from the sale of some real estate to buy some...
Just like Liu Mang has been waiting for the bottom price, Levia studied Apple's stock price and knew that if Apple made a big move, it would basically be the bottom price...
...
...
After playing the Cavaliers, the Hawks rested for a day and welcomed the Raptors.
The Raptors are firmly in fourth place in the East this season. The first-division system allows them to enter the top four in the East for the first time in team history. The Nets are still struggling on the edge of the playoffs. If the Raptors do not collapse, they can basically lock in the first place in the Atlantic Division at the beginning of the season. This is something that Carter has never done.
James' Cavaliers lost a game, and the Bulls unfortunately also lost a game. The Cavaliers are still the first in the East and have a good chance to continue and win the Eastern Conference regular season championship.
Therefore, the duel between James and Milicic, the "future of black players" and the "hope of white centers", has attracted much attention.
However, the match between the Hawks and Milicic has also attracted much attention. Milicic, who is versatile in offense and defense and can pass the ball, will face off against Kwame Brown, the first single defense expert in the Mesozoic era, and Liu Mang will be able to continue to crush the 03 generation...
It is approaching the Christmas battle. On December 16, the Hawks will face the Raptors for the second time at home.
In the morning, a tactical meeting was held and Milicic's defensive strategy was practiced for 40 minutes. At noon, Liu Mang took a break and went home to pick up the three girls, two boys, bodyguards and servants to the stadium.
When Liu Mang was about to return to the training ground to rest and warm up, the little girl pulled Liu Mang's clothes and said with a cute expression: "Uncle, Dina is going to have a birthday..."
On the 19th, unfortunately, Liu Mang had to go to Phoenix to play away and could not bring a gift to the little girl.
"I know, I will bring gifts back!" Since Liu Mang forgot to make the little girl cry once in the second grade, he will never forget this matter again.
It's all written on the calendar. What gifts should be given to each person in the family for their birthdays? After going home to see his parents, Liu Mang will buy some and send them back every year when the time comes.
"How about uncle take us to the West Coast! It's just in time for the Christmas war in Los Angeles!" The little girl's eyes sparkled.
"... Dina, you want to skip class again!"
"Uncle..."
"Ask Levia, I'm afraid of being beaten..."
"Humph... stingy, what's wrong with being beaten..."
"Is that a beating?"
After bickering with the little girl, Liu Mang still took the little girl to find Levia and explained that he wanted to take Dina to Phoenix for her birthday. Levia was speechless.
"Ace, you spoil Dina too much. You indulge her in everything. What will you do when she grows up and enters society?" Levia said to Liu Mang. Americans value independence.
"In October, we celebrated Becas and Avril's birthdays. I was at home. It would be so pitiful if I wasn't there for Dina's birthday..." Liu Mang said weakly.
"Okay, okay, this is the last time. When you turn 12, Dina, you are an adult, you know?" Levia couldn't help but pat the little girl's head.
"I know, mom, uncle is great." The little girl jumped towards Liu Mang excitedly.
Liu Mang hugged her quickly, this action... has become a conditioned reflex!
...
Alexia and the two servants and bodyguards were brought to the box. Levia and her daughter went to the back of the technical table by themselves. Liu Mang's parents went back, and they didn't like sitting in the front row.
Liu Mang returned to the locker room to warm up.
Waited for a long time!
The Eagles have been preparing for this day for a long time.
With a big center like Milicic, an excellent mid-range singles player like Joe Johnson, and an excellent super 3D player like Richard Jefferson, the Raptors may eventually become the biggest opponent of the Eastern Conference Hawks. After all, a big center like Milicic is too great.
Liu Mang has never been alone in dealing with Milicic's high-post support. He has been paying attention to the suggestions given by fans on the Internet and has been discussing with the coaching staff. He has been thinking about all the ways he can think of. There is also a thing that Liu Mang had imagined before. If it works, then everything will be easy.
The "barricade" feature must be obtained!
At the beginning of the season, it seemed that there were four games, but by the second game, there were only two games left after this one!
One less match for each match played. Unlike other people whose abilities are judged as innate skills by the system, Liu Mang's innate skills need to be upgraded.
The left-right fighting skill is a growth skill that Liu Mang needs to train himself. The progress is slow, but there is no limit.
The innate skill of "continuous killing" needs to be upgraded through tasks. If one fails, one less feature will be lost. The limit is very large!
But the effect is also very strong, and it must be won! At least I have to find more details in this game!