Chapter 600 Is Youth Necessary?

Before last season, Durant once mentioned to Lin Ying that he wanted to win 75 games, but in the end the Nets' record was unfortunately fixed at 74 wins.

I thought that if I lost that kind of opportunity, I would never have a chance to come back again, but I never thought that the Nets would break their previous regular season record of 74 wins after just one season!

Take the next step forward, it’s that simple!

This record finally shocked the alliance.

Because the Bulls were not as strong as before, and after setting a record of 72 wins, their record in the second season also regressed.

But the Nets are not just as simple as breaking another record, their record has been improving for three consecutive seasons!

And because of their previous experience of losing three consecutive championships, they made a lot of conclusions and played the regular season with ease.

You can imagine the strength of the team behind this sentence. If they really go all out, they may even touch the 80 wins that sounds unrealistic.

But raising this possibility is enough to illustrate how terrifying the Nets' dominance has been over the past three years.

Statistically speaking, Lin Ying averaged 30.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game this season, and his shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage were 53.2% and 39.8% respectively.

This data is inferior to those in the Western Conference, and even compared to Lin Ying's career, it is not the best.

Especially since the league adjusted the second attack time from 24 seconds to 14 seconds, resulting in an overall increase in data, this performance can only be described as mediocre.

But fans who have watched the Nets games this season will definitely not feel that Lin Ying's condition has declined, because data can lie.

Although the Nets also had difficult games this season, many times, or even most of the time, they won easily without Lin Ying having to exert too much effort.

Combined with this background, you will find that Lin Ying's data is not ordinary, but a bit scary.

With 75 wins, plus this statistic, Lin Ying is not just a favorite for MVP, he should be the most popular one.

However, compared to the West, there are obviously fewer candidates in the East who can participate in MVP.

Because although in terms of record, the second-place Raptors have 58 wins and the third-place Hornets have 54 wins, the core statistics of these two teams are much inferior.

Therefore, this season's MVP will most likely be chosen between Lin Ying, Curry, James, Harden and Westbrook.

Of course, it's still too early to discuss MVP. Right now, the focus is still on the rankings in the Eastern and Western Conferences and the matchup in the first round.

On the Western side, first to eighth are: Warriors, Lakers, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Thunder, Jazz, Spurs;

On the Eastern side, first to eighth are: Nets, Raptors, Hornets, 76ers, Bucks, Pacers, Heat, Celtics;

With the ranking also determined by the matchup between the East and the West, the Nets will encounter the Celtics in the first round.

In history, the Nets and Celtics became rivals because of Billy King's crazy trade.

Now that thing has not happened, this matchup will be a matchup between the former kings who are making a comeback and facing the current rulers of the alliance.

From the perspective of Green Army fans, they are full of expectations for the Celtics to return to the playoffs after many years.

But just like the original Hornets, they have to accept more beatings this season.

Let's talk about this Celtics. At the same time in history, they were a team with the double pick as the framework. But now that Brown has gone to the Pelicans, there is only a team with Tatum as the core.

This is also the reason why their record is worse than the same period in history.

The playoff matchups are confirmed and the curtain is about to begin. At this time, the league announced the first batch of awards of the season.

Most Improved Award, Best Sixth Man and Best Head Coach.

The Most Improved Award belongs to Oladipo of the Pacers. It is worth mentioning that Zhou Qi also received votes in this selection and ranked fifth.

It can be seen from this that his progress this season has been recognized.

In the selection of the best sixth man, Lou Williams received an overwhelming number of votes.

Then in the selection of the best head coach, Lu failed to win the best head coach because of the unspoken rule that "the best coach generally does not win the title again".

In the end, the award went to McMillan of the Lakers.

The Lakers' lineup underwent huge changes in the summer, and they encountered a bad start to the season. The record at the beginning of the season also fluctuated greatly. However, under the coaching of McMillan, the Lakers steadily improved in the second half of the season. From this perspective, McMillan did his part.

Then, after these awards were announced, a new term "Sloan Series" began to appear on social media.

Before this, the alliance already had the Bobo series, Riley series, etc.

As the name suggests, this is a coaching system emanating from a tactical system, or to put it in a simpler way, this is a story of a head coach under a head coach who went to be the head coach of other teams and achieved success one after another.

This is also the reason why there is no Phil Jackson department, because apart from Jackson himself, none of his assistant coaches have made it in the NBA.

Even Rambis, who was famous before, finally proved to be too embarrassed to hold the position.

But now, Sloan's assistant coaches may have taught him his basketball concepts, including Cole, Lue, and now McMillan.

This system has actually come out.

After these awards are announced, the NBA playoffs will officially begin.

The game between the Nets and Celtics will serve as the opening game of this year's playoffs and is also the focus of the game.

According to ESPN's predictions, this game will become the most watched game in the first round of this year's playoffs.

After all, as the opening game, fans also want to see how well this Nets can perform in the playoffs.

However, just the day before the opening game was about to start, Celtics player Marcus Smart’s remarks continued to ferment on social media.

That can't be said to be his remarks, it can only be said to be a recording.

It was a recording of him and his brother discussing Kobe.

At the beginning of the recording, Smart's brother thought it was great to see Kobe play and was looking forward to Kobe's performance.

Smart didn't say anything at first.

But this brother also seems to be a loyal Komi. As the topic continued, he also said that Smart should put some slack when defending Kobe.

Smart felt a little offended by this statement.

After all, he is just a role player in the Celtics, and he has to work hard to get his playing time.

If he doesn't try his best on defense, he will get less playing time, which may even affect his career.

However, the other party was a good friend after all. He did not directly complain about the other party, but discussed a very sensitive topic: the degree of feelings.

There is no doubt that Kobe is the youth of many people. This is a wave of great sentiments.

But feelings have limits.

There are some things you can do with emotion, but there are some things you can't do, and if you do it too much, it will make people feel sick.

He didn't say it, but it was obvious that he was referring to his brother.

That brother may not have reacted at first, but when he reacted, he felt disgusted as Comey.

Then, his recording "accidentally" appeared on social media.

In the United States, don't think this kind of thing is nonsense.

There was a very famous "basketball recording scandal" in history, which was about Nick Young sharing his experience of cheating with Russell in the locker room.

Every NBA player is rich, and with the American way of thinking, it is common for people to mess around outside when they are rich.

Even like Nick Young did, it was a kind of bragging rights.

Of course, this kind of thing is definitely not just bragging when you see someone, but having a certain degree of trust in the other person, and even treating the other person as, yes, a "brother" in the American population.

But what I never expected was that Russell somehow got into the habit of recording, and the recording was forgotten and spread on the Internet.

As a result, Nick Young's real girlfriend at the time, a famous singer, broke up with her directly.

It can be seen from this incident that American "brothers" are often unreliable.

Smart instantly became the target of criticism from the media and fans.

However, many people on social media also stood up to speak out for Smart. They felt that Smart did not say anything wrong.

If you have to sacrifice everything for so-called feelings, then this really makes people feel uncomfortable.

…

Brooklyn, Barclays Center.

The Nets are doing their final training for the playoffs.

Lin Ying noticed that Kobe came to training earlier than in the past and was more involved in training than in the past.

Even after training, he needs to practice longer.

Lin Ying doesn't always follow social media like Durant, but this time Smart's incident is so big that he will know passively even if he doesn't want to take the initiative to find out.

Of course, Kobe must be the same.

Therefore, Lin Ying does not think that Kobe is acting this way because the playoffs are about to come. It is also affected to some extent by the Smart incident.

After practicing together, he sat down and chatted with Kobe.

At first we just talked about injuries and other physical issues, then we talked about the playoffs with the Celtics, and finally we talked about Smart.

"I know him, he's a very hard-working player."

To Lin Ying's surprise, Kobe actually knew about Smart.

If you say that Kobe knows Tatum, that's okay. After all, Tatum has taken photos with Kobe for a long time, and he also calls himself a disciple of Mamba.

But Lin Ying has really never heard of the intersection between Smart and Kobe.

But after seeing Lin Ying's reaction, Kobe quickly gave an explanation.

After Kobe retired, he started a basketball training camp, but it is obvious that he did not pay attention to young players only after he retired.

One thing that differs between him and Jordan is that he attaches great importance to the development of American basketball.

Because his experience in the Dream Team is obviously different from Jordan. He helped the Dream Team return to the top in 2008. That experience is destined to love the Dream Team more than Jordan.

So he usually pays attention to some potential players.

Smart is one of them.

"He's a Gary Payton-type player and I think he has the potential to be a DPOY-level player."

Kobe gave his own evaluation.

This evaluation is not low at all.

In the history of the NBA, Payton is the only person who can become a dpoy as a point guard.

Kobe used such words to describe him, which shows that he really thinks highly of Smart.

"Aren't you angry?"

Lin Ying looked at Kobe with a smile.

He knew that Kobe was the kind of person who wouldn't tell lies, but he was still a little curious.

After all, the impact of this statement is not small.

"Is there anything to be angry about?"

Kobe replied with a smile.

"So you think what he said is right?"

Lin Ying asked rhetorically.

"Everything has a degree, I agree with this, and if I don't go all out just because it's me, that will make me angry."

Kobe said calmly.

Lin Ying smiled and nodded.

Kobe is indeed such a person. Even if he is 39 and almost 40 years old, even if his personality has changed a lot, some things in his bones will not change.

"So that's it?"

"Of course not. That kid Marcus may have great achievements in the future, but now, I will tell him why Kobe is so respected by players."

Kobe said calmly.

This sentence was a bit pretentious, but Lin Ying laughed again after hearing it.

Kobe is still the Kobe he has known since he entered the league.

So he chose to cooperate.

"Even if Kobe is 39 years old?"

"Yes, even if Kobe is 39 years old."