Chapter 612 Chapter 610: The Season of Great Brawls

Lin Ying, in the end, he didn’t go to South Africa.

This summer, he turned into a "training hall bug" and basically spent time in the training hall.

The situation is somewhat similar to last summer, but the difference is that this time he is mostly alone.

Jokic started training with him for a while, but soon returned to Serbia.

Then Zhou Qi was called and beaten for a while, and he was also taken away to the country.

If you really want to count, the person who has spent the most training time with him is the team's second-year player Caruso.

"Bald Mamba" didn't get many opportunities with the Nets last season. Originally, Durant and Kobe Bryant left the team one after another, which was his opportunity, but with the addition of Crabbe, he still needs to face a fierce competitive environment.

He was also working hard.

Of course, most of the time, because of the intensity of Lin Ying's training, he was alone after finishing training.

Don't tell me, he still couldn't get used to it at this time. Sometimes he turned around and called Kevin, only to find that Durant was no longer there, so he could only smile bitterly.

He didn't feel this way before Durant came to the Nets, but after staying together for a long time, it really took him time to adapt.

Time flies so fast.

It’s late September in the blink of an eye.

The training camps of each team for the new season have begun one after another.

Lin Ying also met all his teammates at the Nets training camp.

The changes in the Nets this season are not big, but they are not small either.

The biggest change comes from the back line. Both Bradley and Ariza were poached by other teams with premium contracts.

Coupled with Kobe retiring again, the only remaining rotation guards last season were Rose and Carter.

Oh, that's right, the old Carter did not choose to retire and renewed his basic salary contract with the Nets for another year.

He doesn't do it entirely to win another championship, but he likes the atmosphere of the Nets.

Moreover, his passion for basketball has never faded, and staying with the Nets is the best choice for him.

However, relying on these two people alone will definitely not work. The Nets also replenished the back line in the summer.

One of the most important and controversial deals was their signing of Lance Stephenson with a two-year, $6 million contract with a team option.

Stephenson has actually always had the ability to play in the NBA, and his performance with the Clippers last season was also good.

However, due to personality issues, most teams regard him as a locker room bomb, and his popularity in the free market is very low.

The Nets have been trying to sign back Bradley and Ariza before, but failed in the end. Stephenson is one of their alternatives.

In other positions, the most important signing or transaction of the Nets was to use the trade exception obtained from the Durant trade before, and after adding some draft picks, they acquired Rudy from the Spurs. · Gay (2 years, 20 million, second-year player option).

So now the Nets’ 15-man roster:

Point guard: Rose, Caruso, McAway;

Shooting Guards: Allen Crabbe, Stephenson, Carter;

Small forward: Lin Ying, PJ Tucker, Anfernee Simons;

Power forward: Rudy Gay, James Johnson, Anunoby;

Center: Jokic, Zhou Qi, Nene;

It can be seen from the roster that the Nets' strength has declined even more than expected.

Moreover, the successive departures of Durant and Kobe directly took away two-fifths of Lu's tactics.

The difficulty for Lin Ying to lead the Nets to four consecutive championships can be seen at a glance.

…

When the training camps of each team are almost in progress, ESPN, like in the past few years, can't wait to start strength predictions.

What's very interesting is that the columnist for ESPN's prediction list this year directly used the content of the chat between Rich Paul and James.

First, the Lakers

The Lakers will become the most competitive players in the new season or in the next five years.

When a team has LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins, you really can't imagine any other team that can beat them.

Even if Kevin Durant doesn't leave the Nets, this Lakers team will still have the upper hand.

We may be able to shout that the era of LeBron James has arrived.

Expected starters: Paul, J.R. Smith, James, Davis, Cousins;

Expected rotation: Payton Jr., Seth Curry, Shumpert, Kyle Kuzma, McGee.

Second, the Hornets

Larry Bird left the Hornets due to personal health reasons. Before leaving, he recommended Jordan's successor.

Judging from the current performance, Kupchak's performance has exceeded everyone's expectations.

Recruiting Kevin Durant will win him the General Manager of the Year trophy this year, and will also give Michael Jordan a chance to taste what it's like to win a championship as an owner.

It is worth mentioning that the Hornets have paid the most luxury tax this year since entering the league. You can definitely feel Jordan's confidence in this team.

Expected starters: Terry Rozier, Jimmy Butler, Durant, Horford, Tyson Chandler;

Projected rotation: Tony Parker, Jeremy Lamb, Dwayne Bacon, Kaminsky, Cody Zeller;

Third, the Nets

We don’t know what the exact motivation was for Kevin Durant to leave the Nets. Perhaps it was, as he said, to meet different challenges, or because he was unwilling to only play the role of second-choice leader, but The Nets' decline in strength is inevitable.

But one thing we can't ignore is that even if the Nets' strength declines, they still have Lin Ying and Nikola Jokic, and they still have enough strength to complete an astonishing four consecutive championships.

However, it is very difficult for them to do this. The Hornets and Lakers will be their biggest opponents.

Expected starting lineup: Rose, Crabbe, Gay, Lin Ying, Jokic;

Expected rotation: Caruso, Carter, Stephenson, Tucker, Nene.

Fourth, the Warriors

The Warriors suffered a lot this summer. Pachulia was reimbursed for the season and McGee moved to the Lakers. Their already weak inside line encountered further challenges.

But the good news is that Hayward's recovery from his injury is much better than expected, and they are still the Lakers' biggest rival in the Western Conference.

Expected starters: Curry, Thompson, Hayward, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney;

Projected rotation: Quinn Cook, Livingston, Iguodala, Jordan Bell, Andrew Bogut.

Fifth, Raptors

We're not sure it's appropriate to put the Raptors in this position, but the Raptors roster is certainly something to be reckoned with this season.

The only question is how far Kawhi Leonard can recover.

Once he can return to 70-80% of his pre-injury level, the Raptors will be an amazing team next season.

There is no doubt that the new season is a risky gamble for Toronto, but the rewards are also extremely attractive.

Expected starting lineup: Lowry, Danny Green, Leonard, Siakam, Ibaka;

Projected rotation: VanVleet, Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Ed Davis, Valanciunas;

Sixth, Timberwolves

Seventh, Pelicans

The Pelicans' reinforcements are in an orderly manner, and they are strengthening their strength step by step under David Griffin's operation.

Although the transaction to acquire Anthony was somewhat controversial, Anthony only has one year left on his contract.

This means they have enough salary space to join the pursuit of Leonard next summer.

The forward combination of George and Leonard will be a lineup that makes opponents feel suffocated.

Expected starters: Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Paul George, Anthony, Howard;

Projected rotation: Tim Frazier, Antoine Moore, Darius Miller, Nikola Mirotic, Jason Smith.

Eighth, Bucks

With the Nets falling off the altar, the Eastern Conference will become extremely chaotic this year, and the Bucks have the opportunity to seize the ladder built by chaos and climb up.

Antetokounmpo disappeared from the public eye this past summer, but from the only reports we know, he was in the training facility almost every day.

His strength is constantly improving, but the results achieved by the Bucks are not directly proportional to his efforts.

But the Bucks management doesn't seem to be in a hurry. Their moves this summer are not big, but every move is very targeted.

First, they signed Brook Lopez with a super cheap (1-year, 3 million) contract. This former All-Star played very poorly last season.

But their purpose in signing Lopez was clear, a big man who has developed a three-point shot over the past two seasons.

And compared with ordinary big players who can shoot three-pointers, Lopez also has defense and support. This is definitely an underrated signing.

Then they acquired Ilyasova with a three-year, 21 million contract.

These signings show that the Bucks are constructing a "one-star and four-star" lineup around Antetokounmpo, which may surprise people in the new season.

Expected starters: Eric Bledsoe, Brogdon, Middleton, Antetokounmpo, Lopez;

Expected rotation: Dellavedova, Tony Snell, Pat Connaughton, Ilyasova, John Hansen.

Ninth, 76ers

The 76ers made two key operations this summer. One was to retain the team's outside shooter JJ Redick, and the other was to use draft picks, with two first-round picks as the main body, from the Suns. Replaced for Tobias Harris.

Prior to this, the Suns had been cultivating Harris as Lin Ying's successor. The latter also showed scoring talent and was hailed as "Little Melon" by fans.

It's just that the Suns have missed the playoffs for consecutive years, and Harris has mediocre abilities in other aspects except scoring. After selecting Trae Young, they immediately pressed the button for another round of team reconstruction.

But for the 76ers, getting Harris means that they also formed a lineup of the Big Three.

Harris is good at scoring, and has the ability to score without the ball and with the ball. He is absolutely a perfect complement to the 76ers.

Of course, it is Simmons who really determines the upper limit of the 76ers. He has shown off three-point training from time to time this summer. His three-point performance next season is exciting.

Expected starting lineup: Simmons, Redick, Covington, Harris, Embiid;

Projected rotation: Fultz, Shamet, Wells Chandler, Saric, Boban Marjanovic.

10. Celtics

The Celtics were also one of the most active teams this summer. They let go of Howard, whose condition had declined significantly and whose contract expired, and instead signed DeAndre Jordan with a one-year, $24 million contract.

This signing does not essentially improve the Celtics' internal strength, and is regarded as a step forward focusing on next year's free market.

But at least they maintained their inside strength.

And then most importantly, they upgraded their starting point guard from Rozier to Kemba Walker, an All-Star caliber player.

At the same time, they also signed back Rajon Rondo, the core point guard from the Big Three era.

Expected starting lineup: Walker, Smart, Tatum, Sabonis, DeAndre Jordan;

Projected rotation: Rondo, Chandler Hutchison, McGeege, Daniel Theis, Aron Baynes.

…

The Lakers and Warriors are still strong, but in this wave of ESPN's predicted lists, three of the top five teams are from the East, and seven of the top ten teams are from the East.

ESPN's prediction is not completely accurate, but it can be seen from these simple statistics that the pattern of strong west and weak east has once again been broken.

This is directly related to Durant's departure.

Before this, most Eastern Conference teams were reluctant to invest because it was obvious that no one could beat the Nets.

But this season, every team is trying to improve their lineup, obviously hoping to take advantage of this opportunity to win a championship!

As for the weakening of the Nets and the Lakers, actions are more convincing than words. They don't think the Lakers have the strength of the previous Nets.

The theme trend of the new season of Brawl is becoming more and more obvious.

…

In the blink of an eye, it’s late October, and each team has concluded their preseason journey.

The Nets did not play well in the preseason, with 5 wins and 2 losses in 7 games.

Because the team's lineup has changed a lot, Lu gave the new players a lot of playing time in the preseason.

However, the performance of the new players was not satisfactory.

Lue arranged for Gay to start, but Gay seemed to have not recovered from his struggling performance last season, and his hand was very sluggish;

The compatibility issue between Stephenson and Rose is also obvious. The "junior brother" seems to be very uncomfortable with the off-ball style of play. Although Lin Ying is around, he dare not show off those thorny attributes, but he is struggling to play;

Crabbe's shooting performance is good, but he really has no ability to attack with the ball. Not to mention the third leader of a championship team, even the third leader of an average team is not qualified.

Not only the new players, but veterans like Nene have also slowed down a lot due to their age.

After watching this preseason game, many fans felt that the Nets were doomed.

Some radical fans even criticized Durant on social media, thinking that Durant ruined everything.

"We were supposed to sleep and then wake up to see the news that the Nets had another big win, but now, we have to worry about whether the team can win!"

It is against this background that the new season begins.

The Nets also ushered in their first opponent in the home opener of the new season: the Celtics.