Chapter 198 - Shameful, Lebron Escapes from the All-Star Voting

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The Bulls' greatest weakness right now is the relatively poor level of their interior centers.

Gasol's performance has far exceeded everyone's expectations. This second-round pick, whom no one had expected much from, has already solidified his position in the Bulls, averaging about 10 points and 8 rebounds per game. The Bulls occupy space on the offensive end, and his rim protection and rebounding abilities are also good.

Normally, a center like this would have a contract worth at least five million in the league. Considering Gasol's age and future development potential, a contract worth tens of millions is not impossible.

What he has signed with the Bulls now is only a three-year rookie contract for a second-round pick, with an initial salary of $620,000.

This can no longer be described as high quality and low cost; it is simply the king of cost-effectiveness.

Ben Wallace, from the Cavaliers next door, has only 5 points and 8 rebounds this season, and his defensive dominance has significantly decreased with age and explosive power, while the opponent's annual salary is $15.5 million.

Fortunately, in the current league, the only player who can be called a super center is Yao Ming.

O'Neal is aging, and his current averages have dropped to 14.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

Although Howard's stats are good, his style of play is mainly based on grabbing offensive rebounds for secondary scoring. His internal offensive skills are not solid, and his offensive ability has major flaws. His main strength is still reflected in defense.

Although Duncan occasionally plays center, he is still essentially a power forward, and Garnett can match up very well against Duncan.

So, after counting, Yao Ming can really be called the best center in the league.

Although these words may seem a bit flattering to Yao, it is a fact.

In the four years between 2005 and 2009, Yao Ming was the strongest center in the league. It wasn't a joke to "eat, drink, and fight" in World of Warcraft.

Of course, Yao Ming is extremely dominant in the paint area, but his weaknesses are also extremely obvious.

The first to suffer is his physical condition.

Compared to European and American players, Yao Ming's physical condition is still far behind. Especially in the high-intensity confrontations of the NBA and the frequent back-and-forth running, Yao usually cannot maintain his condition in the fourth quarter and is already overexerted beforehand.

Secondly, Yao Ming is very afraid of frontcourt defense, especially the frontcourt defense of powerful interior players like Boozer. Even if Yao can shake off the opponent's entanglement, it will consume a lot of extra energy and lead to premature physical exhaustion.

Another point is the issue of injuries. In the four years when Yao was at his peak, he averaged around 20 + 10 per game, but in three of the four seasons, Yao played fewer than 60 games in the regular season. In 2008-09, Yao finally played 77 games in the regular season, with an attendance rate of over 90%, after reducing his playing time and shots, and his stats dropped to 19.7 points and 9.9 rebounds.

But in the playoffs, the intensity of the matchups increased, and with the team's dependence on Yao's offensive firepower, Yao got injured again, and this injury directly led to the end of Yao Ming's career.

There is nothing to be done about Yao Ming's physique. His lethality in the paint is comparable to that of O'Neal. This is due to his 140 kg weight and massive body, his legs and ankles, and his high intensity. It is extremely easy to get injured during competition.

After Yao retired, especially with the advent of the small-ball era, some people also revisited the idea. If Yao had not gained weight to strengthen his confrontation ability but maintained a lighter weight and used his soft touch, he might have been better than Nowitzki. Not only would his performance have been better than his current performance, but his career would also have been longer.

But this kind of thing is really hard to say.

There has only been one Nowitzki in the league in decades. Yao Ming's shooting touch from mid to long range is indeed very smooth, but it is unknown whether he could reach Nowitzki's level if he took a lot of shots.

Perhaps Nowitzki's shooting touch is a perfect 100, and Yao could only reach 80 after rigorous training. Although 80 could easily average more than 20 points per game in the league, it would be as difficult as climbing to the sky.

In this regard, you can refer to power forwards who also focus on shooting and scoring, like Garnett and Bosh. Both are very good at shooting as interior players. Their offensive methods mainly consist of mid-to-long-range jumpers. But if you try to follow them, obviously it's a notch below Nowitzki.

Therefore, letting Yao Ming lose weight and focus on mid- and long-range shots is just a hypothesis. It's unclear whether he would have succeeded, but Yao Ming's absolute dominance in the paint after gaining weight is real.

---

On December 8th, the Bulls faced the Boston Celtics at home.

As the most ruthless team in Wang Chong's era, the Celtics' roster in the 2007-08 season had changed to the point of being unrecognizable.

The Green Army, who failed to form the Big Three, has now gained emerging young players like Durant, so their future development prospects are actually not bad.

The current starting lineup of the Green Army is point guard Rajon Rondo, shooting guard Paul Pierce, small forward Kevin Durant, power forward Al Jefferson, and center Kendrick Perkins.

Although the current strength of this lineup is insufficient, it still allows the Celtics to maintain a positive record and sit around seventh or eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

The draft pick for the Green Army was Wang Chong's Durant, and his performance when he first entered the league was enough to satisfy everyone.

Although it's different from being selected by the SuperSonics and directly becoming the team's number one core, enjoying a large number of shooting rights, his status on the team is surpassed only by Pierce, and he enjoys the second-most shooting rights. This allows Durant to contribute 18 points and 4 rebounds, becoming the second-highest scorer on the Celtics, and also the highest scorer among the 2007 rookie class.

Since Oden was reimbursed for the season without surprises in the Grizzlies and didn't play a single game, while Durant can maintain his current stats, the Rookie of the Year award is almost guaranteed.

This game was also the first matchup between Durant and Wang Chong in the league.

A game like this, where emerging players face their own draft picks, is quite interesting.

At least Wang Chong's fans are looking forward to Wang Chong completely defeating Durant in the game and then saying the classic "Welcome to the NBA, rookie."

However, Wang Chong is not too interested in intimidating the rookie Durant who hasn't yet fully grown. He's much more curious: if he faces Durant at his peak right now, what will the outcome of the matchup be?

If it's Durant who is at the top of his game in 2K, there's a high chance that Wang Chong wouldn't be his opponent. Although both players have completely consistent overall skill values, Durant has a total of 41 badges, including 5 Hall of Fame badges at the highest level, 13 gold-level badges, and dozens of silver and bronze badges.

In comparison, Wang Chong's current 13 badges are just a joke.

But even so, it makes sense that there would be no mistakes in the game, like badges. It is impossible to casually score 100 or even 150 points in a single game like in the game.

Therefore, Wang Chong feels that with the blessing of badges, there is a high probability that he might be slightly stronger than Durant at his peak.

However, the battle between players not only tests personal skills but also the player's touch, especially for a shooter like Durant. When his touch is hot, it's really like a god blocking and killing both gods and Buddhas.

However, Durant in the 2007-08 season was certainly far from having such skill. Even in terms of mid- and long-range shooting, Durant's skills were not particularly outstanding.

Many people know that during Durant's rookie season, his offensive scoring was primarily based on driving and free throws. Although he also made mid-range shots, the number of shots and his shooting speed were far from the level of his later unguardable moves.

When Durant and Wang Chong faced off and played against each other on the court, it was like looking into a mirror, but their efficiency was very different.

At the same time, it also proves another point. The best defender for Wang Chong is a player who has the same height and wingspan as him in the paint but also has the mobility of an exterior defender.

During the game, both Wang Chong and Garnett had a great matchup against Durant.

Durant was also on the verge of tears. It was too tragic to encounter two players from the same team at the same time whose height and wingspan were not inferior to his, and who could keep up with him or even be faster than him.

As a result, after the game, Durant was blocked on 4 of 14 shots and scored only

12 points, which is far below his usual average of 20 points per game.

This game also proved a point: after the Celtics entered their development phase, Wang Chong's personal ability to dominate the paint was at an extreme level.

As for the Celtics' Durant, Wang Chong couldn't help but think of his future self: an athlete with the potential to reach legendary heights.

Needless to say, Pierce is the heart and soul of the Green Army. While Truth hasn't won many honors in his career, he has averaged 19.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in his 19-year career. NBA History.

Once the three young Green Army players, Durant, Rondo and Al Jefferson, grow up, they will surely become a formidable opponent in the Eastern Conference.

Not much needs to be said about Durant's future upper limit, just refer to the current Wang Chong.

In his heyday, Rondo was also a super point guard who averaged double figures in assists per game for several consecutive seasons. In the twilight years of the Big Three, the Celtics were still extremely competitive, battling the Heat's Big Three in seven games. Rondo was on the court. The haul plays a huge role in this.

In the seven games of the Eastern Conference Finals, Rondo faced the Heat's Big Three, averaging 20.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 11.3 assists per game, ranking first among the Celtics in points and assists.

If not for Ray Allen's performance in this series, with only 11.9 points and a 37.7% shooting percentage, the Celtics actually would have had a chance to beat the Heat and reach the Finals.

Compared to Durant and Rondo, inside player Al Jefferson may be far inferior in terms of future accomplishments, but this guy is also an excellent inside player who can steadily contribute 20+10 data in his peak period.

In the 13-14 season, Jefferson was successfully selected to the All-NBA third team averaging 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game with the Bobcats. However, the funny thing is that Jefferson has never been selected to the All-Star team in his career, even though he was the most popular player in the NBA. When he is strong, he can reach 23 points and 11 rebounds.

Because of this, Al Jefferson was also known as the blind ball evaluator for a certain period of time.

But no matter what, Jefferson's skills in his prime were solid and well-rounded, and he was a rare offensive insider. His only flaw was his short stature. When he was a center and an inside matchup with other teams, he would be misaligned. the height difference.

The Celtics, who have three potential players, will have four All-Star level players as long as they wait two or three years. You can imagine how strong they are.

But that's it for the future. The only thing that makes Wang Chong more curious is that not only is there no Westbrook pressure around him, but he even has a guard Rondo who likes to pass and help the adult Durant. If his scoring will be stronger, he could soon become Wang Chongzhan's biggest enemy on his way to the scoring title.

--Ha

come the time of mid-December, the All-Star Game voting has started again, and the announcement of the first round results has surprised many people.

Garnett joined the Bulls and parachuted from West to East, which was like dropping a bomb in the star circle of the East.

Although Garnett's personal stats have dropped significantly this season, his contribution to the Bulls is obvious to everyone. The duo of Wang Chong and Garnett has become the most popular duo in the league, much more popular than the Rockets' combination.

Therefore, when the results of the first round of voting were announced, Wang Chong and Garnett directly took the first and second place in the advanced position.

Originally there was no problem, but James, who is also a forward, was directly pushed to the third place because he received fewer votes than Wang Chong and Garnett.

This is a big problem!

Although James has been suppressed by Wang Chong in recent years, his personal data has not been reduced in any way. His super data dominance has made league officials firmly regard him as the league's future charter.

If Wang Chong and Garnett place first and second in the Eastern Conference forward voting respectively, then James, who is in third place, will be pushed to the All-Star Game bench.

How can any of the league's future prospects get to play as a backup? Especially when James has been an Eastern Conference All-Star starter for the past two seasons.

While this is only the first round of voting, James fans may also struggle in the next two rounds of voting and come from behind to fill out the lead, but who can say for sure about this sort of thing, and if?

At this point, we have to admire the ingenuity of the league's leadership.

Just hours after the first round voting results were known, they made a slight change, switching James' position from forward to guard.

The official statement is that James has been the de facto point guard for the Cavaliers in recent seasons, and this position is better suited for his positioning on the court.

But the real reason is well known to all, it's just in case.

Unlike Wang Chong and Garnett, who block the way on the offensive line, Wade is the only one with some competitiveness at the point guard position in the All-Star East. James will definitely be the starting point guard at the shooting guard position no matter what.

But this kind of thing, as bombastic as it is, still makes James a big loser in the league.

Because he feared he couldn't compete with Wang Chong and Garnett for the starting job in the All-Star Game, he would hide at the guard position to get a starting spot.

When Wang Chong learned of this, everyone was stunned.

However, in his impression, the winner of the 2008 All-Star Game voting seemed to be Garnett.

In other words, if James does not move to the guard position, he may actually be squeezed as an All-Star Game replacement.

Even Garnett has more votes than James, so Wang Chong has no chance of losing to him.

End of this chapter

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