Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

Losing to the Hawks still stuns Pacers fans a lot.

Although from the scene, the team only lost by 5 points, and there was a chance to tie the score in the last twenty seconds, it was just that the team failed to seize it.

But fans who have actually watched the game know that the Pacers, who were chasing points throughout the game, were far inferior to the Hawks who rested their absolute main force Joe Johnson in terms of performance.

What's even worse is yet to come. The Pacers' next opponent is the Heat, currently second in the Eastern Conference.

The Hawks were already chasing the record due to their loss to the Hawks. If they lose again, they are likely to lose the fourth spot in the Eastern Conference and fall into the bottom half of the playoffs.

Fortunately, they have nearly three days of rest, which is enough for the coaching team to prepare before the game.

Qi Tian has increased his three-point shooting volume in training. Since it is difficult to compete with Granger George for time at the small forward position, he should just be a space point.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"clang!"

Qi Tian jumped up high and threw the basketball in his hand.

Hearing the sound of blacksmithing, Qi Tian frowned slightly.

After the last time he entered an inexplicable state, no matter how hard he cast, he never touched the edge of that state again.

This reminded him of the "zone" state proposed by Boss Qiao:

According to Boss Qiao's show, the only way to enter the zone seems to be to practice hard and let your body get used to that state during training, thereby increasing the probability of entering the zone in actual combat.

Once you enter the zone, your physical or technical performance will be higher than usual.

Moreover, zone will only allow you to skillfully use the technologies you have mastered, but will not allow you to learn new technologies.

"This is probably what we call integration, right?"

Qi Tian murmured to himself and continued training.

He is not a special case. In the stadium, almost all Pacers players are training hard to prepare for the next game against the Heat.

Granger is polishing his shooting skills, Collison and Hill are training the core, West is teaching Hansbrough inside skills, and even the laziest Hibbert is seriously practicing layups with his assistants.

.

"I hope failure can teach them enough lessons."

Brian Shaw looked at George and Stephenson who were still training and was quite satisfied.

He then looked at Vogel, who was talking quietly to the assistant coach, and added something in his mind.

I hope the coach also learned a lesson.

Fans naturally cannot see the players' training, so the transactions before the trade deadline attracted the attention of the vast majority of basketball fans.

The trade deadline was approaching two months before the playoffs. If you missed it, you would have to wait another year. What fans didn't expect was that the one who spent the most money before the deadline turned out to be the Golden State Warriors.

They split the guard combination of Curry and Ellis, unexpectedly kept Curry, and traded Ellis!

Ellis was sent to the Bucks along with top draft pick Kwame Brown in exchange for pick-and-roll center Bogot and veteran captain Stephen Jackson.

The Warriors, who have no hope of making the playoffs, obviously want to train young people, so it would be inappropriate for the old captain to stay in the team.

The Spurs sent out an invitation and traded Jefferson and a first-round draft pick to acquire the former player.

The Wizards were fed up with McGee being off the line from time to time, and traded him and Turiaf to the Nuggets for Nene.

There were many other scattered transactions, but half of the teams still chose to stay put.

That's the difference between the trade deadline and offseason free agency.

The offseason expectations for all teams are rosy:

They can focus on the future, trade space for junk contracts, and accept a first-round pick by the way;

You can focus on the present and use your future first-round picks for immediate combat power. It would be even better if you can acquire a top superstar for free in the off-season;

You can also use your own overflow resources to make up for the team's shortcomings.

The situation will change at the trade deadline after the All-Star Game.

The tank team has laid back and is focusing on competing for the high pick;

The leading team is accelerating towards the goal of winning the championship, and the main lineup will definitely not move lightly;

That leaves only teams that want to compete for playoff spots.

The Wizards and the Warriors are two exceptions. They both belong to the tank team. The Warriors are a bit special. They have no hope of competing for a seat, so they changed careers and became a tank team.

After Wall performed well and first-year Bill also shined, the Wizards decided to make the backcourt the cornerstone of the team. The rest of the team should just cooperate around the backcourt. Those who couldn't cooperate, such as McGee, would have to leave.

Yeah.

After the Warriors discovered that the combination of Ellis and Curry had fatal defensive flaws, they made a decisive choice and planned to train Curry and rookie Thompson as replacements. Ellis, who was still useful, brought the team a shortage of players.

Insider resources.

The two teams that focus on the future are full of confidence and believe that their guard combination will become the best combination in the league that will stir up troubles in the future.

The Heat are focused on the present and are not acting rashly, which is natural.

It's not that they don't want to improve their lacking center line, but purely because:

The team's salary cap of approximately US$58 million has already been taken up by US$43.2 million by the Big Three. Together with Haslem, Mike Miller, Battier and James Jones, the Heat have already signed a center with a minimum salary.

Not enough wages are provided.

The minimum-paid center who came to the Heat this year is Eddy Curry.

This name is very unfamiliar to fans who are younger or even no longer young.

To put it simply, Eddy Curry is Jokic before Jokic appeared...in terms of fat content of course, but in other aspects he is almost the exact opposite of Jokic.

The 18-year-old Eddy Curry weighed over 300 pounds (approximately 270 pounds). With his size advantage and inside offense, he dominated Chicago in high school. Together with Kwame Brown and Tyson Chandler, he was named the three treasures of the 2001 high school class.

Compete for the top pick of the year.

After coming to the NBA, he was in and out of the main lineup due to his thick subcutaneous fat layer and lagging technical development.

But just because of the excitement of renewing the contract, he broke out for two consecutive months. After the game with the Lakers, he was called the best center in the Eastern Conference by Shaq.

Eddy Curry reached his peak in the 2006-07 season, averaging 19.5 points and 7 rebounds per game, shooting 57.6% from the field, and becoming a genuine "Baby Shark".

In the 2011 offseason, Eddy Curry lost 70 pounds, allowing the Heat to see his determination and successfully signed a one-year contract with the Heat.

Speaking of which, the 2001 draft was truly a showcase for the Wizards.

The Wizards missed out on Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and Okur who had very successful careers, and they did not choose Tyson Chandler, Gerald Wallace, Battier and Joe Johnson, but chose Kwame Brown.

In that draft, the most famous and powerful player was the second-round pick, Gilbert Arenas, who wore No. 0.

The Wizards later made up for the shortcomings, signing Arenas, who had performed well with the Warriors, with a large contract, allowing the league to introduce the Arenas clause to limit the salary of contracts provided to rookies.

After Arenas led the team into the playoffs, they offered Arenas a big contract with a total salary of over 100 million.

Until, the gun scandal happened...