Basketball Legends: Strikers Are King

The Grizzlies have been a little annoyed recently, but of course it's not because they have to play against the Pacers. From their perspective, it doesn't matter who the opponent is. Anyway, their offensive and defensive strategies will never change.

The management's current focus is on their starting small forward Rudy Gay.

Because he is too tough?

In the last game against the Bulls, Rudy Gay made 6 of 19, and his 30% shooting rate did not become the focus of discussion among fans, because they eventually won the game against the Bulls.

Of course not. As the team leader, Zach Randolph also made 6 of 20 shots in that game, and his scoring was not as good as Gay's.

Why is that?

The reasons for murder in "Queen of Detectives" Agatha Christie's novels are the same:

"Money, always money."

Rudy Gay signed a five-year contract extension with the Grizzlies in the summer of 2010. The total amount of $82.3 million is not important in front of his average of 19.6 points per game. This is a maximum salary.

The price, at that time, was worth the sincerity.

Obviously, it was at that time.

Originally everything was quiet until the arrival of Tony Allen in the summer of 2010.

In the first year after signing a big contract, Gay missed 14 regular season games due to injury and only played 7 games in the playoffs.

At the critical moment, Tony Allen stepped into his vacant position, and the Grizzlies had a rare winning streak. In games where Gay was injured, the Grizzlies' winning rate seemed to be higher.

In the summer of 2011, in the second round of the playoffs against the Thunder, although they lost to their opponent in a tiebreaker, Tony Allen's defense of Durant successfully allowed the team and fans to see the fatal strength of Durant's lower body.

In addition to the shortcomings, the management began to seriously think about Gay's future in the team.

After all, that year, Gay had already received the salary for the first year of his contract extension, with the maximum salary of US$13.6 million;

Tony Allen, who replaced him, earned US$3.15 million, which is similar to Gay's rookie year salary.

The team seems to be the same with or without you. A player who can replace you and perform no worse than you will get 10 million US dollars less than you. Anyone who is not a fool will consider this issue.

So Gay discovered that the team's energy on him had been reduced intentionally or unintentionally. Fortunately, Tony Allen's offense was too hasty, and the coaching team could only shift too much tactical focus to Randolph.

It made Gay think that the team was just rehearsing a tactical shift, rather than conducting an experiment where he could be replaced.

Two years have passed, and Gay has not taken a step forward as the team management originally imagined. Fortunately, he has not regressed, he has just stayed where he is.

Maintaining the status quo may seem good to others, but after considering the importance of Gay for a long time, the team management finally made up its mind:

The deal brings Rudy Gay, whose annual salary has reached $16.46 million.

No transaction is airtight, and precursors always appear inadvertently, such as:

Gay found his playing time subtly decreasing;

After playing high-intensity defense as usual, what he received were exclamations from the coaches instead of praise;

Also, when arguing with Tony Allen on the plane, Tony Allen actually complained about his season-ending injury two seasons ago. However, other teammates did not stand up to support him.

It seems that everyone has reached a tacit understanding, silently counting down the games of Guy's Grizzlies career, waiting for the fact that should have happened long ago, is about to happen, but has not happened yet.

After connecting everything together, Gay understood the inevitability of his being traded.

The contracts of Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol will all expire in the summer of 2015. Although it will not happen until two years later, the total contract of the three of them exceeds 42 million.

Last year, the Grizzlies overspent and paid the luxury tax.

The dual effects of contract renewal pressure and luxury tax pressure force management or owners to make a decision as soon as possible.

After all, teams with more than one playoff season and less than the Western Conference Finals have to pay the luxury tax, which is obviously a bit wasteful.

"Then so be it."

Gay has become enlightened and has become a Buddhist. The ethics of a professional player allow him to try his best to play every game. Today's game against the Pacers is one of them.

"Just don't let down the Grizzlies fans at home."

Listening to the cheers of the fans and looking at the No. 22 jersey they were holding, Gay made a decision to continue playing today's game for the fans.

Grizzlies coach Hollins glanced at Gay intentionally or unintentionally, and said to everyone:

"The opponent in today's game is very strong, we must defend well!"

This is what Hollins is dissatisfied with Gay: His defense is indeed not as good as Tony Allen.

It's just that Tony Allen has a height disadvantage after all. At 193 centimeters, he can hardly play shooting guard. If he were to play small forward, he would probably be eaten alive by a group of fierce men over 2 meters tall.

Therefore, trading back a small forward with defensive ability as a replacement is the minimum requirement Hollins puts forward to the management.

Watching the starting lineups of both teams, Hollins couldn't help but glance in the direction of the Pacers' bench.

The coaches of each team are like chess players, and the players are their chess pieces. Under the command of the chess players, they make their own contributions, show off their tactics, and come and go. This is what all coaches have to accomplish during the game.

It's just that fans prefer gorgeous offense to boring defense, which also leads to the fact that there are very few teams in the league that use defense as a selling point.

Meeting defensive coach Vogel was what Hollins considered a rare, confidant matchup.

The fans didn't think so. Just imagining the boring Grizzlies game made them not want to change the channel to watch the game. The same was true for Hu Yingzhe. He decided to take a look at the results after the game and take a look at Qi Tian or George.

The game highlights would be great.

Yu Guohao rarely turned on his computer and played the game.

It's not because he fell in love with defense, but because he accidentally drank a bottle of extremely strong coffee before returning from an all-nighter. As a result, Yu Guohao was now sleepy and energetic, wanting to sleep but unable to fall asleep. He could only listen.

Give white noise a try.

"Dudududu!"

The referee blew the whistle to start the game and threw the ball into the air.

Gasol jumped hard, grabbed the ball, and shot it behind him.

Conley quickly dribbled the ball forward and passed it to Gasol who was cutting through the air, assisting his teammates to take the lead.

"0-2."

"Hit them!"

The Grizzlies shouted their classic playoff slogan to cheer for the home team.

But soon, the Pacers retaliated. George scored from West, assisted his teammates to score, and evened the score.

"2-2."

"nice shot!"

The fans who came to support the Pacers in the away game immediately fought back, but their numbers were still too small compared to their opponents at home.