basketball never sleeps

Chapter 11 Inside the Pistons

"If people are patient and give Milicic more time, he will definitely become a special star. Although he is eager to play more, we will not give him too much playing time too early. After all, he has just

From a place with nothing to a place with everything - including a nice house."

"His NBA career is very promising, and he will progress under the guidance of Basketball Hall of Famer and great mentor Larry Brown, and the veterans will also teach him a lot."

In front of the camera, Dumas calmly explained to reporters who came to inquire.

"As for Mo Wen, he has proven in the summer league that he has good immediate combat ability. He will be an important member of our substitute lineup. I believe he will surprise everyone after the start of the new season."

The second pick still had to "wait", but the last pick got a chance. Although it was weird to say it, Dumas could only bite the bullet and pretend to be in peace.

It took Milicic more than a week to prove that he was unable to meet or even adapt to Larry Brown's tactical requirements.

The smart style of play he developed in Europe and the talent that has the upper limit of Nowitzki but lower limit of Kukoc are meaningless in the eyes of Larry Brown, who values ​​defense and confrontation.

In this era where confrontation is respected and even encouraged, players with insufficient confrontation ability are just useless showpieces in the eyes of old-school coaches.

In the long run, if the team gives such talented "showers" the opportunity to level up, they will most likely be able to excel in the future. Just like Prince last year, he was on the bench every day in the regular season and in the playoffs.

After watching the leveling, he almost became a blockbuster.

But the Pistons are a strong team with championship hopes, and Larry Brown is not allowed to delay the team's progress because of a high-draft pick.

"Don't say I won't give him a chance, Joe. When he (Milicic) can steadily outperform Win in offensive and defensive confrontations, I will give him reasonable playing time. Before that, he needs to learn.

need to wait."

This was a "concession" made after an argument between Larry Brown and Dumas.

Larry Brown even wanted to trade Milicic before his value depreciated in exchange for stars or immediate strength that he could use in order to win the championship.

But Dumars simply rejected it. For a team with a tight budget, a potential high-draft pick is an important asset second only to the core of the team.

The Lakers assembled an appalling "F4" combination this summer, with O'Brien at his peak, Kobe Bryant at No. 8 who has just entered his peak, Malone who was still 20+8 (rebounds) last season, and Perry who was 20+8 (assists).

Suddenly, the teaming up of four stars who are currently ranked in the top five in each position basically spoils the ending of this season.

Many Lakers fans even chanted the slogan of taking out a loan to buy the Lakers (championship).

Even the most optimistic Pistons fans during this period dare not say that they can steadily overcome the Nets team that swept them last year, let alone rush into the finals and win 4 games against the Lakers with this lineup.

Dumars cannot sacrifice the team's future for the unlikely goal of winning the championship.

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Compared to Milicic, who was almost confused by Larry Brown's criticism, Mo Wen's situation in the Pistons was much better.

Although Larry Brown is discriminatory towards rookies and has low regard for non-black players, he is not really blind.

You can't tell it from one game to the next, but after a period of time, the players' general strength and respective characteristics can be clearly seen.

The original SF starting veteran Mike Curry is gone. The second-year substitute Prince was directly promoted to the starter by Larry Brown due to his outstanding performance on both offense and defense. The original first substitute at small forward is Corliss.

Because he is not very good at defense, he has to compete with Mo Wen, a first-year student, for the job.

At the SG position, Hamilton is an unbeatable starter. As one of the famous physical monsters in the NBA, he basically won't give much playing time to the substitutes. Sura should be lucky for this, otherwise, Mo Wen may have to compete with him for points.

substitute position.

In the final analysis, competitive sports are based on strength. No qualifications or popularity are as important as your performance on the court.

Mo Wen didn't deliberately make friends with anyone on the team. On the contrary, his sophisticated playing style made Billups become friends after playing with him for a while.

Point guards generally like to deal with two types of teammates.

One is a teammate with a simple mind but explosive physical talent. After passing the ball to them, just wait to see them dunk or layup. They rarely dribble and spit out cakes, and have a high success rate of assists.

The other type is players who have the brains to not mess around but dare to play. They can be used as the second organizational point to reduce the pressure on the point guard. Such players are either experienced veterans or rookies with extremely high golf IQ.

Billups sometimes wonders that Mo Wen belongs to the second type of player, but he doesn't feel like a genius with a high basketball intelligence, but rather an experienced veteran.

Of course, Mo Wen didn't just make Billups as a friend in the locker room.

In order to realize the potential of his physical attributes as soon as possible, he spent every day in the gym with Ben, who also liked to lift irons, and Hamilton, who was often on the treadmill "preparing for marathons", and he became a familiar acquaintance with whom he could talk.

This kind of "gym diplomacy" is not something you can get by going to the gym once or twice occasionally. Only when others become familiar with the smell of your sweat will they be willing to get to know you.

People who are self-disciplined will not hate those who are self-disciplined - those like Jordan/Kobe/Arenas who like to lead their teammates to self-flagellation do not count.

But Mo Wen is not Franklin (the man whose face is printed on the 100-dollar ticket), and it is impossible for everyone to like him.

Corliss and Sulla, whose status in the team was threatened, criticized him quite a bit.

They are both members of the 1995 draft, with similar picks, similar ages, similar experiences, and even similar annual salaries - Collis has an annual salary of 5 million, and Sura has an annual salary of 6 million. They are both considered top players in the Pistons team.

High salary.

But at this moment, he was threatened by a first-year rookie again.

Collis is the most unconvinced. He was selected as the Sixth Man of the Year last season. Last season, he averaged 25 minutes per game and scored 12+4.5 points. Even at the age of 29, he did not perform well.

Despite the serious injury, he feels he can still play.

He was overtaken by his younger brother Prince last year. Prince's long hands and feet and top lateral speed destined him to become a top wing defender. In the playoffs last season, Prince even

Preventing McGrady's efficiency from declining, he was convinced when Prince was mentioned in the starting lineup.

Competing with a first-year rookie and an Asian player for a position, although he felt that he was a sure winner, Collis was very unhappy that Coach Larry put him on such a level.

He didn't dare to say anything to Larry Brown - all those who were dissatisfied with Larry Brown in 1976 were traded away by him, so Collis could only put all his resentment on Mo Wen.

In addition to the two of them, there are several old players who can't stand Mo Wen's behavior of always asking Woodson and other assistants for tactical advice. They feel that this is either involvement among the players or "flattering" the coaching staff. They and those

Corliss and Sulla were together, and they often spoke ill of each other.

Mo Wen felt that they were targeting him, but did not take it to heart. He remembered that the Pistons would conduct a robbery-like transaction in the middle of the season, using four or five substitutes and two future first-round picks to acquire Rasheed Walai.

Shi, a peak All-Star power forward, was traded to the team.

The most popular ones may not be teammates in two months, just wait and see.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, he was also used as one of the bargaining chips in the transaction.

Two more updates

(End of chapter)