I’m Really Playing Basketball

Ibaka, as the Thunder's backup power forward, has performed very well with the Thunder in the past two seasons.

As Griffin's substitute, he averaged almost 27 minutes per game in the past two seasons. His data in the two seasons were 9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game and 9.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game respectively.

In addition to not having the ability to shoot three-pointers, he can protect the frame and shoot long-distance two-pointers. His long-distance two-point shooting percentages in the two seasons were 44% and 46% respectively. It can be seen that he is very stable, that is, he takes a lot of shots. More, averaging a little more than 2 times per game, but the shooting rate is actually about the same as that of a player like David West who is good at mid-range shots.

Coupled with his incredible jumping ability, this is a very unique young power forward.

Of course, with so many advantages, it's still an inside job. Why can't the Thunder give up a five-year, 70 million contract?

Of course, it's because Ibaka has flaws. He's not strong enough, can't fight physically, has a lot of money, but loves to jump, and can't defend alone. Also, although he shoots well, his shooting speed is slow, like a tortoise, and he is persistent. His ball skills are very poor, and he has no ability to take the initiative to attack. He cannot play behind the basket or attack with the ball. He can only be a big shooter.

A player who has no offensive ability with the ball, no passing ability, and no singles ability. No matter how strong your other statistics are, he is still a role player, just like Camby. In fact, Ibaka is indeed considered a role player now. A weaker version of Canby.

After all, Ibaka's official height is 2.08 meters, which may not be 2.08 meters, but Camby is really a center over 2.10 meters tall.

To be honest, giving a role player 70 million for five years is nothing to some wealthy teams, but for the Thunder, this is a bit difficult.

Especially when the Thunder still have super power forward Griffin, Ibaka can only play as a substitute.

65 million in five years is already the limit. If you give more, you will have to pay luxury tax.

Ibaka can shoot and protect the frame. He is young and has potential. He is a good role player. If he can practice three-pointers, he will be a perfect frame-protecting 3D role player.

If possible, the Thunder would certainly be willing to keep Ibaka.

Otherwise, the Thunder would not offer 65 million over five years. Although in this era of big contracts, the highest offer offered by other NBA teams for Ibaka is actually only 60 million over four years.

The average annual salary is 15 million, which is pretty good for a role player inside who is not very strong in physical confrontation, is a bit short, and has no offensive ability with the ball.

After all, no one knows whether Ibaka will suddenly get injured and lose his bounce if he plays like this.

A player like Ibaka is really worthless if he really loses his bounce.

However, he is not strong enough, loves to jump, and blocks shots aggressively. This style of play makes him very easy to get injured.

Therefore, other teams offer 4 years and 60 million, and the Thunder offer 4 years and 65 million, which is not a bad contract for Ibaka.

But of course Ibaka, as a player, has other ideas about himself. He feels that he is worth 70 million in five years, because other teams have given him an average salary of 15 million. He is willing to stay with the Thunder. The Thunder does not say that they will pay 7,500 in five years. For a contract with an average salary of 15 million for Wan Wan, is it okay to give him 70 million for five years?

65 million in 5 years, the average salary is only 13 million, which is too little.

Therefore, Ibaka, who wanted to stay on the team, got into a fight with the Thunder.

After arguing for a long time, no one could convince anyone. Finally, Jerry West took action and won Ibaka with a four-year contract of 70 million yuan and an average salary of 17.5 million yuan.

Thunder didn't dare to follow.

Sign first and then trade requires someone willing to take over. For Ibaka, no one will take over the four-year, 70 million contract except the Warriors.

If the Thunder follows and the Warriors don't want Ibaka, then the Thunder's salary will explode because of Ibaka's toxic contract.

At that time, not only will they not get anything, but they will have to give away Ibaka's big contract with the draft picks, which will be more than worth the gain.

In the end, the Thunder could only watch as Ibaka fell to the Warriors.

Of course, it is a pity, but regrets are definitely not regrets. After all, the Thunder's starting power forward is Griffin, and Ibaka can only play as a substitute if he stays in the Thunder.

Giving a backup power forward a contract worth close to 18 million, to be honest, this is scary to the Thunder.

In fact, not only the Thunder, but most teams in the league will find it scary.

Teams that have the strength to offer such a contract, such as the Lakers, New York and other teams, have exploded in salary space and cannot provide it. However, most teams in the league that hope to get Ibaka, like the Thunder, do not dare to do so. of madness.

It can only be said that Jerry West is indeed very courageous.

Whether it's Lopez or Sergio Ibaka, they were all signed at a super premium.

All have a strong gambling nature.

Such a signing depends on the manager's vision and belief that they will not suffer losses in the future, and they will definitely be worth such a price in the future.

After Jerry West signed Lopez and Ibaka with big contracts one after another, he continued to sign the former Mavericks shooter, Stephen, who is also Chen Xiao's good friend and disciple, with a four-year, 20 million contract. Novak.

Also, they signed point guard Goran Dragic with a full mid-level, 4-year, 34 million contract.

At this point, the Golden State Warriors have used up almost all of their salary space.

The main players have been signed, and what is left is to supplement some young people and veterans with basic salaries.

For Jerry West, this summer, he completed the framework reconstruction he wanted for the Warriors.

New head coach Steve Kerr was hired for the team.

Now the team's main lineup is no longer as weak as last season.

Lopez, Big Eyebrow, Ibaka, Chen Xiao, Klay Thompson, Bill, Novak, Matt Barnes, Dragic, plus he has been inspecting recently and performed very well in the summer league of Livingston.

These players will be the main lineup of the team next season in Jerry West's mind.

Although this lineup is young, it basically has everything it needs. Under the leadership of Chen Xiao, there is no problem in becoming a very competitive team in the Western Conference, not to mention becoming a super team next season. of.

At the very least, as many people imagine, Chen Xiao, who is the number one player in the league, will not be bullied by the powerful NBA teams in the future.

Jerry West used up the Bobcats' salary space like this. This must be very sad and shocking for Mai Zi.

Maizi was so sad and shocked that he almost turned black.

He couldn't imagine that Chen Xiao and the Warriors actually ignored him, the biggest fish in the free market.

Although he was not successful with the Timberwolves in the past two years, last season he averaged 23 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists with a 45% shooting rate in the Timberwolves.

This data is definitely quite good and combat effective.

Thinking of his expectations for Chen Xiao and the Warriors, and being ignored by Chen Xiao in the end, Maizi finally darkened.

Then, Maizi took the initiative to find Duncan, a former teammate of the Magic.

In fact, Duncan's contract has expired this season, but the entire league does not believe that the 36-year-old Spurs insider will leave the Spurs.

In fact, Duncan did not intend to leave the Spurs. He originally had a maximum salary and could sign a super contract, but in the end, Duncan chose to cut his salary and signed a three-year, 30 million contract with the Spurs.

Such a signing directly releases the Spurs' nearly 20 million in space.

In addition, after Dior's contract expired, he signed a five-year, 30 million contract with the team, which is also a salary reduction contract.

This season, the Spurs do have room to operate.

Of course, the room for operation is not that big. By August, the Spurs only had a mini-mid-level contract left.

To be honest, when I heard that Maizi wanted to come to the Spurs and was willing to sign a two-year, 12 million mini-contract with the Spurs, Popovich and the Spurs were really shocked.

With Prince's condition plummeting, Kawhi Leonard's condition not so stable, and Duncan gradually getting older, Ron Howard, Parker, and Ginobili really need someone like Tracy McGrady who can A star player with invincible attributes during regular time.

Let's put it this way, no matter how strong Ron Howard, Parker, and Ginobili are, they don't have the attributes of being invincible offensively and unable to defend like Maizi, Chen Xiao, and Durant.

This is a player who scored 13 points in 35 seconds in the playoffs!

And right in front of them.

Let's put it this way, Popovich and the Spurs never thought that they could get Maizi this summer. After all, Maizi and Duncan actually cooperated with the Magic team, but it can't be said that they were unsuccessful, but when they separated, Maizi did have resentment. .

Of course, this resentment is mainly against the Magic management. In fact, he and Duncan are fine. Of course, he is also resentful that his teammates respect Duncan as the boss and do not respect him. He is very envious and jealous.

But he also respects Duncan.

After so many years, this resentment has long since disappeared. At the very least, he now only has the greatest resentment towards the Wolf King and Pierce.

Therefore, when Maizi completed the signing with the Spurs, the entire league was shocked.

After all, in the past ten years, the only combination that defeated Chen Xiao and Wade, the combination of Tracy McGrady and Duncan, was actually resurrected in San Antonio.

This is a bit scary.

Although the Spurs lost the finals last season, there is no doubt that this team is still the strongest team in the Western Conference. Such a strongest team actually directly added a superstar player. This is It's quite imaginative.

Therefore, originally this summer, everyone was looking forward to the operation of Jerry West and the Warriors, but unexpectedly, it was the Spurs who finally completed the victory.

As a result, after Maizi signed with the Spurs, the entire NBA was discussing the reunion between the Spurs and Maizi, Duncan and Maizi, and the reunion between Maizi and Ron Howard, the former boss and younger brother.

At this time, the NBA has indeed become extremely lively.

As for Chen Xiao in the UK, he was competing in the Olympics with the Chinese team. Of course he didn't know that he was being resented by the sensitive classmate Mai Zi.

Because he didn't even know about Maizi's psychological activities for more than a month.

After all, at this time, the men's basketball competition in the Olympic Games was in full swing, and Chen Xiao had no time to pay attention to NBA matters.

On August 6, 2012, the Chinese team, which was placed in Group A, faced its last opponent in the group stage, the host British team. Under the leadership of Chen Xiao, Yao Ming and the Arab League, the Chinese team easily defeated 110 to 90. Team GB.

At this point, the Chinese team, which has won all five games, advanced to the quarterfinals as the first in the group.

In the ranking of Group A, the Chinese team is first, Spain is second, Russia is third, and Brazil is fourth.

The British team, as the host nation, is at the bottom of the group...

To be honest, in this group, the British team obviously hopes that it can beat Russia, Brazil and Australia to qualify.

They can't beat China and Spain, but they feel they can compete with the other three teams.

But the final result is that Russia, Brazil and Australia do not seem to be as strong as Argentina, Lithuania, France and the like in Group B, but their strength is actually not weak.

In the end, the British team, as the host country, lost all five games due to the advantage of their home court, and was embarrassingly eliminated at the bottom of the group.

In Group B, the United States team also won five games to advance, followed by Lithuania in second place, Argentina in third place, and France in fourth place.

Therefore, the Chinese team will face the French team, fourth in Group B, in the quarterfinals on August 8.

For Chen Xiao and Yao Ming, the French team is not a team worthy of their attention.

In this Olympics, the Chinese team has only one opponent, and that is the American team.

Of course, the same goes for Team USA.

In the group stage of this year's Olympic men's basketball team, the Chinese team won at least 20 points in each of its five group stage games, whether playing Spain, Russia, Australia, Brazil or the British team.

The American team on the other side was even more brutal than the Chinese team. In the group stage, they won by an average of 45 points per game. Even against Argentina, the American team beat Argentina by 30 points.

The American team led by Kobe, James, Wade, and Durant is so powerful that it makes people tremble.

Obviously, this really reminds people of the Dream Team, because the Dream Team also won the group stage by an average of 45 points, 45.8 points to be precise.

Considering the basketball standard of that era, it is definitely incomparable with this era, so this American team's opponent is more valuable.

Historically, the American team beat its opponents by 37 points in the group stage, which is also terrifying, but it is obvious that the American team in this time and space is definitely stronger.

Kobe, James, Du, and Wade are four former or current S-level players.

Let's put it this way, if the Dream Team really puts itself in front of this team, it really may not be able to defeat this American team, and the probability of losing is likely to be even greater.

Therefore, Chen Xiao and Dayao cannot be too careful about this American team.

Of course, the same is true for the US team. They are indeed stronger. The 12 members of the team, except for the thick eyebrows who make up the number, are all NBA superstars.

However, only 5 people can play basketball.

more importantly……

Their inside line really can't beat Yao Ming + Yi Jianlian's inside line.

The outside line of the Chinese team is Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao is a monster who can play for 58 minutes. Moreover, there is only one basketball on the court. James, Durant and Kobe, it is impossible to beat Chen Xiao with three balls. Xiao, you can only play one by one. To be honest, even if James, Durant, Kobe, and Wade are all in charge of Chen Xiao, the US team is not sure that they will beat Chen Xiao.

Of course, a basketball game is not a bullfight, and the game will not be so big.

However, on the other hand, it can be said that they look strong, but compared with the Chinese team, they have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Therefore, when it comes to the Chinese team, the American team cannot be too careful.

Therefore, it is very interesting that after the group stage, the entire Olympic media was talking about the championship, and they were extremely confident in these two teams.

But these two teams themselves seem to be very low-key, even modest to the point of being 'pessimistic'.