basketball never sleeps

Chapter 11 Inside the Pistons
"If people are patient and give Milicic more time, he will definitely be a special star. Although he himself is eager to play more, we will not give him too much playing time too early, after all, he just started. Going from a place with nothing to a place with everything — including a nice house.”

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

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

"For Mo Wen, he has proved that he has good immediate combat power in the summer league. He will be an important member of our bench lineup. I believe he will give everyone a surprise after the start of the new season."

The No. [-] pick still needs to "wait", but the last pick got a chance. Although it is weird to say it, Dumars can only bite the bullet and pretend that the years are going well.

Milicic used more than a week to prove that he could not meet or even adapt to Larry Brown's tactical requirements.

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

In this era that advocates confrontation and even encourages confrontation, players with insufficient confrontation ability are useless in the eyes of old-school coaches.

In the long run, if the team gives the opportunity to level up this kind of talented "showcase", there is a high probability that they will play out later.Just like Prince last year, he also sat on the bench every day in the regular season, and in the playoffs he watched the leveling and almost pulled out a blockbuster.

But the Pistons are a strong team with hopes of competing for the championship, and Larry Brown does not allow the team's progress to be delayed because of a high-ranked rookie.

"Don't say I don't give him a chance, Joe, when he (Milicic) can steadily beat Win in the offensive and defensive confrontation, I will arrange a reasonable playing time for him. Before that, he needs to learn, need to wait."

This is a "concession" made by Larry Brown and Dumars after arguing.

Larry Brown even once wanted to trade Milicic before he depreciated, in exchange for the stars or immediate combat power he could use in order to win the championship.

But Dumars flatly rejected it. For a budget-strapped team, a potential high-ranking rookie is an important asset second only to the team's core.

The Lakers gathered the appalling "F4" combination this summer, the peak O'Pang, the No. 8 Kobe who just entered his peak period, Malone who was 20+8 (rebounds) last season, and Perry who was 20+8 (assists). Dayton, the team of four stars who can rank among the top 5 active players in each position basically spoiled the ending of this season.

Many Lakers fans even chanted the slogan of buying the Lakers (championship) with a loan.

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 to the Finals and win 4 games with the Lakers with this lineup.

It is impossible for Dumars to sacrifice the future of the team for the hopeless goal of rushing to the championship.

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

Although Larry Brown discriminates against rookies and doesn't like non-black players, he is not really old-eyed.

It can't be seen in one or two games, but after a period of time, the general strength and individual characteristics of the players can be seen clearly.

The original SF starting veteran Mike Curry left, Prince, the second-year second-year substitute, was directly promoted to the starting lineup by Larry Brown because of his outstanding performance on both ends of the offense and defense, and the original No. [-] substitute Collis But because he was not good at defense, he had to compete with Mo Wen, a freshman.

At the SG position, Hamilton is the unshakable starter. As one of the famous physical monsters in the NBA, he basically doesn't have much playing time left for the substitute. Sura should be thankful for this, otherwise, Mo Wen might have to compete with him for the first-hand position. substitute position.

In the final analysis, competitive sports are based on strength, and your qualifications and popularity are not as important as your performance on the court.

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

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

One is teammates with simple minds but explosive physical talents. Just pass them the ball and wait for them to dunk or layup.

The other is players who have the brains not to play randomly but dare to play. They can be used as the second organization point to reduce the pressure on the point guard. This kind of player is either an experienced veteran or a rookie with a very high golf quotient.

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

Of course, Mo Wen didn't just make friends with Billups in the locker room.

In order to realize the potential of his physical attributes as soon as possible, he spends every day in the gym with Da Ben, who also likes to push iron, and Hamilton, who is often "preparing for marathons" on the treadmill, and has become acquaintances who can speak.

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

Self-disciplined people don't hate self-disciplined people-Jordan/Kobe/Arenas who like to bring their teammates to self-abuse don't count.

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

Collis and Sura, who were threatened with the status of the team, criticized him quite a bit.

They are both members of the 95th draft. They have similar picks, similar ages, similar experiences, and even similar annual salaries——Collis’s annual salary is 500 million, and Sura’s annual salary is 600 million. high salary.

But at this moment, they were threatened by a first-year rookie at the same time.

Collis is the most unconvinced. Last season, he was selected as the best sixth man. Last season, he averaged 25 minutes per game and scored 12+4.5. At the age of 29, he did not appear. With too many injuries, he feels that he can still play.

He was overtaken by last year's younger brother Prince. Prince's long arms and legs and top lateral speed destined him to become a top flank defender. Last season's playoffs, Prince even Preventing McGrady's efficiency from declining, he was convinced when Prince was mentioned as the starter.

Competing with a first-year rookie who was still an Asian player, although he felt that he would win, but Collis was very upset that Coach Larry treated him at this level.

He didn't dare to beep to Larry Brown - he traded away those who were not convinced by Larry Brown when he was 76, so Collis could only put all his grievances on Mo Wen.

Besides the two of them, there are also a few old players who can't understand Mo Wen's behavior of always asking Woodson and other assistant coaches for tactical advice. They feel that this is either introverting among the players or "flattering" the coaching staff.They got together with Nakolis and Su La, and they often spoke ill of Mo Wen on weekdays.

Mo Wen felt their targeting and didn't take it seriously. He remembered that the Pistons would make a robbery-like trade in the middle of this season, using four or five substitutes and two future first-round picks to take Rasheed Wallace. The Warriors, the peak All-Star power forward, were traded to the team.

Those who are the most happy may not be teammates in two months, just wait and see.

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

　There are two more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)