With three points at the start, Nash begged for a maximum salary to renew his contract

Chapter 125 Wang Chao: Who is better, Adu or I?What do you say?
On November 11, the Magic played away against the former Sonics, which had successfully moved to Oklahoma City and renamed the Thunder.

The Thunder seems to have completed some rebuilding. Durant, as a player regarded as the core of the team by the team, performed well in his rookie season last season, averaging 20 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. He is the best rookie, and his age is also very young. Many people don't know a cold knowledge, that is, James, who entered the league as a high school student, was actually only about three months behind Durant in the same draft when he participated in the draft.

As a high school rookie, when James joined the NBA, he was much older than Kobe, McGrady, Garnett and other high school rookies. In fact, he was similar to many players who participated in the draft in the first year of high school.

In the second season of his career, Durant is just 20 years old, similar to Russell Westbrook, another team building core in the team, and 6 months younger than Curry, who will join the league next year...

With the advantage of being young, Durant has shown excellent scoring ability, especially in the second season of his career. Although the Thunder are currently ranked last with 1 win and 5 losses, Durant's personal score is 24.3 points. Still, the shooting percentage has improved significantly compared to the rookie season.

The Thunder are looking forward to what level a fully grown Durant will reach in the future, and can he surpass his own draft template McGrady?

The game against the Magic is also of great significance to the Thunder, because it seems that Durant's development direction is obviously better than McGrady's Wang Chao.

They must admit that although Durant's talent is excellent, it is still inferior to McGrady's. Durant's static talents such as height and wingspan are naturally far better than McGrady's, but McGrady's strength lies in his outstanding ability. At the same time as the static talent, the dynamic talent is also at the top level in the league. When he was young, McGrady had the fastest first breakthrough in the league. His own strength is not weak, and he has a good confrontation ability.

In this regard, the styles of Wang Chao and Durant are very similar in the realization stage. Neither of them is good at physical strength. He tends to be outside the three-point line, while Durant is more classical, focusing on mid-range shots.

Because of Wang Chao's success in the playoffs and the Olympics, and the lethality of his three-pointers on the field, more and more teams have begun to pay attention to three-pointers. The coach also gave Durant advice, hoping that he can develop three-point shooting ability.

As we all know, Durant's three-pointers are very accurate, maintaining a shooting rate of around 40% all the year round. The season in which the three-pointers are slightly inaccurate in his career is the rookie season, only 28.8%, but in the second Last season, that is, this season, Durant successfully increased his three-point shooting percentage to 42%, and the average number of 3 hits from 1.3 shots per game is not too small.

In this game, Durant and Wang Chao formed a direct match.

Then Durant discovered that they were all liars!
What the hell?Didn't Wang Chao have the same dynamic talent as him?Is this TM considered average?
In the direct matchup, Wang Chao can easily pass him in one step, and his movements are as fast as lightning, which should not be the speed that a forward with a height of 2 meters 06 should possess at all!

Not only that, when the two were engaged in a physical confrontation, the thin Durant was knocked back again and again by Wang Chao, and the brutal force made his chest hurt.

What the hell?Is this Wang Chao or James?

After several rounds of fighting, Durant can be sure that Wang Chao's dynamic talent is far superior to him, and even surpassed his template McGrady. He is definitely at the top level of the league, with speed, strength, jumping, and explosive power. picky.

What's even more terrifying is that while possessing such an excellent dynamic talent, Wang Chao's outside touch is really very good. Not only does he have a soft shooting touch from mid-to-long distance that is comparable to him, but he is even more accurate outside the three-point line. It's the same as hanging.

During the game, Durant relied on his height and wingspan to successfully form an effective defense against Wang Chao. He almost touched the basketball with his fingers, and it is certain that he completely blocked Wang Chao's sight.

However, even so, the opponent still made a shot from beyond the three-point line, completely ignoring his defense.

After the whole game, Durant had nothing to do with Wang Chao, and was easily scored 29 points by the opponent, and the Magic also won the game 109:92.

Of course, Durant can't guard Wang Chao, and Wang Chao has nothing to do with Durant on the defensive end. The difference in height and wingspan between the two is real. Durant's mid-range jumper matches him. Although it has not reached the top level, it is still enough to rank first-class in speed and jumping. It can completely reach the level of indefensibility that the Novus Fund is independent of. Moreover, Wang Chao's defensive ability itself is not very good. He also scored 27 points in the game, and his efficiency was not inferior to Wang Chao's.

Just put aside the two super forward scorers, the overall strength difference between the Magic and the Thunder is not 01:30 points.

At this time, the Thunder team has no Harden, no Ibaka, Durant has not yet reached the peak level, and Westbrook, a first-year rookie who has just joined the league, can be described as a dish. The current version, that is, Durant, Jeff Green, and Westbrook are difficult to support, and there is a high probability that this season will still be the bottom of the league.

At the post-match press conference, Durant said frankly to reporters: "Wang Chao is a player with outstanding scoring ability, especially his accuracy outside the three-point line is incredible. I have worked hard and learned a lot from this game..."

Durant in this period is not the future schoolbag Du who is so narrow-minded that he can open a trumpet to line up with netizens for some trivial matters. As a rookie in the second grade, he is still very humble in many cases, and he is completely a good baby. image.

Wang Chao also gave Durant a great degree of affirmation in an interview, "Kevin Durant will definitely become the top scorer in the league."

And when a reporter asked, "Who do you think is better in terms of scoring, you or Durant?" Wang Chao smiled lightly and asked, "What do you think?"

If Durant is compared with Wang Chao after two or three seasons, there may be a little suspense, and this is the comparison between Durant after two or three seasons and Wang Chao at this stage.

As for the current Durant and Wang Chao, there is naturally no way to compare them.

Durant, who is in the second grade, has just adapted to the rhythm of the NBA game and has increased his shooting percentage from 43% in his rookie season to 47%. There is still a lot to learn.

……

After teaching Durant a lesson in Oklahoma, the Magic headed to Dallas to challenge the Mavericks.

Today's Mavericks already have the embryonic form of the Mavericks team that won the championship in 11 seasons.

Nowitzki, Kidd, Terry, and Barea are all there, and Marion and Tyson Chandler are all behind. This lineup is already very strong on paper, but the degree of running-in in the past two seasons has not been high or It is said that when the time has not come, it still does not have the strength of a top championship team.

The difference in strength can be clearly felt during the confrontation between the two teams.

The offensive ability of the Mavericks is really good. After the whole game, Nowitzki scored 25 points, Josh Howard scored 24 points, and Terry scored 20 points.

But the Mavericks' defense has a big problem, which is a bit similar to the feeling of the Suns, but their offensive efficiency is far less than that of the Suns who gave up defense and concentrated on offense.

This reflects the importance of Marion and Chandler, especially Tyson Chandler. Although his career statistics are not very good, as a defensive player, Chandler even looks The history of the league is all high-quality blue-collar insiders who can be ranked high.

The 11-year Mavericks really established a good defensive system precisely because of Chandler's joining, which gave the team a qualitative leap in strength.

In this regard, the Mavericks' current main center, Eric Dampier, who claims to be "the second center in the West", has no way to compare.

In this game, Howard translated for the second center in the Western Conference, what the hell is a center.

Throughout the game, Howard scored 27 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks, including 8 offensive rebounds, and completely dominated the basket. In contrast, the second center in the Western Conference only scored 4 points and 9 rebounds. Over 20 is still the reason for losing to the Magic.

Wang Chao only performed normally in this game, scoring 28 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. Together with Turkoglu, Nelson and Pietrus, who scored in double figures, they beat the Mavericks 109:104 and won another victory .

The next three games, the Magic were against the Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers.

It must be admitted that in the first month of the regular season, the Magic's schedule is really very moderate, and there are basically no strong teams.

Although the above three teams are not the weakest teams in the league, their overall strength can only be ranked in the second or even third ranks in the league. Now the Magic, which is in full swing, won the game without any difficulty.

11月21日，魔术110：98击败步行者之后，战绩不知不觉已经来到11胜1负！
The astonishing winning percentage has made Magic fans become accustomed to it from the initial surprise and joy.

On the following November 11, the Magic finally ushered in the challenge of a strong enemy again, sitting at home against the Houston Rockets.

If the Rockets last season, with the Big Three combination of Dayao, McGrady and Lewis, was one of the favorites to win the championship, then judging from the comparison of the Rockets lineup in the same period of the 08-09 season in another time and space, the current Rockets , strength is difficult to define.

The arrival of Lewis has changed a lot of things. Although he did not become Mr. Billion, his contract amount is not low. In addition, the Rockets also have two big contracts, Yao and McGrady, which completely lock up the salary space. There was nothing in the market, and because Lewis was a power forward, he didn't think about strengthening the striker's strength, and naturally there was no plot to trade with the Kings to get Artest.

Artest and Lewis are stronger and weaker. If Wang Chao is to say, it is obvious that Artest is better.

In terms of scoring ability, Artest is not much inferior to Lewis. He played 57 games for the Kings last season, averaging 20.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game, shooting 45.3% from the field and 38.0% from the three-point range. .

As a shooter and the team's main scorer, Lewis' performance in the best season of his career was only 22.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists. His shooting percentage was basically the same as that of Artest. Where is A Taiqiang going?

But if you put aside your scoring ability and look at other aspects, it's completely different.

Although Ron Artest is a thorn in the side as a player, he always likes to provoke troubles, but he is very passionate on the court. Unlike Lewis, who is restrained, he is good at motivating his teammates with his performance on the court. The defense is tough and iron-blooded, and it is the highest award for defensive players such as the best defensive player.

The most important point is that Artest is cheap!

His annual salary is only a little over 700 million, and the big contract with Lewis is simply a world of difference.

Missing Artest means that unless the Rockets choose to trade one of the Big Three, it will be difficult to optimize the team lineup.

And Artest failed to join the Rockets, and he was not comfortable with the Kings. He has been making trouble for a long time and wants to join a strong team with the ability to compete for the championship.

As a high-quality 3D player, Artest has naturally attracted the attention and peeps of many teams. Among them, the Lakers, Cavaliers, Spurs and other teams are most interested. On the contrary, the Magic is not interested in Artest. Very big.

After all, as a striker, Artest has positional conflicts with Wang Chao and Turkoglu. If they are exchanged for each other rashly, God knows whether this stabbing head will affect the team due to issues such as playing time and number of shots. ?
In many cases, the signing of an NBA team does not only depend on the player's ability, but also needs to refer to the fit between the opponent and its own team.

The Magic are currently in excellent condition, the team has a good chemical reaction, and they have been winning all the time. There is no need to take risks for Artest.

The game against the Rockets at home still ended in a victory for the Magic, 100:95. Although Dayao beat Howard again during the game, the former scored 22 points and 13 rebounds throughout the game, while the latter had only 13. Points and 9 rebounds, but the contest between Wang Chao and McGrady, two top scorers, ended in Wang Chao's complete victory.

In fact, for any old Rockets fan, the 08-09 season was an extremely uncomfortable season.

This season, due to injuries, McGrady's competitive state has declined sharply. He only played 35 games in the entire regular season, and his scoring average dropped from 21.6 points last season to 15.6 points. The Rockets dragged into the playoffs, and fought seven bloody games with the Lakers, the champion of the year, in the semifinals of the division. The straw that broke the camel's back.

The 08-09 season became Dayao's last full season. Yao spent the entire season of the 09-10 season in recovery, while McGrady only played 6 games for the Rockets before being traded to the New York Knicks. , The era of the Yao Mai combination is completely over.

Everyone knows what happened later. In the 10-11 season, Dayao made a brief comeback for 5 games and was immediately reimbursed for the season due to another injury. Then Dayao officially announced his retirement, which became the memory of the times.

Wang Chao also thought that Dayao's life experience has changed now. In 07, he didn't suffer a serious injury, and he maintained an excellent competitive state in the Olympics. Now the Rockets have Lewis to share the pressure on the offensive end. Didn't the probability of his injury also decrease, and he has the opportunity to prolong his career?
But looking at McGrady's poor competitive state in this game, Wang Chao estimated that it might be enough.

In the new season, McGrady has completely lost the explosive power of the past. There is no threat to breakthrough with the ball. The offense can only rely on mid-range and long-range jumpers.

Although Lewis can still share a lot of pressure for Dayao on the offensive end, his technical characteristics are destined to be powerless when the game enters a stalemate and needs someone to stand up and score for the team.

At that time, Dayao will have to carry the explosive package to dig into the interior.

Considering that in the last two seasons in the Western Conference, the top eight must win about 50+ games. Wang Chao reckons that is probably enough.

Defeating the Rockets allowed the Magic to win another 6-game winning streak. The record has reached 12 wins and 1 loss. The next four opponents of the Magic, the Bucks, 76ers, Wizards and Pacers are also very competitive, very straightforward The loss to the Magic helped the Magic win 10 consecutive victories. At the end of the November schedule, the Magic's record also came to an astonishing 11 wins and 16 loss, which is almost heavenly.

But at the end of November, the announcement of a deal in the league gave almost all the teams aspiring to win the championship a chill, including the Magic.

News of the trade came from the Los Angeles Lakers, who traded power forward Vladimir Radmanovic and a future second-round pick to small forward Ron Artest from the Kings.

This transaction immediately caused a lot of repercussions in the league.

(End of this chapter)