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

Chapter 31
To put it bluntly, the previous divisional system was indeed disgusting enough for those teams that had a good record but were not number one in their respective divisions.

The only way for the Mavericks to improve their ranking is to surpass the Spurs in terms of record and become the number one in the division. In this case, they will directly reach the top of the Western Conference, while the Spurs will fall to the fourth place in the Western Conference where they are now .

For the Suns, the second position in the Western Conference is as stable as Mount Tai, but even so, the team still made some small lineup adjustments after the All-Star Weekend, which is before the trade deadline, to further strengthen the team Strength, prepare for the playoffs.

Unfortunately, Wang Chao's only friend on the team, Dion Thompson, was one of the players who were cleared out of the team.

As a player selected in the second round in 05, Dion signed a two-year contract with the Suns.

But so far, Dion has only played 10 games for the Suns, averaging only 2.8 points and 1 rebound per game.

Obviously, Dieng is not Wang Chao, and he does not have the status bonus of a Huaguo player, so he was given up by the Suns early, and the team chose to lay off him directly.

The players who were cleaned up were not only Dieng, but also many players on the edge of the bench.

The Suns relied on cutting players to make room for a certain amount of space, signed a veteran with a basic salary in the free market, and used a second-round pick to replace an inside substitute player from another team.

In fact, Wang Chao was mentally prepared for Dion's departure. He had never heard of Dion's name before. The opponent must not have played well in the NBA. And judging from his performance in the Suns, it was only a matter of time before he was waived. things.

But when this day came, he was still a little bit disappointed.

After all, Dion is his only friend, the only one he can chat with easily since Wang Chao traveled here.

On the contrary, Dion himself looked quite free and easy.

"Wang, it's okay, we will meet on the field next season, and we will be opponents then."

Dion said confidently.

He couldn't get enough playing time in the Suns. There were too many forward players here. There were many forward players on the bench, including Wang Chao and James Jones. He didn't have many opportunities at all.

In his opinion, leaving may be a good thing.

……

On February 2, after the All-Star break, the Suns ushered in their first game, a home game against the Boston Celtics.

During this period, the Celtics were only supported by Paul Pierce. They had already ranked outside the top ten in the Eastern Conference, and they did not have a strong combat effectiveness.

At 103:94, the Suns easily won the game, and the winning streak also came to 10 consecutive victories.

Wang Chao's playing time in this game has obviously improved compared with before the All-Star Game. His 22-minute playing time is second only to Barbosa's 25-minute playing time among substitute players.

And Wang Chao did not live up to the trust of head coach D'Antoni. In 22 minutes, he made 7 of 4 three-pointers and scored 12 points.

12分相比前几场比赛王超得到的25分27分要差不少，但这已经是太阳队替补席上的最高分，比他出场时间更长的巴博萨也不过得到6分4助攻而已。

More importantly, after the three-point contest, the league's teams have obviously begun to pay attention to Wang Chao's three-point shooting. After all, he is a player who just broke the three-point contest record.

As long as Wang Chao is on the field and outside the three-point line, the Celtics players will follow Wang Chao closely, unwilling to give him a little space and opportunity to shoot three-pointers.

But the current Wang Chao is no longer the original him.

The super fast shooting speed allows him to shoot directly as long as he has a little space.

Moreover, Wang Chao has also begun to actively run without the ball to find opportunities on the field. Although Wang Chao is still learning and groping, he often looks like a headless chicken when running, just wasting his physical strength indiscriminately. But a lot of running can still create some opportunities.

At this stage, Wang Chao is also a bachelor. Anyway, his average playing time is only so little, so it’s a waste to waste energy. Running without the ball, if you run a lot on the field, you will have experience. With the increase of experience , In the future, his running routes and choices on the field will become more and more efficient and labor-saving.

Of course, it’s not enough to just run stupidly. Wang Chao also specifically found a large number of Hamilton’s game videos to study and learn the skills and routes of the opponent’s running without the ball.

On February 2, the Suns beat the Bobcats 25:136 at home.

There was no overtime in this game. It can be seen from the score that this is an offensive battle. Neither side has a particularly strong desire to defend, and the offensive rhythm is surprisingly fast.

In this case, Wang Chao came off the bench for 26 minutes, hit 12 goals in 8 shots from beyond the three-point line, and scored 21 points.

In this game, it can be clearly seen that Wang Chao's running has improved a lot compared to when he was with the Celtics before. There are a lot of useless running, and the running position has become more concise and faster. More open shot opportunities.

On February 2, the Suns, which had won 27 consecutive victories, finally lost and the winning streak ended.

The game the Suns lost was played at home to the Rockets.

The Rockets and the Suns can be described as two extremes. One attack is extremely fast, usually ending a round of offense within 7 seconds, while the other is the team with the slowest offensive rhythm in the league, averaging only 90.1 points per game this season. Second to last in the league.

The Rockets this season are actually very weak, and their record is only No. 12 in the West, but they have the most offensive center in the league.

Dayao averaged 22 points per game this season, the highest among centers in the league.

With a height of 2 meters and stronger basket lethality after gaining weight, Dayao is completely incomprehensible in the weak inside of the Suns.

In this game, Dayao made 19 of 14 shots, 7 of 7 free throws, and scored a game-high 35 points and 18 rebounds. Among them, there were 8 offensive rebounds, which were more offensive rebounds than the entire Suns team in the entire game. many.

When the inside line was completely blown out, even the 11-game winning streak of the Suns was finally defeated, and the winning streak was terminated.

In this game, Wang Chao still played well. After playing 22 minutes off the bench, he made 9 of 5 three-pointers and also made 1 mid-range shot, scoring 17 points.

Obviously, Wang Chao has gradually improved with the progress of the game. Even though more and more teams in the league have begun to target Wang Chao's three-pointers, relying on three 99 three-pointer ability values ​​and growing With the ability to run without the ball, his three-pointers can still stably maintain a hit rate of more than 50%, and he has made gains in every game.

(End of this chapter)