Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

To be honest, the Bulls management did a lot this summer.

At the draft, the team used two first-round picks to pick up Pascal Siakam and Dejounte Murray, and also used a second-round pick to pick up Fred VanVleet, who had slipped through the net.

When the free market opened, the Bulls management signed Horford early to make up for the lack of offense and defense in the interior.

This will attract veterans who want to win a championship ring to join the team.

After the Bulls made a gesture to strengthen their team, most of the veterans in the league took the initiative to contact the Bulls management.

After some screening, the Bulls management also made a quick decision.

As early as early July, the Bulls signed Rondo with a two-year, $2 million mini-mid-level contract as Curry's backup.

In addition, the team also signed one-year, $150 million veteran minimum contracts with David West and Zaza Pachulia to further strengthen the inside line.

In this way, the Bulls' lineup for the new season is almost complete.

Starting lineup: Curry, Durant, Bojan, Horford, Gobert.

Second lineup: Rondo, Josh Richardson, Portis, David West, Jokic.

Third lineup, Norman Powell, Dejounte Murray, Rooney, Siakam, Zaza Pachulia.

As for VanVleet, he can only be demoted to the Development League first.

Of course, if necessary, Dejounte Murray and Siakam, who are also first-year rookies, can also be sent down to the Development League together.

If the Bulls' main players and important substitutes are injured in the first half of the regular season.

Then the Bulls management will have to consider whether to continue signing veterans who still have gas in the tank from the free market to make up for the team's temporary lack of combat effectiveness.

At that time, the first and second year rookies will have to make room for the upcoming veterans and be temporarily relegated to the Development League.

Of course, if conditions permit, the Bulls will continue to train rookies while preparing to consolidate their defending championship and strive to establish a three-peat dynasty again.

To be honest, the Bulls' lineup in the new season is better than last season.

Duane, Curry, Horford, Rondo, and David West, these are the five All-Stars.

Although David West is no longer competitive, he can definitely still shine as a substitute player.

Especially in the last two seasons, David West, who originally didn't shoot three-pointers very often, has also adapted to the small ball era and is able to shoot 37.5% from three-point range during the regular season.

Consider again the shooting ability of big men like Horford, Portis, and Jokic.

With the firepower of Durant and Curry, there is no doubt that no team can match the Bulls in shooting in the new season.

As for the defensive end, the rookies need to play actively and aggressively enough.

This is also why the Bulls need to consolidate their record while training rookies in the new season.

As Dunn gets older, his physical fitness will inevitably decline.

If Duane gets too involved on the defensive end, the Bulls' offense and critical moments will be affected.

Especially in the playoffs, the Bulls need Duane to step up and make the final decision.

As for Curry, he has not yet done any targeted muscle building to increase physical confrontation.

Then, after suffering a lot of physical confrontation, the shooting stability will inevitably decline significantly.

Therefore, Duane still needs to do the key ball work.

What the Bulls need Curry to do is to kill the game as much as possible before the critical moment arrives.

Curry's scoring explosiveness is enough to rank among the top five in history, especially the moment he finds his touch, which is enough to temporarily rank first in history.

In a sense, Curry's lack of data on key balls means that it is difficult for Curry to play the games that reach the critical moment.

Of course, at the end of his peak, when his physical fitness began to suffer, his key balls would also be criticized.

However, Curry is now in his prime, so there is no need to worry about his scoring problems.

And Duane is still the boss of the Bulls. Even if he has to give up the ruler's scepter, he can still continue to hold some power and help the team solve key ball problems.

……

Time quickly came to the end of September, and the Bulls' new season training camp officially began.

Before the first preseason game, the Bulls' core lineup for the new season was already determined.

Duane, Curry and Horford took several sets of makeup photos together.

Rondo and Gobert were then added, giving Rondo and Gobert some respect.

As for Bojan, he was indeed promoted to the starting lineup.

However, Bojan is still a rookie, his potential has been exhausted early, and his personal strength does not allow him to play a core role.

The Bulls had no intention of training Bojan and only considered him as a ready-to-fight player.

When Bojan's rookie contract ends, the Bulls certainly won't be able to spend 10 or 20 million a year to keep Bojan.

The Bulls had anticipated that Bojan would be poached by other teams, so they did not take Bojan too seriously.

Although the Bulls are lacking a proper small forward, sometimes it is not a big problem to use a swingman or a forward swingman to fill in.

As for the critical moment, Duane can play back to the third position.

As he gets older, Dunn's movement speed will inevitably decline.

In addition, Curry cannot defend against guards who are too fast, so in two years, Durant will definitely move to the third or fourth position.

It was also because of these factors that the Bulls insisted on choosing Dejounte Murray in the previous draft even though they already had many shooting guards.

Having said that, after the training camp started, the rookies on the Bulls have also shown very good form.

The strength and form shown during the preseason alone are enough to show that the second-year, third-year, and fourth-year rookies on the Bulls have been training on their own during the offseason.

Perhaps, the fact that Green and others got big contracts and left the Bulls also motivated them.

As the saying goes, people die for wealth and birds die for food.

Entering a commercial league like the NBA, no one doesn’t love Dao Le.

If you train hard for a summer or two and then win one or two championship rings with the Bulls, you can get a big contract with other teams.

I think there are few people in the league who are unwilling to work hard in the summer.

Now, the examples of Green and Middleton are right before our eyes.

How should the Bulls' rookies choose? This is of course very clear.

This is also because the rookies are very well prepared and the quality of the Bulls' starting lineup is quite good.

In the eight preseason games this year, the Bulls played exceptionally well and won all of them.

Bulls fans are singing and dancing about this, and the outside world's expectations for the Bulls are similar to those of the 97-98 season.

Almost everyone in and outside the league has a hunch that perhaps this season, the Bulls will create another miracle.

However, the highlight of the upcoming new season is not the Bulls successfully defending their championship and creating another three-peat dynasty.

It’s the retirement tour of two great basketball stars, Kobe and Duncan!
That's right, under Duane's proposal and promotion, Kobe and Duncan, as well as the management of the Lakers and Spurs, have successively stated that they will hold retirement tours for their stars in the coming season.

In this way, Duane really got the opportunity to organize the retirement ceremonies of two superstars.

The league is also very cooperative in this regard. The Bulls' opponent in the opening game of the new season is the Lakers from Los Angeles.

As for the Bulls' closing game, it will also be at home, facing the Spurs.

Of course, the Spurs' last game of the season was held at their home court, the AT&T Center. Time passed quickly, and it was October 10th in a blink of an eye.

As night fell over Chicago, the Lakers appeared at the United Center.

As soon as Kobe entered the court, he was warmly cheered by all Chicago fans.

This may not be entirely because Kobe is a great superstar and a respectable opponent.

Some fans are loyally thanking and welcoming Kobe because the current king of Chicago, Durant, was sent to Chicago and to the United Center by the Lakers management because of Kobe.

With this gift and this love, Bulls fans naturally have extra respect and love for Kobe...

Back to the topic, the game had not yet started, and the Bulls' championship ring awarding ceremony and championship flag-raising ceremony had not yet taken place.

The big screen in the dome has already begun playing highlights of Kobe's performances at the United Center over the past 20 years.

After Kobe's highlights, which lasted more than ten minutes, were played, the lights at the scene suddenly dimmed.

The good show is about to begin. The Bulls' championship flag-raising ceremony and championship ring awarding ceremony are finally about to begin.

As a guest from afar, a great star who has been pursuing the championship all his life.

It was impossible for Kobe not to be envious when he saw Durant walk up to the stage and receive the championship ring.

At the same time, Kobe also has some regrets.

"Why didn't I properly handle the relationship between me and Du En?"

If Kobe hadn't been busy with mundane affairs, in a bad mood, and acting on impulse,

The Lakers had a chance to send away just O'Neal and keep Kobe and Durant at the same time.

If Kobe is willing to make concessions and let Duane, a rising star, take the throne of team leader, Kobe and Duane will be able to coexist and continue to work together.

If this were true, Kobe might have both hands full of championship rings by now.

However, if Kobe could really tolerate Duane coming from behind and becoming the boss of the team, he would no longer be Kobe.

Are you here to be the second one?
As a historical superstar who is capable of being the boss, who would be willing to be second?
Don't mention it, there really is...

So, looking back now, Kobe feels regretful, generous, and has let it go.

But if Kobe were to go back and choose again, there would be absolutely no possibility of such a thing.

"Dunn, congratulations!"

As an opponent and a former teammate, Kobe was quite generous and sent his blessings to Duane before the game started.

"Brother, you have almost enough rings on all ten fingers, right?"

Anthony was not idle either. He caught up with Duane before the game started.

"Want it? Come to my house tonight and I'll borrow it for you for a few days."

"How can a few days be enough? But in a few years, I will have it, right?"

Anthony is not in a hurry now. Seeing that Kobe is about to retire, he will have the final say on the Lakers next season.

Maybe next season when the Lakers get enough salary space, they will be able to form a Big Three championship lineup.

It just so happens that the Lakers have been in a slump in the past two years, and they are using Kobe's retirement tour to earn enough money to strengthen the team in the next few years.

In this way, in the next few seasons, the Lakers may soar to the sky!
Of course, Durant also promised Anthony a few years ago that he could play brotherly basketball with Anthony at the end of his career and help him win a championship ring.

Now that the Bulls have an orderly inheritance, Curry is gradually taking on more responsibilities.

In addition, the Bulls have no shortage of draft picks and talented rookies.

Therefore, Anthony is still very optimistic about the development in the next few years.

The Bulls are also quite optimistic.

Tonight, the Bulls players are all thinking about going all out and bidding farewell to the legendary star Kobe with a resounding victory.

After the game started, Curry started to cause trouble for Kobe.

Kobe did not choose to avoid the fight, although he knew that with his current physical fitness, it would be difficult to limit Curry, a superstar who is among the top five or even top three in the league.

However, Kobe was not at all timid.

Since the up-and-coming star is coming to challenge him, he will choose to do his best to make the other party have as much fun as possible.

However, no matter how hard Kobe tried, Curry still scored easily.

After the first quarter, Curry had already scored 13 points over Kobe.

If the Bulls hadn't given face to Kobe and didn't want to ruin the game in the first quarter, and hadn't replaced the second and third lineups with rookie substitutes early, there would really be no suspense in tonight's game.

In order to give Kobe a good away game experience, the Bulls did not engage in physical confrontation when defending Kobe.

At most, he just showed his strength and pretended to defend very hard, but in fact he left enough space for Kobe to shoot.

However, despite this, Kobe's shooting percentage is not particularly efficient.

All I can say is that Kobe is always Kobe. Being as beautiful as a painting is enough. No need to worry too much about his shooting percentage or something like that.

By the way, it was also because the bull released some water at the right time.

From an overall perspective, this game was quite exciting as both sides went back and forth with the score rising alternately.

Of course, the Bulls have the home-court advantage, plus the overall lineup advantage, so even though the team has not yet been well-coordinated, they have always maintained a considerable lead.

Before the end of the first half, Duane just played around and made a buzzer-beating long three-pointer.

Unexpectedly, he was lucky enough to score a three-pointer by hitting the backboard from the front.

As a result, the score gap widened to 15 points, which made it a little difficult for the Lakers to catch up.

Fortunately, Anthony was still able to play. At the beginning of the third quarter, Kobe did not choose to take over a lot of the ball, but let Anthony lead the offense.

Anthony did not disappoint Kobe. In the first half of the third quarter, he scored 8 points in a row relying on his personal strength.

Although it was not particularly outstanding, it helped the Lakers to keep the score close and prevent the gap from widening further.

If the score difference widens to more than 20 points in the third quarter, then the fourth quarter of the game will basically become garbage time.

The Bulls still hope that Kobe can continue to play in the fourth quarter. They don't ask how well Kobe plays, but at least he needs to get 24 points.

The Bulls put a lot of thought into getting a meaningful score for Kobe.

Kobe also noticed it. In the second half of the fourth quarter, once he got the ball, the Bulls kept replacing players to hug him.

Kobe could only stand on the free throw line with a little helplessness, and reluctantly got the 24th point with a one-point shot.

In order to cooperate with the Bulls and the league, Kobe has indeed fulfilled his responsibilities as an actor.

What does it matter if I get one more point or one less point tonight? There is no need to accumulate the total points in the regular season anyway.

So, after scoring 24 points, Kobe also chose to deliberately miss the second free throw.

Then he stopped taking any more shots and just watched his teammates perform.

Finally, with more than three minutes left in the game, Kobe, sweating profusely, finally went off the court to rest.

Both teams replaced their players with junk players to end the ensuing garbage time.

However, in the last 12 seconds of the game, the Bulls player who got the ball took the initiative to put the ball at the free throw line and let the game time slowly run out.

In the end, the Bulls won the game with a large advantage, giving Kobe a memorable defeat. (End of this chapter)