Healthy basketball, starting from eating the old Lakers F4

Time flies and it is late October. The Bulls ended this year's preseason with a record of 10 wins and 5 losses.

Even though the team has only been training for less than a month, the overall tacit understanding has not yet been fully developed.

Fortunately, most of the players on the Bulls are veterans who know how to play on the court.

In addition, the Bulls' tactics are not complicated. Basically, the stars hold the ball to attract defense and create better scoring opportunities for role players.

Playing for the Bulls, role players only need to have a certain ability to catch the ball and shoot, and also the ability to cut into the air and steal the ball.

So, even though Curry, Durant, and Jokic didn't exert much effort, the Bulls still played smoothly. The fact that they won all five preseason games speaks for itself.

To be honest, the Bulls have another advantage, which is that it is easier for them to win games.

After all, the team's substitutes are mainly veterans, and even if there are rookies, they are basically third or fourth year players.

On the other hand, other teams, if their stars do not play in the second half of the preseason, they will definitely have to send in rookies to practice their skills.

As for the Bulls, they didn't follow the ethics of the game! They just sent a group of experienced old guys!
For this reason, the Bulls basically don't make mistakes, nor do they have any mental problems due to falling behind in the score or failing to attack.

Therefore, in the five preseason games, even if the Bulls were behind in the score after the first half of two games, once the second half started, they were able to quickly catch up with the score difference with the help of the veterans on the team.

With such a group of bench bandits, the Bulls will not lose points in the second half, but will be able to win the game more easily.

Compared to those teams that are still training rookies, the Bulls' approach is indeed a bit bullying.

However, the Bulls have many veterans, and the veterans have not yet been fully integrated into the team. Now that they have such a group of people, it is impossible to just leave them alone for training!
In short, the Bulls are now strong and powerful, even if they are not in full form, winning has become a very simple thing.

The five-game winning streak in the preseason is not a coincidence. In the regular season, when Curry, Durant and Jokic work together, the Bulls can show even stronger dominance than in the preseason.

So sometimes, the preseason is the barometer of the team, which can predict how far the new season can go.

There have been many teams in history that won all their preseason games and eventually won the championship that season.

However, there is still a difference between five preseason games and eight preseason games, after all, the former has a smaller sample size.

But the problem is that this year's NBA schedule and competition system have been slightly adjusted. In previous years, there were 8 preseason games, but this year there are only 6 games at most.

With the advent of the small ball era, although the intensity of the game has dropped a lot compared to the past, the game pace has become much faster, and NBA players use technology too frequently, resulting in an injury rate that is much higher than it was a decade or twenty years ago.

In order to protect the players and reduce the injury rate as much as possible, league officials shortened the schedule.

During the preseason, the original 8 games were changed to 4 to 6 preseason games selected by teams.

Teams can discuss with other teams whether to play preseason games based on their own needs.

However, the four guaranteed preseason games still have to be played.

If the team is unable to make a choice in advance, the league officials will take the initiative to make arrangements.

Take the Bulls for example this year. Originally, the Bulls management chose to play 6 games. After all, playing one more game can help the team get better acquainted.

As for the teams that play games with the Bulls, it has also been agreed upon. After all, the Bulls have a large traffic and preseason tickets can sell for money, so any money earned is a good deal.

However, due to the intervention of league officials, the Bulls' preseason game schedule changed.

The league officials arranged for the Bulls to play the regular season opener, and if they play six preseason games in 12 days, that's an average of one game every two days.

Then consider the issue of away game transfers, the schedule is too tight!
This undoubtedly increases the injury risk of the Bulls stars.

And because the Bulls are the most popular team this season, the NBA's ratings depend on the Bulls to drive it.

With the development of streaming media and social media in recent years, the NBA has gradually become more like a fan club.

This means that the physical condition and injury risks of star players are issues that league officials need to take seriously.

This is also the reason why the standards of penalties have become increasingly lenient in recent years, and why star players who serve dishes, sell meals, commit fraud, and fake falls have been widely condoned.

Back to the Bulls, the league considered that the preseason schedule was too tight, which might increase the risk of injury to the Bulls stars, so the league officials took the initiative to cut a preseason game for the Bulls, allowing the Bulls to have two days to rest and adjust before the regular season opener.

Regarding protecting stars and minimizing their injury risks, league officials also hinted this summer that they wanted to cut the regular season schedule from 82 games to 58.

I don't know if the NBA officials have any ideas about Paul, the chairman of the players' union, but in any case, several referees just stared at Paul and bit him...

In addition to the idea of ​​shortening the regular season schedule, the league also has to consider the impact of reducing the number of regular season games and reducing overall ratings.

So some plans to increase ratings were prepared, mainly adding a mid-season cup and corresponding advance games in the middle of the regular season, and adding play-in games in the playoffs.

In the past, there were three focus games in the NBA regular season, namely the opening game, the Christmas game and the All-Star Game.

If we calculate the time, the three focus battles with peak ratings were at the end of October, late December, and mid-February, two months apart from each other.

Among them, between the Christmas game and the All-Star Game, the ratings are often higher than the beginning of the regular season because the All-Star voting excites the fans.

As for after the All-Star Game, as it is near the end of the season, the competition for playoff spots will be fierce, the games will be more intense and more interesting, and the ratings will not be bad.

Then, the ratings problem of the regular season will only remain in the early stage of the regular season. Most teams are still in the process of adjusting their lineups, so the games look more like a fight between weak teams.

In addition, some players have a casual personality, are lazy and don't practice in the summer, which leads to poor performance at the beginning of the regular season.

There are also some players who, because they have signed long-term contracts and have no worries about food and clothing, have no motivation to play.

This leads to a lack of urgency among players at the beginning of the regular season. It is common that as long as the game is not broadcast live nationwide, the players will just work without putting in any effort and play carelessly.

From the audience's perspective, the games are difficult to watch, so naturally people don't want to spend money to buy tickets or pay to subscribe to NBA games.

In order to increase the overall revenue of the league and improve this slow-starting, or even rotten situation, it is necessary for the league officials to take action.

Therefore, some league executives proposed to launch a prelude to the Mid-Season Cup in November to increase the competitiveness and highlights of the regular season.

The advance match is also a regular season match, but additional points from the Mid-Season Cup are counted.

The Mid-Season Cup has excellent rewards and honors. The Mid-Season Cup preliminaries that will last for more than a month will undoubtedly increase the intensity and intensity of the early regular season games and increase the ratings of the NBA regular season.

Once the Mid-Season Cup is decided, the NBA will immediately usher in the traditional Christmas game.

Once the Christmas game is over, the old tradition will be to rely on All-Star voting as a gimmick to increase fans' enthusiasm for watching NBA games and news around the NBA.

After the All-Star Game is over, the regular season will enter the sprint stage of the second half.

In the past, at this time of year, some teams with no hope of making the playoffs would enter their slump early, and some teams that had already secured their place in the playoffs would also make reasonable arrangements for their star players to take turns to rest.

The problem is that these actions will affect the overall ratings of the NBA.

However, if the league introduces a play-in tournament, the competition for playoff spots will change from the original fixed 15 to 8 to 15 to 6.

Then teams 7 to 10 will enter the waiting list and need to go through the play-offs to compete for the last two spots in the top four.

This will undoubtedly increase the sense of crisis for those teams that are close to the playoffs in the second half of the regular season, making every game in the second half of the regular season unpredictable and exciting. At the same time, the play-off system will also increase the hope of reaching the playoffs for those teams that did not run in well in the first half of the regular season.

This will encourage these teams not to give up easily in the middle and second half of the regular season.

In short, these designs can increase the variables and highlights during the NBA regular season.

The only thing to worry about is that every game is a focus battle, and every game requires life-threatening efforts, which makes players more likely to get injured.

For the sake of player health, it becomes more reasonable to change the regular season from 82 games to 58 games.

However, the major media outlets that have already signed broadcasting contracts do not want the shortening of the regular season to affect ratings or change their TV program schedules.

Therefore, under the current broadcasting contract, the regular season format will not change.

As for when the mid-season cup and play-offs can be launched, it will take some time for league officials and owners of major teams to continue discussing.

In Dunn’s memory, in the previous life, it would have to wait until the 20-21 season before it could be officially implemented.

As for the Mid-Season Cup, we will have to wait until the 23-24 season.

Duane doesn't know if he can play until the season when the Mid-Season Cup is officially implemented, but there will be no problem if he plays again next year.

Of course, with the Bulls' strength, even if they win the championship this season, they will not disband the championship team in the summer.

So even if the play-off system is officially implemented next season, it will not affect the Bulls.

After all, the Bulls are firmly in the top four in the Eastern Conference, and even if something unexpected happens to the team, it will be difficult for them to fall to the play-offs.

Back to the topic, the preseason is over and the regular season opener is here in the blink of an eye.

The Bulls did not win the championship last season, so this year's opening game will be missing the pre-game championship ring presentation ceremony and championship flag-raising ceremony.

Fortunately, Duane and others do not have to travel thousands of miles to play away games. Instead, the New Orleans Pelicans, who have the new No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, have to travel all the way to Chicago to play.

It is obvious that the league made such arrangements in order to cooperate with Nike, the league's number one sponsor, and to promote Fat Tiger, the new prince of Nike.

In fact, before the game started, Dunn also received several calls.

Dunn did not object to this, after all, the spokesperson had long been transformed into a shareholder.

Although Fat Tiger was always dunking, he was too lazy to practice basketball or lose weight, and he did not have the endurance of O'Neal, so he was destined to never make a name for himself in the NBA.

However, his personal talent is indeed visible to the naked eye.

Even if he fails to show his peak period of perfect combination of skills and physical fitness in the NBA, he can still show outstanding performances for a period of time like McGrady and attract the attention of many fans.

Therefore, Duen was happy to cooperate with others to promote talented younger generations like Fat Tiger.

It is said that inside players don’t sell shoes, but Fat Tiger is an exception.

As a shareholder, if Dunn can say a few words to help the company and himself make money, why not do it?

For this reason, before the game started, Duane praised Fat Tiger in front of the media, saying that the future belongs to Fat Tiger and that Fat Tiger can dominate the NBA in the future.

Moreover, Duane joked with other teammates that if they had not played so well last season, the Bulls would have had a chance to get the No. 1 pick and get Fat Tiger.

Most of the media reporters believed the propaganda of Fat Tiger of the Dunn team, and soon related reports appeared in major media.

Fat Tiger, as a rare top scholar in ten years, has attracted a lot of attention.

This time, because the GOAT Duane personally certified that Fat Tiger has a bright future and has the potential to rule the league, some casual fans who have just started to pay attention to the NBA have taken this as a guiding principle.

Some fans who watched the media reports, out of curiosity, immediately watched the unique opening game between the Bulls and the Pelicans.

However, after watching it for a while, I found it boring.

After all, the Pelicans were the last-place team in the league last season, otherwise they wouldn't have gotten the No. 1 pick.

Even if we got a historic No. 1 pick like Fat Tiger this year, we won't be able to last long against a historic powerhouse like the Bulls.

After the first quarter, the Bulls' Big Three made their efforts one after another, and the score was 23 to 41.

Playing at the United Center and with the support of their home fans, the Bulls had already taken an 18-point lead and turned the rest of the game into garbage time.

In the second quarter, the three core players of the Bulls tried their best to reduce their strength. Curry and Jokic played for less than 8 minutes each, and Durant played for only half a quarter.

But the Bulls' substitutes were very ruthless in their attack, as if they were welcoming Fat Tiger to the NBA.

So by the end of the first half, the score difference had widened to 31 points.

The Bulls' overall scoring momentum was also heading towards 100 points in three quarters.

It looked like this game could result in a tragedy with a score of more than 58 points.

Duane had to say a few words in the locker room during the halftime break, reminding everyone that the NBA is not about fighting, but about human relationships.

It was also Duen who said that Fat Tiger was the new prince of Nike, and Nike's emperor Danzi was very optimistic about Fat Tiger, so everyone played in harmony in the second half.

After the third quarter started, the Bulls players took the initiative to relax their defense on Fat Tiger, allowing Fat Tiger to score better.

While the Bulls players played the game calmly, they also focused on obtaining better data, playing the game as beautifully as possible and getting good data.

All in all, players from both teams had a lot of fun playing this game.

As soon as the game ended, Fat Tiger scored 29 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in his debut, which was perfect.

The Bulls also won by 21 points, announcing their return as the king.

But for the fans, this game is not very interesting.

But to be honest, most fans will feel proud and happy when stars put up big stats on the court.

The spirit of basketball and sportsmanship are not important. Just forget your brain and be happy.

"Me and the GOAT! The Goat!"

"The next ruler of the Alliance! The Crown!"

After the game, Duane took the initiative to find Fat Tiger with his autographed jersey, and happily showed it in front of the media with Fat Tiger.

After the media finished recording, they also interacted on Twitter.

The next morning, when Du En took out his phone, he saw that the number of likes had reached hundreds of thousands... (End of this chapter)