NBA: Start by torturing Jordan and add points to upgrade

Both sides changed their clothes, and Jackson, looking aggrieved, sat in the midfield with a hand-turned scoreboard next to him. In fact, the Knicks' training hall did have an electronic scoreboard, but there was no way, Jackson had nothing to do, and he had to pester old Nelson to play basketball.

Old Nelson could only give him a job to keep him from bothering him.

Nate Robinson, the rookie selected by the team this year, served as the referee. The little guy with a loud mouth excitedly picked up the whistle and prepared to start blowing the whistle.

"My rule is, whoever has the ball serves." Lin Tian shamelessly passed the basketball to Smith at the baseline and asked him to serve. As for the basketballs in the hands of Anthony and others on the opposite side, Lin Tian said: I am the boss, I have the final say.

There was no other way. The opponents could only throw the three or four basketballs to the sidelines and wait for Lin Tian to serve.

"Let's play like we did in the regular season." Lin Tian took the ball from the baseline and began to advance towards the front court without any hurry.

In the first round, he directly asked Stoudemire to come up and help cover for him. After the two of them crossed paths, Lin Tian advanced towards the inside, but Stoudemire did not cut into the inside as he did in the past. Instead, he proudly opened up space for Lin Tian on the wing.

Lin Tian did not hesitate, he hit the ground from behind, and the basketball came into Xiao Si's hands. After Xiao Si got the ball, he just picked it up and threw it!
"Boom!"

After a dull thud, Stoudemire's mid-range shot bounced off the rim and missed.

"FUXX!"

Xiao Si cursed and shook his hands regretfully. In the first attack of the game, he did not show his boss the special skills he had just learned.

"Good shot." Lin Tian didn't rush in to fight for the rebound.

There's no need for a training match, just play for fun, warm up, and see how good everyone is.

Although Stoudemire didn't make the shot, judging from his technical movements such as catching the ball, jumping, shooting, follow-up and hand shape, this guy has practiced well and has definitely worked hard on mid-range shots.

"Amare, you have to make the shot! Otherwise, I, your master, would be embarrassed to see people." Houston on the opposite side was running while smiling. Obviously, this guy contributed a lot to Stoudemire's significant improvement in shooting.

Ward on the opposite side dribbled all the way to the front court, and before he started to organize the offense, Anthony couldn't wait to shout at Ward: "Charlie, Charlie, switch, switch!"

Ward had no choice but to move quickly towards Anthony, and after the two of them passed hands, it became Lin Tian against Anthony.

"What special skills have you learned? Do you want to fight me so hard?" Lin Tian was relaxed. If you want to play, then just play!

"I'm never afraid of that bastard Artest's trick again!" After Anthony said that, he turned around, stuck out his big butt, and arched it towards Lin Tian.

"Boom! Boom!"

After two consecutive hard attacks, Anthony pushed all the way into the three-point line from outside the three-point line.

“Which bastard taught you this skillless and emotionless back-to-back style?” Lin Tian felt so much pain from Anthony’s butt that he couldn’t help but curse, “Let that bastard treat me to dinner tonight!”

"It's Charles!" Anthony said proudly, then turned sideways and bumped into Lin Tian with his shoulder. After successfully creating distance, he quickly adjusted his steps, then pulled it up and threw it!

In other words, I want to throw it away as soon as I pull it out!

"Snapped!"

Unfortunately, what greeted him was Lin Tian's hand. Lin Tian, ​​seizing the opportunity, slapped the ball from Anthony's hand, then looked back, quickly passed the ball to Smith who had already started running.

Smith dribbled the ball quickly to the frontcourt, then suddenly stopped outside the three-point line. At the same time, he did two graceful dribbles between his legs to stabilize the situation for himself.

Next, it’s time to take action!
This guy, whose three-point shooting percentage was less than 20% last season, actually dared to shoot a three-pointer in the game!

"Shh!"

With a crisp sound, Smith let out a wolf howl, turned around excitedly, and shouted to his teammates: "From now on, you have to call me the three-point handsome boy!"

This time Lin Tian was shocked!

The guy who made the most progress during the offseason is actually Smith?
Have you even practiced the 3-point shot?
But as soon as this guy finished celebrating, old Nelson stood up and shouted, "Stop! Stop for me! You, Josh, get down! Stephen, you go up, Josh, turn the card over for me!"

"How many times have I told you not to shoot chase-down 3-pointers! Your 3-point shot isn't as steady as my dad's, who has had Parkinson's for 20 years. You want to shoot chase-down 3-pointers? Your shooting percentage during training isn't above 85%. You're not allowed to shoot that kind of thing to me!"

"Got it." Smith pouted, looking unconvinced, but still sat obediently on the sidelines, allowing Jackson, who wanted to play basketball, to play.

Lin Tian heaved a sigh of relief when he saw old Nelson's attitude. Wow, it turned out that scoring was an accident!
When the other team attacked, Anthony once again couldn't wait to find Lin Tian and stuck his butt out. Then this guy continued to exert force. This time he learned his lesson and no longer shot from mid-range. Instead, he went all the way to the basket and then forced a turn and shot directly.

This time it finally hit the mark.

"See, Lin? I've become stronger."

“How dare you.” Lin Tian didn’t even bother to answer him: “A 203cm guy is beating a 191cm guy like me, and he has to sit under the basket before he dares to shoot! Try to throw two more mid-range shots, and see if I can cut you into an idiot.”

……

The training match was carried out quickly, because it didn't matter who won or lost, both sides played in a very relaxed manner, the main goal was to show off what they had practiced hard in the summer.

It’s just that everyone has only practiced for a few days, and many of their skills cannot be demonstrated at this time.

I haven’t mastered it yet!

They want to show what they have worked hard on in the summer, but when will they get the chance?

At least you have to go through a training camp and a whole summer of training before you can officially play in the NBA!
On the NBA stage, countless geniuses will shed countless blood and sweat and work madly day after day in order to make a name for themselves, or even just to stay here.

Behind all those so-called "not working hard" and "not trying hard", there are actually countless crazy trainings and days and nights.

However, everyone's talents are different, and everyone's role is also different.

In the league, there are guys like Lopez who transformed himself from a traditional center into a 3-point shooter, and there are also guys like DeAndre Jordan who suddenly increased his free throw percentage from 50% to 75%.

Of course, there are also some guys who have practiced for their entire lives but are unable to develop new skills or make up for their shortcomings.

But no matter what his ability is, whether a player can use a new trick on the court and whether it can produce results depends on the player's talent and ability.

People like Stoudemire and Anthony are obviously top talents. They have the gifts, and this summer they have the desire and motivation. So when they both want to make themselves stronger, that summer of hard training is definitely enough!
For example, when the previous paragraph was still talking about some incomprehensible stuff at length, this paragraph has already come to September.

Training camp for the 2005-2006 season has begun!

The Knicks have regrouped!

Their summer mini training camp lasted for almost a month and was disbanded at the end of August. Some players chose to rest, while others chose to combine work and rest and continue training. But no matter what they chose, the entire New York night scene was suffering.

This summer, the entire Knicks team, which used to be a big player in nightclubs, rarely come to play?
This caused a sharp drop in revenue for those top venues.

Therefore, at this moment, the people who most hope that the Knicks will win the championship and let the players indulge themselves are the owners of major nightclubs.

You must work hard!
We must win the championship!
Then, you must come and play!

The Knicks players all said: No problem, got it!

Then they threw themselves into crazy training again! If the small training camp in August was to check for gaps and make up for deficiencies based on the individual characteristics of each player, and everyone was together, but more of them were practicing on their own, looking for their weaknesses and strengthening their strengths, then the training in the training camp was team-oriented.

Old Nelson wants to bring everyone who fought on their own during the offseason together into a complete team again, unite all the members of the team together again, let them find the feeling of cooperation, and regain the feeling of being teammates with others.

Of course, old Nelson also prepared some new tactics for the team based on everyone's progress and the joining and leaving of new and old members.

But in the final analysis, there is no major change in the Knicks' playing style in the new season, only improvements in the details.

Their playing style in the new season is still attack, attack and attack again!
They still want to be the best and craziest super offensive team in the NBA! Their initial goal is to suppress the Suns and become the most popular running and gunning team in the league.

On the last day of training camp, Nelson clapped his hands and signaled everyone to come over: "The last day of training will end in two hours. The day after tomorrow is our first preseason game. This whole summer, no one has been out and about, and we haven't had much rest."

"So, today, when everyone is here, let's have another training match."

"The game is divided into two teams. You play for 20 minutes. The side with the higher score wins after the game. You can change your clothes and leave. You guys go out and have fun tonight! Enjoy yourself to your heart's content, and there will be no training for the next three days! You bastards, you can act as wild as you want!"

"Long live!"

"Wow!"

“The coach is the best!”

"I'm going to release all the energy of the whole summer!"

As the players cheered, Nelson continued, "As for the losing side, they will stay on the field after the game to pack up the various sports equipment, clean up, turn off the lights and lock the doors, and then..."

"Old Nelson paused with a sly smile and said, "Then we can go out and play! There won't be any training in the next three days, so we can play as much as we want for a few days! Go and have fun!"

As soon as Old Nelson said this, several guys who were originally very nervous were completely relieved. It was just cleaning! What kind of punishment was this?

Then, the whole audience burst into crazy shouts and celebrations.

The morale of the Knicks team suddenly rose.

"Then let's split into teams!"

As soon as old Nelson finished speaking, the people on the court automatically split into two groups.

This is the fixed grouping of the team in the past month's games. Overall, the strength is quite balanced.

Of course, this is not the lineup they use during training. If it is for tactical drills and training, old Nelson will still divide the players into the main group and the substitute group, so that the players can have better understanding of each other.

But now, it is the usual grouping of "bet something" or "play something" for everyone.

In other words, it's time to fight with real swords and guns!

Speaking of this, we have to mention the current lineup of the Knicks. After discussing with Walsh, Nelson temporarily retained a 14-man lineup. They deliberately left a vacancy in the lineup and wanted to wait until the middle of the season to see if there are any positions or opportunities that need to be strengthened.

When that time comes, we can talk about replacing the person.

As for now, the team certainly did not keep any players with training camp contracts in the roster, but only kept 14 people in total.

Center: Mehmet Okur, Alonzo Mourning, Nazir Mohammed
Power forward: Amar'e Stoudemire, Josh Smith, Michael Sweetney
Small forward: Carmelo Anthony, Gerald Wallace, Trevor Ariza

Shooting Guards: Alan Houston, Matt Barnes
Point guard: Lin Tian, ​​Charlie Ward, Nate Robinson

The team's 14-man roster is not much different from last season's roster! Among the main rotation players, only Stephen Jackson accepted a 4-year, $2800 million contract from the Warriors and chose to move to Golden State, and has now left.

In addition, some marginal role players choose to join or leave.

In addition, although Walsh had to give up Jackson and let him go to Golden State after several choices, Walsh still tried his best to keep all the remaining main players whose contracts had expired.

After all, in addition to the fact that the Knicks could not match Jackson's one-year contract of 700 million, another important reason for letting him go was that the team had a lot of talent at positions 2-3 and did not need him.

As for other players, Walsh chose to renew his contract with Stoudemire one year in advance, and the two sides reached a four-year, $4 million maximum salary rookie contract. In today's absence of the Rose clause, Stoudemire's contract is definitely quite generous!
At the same time, Stoudemire also became the first player in the dim 02 draft to receive a maximum salary contract extension. As for the others, I'm afraid they will have to wait a while.

And Stoudemire's contract will take effect next season.

In addition, although the team had to let Jackson go, they did not dare to let go of Okur, who was the 01rd pick in 43 but only entered the league in 02 and whose contract also expired.

Who asked Jackson to have a replacement? With Okur's attributes, there are few people in the entire league who can replace him.

Walsh originally hoped to keep Okur with a four-year, $4 million middle-class contract, but unfortunately, a Cheng Yaojin showed up halfway. In the end, Walsh could only tearfully match the four-year, $2000 million contract offered to Okur by the Suns, another team in the league that had long been drooling over Okur.

Because of this contract, Okur has become the second highest paid player on the team this season.

In addition to Okur and Stoudemire, the team also retained backup forward Gerald Wallace with a two-year, $800 million contract and retained forward Matt Barnes with a three-year minimum salary.

In addition, after renewing the contracts of Okur and Wallace, the team's total salary this year has increased by 1100 million. The Knicks, who did not have to pay luxury tax last season, will have to start paying luxury tax this season.

Of course, it's just a little bit for now.

When Stoudemire's big contract comes into effect next season, that's when the Knicks' luxury tax will skyrocket. Don't forget that Lin Tian's contract involves double the luxury tax!

That's when other owners in the league like the Knicks the most, and the luxury tax paid by Dolan will all be theirs.

So far, thanks to Walsh's efforts, the Knicks have fulfilled the bold words of Lin Tian and Nelson Sr. at the last press conference last season.

This year, they will use last year's team to compete for the championship!
Of the 10 players who played the most minutes last season, 9 of them are still with the team. It is no exaggeration to say that the Knicks are the most stable team in the league during the offseason! Their current lineup is definitely the same as before!

No one can find fault with them!

In addition to internal renewal.

There are four reinforcements for the team worth mentioning.

First of all, after Alan Houston was completely out last season, he finally recovered in the summer and is ready to play in the new season.

Although this guy has been plagued by injuries in the past few years and has hardly played seriously, the "mid-range shooting king" relies on shooting and positioning after all. With his off-ball skills and Lin Tian's ability to feed the ball, as long as he does not suffer any injuries in the new season, it will be no problem for him to support the team's No. 2 position.

At the same time, although his defense has basically been reduced to zero after several serious injuries and his increasing age, and he is no match for Jackson, fortunately, old Nelson does not require him to have defensive ability.

Especially his offensive ability is definitely stronger than Jackson last season. The firepower of the Knicks in the new season is destined to be even crazier than last season!

In addition, the team used a future second-round draft pick to trade last year's second-round pick, 43rd pick, from the Magic, Trevor Ariza.

Ariza, who joined the league as a high school student, also had a bumpy season with the Magic last season. In the first half of the season, because the team had McGrady and Hill, he had no chance at all and just sat at the end of the bench and watched the show.

In the second half of the season, with the departure of McGrady, he was once included in the rotation and even started in more than 10 games.

Unfortunately, the effect was too poor. This guy was not ready to play in the NBA, both physically and mentally. At the end of March, Ariza was once again kicked out of the rotation by the head coach and returned to the position of water cooler guard. Until the end of the season, he did not get any more opportunities. (End of this chapter)