Coach, I don't want to retire yet

Chapter 591 The Strongest Finals!
The one-on-one match between Thabeet and Embiid is absolutely shocking in the NBA.

O'Neal's live broadcast is not only watched by fans.

Many professionals are also paying attention to O'Neal's live broadcast this season.

It’s just that these NBA professionals won’t stand up and argue with O’Neal for show effect.

Well, it's not that there aren't any. For example, Draymond Green of the Warriors often comes out to create show effects with O'Neal.

It can be said that after Thabeet and Embiid started the duel, the NBA professionals, players, coaches, legends, and NBA management in O'Neal's live broadcast room were almost all staring at them, and there was no way to divert their attention.

Because the one-on-one match between Embiid and Thabeet is really too attractive.

Although only Thabeet was attacking, and although Embiid's defense was indeed not that good.

However, a center who uses the swingman style throughout the offense has never been seen in the NBA.

It is indeed quite shocking.

"I used to think that Durant was the height limit for NBA players to play as a swingman. Durant should be 2 meters tall. If he is taller than 10 meters, he can't have such good skills, explosiveness and athleticism. He can't really play like an outside player. At most, he can be like Nowitzki. And what about Thabeet? He is 2 meters tall! A 10-meter swingman center, my God, it's unbelievable. How did Coach D create such a monster? He even looks better than Durant!"

If the fans are just watching for fun, then for these professionals, what they are watching is not just the fun, but also the tricks.

For example, many NBA team managements have already taken action and started studying Thabeet's information.

I found out that he was a player born in 87 and is now over 29 years old. I felt regretful but also extremely excited.

A 29-year-old center is indeed not young, but if he were not 29 years old, Thabeet might not necessarily leave Coach D.

If Thabeet was only 22 years old, he would definitely stay with Coach D and continue to grow.

Now he is 29 years old, and he only has the chance to get a big contract. For the opportunity of worry-free bread in the future, Thabeet will definitely leave the Bobcats after the end of this season.

Although Thabeet's contract with the Bobcats is more than one year, everyone knows that in Coach D's team, as long as a player wants to leave and as long as the player who wants to leave has enough contributions to the team, Coach D will not set up obstacles.

Thabeet has two years left on his contract, so he can be traded to a new team and the Bird rights can be traded as well.

If Thabeet's contract is renewed in advance, the team that trades for Thabeet will get the last 7 years of Thabeet's career (2+5).

Just right, 36 years old should be the end of a player’s peak.

What's more crucial is that Thabeet still has two years left on his child labor contract, and it is entirely possible to build a super team with Thabeet as the cornerstone in these two years.

The team that acquires Thabeet can even get two maximum-salary free agents and complete the reconstruction in an instant.

In short, at this moment, Thabeet is extremely attractive to most NBA teams that no longer have playoffs to play.

If they were not afraid of offending Coach D, I'm afraid many NBA executives would have already called the Bobcats frantically.

The NBA suddenly had an additional top player available, which was like a godsend to the NBA's management and management team.

For many NBA players, a new star has emerged under Coach D, and this star was once a super fake. It really makes people envious and jealous.

Especially for those players who already had the opportunity to play under Coach D, seeing Thabeet at this time and thinking of the previous Chinese Ding, Ding Yanyuhang, they really regretted it.

For example, Marvin Williams of the Celtics, he really feels like he is about to break down.

Just because he was unwilling to endure hardships and work a little harder, he foolishly rejected Coach D's training. He originally thought that leaving the Bobcats and joining the Celtics meant his life was moving from darkness to light.

The Bobcats are no match for the Celtics.

No matter how you look at it, Coach D isn't much better than Amazing Monty.

It's only a season and it's not over yet.

He regretted it so much that he wished he could take a time machine back to last summer. He would do whatever Coach D said and would never demand anything from himself again.

Many NBA players said that they would be willing to play under Coach D even if it was free or even if he paid them.

Coach D can really change the lives of NBA players!

Coach D came to the NBA four years ago. From the beginning, Nash, Kobe, Howard, four guards, five guards, Yi Jianlian, Oden...

How many people’s destinies have been changed because of Coach D.

I originally thought that once, twice, three times, or even four, five, six, or seven times would be enough.

Unexpectedly, Coach D is still continuing to change the fate of his players.

Everyone says that Thabeet is a fake second pick, and Marvin Williams is actually also a fake second pick.

It's just that he can still get stable opportunities in the NBA, and with players like Thabeet at the bottom, no one will emphasize that he is a fake.

As the second pick in 2005, he has two superstars behind him: Paul and Deron.

Even if he is not compared with superstars like Paul Deron, he still has All-Star players like Bynum, Monta Ellis, Granger, and David Lee behind him.

Even if he is not compared with such All-Star players, there are top role players like Felton, Villanueva, and Louis Williams behind him.

He is not even as good as these top role players. At most, he can be compared with excellent role players of the same class such as Nate Robinson, Channing Frye, Andray Blatche, Gortat, etc., and he may not even be as good as them.

Perhaps in many people's minds, he is not as good as these excellent role players, and at most he can be compared with excellent puzzle players such as Turiaf, Ilyasova, and Brandon Bass.

In fact, in the NBA, his reputation is really at the same level as Turiaf, Ilyasova and Brandon Bass, and he can't even surpass them.

What is the ranking of these three?
These three guys were drafted in the second round!

And I am the runner-up!

A second-round pick actually played in the NBA for eleven years, but he was still no match for the second-round picks of the same year. Even in terms of achievements, he was not as good as these second-round picks.

Many people recently re-ranked the 2005 NBA draft, and he didn't even make it into the top ten.

This is extremely embarrassing.

Originally, he had the opportunity to rise again under Coach D, and then catch up with or even surpass the achievements of Paul and Deron.

But now, he can only look at Tabit and those Bobcats players with envy in front of the computer.

At this moment, the sudden emergence of Thabeet can be said to have ignited the enthusiasm of all NBA professionals.

"If we were in the Finals, how would we defend Thabeet?"

The Thunder team is at their hotel in Los Angeles.

The entire Thunder team watched the live broadcast of Thabeet's one-on-one challenge against Embiid.

Embiid almost defeated the Celtics alone. At this moment, Embiid's reputation was at its strongest.

When Thabeet faced off against Embiid one-on-one, he actually beat Embiid 10-0. Even Durant felt that he couldn't do it.

"In this one-on-one match between Thabeet and Embiid, all of them used the offensive skills of a swingman. This is shocking and scary, but if you think about it from a better perspective, maybe Thabeet is a center who has no inside offensive ability."

After Thunder head coach Donovan finished speaking, the other Thunder players nearby were stunned.

"If you haven't used the inside attack, it shouldn't be possible to prove it, right?"

Anthony was the first one to disagree. He usually liked to show off his pull-up shots from the outside, but he was also very good at singles in the paint.

It’s just that playing one-on-one in the paint is too physically demanding and too easy to be blocked, and he’s not tall enough, so he gradually reduced his one-on-one plays in the paint.

Tabeet is so tall and has such good skills. Although his body is indeed thinner, he should have no problem playing one-on-one in the interior, right?
Donovan did not argue with Anthony, but said: "Whether he will play singles inside or not, we don't need to worry now. Our opponent tonight is the Lakers, not the Bobcats."

Donovan said this though.

However, it will be very important for the Thunder if Thabeet can't attack inside.

If Thabeet can only attack from the outside like a forward-guard swingman, then the Thunder have someone who can match him, Ibaka, Durant can match him. If Thabeet is like Yao Ming, who is good at both inside and outside, then it will be very difficult to deal with.

Yao Ming did not gain weight, but his footwork under the basket, combined with his height, made his one-on-one play under the basket extremely threatening.

At this time, even the Thunder are concerned about Thabeet's true strength, not to mention the Lakers.

On the Lakers side, Kobe, McGrady and Yao Ming were really excited.

"Yao, it looks like you'll be under a lot of pressure in the finals!"

"This kid should be specially prepared for you by the coach. The coach knows that he can't target you defensively, so he prepared a player for you who can attack against you!"

Yao Ming thinks so too.

Coach Xiaodu knows him well, and other people who don't know him so well always think about how to defend him when they face him.

It’s not wrong to think this way.

But, in reality, he is undefendable.

If you want to beat him, it's useless to try to do it defensively.

Only attack.

Use offense to suppress his offense.

There is no doubt that if he was facing Thabeet, he would probably find it difficult to defend Thabeet.

His one-on-one defense is definitely better than Embiid's, but if he is on the outside, even if his one-on-one defense is better than Embiid's, it doesn't make any sense.

His strongest point is assisting defense under the basket, followed by one-on-one defense under the basket.

"Based on my understanding of the coach, I'm afraid Thabeet doesn't have the ability to attack inside. All his abilities are focused on attacking from the outside."

Anyone who wants to attack inside must gain some weight.

Even though Yao Ming did not gain weight specifically, he did not look as light as a rookie.

If you want to maximize your outside attack, try not to focus on inside skills.

In order to improve his inside one-on-one play, Durant chose to gain weight. His confrontation, one-legged stand and back-to-the-basket shots became stronger, but his breakthrough and athletic impact abilities declined.

It is not easy to have both inside and outside.

Especially for center players.

Gaining weight means a drastic drop in speed and athletic ability. Without athletic ability, no matter how strong your outside offensive skills are, they will be useless.

In outside offense, everything depends on athletic ability.

Maybe when Thabeet loses his athletic ability and gets older, he will develop inside offensive skills like Kobe or Nowitzki.

But at this moment, he would definitely not throw away the watermelon for the cantaloupe.

It's not that Nowitzki didn't know the importance of post-up offense back then, but he had the athletic ability at that time, and he could play longer in frontal offense, score more points, better help his teammates and the team, and win him the MVP. He had no reason to give up.

But in the end he won the MVP, and after being taught a final lesson by old Nelson, he had no way out, so he had to turn from outside to inside.

No matter how you look at it, Tabit now is not in the situation where he has no choice like Nowitzki.

All I can say is that these veterans of the Lakers really understand Du Kang and they really understand basketball.

They watched a one-on-one match between Thabeet and Embiid, and basically got a pretty good idea of ​​Thabeet's strengths and weaknesses.

In this regard, although Donovan is not bad, he still cannot compare with McGrady, Kobe, and Yao Ming.

"However, even without an inside attack, Thabeet is not easy to defend."

Yes frowned.

The key is, in order to defend Thabeet, if the Bobcats start Thabeet, one of Ebanks or Antetokounmpo will have to start to help Yao Ming defend Thabeet.

Although Antetokounmpo and Ebanks are basically the starting players of the Lakers most of the time, the Lakers also often play the lineup of Yao Ming, McGrady, Kobe, Roy and McCaw.

All five players have very strong independent offensive capabilities, and the inside combination of Yao Ming and McGrady is extremely terrifying on offense.

If neither side can defend the other in the end and they have to compete in offense, the inside combination of Yao Ming and McGrady will naturally be the strongest in offense. If in the end, in order to defend Thabeet, Ebanks or Antetokounmpo is used, wouldn't that be a bit of a self-defeating move?

What is more crucial is if Antetokounmpo and Ebanks are fixed as the starting players in the interior.

So, is it possible for the double center combination of Jokic and Yao Ming to appear?

Yes, if the Bobcats didn't have the unexpected Thabeet, the starting lineup in the interior would be Duncan and O'Neal, or Duncan and O'Neal would partner with any other player, the Lakers could make any combination they wanted.

It is even possible to go to the extreme of having Yao Ming and Jokic start, which would not only fill the inside and block O'Neal and Duncan, but also allow the two organizing centers to be pulled outside the three-point line on the offensive end to maximize the space.

The Lakers can play however they want.

The Bobcats didn't stand a chance.

And now...

"It was originally 90-10 but it has become 50-50!"

"That's exciting, isn't it?"

The Lakers didn't even think about the seventh game of the Western Conference Finals against the Thunder that night.

Even in the seventh game that night, Kobe, McGrady, Yao Ming and Roy did not play.

The Thunder was defeated by the Lakers' Jokic, Antetokounmpo, Ebanks, Zhang Tielin, McCaw, Ricky Li, Dinwiddie and others.

Durant and the Bobcats players were not surprised to see Durant squatting on the ground with one hand covering his mouth and the other hand touching the Western Conference Finals floor.

"The finals, it's the Lakers after all!"

They even let Yao Ming, McGrady and Kobe Roy go!

"The Lakers are stronger than any of us thought!"

On TV, Barkley’s voice yelled.

And off the field.

The odds of the Bobcats, which had been rising, suddenly plummeted!
After the one-on-one match between Thabeet and Embiid, off-site bookmakers raised the odds of the Bobcats winning the championship.

According to the odds, the odds between the Thunder and the Lakers were almost even before the game started.

And now!
It was 50-50, and instantly became 80-20.

"No matter who wins in the end, this year's finals will be the strongest finals in NBA history. This finals features the two strongest teams in NBA history!"

"The six strongest players in NBA history will all appear in this finals!"

"What a pity! It would be perfect if the head coach of the Lakers was the amazing Monty!"

Barkley's shout instantly made Popovich's face next to him darken.

Well, I, Popovich, you actually think I don’t deserve such a finals!
Why am I, Popovich, not worthy of standing opposite Coach D?

This time, I must make Coach D and the blind audiences around the world open their eyes and see my growth!

(End of this chapter)