basketball task

Chapter 19 Summer League
The summer league, which was specially participated in preparation for the next year's Olympics, has attracted the attention of all basketball fans in China.

Su Qun, a well-known basketball media person, commented:

"There are 15 players in the national team's roster. The strength of the lineup on paper is still very strong. Although the core Yao Ming is not here, we have Liu Wei who has played in the NBA preseason, Zhu Fangyu who has received a ten-day short contract, and the Lakers. Sun Yue, the second-round pick of the team's rotation level, the No. 6 pick Ah Lian of the Bucks' starting level, the No. 12 pick Qian Ning whose rapid progress is unknown, and Wang Zhizhi, who is qualified for the rotation level of ordinary NBA teams, plus Wang Shipeng, Li Nan and other national players, our lineup level can actually be regarded as a team that can participate in the Summer League. Under the coaching of Jonas, let us wait and see what kind of results we can achieve."

CCTV 5 celebrity Zhang Weiping also expressed his views:
"This time I specially participated in the summer league, one is to warm up and keep the team in shape, and the second is to see how strong the players are. The teams in the summer league are of a high level and are very confrontational. This happens to be a touchstone. Check out for us which players should be brought to the BJ Olympics next year."

Tencent Sports also sent reporters to conduct interviews:
"Coach Yunus, the training time before the summer league is very short. What problems do you think our team still has?"

"There are so many problems, it's impossible to talk about them." Yunas always spoke directly, and directly sprayed:
"Chen Jianghua is my favorite defender, but he has a wrist injury and cannot play for too long;

Sun Yue needs to put in more effort in training, otherwise he will not be able to adapt to the rhythm of the NBA;
Li Nan's movement was a little slow, and Zhu Fangyu was obviously even slower;

Yi Jianlian is too young and needs more muscles to allow him to stand in the paint, not as soft as he is now;
Wang Zhizhi is very good, but needs to be more focused on both offense and defense, especially on defense. "

A series of criticisms made the Tencent reporter a little confused, and he realized that Yunus had missed someone.

"What about Channing?"

"Money?" Yunas rolled his eyes:
"Qian is a very good young man. In terms of training, he is the only player I am satisfied with. But the real game is completely different from the training field. Before he proves himself, he can only start as a substitute."

Jonas's acrimonious remarks made the fans explode, accusing him of being too harsh and suppressing the players' self-confidence, but regarding Channing, the fans' views have never been unanimous.

On July 2007, 7, the Chinese team officially started their first game in the Summer League.

The summer league that year was completely different from the summer league before Channing was reborn. In the summer league in 07, they were teams of players who could play in the NBA. For example, the Celtics had Rondo, Gerrard Green and Channing's old acquaintance Glenn Davis; the New York Knicks have little potato Nate Robinson; the Cavaliers have Shannon Brown and Daniel Gibson.

The Chinese team's first opponent, the Memphis Grizzlies, is even more star-studded.Leading the way is the famous Rudy Gay!

Rudy Gay is a player familiar to Chinese basketball fans. In 2006, he was selected eighth by the Rockets and sent to the Grizzlies in exchange for President Shane Battier.In his rookie season, Gay averaged 10.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, entered the rookie first team, and ranked third in the selection of the best rookie, second only to the yellow mamba Brandon Roy and Aldridge.

In addition to Gay, the Grizzlies also sent Lowry, the defender who is very popular with Rockets fans, and this year's No. 4 pick Mike Conley.

If the Chinese national team has five players at the summer league level, Daqi, Ah Lian, Chen Ning, Sun Yue, and Zhu Fangyu, then the Grizzlies have nine summer league players, plus two NBA rotation players, Lori Conley , and Gay, a future NBA star.

From the perspective of strength, the Grizzlies are completely dominant, and the Chinese fans who watched the webcast were sweating for the national team.

At the start of the game, Jonas really put Chan Ning on the bench. The starting five for the Chinese team were center Wang Zhizhi, power forward Yi Jianlian, small forward Zhu Fangyu, shooting guard Sun Yue and point guard Liu Wei.

In a private room in the arena, 76ers general manager Billy King and owner Snyder are also watching the game.

"Listen to me, Snyder, Channing is a guy who has been picked up by the Chinese market. With his true ability, he may not be selected in the second round. Look, he can't even get into the starting lineup of the Chinese team. This kind of quality simply cannot stand in our team.”

Billy King is still seizing the opportunity to brainwash his boss. He is right. As a boss who only knows how to run a business but not basketball, Snyder is actually not at ease about Channing's ability, but behind Channing is the huge China. The market made him tempted. Yao Ming's success helped the owner of the Rockets to increase his worth by one position. The Bucks also imitated the Rockets and selected Yi Jianlian. Snyder was very jealous. To dissuade him, he made an impromptu decision and snatched Channing away.

Snyder's sudden appearance also messed up the Lakers and Celtics who were hoping to get Channing in the 19th and 20th picks in the first round. Channing's original prediction was the end of the first round. Ke and Danny Angie never expected that Cheng Yaojin would appear out of nowhere and completely disrupt their plans.

As for Popovich and Morey, one is that the Spurs are too late in the draft and have no hope at all, and the other wants to choose, but they are afraid that Channing will not want to come.

"Boss, Danny Ainge just called and wanted to make a deal with Thaddeus Young and Channing, who they selected with the 20th overall pick. Thaddeus Young has always been our favorite target, and this opportunity must not be missed!"

"Don't panic buddy, let's take a good look at it."

Snyder took a sip of his cigar and squinted at the field.

Eight minutes into the game, the Chinese team fell behind 8-12. Chen Ning sat on the bench and saw the Chinese team's embarrassment clearly.

The strength of the confrontation is too bad, especially on the back line. Facing the defense at the summer league level, Liu Wei and Sun Yue have no offensive ability at all and can only barely protect the ball.The quality of the pick-and-roll inside is also rubbish. The defenders can easily squeeze through. After playing for so long, the tactics can’t run out at all. They can only play randomly. Except for Liu Wei’s mid-range shot and roughly a three-pointer, he didn’t score any points. Instead, he was pressing at high pressure. There were a lot of mistakes in the next game, and the speed of returning to defense was slow, which made it too easy for the Grizzlies to counterattack.

"The Chinese team was in a difficult position at the beginning of the game. Ah Lian missed all four shots. He seems to have not adapted to the summer league. In addition, the Chinese team made too many outside mistakes and gave the opponent too many easy points." Live commentary on CCTV5 It's Zhang Weiping.

Jonas was very dissatisfied with the performance of the starting line-up, suspended substitutions, and Channing came on to replace the UAE.Now the five players on the Chinese team are: center Zhang Songtao, power forward Chen Ning, small forward Li Nan, shooting guard Wang Shipeng, and point guard Liu Wei.

(End of this chapter)