basketball scientist

The time has come to September, and there is only one month before the whole team assembles. The connection between the team and the players is getting closer, especially for the teams that aim to compete for the championship. Organize training camps and start preparations for the new season ahead of schedule.

On the Hawks side, apart from a few players who participated in the summer league, Chris Paul was the first to return to training.The reason why the term "return to training" is used instead of "return to training" is because Paul did not rest for too long this summer at all, but put on weight for himself and carried out a considerable degree of strength training.

So much so that when Ke Yan saw Paul, he felt that he was two laps older than last season!

In 06, Paul followed the U.S. team to defeat Japan. In the semi-finals, he faced the civilian basketball team of the Greek team. Paul became one of the breakthroughs for the U.S. team. Facing Papa Lucas, who was taller and heavier than himself, Paul completely Couldn't resist, and was completely abused by the Greeks.

Back on the NBA stage, Paul's defense is also weak when he encounters heavy guards such as Billups, Deron Williams, and Baron Davis. In many cases, Ke Yan needs to hide him on the defensive end.

For Paul, who is extremely strict with himself, it is unbearable for him to become the team's "protection object" in certain games day after day.

And Garnett "the magpie's nest", after joining the Eagles, won the double MVP, which stimulated him even more.He wants to be stronger, to have more control over the game, to be the master of the game himself.

After receiving Paul's physical test report, Ke Yan couldn't help but gasped.In just one summer, Paul gained 15 pounds!While confrontation and defense are significantly improved, the agility attribute will inevitably be reduced. At the same time, a large increase in weight in a short period of time will also increase one's own injury hazards.

Fortunately, in the process of gaining weight and muscle, Paul has always kept training, and he did not lose his shooting touch because of muscle gain.Otherwise, the Eagles' results at the start of the game will definitely be affected by his ups and downs.

"This summer, Paul is obviously different." When he came to Keyan's office, Hornacek also expressed his feelings.

"Obviously, Paul wants to strive for a more valuable personal honor." Ke Yan said.

Regarding this point, Hornacek has the same opinion as Keyan. It is difficult for the Eagles to support players to chase honors in the regular season when building a team in the "Big Three" model.Garnett won the MVP last season, which was also formed by a combination of many reasons.

"If this problem is not handled well, I think the problem that OK has may be staged in advance in the Eagles!" Hornacek said.

Hornacek is not alarmist.Ke Yan's know-how has accelerated Paul's growth. In the first two seasons of his career, he has won two second teams, one first defense, one best rookie, two All-Star starts, and one championship. Duncan is the only rookie more successful than him.

Los Angeles can accommodate the stars of O'Neal and Kobe at the same time, allowing Kobe to endure until the age of 26; but when Atlanta gives most of its support to Garnett, it will also slowly breed Paul's psychology of grabbing power.For Ke Yan, there are some things that need to be guarded against the passing of time.

In addition to Paul, another guy who "surges" in the offseason is Boris Dior. Unlike Paul's weight gain and confrontation, Dior just filled his stomach with red wine and coffee.With the championship in hand and the big contract in hand, what else is there to fight for?

Before winning the championship, everyone was heading in one direction; but after winning the championship, many people had their own ideas. Perhaps this is the NBA, and it is also a human nature that Ke Yan has never seen before.

This season is quite a test for him!

. . . . . .

In early October, the training camp was official, and the Eagles players had returned to the team on time and devoted themselves to tactical training with great enthusiasm.The Eagles under Ke Yan are a team with more offensive routines in the league, but the two most commonly used are "running and bombing" and "pick and roll". The propulsion ability declined, and the power of the Eagles' "running and bombing" plummeted.

Considering Paul's strong desire to fight and Garnett's 31-year-old age, Ke Yan added a lot of singles tactical arrangements after the pick-and-roll, which weakened Garnett's role on the offensive end to a certain extent, and also protected Garnett. body condition.

"You now have 2 MVPs, and the honor of the regular season is basically equal to Duncan. There is no need to force it. The key is to ensure your own state and play a role when it is more critical." Ke Yan threw out Duncan to persuade him Garnett, temporarily suppressed Garnett.

October 10th is the team's media release day. Ke Yan arranged for the "Big Three" to shoot the team's core makeup photos. Dior, who was lucky enough to participate in the shooting last year, was not on the list.

Ke Yan is using this method to warn Dior, don't be polite and take it as a blessing, otherwise he will have no good fruit!

In the afternoon, it was a group match. Last year it was a duel between Snyder and Hornacek, and this year it was replaced by Hornacek against Atkins.

Not only in the training games, but also in the following preseason games, Ke Yan did not intend to make a move by himself, and continued to let the assistant coach lead the team.

Last season, Snyder joined the Bobcats in the middle of the season and helped the team catch up from No.14 in the Eastern Conference to the [-]th in the Eastern Conference. I had played Hornacek's idea and invited him to be the head coach, but he politely declined.Hornacek's idea was to stay in Atlanta and not go anywhere before Abby went to college.

In the group match, Karim Rush, who came back from Europe, performed brilliantly, shooting 60% of his outside shots, showing his competitiveness; he is not satisfied with just getting a contract, but hopes to enter the Eagles The rotation lineup can even play the role of Stevens last season.

PJ Tucker, who practiced with the team for half a season last season, also made significant progress. Contrary to Paul and Dior, Tucker lost 7 pounds this summer, and his body fat percentage dropped a lot. more even and firmer.The optimization of physical fitness has made Tucker's footsteps a lot lighter, and the defensive rate has been greatly improved; on the offensive end, he will be in the bottom corner and shoot three-pointers in the open. The pick-and-roll is almost useless compared to last season, and Tucker's progress in this offseason is visible to the naked eye.

The substitute players showed their competitiveness, which eased Ke Yan's originally somewhat chaotic mood.With the strength of the Eagles, they should be able to survive the "fatigue" + "transition" stage at the beginning of the season.

On October 10th, the preseason kicked off, and the Eagles' first opponent was the Miami Heat, which had just completed the deal in the summer.

O'Neal, who is 35 years old, and Wade, who has not recovered from his shoulder injury, are all on the sidelines. The Heat mainly inspect several new aids this season, such as Gibson, Ricky Davis, Dae Quinn Cook, Casper Powell and others.

The Eagles played with all the players, and only controlled the playing time of the players. A "key protection target" like Garnett only played 16 minutes, scored 8 points and 5 rebounds, and left the game early to rest. For the game, it is better to say that I did a warm-up activity, and I found the feeling of the game by the way.

Garnett didn't play much time, giving the substitute players more chances to perform. Brandon Bass got the most playing time for the Eagles, played 29 minutes, and scored a team-high 16 points.

Anderson, who had been out of battle for a long time and urgently needed to adapt to the game atmosphere, also got 26 minutes of playing time. The two-year window period still had an impact on his game feeling, and he missed two babysitters on the court; Duan still showed his value, with double rebounds in limited playing time.

Including PJ Brown, who is also much stronger than last season's Mben.It is not difficult to see through this game that the Hawks' bench lineup, especially the inside bench, is definitely not worse than last season.

On the contrary, the Heat, in addition to Ricky Davis showing a good impact, may be able to relieve Wade's pressure on the ball in the new season, but there are still many problems; if they want to compete with the Eagles, it seems Not very realistic.

On October 10, the Eagles played at the Quicken Loans Center against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the last year of James' rookie contract, the Cavaliers successfully broke through the first round and created the best score in 10 years. This also made Cleveland fans rejoice and further enhanced their love for James.

However, after eating James' rookie contract bonus, the Cavaliers' room for manipulation is going down.In the past offseason, the Cavaliers' lineup did not change much. In addition to trading David Wesley for Cedric Simmons of the Hornets, they only added Devin Brown as a substitute player. The hope of progress is basically pinned on James' continued evolution.

With the current foundation of the Cavaliers, even if James evolves to the Jordan level, it will not be easy to beat the Eagles in a series. It is really "not even if Jordan is here."

In this game, Ke Yan still didn't let the main players play for too long, but the Cavaliers played very seriously. Except for James, the starting players played more than 30 minutes.

Mike Brown took this preseason game as a regular season, and did not miss the opportunity to "narrow" the gap between himself and Keyan. The Cavaliers played a very high defensive quality and suppressed the Eagles.

At 93:86, the Cavaliers defended their home court and defeated the defending champion!

On October 10, the Eagles ushered in the challenge of the European team Maccabi Haifa at home.

NBA and FIBA ​​are two completely different competition systems. If you let NBA teams play games under FIBA ​​rules, the Eagles with qualified shooting ability may be able to cope with it, but some teams with insufficient shooting ability are absolutely at a loss; The team has to adapt to the rules of the NBA, and they can't withstand the impact of the NBA team.

If FIBA ​​is a 110-meter battle, then the NBA is a [-]-meter hurdles; Bolt will never beat Liu Xiang in the hurdles, and Liu Xiang will not be able to eat Bolt's exhaust in the [-]-meter race.

Therefore, this match against Maccabi Haifa really didn't have much training value. The opponent just defended for three seconds and was blown four times. The inside players couldn't find the rhythm of defense at all, and lost without any resistance. To the Eagles.

. . . . . .

In the following three preseason games, the Eagles defeated the Raptors and Grizzlies successively, lost one game to the Magic, and ended all six preseason games with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses.

The media and fans are well aware of the gold content of the preseason, and will not change their views on the overall strength of the team because of the results of the preseason.However, when it comes to team tactics, experts can still see some changes in the Eagles.

"Through the preseason games, we can see that Paul has significantly improved his confrontation this summer. His breakthroughs in the game are more determined, and the frequency of defending against strong defenses is also increasing. It seems that Kimi will be in the The new season entrusts him with important tasks, and Paul and KG will bring us more surprises in the new season."

"Due to contract issues, the Eagles' bench lineup was completely reorganized this past summer! Compared to last season, their bench lineup only retained Barea and Tucker, which may worry fans. But through preseason In the game, it can really be said that the fans' worries are unfounded. Kareem Rush, Brandon Bass, and Chris Anderson's performance is enough to support the Hawks' bench. The Hawks are still the most powerful contender for the championship , It’s just that their advantage in the East may not be as big as last season. Not because they got weaker, but because the East as a whole got stronger.”

"If I were to rank the top four teams in the Eastern Conference, I would rank them in order: Eagles, Celtics, Cavaliers, Pistons. And I wouldn't be surprised by any of these five teams winning the Eastern Conference championship!"

On the whole, fans and the media are still very optimistic about the Eagles.In addition to its own strength, it is also closely related to the decline of other top teams.

For the Spurs, Duncan and Bowen, the core defensive cores inside and outside, are both plagued by injuries, and the Spurs have always lacked talent. Whether they can suppress the Western Conference is becoming more and more difficult to say now;

The Mavericks performed "surgery" on the team during the offseason. Avery Johnson left the team, tactician Carlisle joined, and the team gambled heavily on the 34-year-old Kidd. The change of core guards obviously requires players to adapt more. It can be said that the future of the Mavericks is uncertain;

Except for the introduction of Hill this summer, the Suns did all the money-saving activities. The operation of exchanging the signing rights of James Jones Garudi Fernandez for air is simply speechless. If Ke Yan is in D'Antoni's position, He might have resigned on the spot.

The paper strength of each team presents a situation of "one super and many strong", and it is true that the Eagles are the most stable.

. . . . . .

Atlanta, October 10.

From [-]:[-] p.m., the outside of the Phillips Center gradually became noisy. This arena was like a whirlpool. The flow of cars and people continued to gather here, and the atmosphere that had been deserted for three or four days became hot again.

Today is the opening day of the 07-08 season. As the defending champion, the Eagles will receive the championship ring before the start of the game!

The tickets for this game have long been sold out by the fans. No one wants to miss witnessing the team receiving the championship ring at home. Compared with this ceremony, the Toronto Raptors, the opponents of the opening game, were not taken seriously.

The fans didn't pay attention to the Raptors, but Ke Yan remembered that the Raptors also had Anthony Parker who played for the Eagles last season, and he also prepared a championship ring for him, thanking him for the team contribution made.

NBA championship rings are not officially customized, but made by the team itself, and it doesn't matter how much you make.If the team is willing, even if it only signs a 10-day contract, a "temporary worker" who has not played can be awarded, not to mention Anthony Parker, who has played for the team for half a season and made a lot of contributions. players.

As time passed, the time for the start of the game was getting closer and closer. The auditorium in the arena was full of fans, and the players of the Eagles walked into the stadium amidst the cheers of the audience.

The Raptors players stood in front of the visiting team's bench, silently watching their opponents receiving the championship ring.

Since there are only 7 players in the team who can receive the championship ring, there is no distinction between the main players and the substitute players. The seven of them went up to receive the championship ring together. Paul took the lead and Garnett was the finale.

The live DJ roared wildly, and the audience burst into cheers like a tsunami.

The members of the coaching staff did not have so much sense of ceremony when receiving the ring, but Ke Yan was still the most eye-catching existence. The whole process of him handing the ring to Wang Lifan was recorded by the camera. Many people thought he proposed marriage.

"Suddenly found out that I am better than Kimi, that is, I am much more romantic than him. At this time, as long as you kneel on one knee, no girl will refuse, okay?" ESPN's ace commentator Mike Brin said with hatred .

"I feel that Never will be very disappointed?" Mark Jackson also joked with a smile, "Rings do have a special meaning for girls."

At eight o'clock, players from the two teams came to the field on time.

The Hawks' starters are the same as they were last season -- Paul, Joe Johnson, Battier, Garnett and Diaw.

The Raptors signed Rashad Lewis with a 6-year contract of 1.08 million during the offseason, forming a frontcourt combination of Lewis + Bosh + Barryani. s reason.

Their backcourt combination is TJ Ford and Anthony Parker, the fastest dogs in the league. TJ Ford spread his feet and broke through, with four long guns standing outside. I wonder if this counts as "one star and four shots"?

"Di-"

The referee blew his whistle, threw the ball into the air, and the game officially began!