Who will be the role players now that everyone's been reborn?

Time flies, and two days have passed in the blink of an eye.

The Suns faced their fourth opponent in the Summer League – the Sacramento Kings.

In recent years, under the Princeton offense system built by Adelman, the Sacramento Kings have entered their golden generation and are an absolute powerhouse in the Western Conference. To put it simply, their sixth-place finish in the West last season was their worst regular season record in recent years.

In terms of offensive firepower, they and the Mavericks are among the best in the entire league. With such a stable performance, they naturally don't have many high-quality draft picks.

The team leader this time is Kevin Martin, the 24th pick in the 04 draft. His name is unremarkable, but he will become the first generation of flopping king in the league when Harden is not around. Of course, he has not yet shown his talent in this area. Along with him are Sergey Mona, the 23rd pick in the 04 draft, and Francisco Garcia, the 23rd pick in this year's draft. Well, compared to the Suns, who only have Chen Dong as a second-round pick, it is also a Big Three lineup.

In the first minute of the first quarter, the Kings displayed a fluid Princeton offense.

Ronnie Price, an undrafted player in 05, played the role of Mike Bibby, dribbling the ball to the frontcourt, passing it to Garcia who had moved up high to receive the ball, and then cutting into the penalty area without the ball.

At this moment, Garcia's high-position card play creates an opportunity for Ronnie Price to exploit a mismatch and attack with a smaller card.

This is an ordinary tactic of the center leaving the court open and the point guard passing and cutting, but it can create an offensive threat of "one tall and one fast" through off-ball movement tactics.

At the same time, Kevin Martin on the left wing also moved, cutting off the ball or making back runs to create space, drawing an offensive line in the left elbow area and three-point line area. If Stojakovic were to execute this offensive zone, the offensive threat would be maximized instantly.

Meanwhile, Sergei Monia on the right and Kevin Martin on the left echoed each other, flying in tandem on both flanks and executing the same air-cutting and counter-running tactics.

At this moment, the top of the arc, the paint, and the left and right wings form a "diamond" offensive pattern, which can stretch the Suns' defensive formation to the maximum extent. In addition, the Kings also have undrafted Eric Daniels in the paint, who can play the role of Vlade Divac. He can attack the Suns' basket at close range or set screens to create open shots for the wing shooters.

With this kind of offensive formation, given the defensive officiating standards in the regular season, how are they supposed to defend Der?!

Unfortunately, no matter how beautiful the tactics are, to create a threat, it depends on which player executes them.

Garcia is not Chris Webber, one of the "Big Four" power forwards. When he held the ball high up the post to facilitate the offense, his weaknesses were immediately exposed when faced with Chen Dong's close marking. Like Chen Dong, as an all-around forward, he is also "a jack of all trades, master of none!"

If he had James's physical talent, he could be a reckless player, bulldozing through Chen Dong's body like a bulldozer to attack the basket. But Garcia, who is 2.01 meters tall and weighs 88 kilograms, couldn't even handle Chen Dong's [Strength A-level] physical confrontation. He could barely control the ball, let alone move him. His face-up offense was basically over. Garcia could only control the ball with his back to the basket.

Garcia can't get the ball out!

Seeing this, Azubuike on the wing abandoned his defense against Kevin Martin's off-ball attack and charged over at full speed to double-team him. Garcia barely managed to dodge Azubuike's steal on the left, while Chen Dong on the right also reached out his evil hand.

Snapped--!

The basketball was stolen by Chen Dong, and Azubuike quickly regained control of it. He launched a fast break but was entangled by Garcia, who was desperately chasing back. He immediately passed the ball to Chen Dong on the other side. Chen Dong dribbled one step and drove to a position one step away from the three-point line. He raised his hand and shot a three-pointer like a cannonball, which slammed into the Kings' half-court basket.

Swish-!

A sharp arrow pierces the heart; the three-pointer goes in.

"You're just a rookie, so don't talk about someone playing point forward."

"You're not fast enough for the offensive triple threat, you can't penetrate, your three-point shooting is inaccurate, and at 2.03 meters tall, you don't have good court vision, so you can't pass the ball either."

"Still trying to pull off those high-difficulty center-support plays? We're taking you in!!!"

After scoring, Chen Dongchong tried to make up for Garcia's mistake with defense, and said calmly.

In the second minute, the Kings did not give up and chose to let Kevin Martin replace Garcia in the tactical position, receive the pass from the point guard, and carry out the offense from the high post. However, Azubuike copied Chen Dong's defensive move and forced Kevin Martin into a back-to-the-basket situation. Seeing this, Chen Dong also opened up his defense against Garcia and rushed over aggressively.

"Wow, Kevin Martin was smart to choose to dribble out. Although his own offensive tactics couldn't be executed, he was still better than his teammate Garcia and avoided the Suns' double-team and steal tactics."

"The basketball is passed back to Ronnie Price, who dribbles hard and drives to the three-point line. Facing Calderon's block, he pulls up for a two-point pull-up jumper..."

Clang!

The Princeton team couldn't break through, and in the end, the players lost their rhythm, resorting to individual brute force and making hasty plays, resulting in the basketball bouncing off the rim and flying out of bounds.

Hayes easily grabbed the rebound, yelled "Counterattack!" and made a long pass to Chen Dong, who was on the counterattack. Kevin Martin rushed over to steal the ball, but Chen Dong dodged it with a back-to-the-basket dribble. Then, he passed the ball forward with both hands, and Azubuike rushed over, grabbed the ball, jumped up, and slammed it in with one hand.

5-0!!!

"We've got this game in the bag!" Gentry exclaimed from the sidelines, seeing the situation. "The Kings' fierce offense is gone, and their terrible defense hasn't changed at all."

Daniil Anthony, standing nearby, directly pointed out the Kings' problem: "The Princeton offense is still too complicated."

Not only are the demands on the players too high, but this hastily assembled roster hasn't fully grasped the essence of Princeton offense, yet it's been thrown into the game with such intensity. No one could have controlled it under such circumstances.

"Our Suns' ultimate run-and-gun offense is relatively simple. The whole team charges and runs together. Each player has their own running zone. The point guard dribbles the ball and quickly advances the ball. You can tell where your teammates are just by looking at them."

This is called fighting a stalemate!

We are not afraid of fighting a stagnant battle. As long as we maximize our mobility, we can use speed to transform a stagnant battle into a mobile war, concentrate our superior forces, and annihilate the enemy's manpower.

On the court, the Kings are so enamored with the Princeton offense that made them rise to prominence that they're obsessed with it to the point of being fanatical.

The team's coach had almost all five starters try playing the point forward position to see who would be most effective, but none of them worked out. Sergemonia and Eric Daniels made consecutive mistakes, which allowed the Suns' fast break offense to become more and more successful.

They can't break through on offense, and they can't defend against defense!

Chen Dong scored 19 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds in the first half, leading his team to a 62-35 victory over the Kings. With such a lopsided score in the first half, the Suns might be celebrating at halftime, but the Kings have no chance of a comeback.

It's worth noting that besides the Kings' Princeton offense failing to find its footing, their lineup was also incredibly bizarre.

The center is Eric Musselman, an undrafted player who is 2.03 meters tall; the power forward is Sergei Monia, the 23rd pick in 2004, who is 2.03 meters tall; the small forward is Kevin Spurs, the 24th pick in 2004; and the shooting guard is Garcia, the 23rd pick in 2005. Apart from the 1.88-meter point guard Ronnie Price, who is of a normal height, the other four positions are all swing forwards who are around 2 meters tall. What's going on here?

Chen Dong vaguely remembered that the Sacramento Kings' core perimeter player, Stojakovic, would be traded to Artest this season. Was this a search for a scapegoat, or rather, a scorer to replace Stojakovic?

For this reason, the Kings signed so many swingmen forwards—are they trying to create a breeding ground for trouble?!

The goal is to use sheer numbers to create someone who can replace Stojakovic, after all, Artest is a ticking time bomb and doesn't belong to the Kings in the future, and given Artest's intelligence, he can't handle the Princeton offense.

Good heavens, a bunch of average swing forwards, they haven't even developed a replacement for Stojakovic yet, and we're expecting them to play like Chris Webber's playmaking forwards? Is there no justice in this world?