The shutdown is over, but the regular season hasn't officially begun.

According to the league's latest schedule, the Los Angeles Clippers, who got Nguyen Erniu, will appear in the opening game, and the opening game will be directly on December 25.

In other words, the opening game is a Christmas war.

The preseason is gone, the first 16 regular season games are gone, the season has shrunk to 66 regular season games, and more importantly, no one is sure whether the players will be back to their best.

During the team's training, Ruan Erniu saw Kawhi Leonard lock up teammate Ryan Gomez on the defensive end in a row, and he confirmed his judgment more and more, this guy who can be called kawaii is indeed qualified to be the team's outside defensive gate.

Malcolm Lee's performance is quite average, and the youngster from UCLA looks very immature when facing NBA-level confrontations, basically learning from Eric Gordon, Randy Foye, Mo Williams and others.

"Little Assassin" Isaiah Thomas performed very impressively in training, probably because of the second-round show and lack of physical advantage, he appeared very active in every confrontation training, and it can be said that he was desperately fighting for a chance to stay in the NBA.

The height of 175cm has a congenital disadvantage on the defensive end, but when you really see him defending in the No. 1 position, it doesn't make people feel too desperate.

Sometimes, the so-called defensive black hole theory is the conclusion of some experts who do not look at specific game data and only look at physical conditions.

The fact is that judging from the team's training alone, Thomas, a rookie, is not stage frightened at all, and he also has contacts with Fuye and Xiao Mo.

That is, the round-faced Deng guy relied on his height advantage to hit a few three-pointers from the outside, but when he really got to the court, this is another matter.

With kawaii as a rising outside gate, Thomas can be acceptable even if he is worse on the defensive end, after all, Erniu and even the entire Clippers team value the performance of the little assassins on the offensive end.

It's the same as the Mavericks are to JJ Barria, and of course, it would be a real surprise if Thomas could get the back-to-back James in the game against the Heat.

By the way, there is another person who can't help but say, that is, DeAndre Jordan, who has been nicknamed "Uncle Huang" by Celestial Empire fans for more than a year.

The reason why it is called so is because Little Jordan and actor Yu Hewei, who played Liu Bei in the TV series "New Three Kingdoms", bumped into the face.

In the team's training, Ruan Erniu, who had recovered from his injury, had been abused countless times.

Erniu's dominance in the low post may be ranked first in the entire history of basketball, and against little Jordan, who likes to jump when he has nothing to do, Erniu is a variety of feints to make him gain knowledge.

Think about how Tony Allen became the league's first-rate defensive player?

Paul Pearce, who is not yet at his peak, abused him out of the team training with various kaleidoscopes.

Defense requires skill honing and experience accumulation, and from this point of view, kawaii must also have a process of accumulation if he wants to grow into the defensive gate that the Clippers need.

It should be said that after some ravage, Uncle Huang's defensive awareness has been rapidly improved.

After all, Chris Karman's low-level dominance is far less than that of Erniu, which is the same as the game, and has been abused by masters for a long time, and the chess strength will naturally improve quickly.

However, Erniu is still not satisfied with this, in his opinion, there are still quite obvious loopholes in the current little Jordan.

That's right, it's Uncle Huang's penalty problem.

If this problem is not solved, at the critical moment, the Clippers will dare to put Jordan Jr. on the court, which is equivalent to 4vs5 or even 4vs6.

Fortunately, Erniu has thought of a way to improve as soon as possible.

He got a call from Steve Kerr and quickly dialed a famous NBA legend named Rick Barry.

……

"So you're asking me to teach DeAndre to take free throws? It's easy to teach him, the problem is that he doesn't necessarily want to do that in the game. ”

Rick Barry quickly got into the groove when he came to the Clippers, and he's now the Clippers' dedicated shooting and free-throw consultant.

Barry continued: "Actually, for players who have a perennial free throw shooting percentage of 50 percent, it's not so much about the aesthetics of the free throw position as they are about whether they can put the ball in the basket.

For a professional player, winning the game comes first, so if he doesn't score a penalty, he won't be laughed at?"

Subsequently, Rick Barry gave several sets of detailed data to prove the feasibility of the free throw.

Among them, the most representative figure is a player named George Johnson.

This person won the NBA championship in the ancient period of the NBA, won the block king three times, and still holds the record of 11 blocks in the half.

When he first entered the league, he shot 41.2 percent from the free-throw line, but after Rick Barry's toilet inverted training course, he shot 80.6 percent from the field.

Although his career free-throw percentage has dropped back to 69.4 percent, the truth is that he has improved qualitatively in terms of free throws.

It can be seen that in the case of repeated penalties and no goals, emptying the toilet is not a very reliable choice.

"Coach-r, are you sure you want me to make free throws in such an ugly way?" Uncle Huang looked at Er Niu rather sadly.

Since Erniu became the current head coach of the Clippers, Coach-R has become his new nickname.

Ruan Erniu nodded and said: "That's right, any guy who doesn't hit 70% of the free throws will have to use the toilet to make free throws, this is the rule of the Clippers now."

Also, although my free throw percentage was above 8 percent, I decided to use this trick to improve my free throws. ”

Uncle Huang lowered his voice and said, "Don't you feel ashamed?"

Ruan Erniu asked rhetorically: "Don't you feel ashamed when you can't score a penalty and are booed by the fans for a long time?"

And just like that, there was a rush of down-and-out toilets within the Clippers.

Of course, most of the players in the Clippers are very consistent in their free throws, and most of them are actually training with a playful attitude, and as for Jordan Jr., they have to struggle in the abyss.

Don't underestimate the skill of emptying the toilet, it's not a simple free throw.

At the very least, Rick Barry has introduced more than one way to pour the toilet: a bottom-up toss without spin, a toss with a front spin, and even a wrist flip with a back spin.

Professional basketball is an extremely scary world, and emptying the toilet is not a simple free-throw technique.

Just when Erniu stepped up team training and actively looked for players suitable for the Clippers in the free market, Clippers owner Sterling once again invited Erniu to dinner.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Sterling asked in a strange way as Erniu proposed a new idea.

Erniu nodded and said: "It is said that the Clippers have a curse, to be honest, in the past season, I had a bad time, and while the season has not started, let someone do a magic thing, maybe it will help us." ”

Erniu is not something to talk about casually, luck is something that cannot be seen or said, but people's aura will change with emotional fluctuations.

Even with a superstar like Ruan Erniu, the Clippers still don't have any expectations for the championship, which is something that Ruan Erniu, who has established a dynasty, will definitely not be able to accept.

The three armies cannot take their commanders, and the horsemen cannot seize their ambitions.

Not even morale, let alone a championship or something. If a player does not have the courage of blood, there is no way to play 100% of his strength on the field.

In the final analysis, Erniu's idea of arranging a ritual is not for the so-called curse, but for the Clippers' players.

The mysterious power of the East is also very marketable in Millican, otherwise where did the so-called Chinese character tattoo have mysterious power come from?

Sterling nodded, "I agree! It's time for the Clippers to rise in Los Angeles, this time it's time to stop, Jerry (Buss)...... Forget it, Kraft, when do you think we're going to win the championship?"

Ruan Erniu didn't know why Sterling suddenly shifted his head, but he replied: "I can't guarantee it, but we are on the right path." ”

Sterling suddenly smiled mysteriously: "What if I could get another top-five superstar in the league in the backfield?"

Ruan Erniu was stunned for a moment, and then after a brief thought, his brain reacted: "Chris Paul?

Donald Sterling shook his head and said, "It's a quick response, but it's not that simple to close the deal, but it's not completely impossible." ”

……

This meeting did not affect the normal construction of the Clippers, and it was a surprise to be able to bring in Chris Paul, but even if it couldn't be done, it would not shake Erniu's belief.

In fact, on the issue of whether to get Paul, Ruan Erniu is neutral, on the one hand, he naturally hopes that the team can quickly improve its strength, but on the other hand, he also does not want the Clippers to pay too much price in order to get Paul.

In fact, it was indeed not the Los Angeles Clippers who had an affair with Chris Paul first, but the Lakers, the city's rivals.

In early December 2011, Yahoo reporter OJ was the first to break the news that the Lakers, Rockets and Hornets would have a three-way deal, with the Lakers getting Paul, the Rockets getting Gasol, and the Hornets getting Odom, Scola, Kevin Martin, Brooks and Knicks in the 2012 first-round picks.

Hornets executives have officially informed the team that the deal was made, and then Hornets player Carl Landry even tweeted congratulations to teammate Paul.

But soon the deal was rejected, and OJ updated his Twitter for the first time, continuing his super level of MVP this summer.

At the time, the New Orleans Hornets were still in escrow, so it was David Stern who vetoed the deal.

The reason given by the CEO was: "The reason for basketball!"

At that time, the media was full of all kinds of gossip, but judging from the mainstream voice, the reason for Stern's reversal involved many team veterans in the small ball market, and the typical figure was Cavaliers owner Gilbert.

He directly wrote a sternly worded email to Stern, denouncing the disadvantages of the star huddle, and the resentment of losing James still couldn't make Gilbert feel relieved.

But is it really Gilbert's fault?

Small-market team owners, led by Gilbert, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, and Suns owner Robert Saver, hate the league's "Big Three" phenomenon (they don't get it).

Gilbert's battle note makes it clear that "superstar huddles tilt more resources towards certain teams."

The "Big Three" was a banned word throughout the shutdown, and in the eyes of some industry insiders, James' departure to the Heat was the trigger for the 2011 shutdown.

This is a bit one-sided, but at that time, the Lakers may even get the rumors of Paul and Howard at the same time, and it did stab the G-spot of small-ball city owners such as Gilbert.

It is reported that just as the Lakers reached a three-way deal with the Hornets and the Rockets, the owners of each team were holding a league council in New York.

Allegedly, there was chaos in the venue at the time, and Gilbert's small-market team attacked Stern and demanded that the league veto the deal.

That said, even without Gilbert's email, a small-ball city owner like Jordan would have had Stern veto the deal.

Of course, is Stern the one who is being bullied?

It's hard to say, because David Stern, who has been drifting away from Jerry Buss at this time, may have already made the best preparations and tricks to suppress the Lakers. The veto of Paul's deal may have been in Stern's plan for a long time.

The owners of the small ball market who jumped out just said what Stern wanted to say but didn't want to say.

A few years later, Lakers star Kobe Bryant even said something like this in front of the media: "Everything about that suspension was designed to limit the Lakers from getting players and create a sense of equality."

But after the shutdown ended, an interesting thing happened when the Lakers reached a deal to trade Chris Paul, which immediately made us championship contenders and saved salaries.

The league vetoed the deal, but the Lakers reached a deal at the time, and no one thought it might even happen. The trade was rejected because they created that shutdown to limit the Lakers. ”

The Lakers didn't get Paul after all, and within a week of the deal being ruin, Chris Paul's next home was decided.

Paul was sent to the Clippers, the Lakers' fellow city, and the Hornets got Eric Gordon, Chris Carman, Al Farouk Aminu and the 2012 draft picks that belonged to the Timberwolves, and the Hornets sent two more 2015 second-round picks to the Clippers.

The fans of the Celestial Empire immediately shouted: "The 'Pickle Girl Combination' is born!" (Paul can be read as a cannon, and there is no need to say more about Erniu.) ）

Ruan Erniu immediately expressed his welcome to Paul on Twitter, and claimed that the Clippers will open a new era, and Paul immediately interacted, saying that he is very happy to join forces with Ruan Erniu at the dynasty level, and they will become a new force in the alliance.

For the Clippers, it seems like everything is so rosy.

Only Ruan Erniu understands that things will never be so simple.