Leonard is just a rookie with a 13th pick, a lottery pick, and he's not an all-around type of player himself, the only thing he can do is defensive prowess.

Generally speaking, no team will have a pure defensive player as the absolute core of the team......

Therefore, Leonard never thought that he would become the number one general under Richard......

Among the newcomers who entered the league in the same class, Klay Thompson was higher than his pick, and although his defense was not as good as him, his offensive firepower was better than him......

Among the other players, there is also a player like Horford who entered the league as a scout.

In Leonard's opinion, these two may have a better chance of becoming Richard's most important players than himself.

But now Richard told him that he would be the absolute leader of this team, and this great trust made Leonard feel like a man died as a confidant.

He is a person who is not good at words, and if he were a flamboyant person like Sun Yue, I am afraid that he is already holding Richard's thigh and crying bitterly at this moment......

"Thank you, Coach."

"I'll try!"

Leonard said to Richard with a firm gaze.

Richard nodded, "Go ahead, train hard, this offseason, you will live in Los Angeles and train for me well, if you don't have a place to live, just live at my house, and I will let Kobe Bryant kid take you to train with you." ”

……

After Leonard left, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

He likes the player very much, and in his previous life, Richard belonged to the kind of fraternity type of fan, and liked many teams, and the Spurs were one of them.

The years when Xiaoka played for the Spurs made Richard like Xiaoka very much, even if Xiaoka and Spurs had a conflict later, Richard did not give up his liking for Xiaoka because of this.

In his opinion, no one is to blame for the dirty affair between Xiaoka and Spurs, but to blame Xiaoka's uncle.

Think about a sixteen-year-old child without a father, and his uncle stood up to take the role of his father at this time, and Xiaoka himself is not the kind of child who is very assertive, so he will naturally be greatly influenced by his uncle.

In this matter, Xiaoka is more like a puppet, like a robot controlled by his uncle......

And in addition to the strange uncle, Jordan also has to carry a little pot.

(Jordan: MMP?!) What do you care about me...... ）

Jr. was a signed player in the Jordan series when he was with the Spurs, and fans may not believe it, his sneaker contract is only $500,000 a year......

Even if it expired later, the other party only provided Xiaoka with a 4-year contract of 20 million US dollars, which was really embarrassing.

The Jordan brand is not charitable, and there must be a reason why such an embarrassing contract offer is given.

The reason is simple, and that is the low merchandise value of Spurs players......

It is no exaggeration to say that the group of players with the lowest commercial value in the league is the Spurs players.

One is because the Spurs are not good at the small ball market, and the other is because the Holy City media is not good, and they are influential, and then they rarely tout their own players.

For example, Duncan, the greatest player in the history of the Spurs, has never even won a DPOY in his career, and the league owes Duncan at least three DOPYs.

In various historical rankings, James can be selected by the media in the top five, but when did Duncan's name appear in the top five?

Could it be that Duncan is inferior to James?

The two men met 16 times in the finals, and Duncan won 11 times, and most of the five losses were due to age.

From this point of view, this kind of ranking has no rationality at all, and it is completely the media to rank according to their own preferences.

Players who are well-known and have a good relationship with the media, then they can rank them up, and as for nerds like Duncan, who have little commercial value, they will naturally suffer a big loss.

……

As for the league's so many important awards that will allow the media to participate in the selection, Richard naturally knows the reason.

The league needs to use the media to expand their influence, which is why the league forces players or coaches to attend some press conferences, and if they don't, they will be punished......

……

Two days later, the Lakers and Clippers played G4 in the first round of the playoffs.

In the first three playoff games, Kobe Bryant averaged only 21 points per game, which may be the lowest average points per game in the playoffs since he joined the Lakers.

But the more this is the case, the more scary this Lakers team feels, and the Lakers' offensive efficiency becomes a little higher.

In fact, if Kobe Bryant played all kinds of crazy singles like he did against the Mavericks in the playoffs last season, then the Clippers may not be able to win one of these three playoff games.

……

The game on the court has begun, and the Clippers are really desperate, completely ignoring physical fitness on the court, and the Lakers will defend frantically.

Especially Leonard, as if the machine was overclocked, he just didn't let Kobe make a move before, but now he didn't even let Kobe's pass, and the whole person was like an octopus, as if it was directly attached to Kobe's body.

The Lakers may also have a 3:0 score, and the previous three games were won relatively easily, so this game was a little lax, and after the opening, the Clippers directly played a big advantage.

Leonard's defensive intensity tonight has made the fans in the stadium jaw-dropping, they knew Leonard's defense was good, but they had never seen this kind of Leonard.

From the beginning to the present, Leonard has been by Kobe's side all the time, frantically restricting Kobe's receiving, shooting and passing......

This kind of crazy defense, Kobe Bryant was directly defended with some anger, if it weren't for the opponent being Richard's Clippers, I'm afraid he would have gone crazy right now.

This level of outside defense has not been enjoyed in years.

Kobe Bryant previously said in an interview with the media that the best player in the league to defend him is Tony Allen, but the current Leonard's defense made Kobe realize that the expressionless defense in front of him must be much stronger than Tony Allen.

It's not that the current Leonard defensive awareness is stronger than Tony Allen, the main thing is that Leonard's physical condition is much more than Tony Allen.

Tony Allen is actually only 193 cm tall and his arm span is not very good, but Leonard is not, his height and arm span, plus terrifying big hands, are simply born to defend.

may have lost his mind a little by Leonard's defense, and Kobe Bryant then increased the number of shots he made.

"Boy, I'm going to shoot here next."

"You can't stop me at all! I'm going to blow you up to scum in this game. Kobe Bryant looked at Leonard and said defiantly.

Leonard still looked expressionless, didn't even look at Kobe, and followed his teammates into the offensive round.

Kobe Bryant was a little confused, what kind of newcomer he was facing.

There is no living breath in Leonard's body, even if he is so provocative, Leonard is completely deaf and directly takes Kobe as air.

……

In the next offensive round, Thompson ran out of the open space and hit a direct three-pointer to further widen the difference.

When it came to the Lakers' offensive round, Kobe Bryant did not break his promise, and controlled the ball himself and went to the designated position.

His high-post back-to-back singles skills are superb, which is Kobe Bryant's specialty in the league for more than ten years, and he is directly using it against Leonard at this moment.

Leonard didn't go to Kobe's back, but stepped back one step at a time, and always maintained the space to jump and block at any time.

If you defend your back singles, unless you have an absolute height and strength advantage, it is quite unwise to resist the opponent, because it will give the opponent to lean on yourself and lean back.

Of course, the bigger reason is that it is easy to be fouled by opponents.

Leonard has played against Kobe Bryant many times this season, and he has already figured out Kobe's routine and summed up the best way to defend Kobe.

Seeing that he was about to violate the rules with his back for five seconds, Kobe Bryant also reached the point where he was most sure of his shot, and suddenly turned around and threw a shot backwards.

Leonard had been waiting for this moment for a long time, and like a well-programmed robot, he leaped and stretched out his big hand.

The subtle sound of "poof......" reached Kobe's ears, and he chuckled in his heart, knowing that his attack was over.

Sure enough, Kobe Bryant's shot came directly to the hands of Monroe under the basket.

The fans at the scene gasped, there was only one explanation for this ball, that is, Leonard blocked Kobe's shot and changed the trajectory of Kobe's shot.

Otherwise, even if Kobe Bryant often strikes iron, it will not be to this point.

What surprised these fans even more was that the referee's whistle sounded at this time.

"Doot toot!" The referee signals for a defensive foul on Leonard.

There are still some Clippers fans at the scene, although there are certainly not as many as the Lakers......

It's also embarrassing to say that this game is the home of the Clippers, but the home team has not as many fans as the visiting team.

These home fans booed at the moment, because in their opinion, the ball was clean and a little inexplicable, and it was a bit inexplicable to blow a defensive foul.

And those Lakers fans are not embarrassed to speak at the moment, this ball is indeed not the possibility of blowing fouls, extremely clean defense, and there is no suspicion of foul at all.

Even Kobe Bryant was stunned for a moment, as a party concerned, he naturally knew that Leonard didn't even touch his hair......

If there is really a suspicion of fouling, then Kobe Bryant will not be annoyed just now, and he may go directly to the referee to blow the penalty.

Now that the referee is blowing beyond Kobe's expectations, Kobe Bryant will definitely not be stupid enough to tell the referee that Leonard did not foul......

After Leonard was blown for an inexplicable foul, although he was stunned for a moment, he didn't go to the referee for a theory.

Fans who regularly watch Leonard play can easily notice that Leonard is not the kind of player who likes to go to the referee for a penalty, and even if he is blown some nonsensical whistle, he is expressionless......

Richard stood on the sidelines, deliberately yelling at the referee, but after thinking about it, it is really not a wise thing to yell at the referee now.

Kobe Bryant has already made two free throws, and if he blows another technical foul, the situation will be quite unfavorable for the Clippers.

Now Richard kind of understands Popovich why he is called the roaring genius of the coaching world......

Because the Spurs players are very bored, they rarely ask the referee for a whistle, and if Popovich doesn't put pressure on the referee, the Spurs won't be able to play.

……

Kobe Bryant hit both free throws, but they were still behind in the next game, and the two sides maintained a difference of about ten points with the Clippers serving their lives.

In the second half of the game, the Lakers strengthened their offensive and defensive intensity, but in the end, they failed to erase the difference.

Sun Yue went straight to power in the second half, hitting a terrifying 8-of-10 shooting rate, including 4-of-5 three-pointers, and scored 21 points in the half, which directly made the Clippers fans on the scene boil.

Although Sun Yue played as a substitute this season and failed to be selected as an All-Star, his performance on the bench was still quite impressive.

At present, Sun Yue can be said to be the Clippers' chief backup point guard, plus the chief backup point guard, and even the chief backup small forward.

His playing time is not less than that of Klay Thompson, and his statistics are a little less than last season, but he is also an average of 17+4+5 per game.

If nothing else, the honor of the best sixth man this season will definitely be won by Sun Yue.

In Richard's view, the current Sun Yue is a bit like the Clippers' super sixth man Reed in the future......

Under Sun Yue's strong outburst and Leonard's crazy defense, the Clippers finally kept their home court and avoided the embarrassing situation of being shaved by the Lakers.

To win this one, Richard was already satisfied.

He's the owner of the Clippers, and he's not working for people, so there's no need to be coy about what to say to express his determination to advance.

Promotion? It's hard to win, and Richard feels like it's been a successful season this season.

In the next G5, the Clippers lost the game on the Lakers' home court, and since then their journey this season has been completely over.

In the second round of the playoffs, the Clippers unexpectedly won a lot of honors.

First of all, Richard won the COY honor for the sixth time in his career......

The Clippers finished third from the bottom in the West last season, improved to seventh in the West this season, and Richard hasn't won this honor for some years, so this time he was once again named Head Coach of the Year.

If Richard doesn't get this honor, then everyone else is even less deserved......

Six times, six desperate COYs, at least in terms of the number of COY awards, Richard can really be said to be unprecedented, and there will be no one in the future.

No coach will ever surpass Richard in the number of COY awards.

Richard actually didn't expect that he would be able to get a COY again, but since he got it, he naturally couldn't have too much.

Sun Yue unsurprisingly won the honor of the best sixth man of the season, and directly made Sun Yuele bloom.

Before this, although Sun Yue said that he had a lot of championships in hand, after all, these were all team honors, and in terms of individual honors, he didn't have any ......

Not even the most humble individual accolades like the rookie team or the best of the week.

Now he suddenly won the honor of the best sixth person, and directly drove Sun Yuele crazy.

Not only Sun Yuele is crazy, but even the domestic media and fans are also crazy.

After looking forward to it for so many years, it is not easy to finally get an honor from the domestic backfield.

The four members of the Clippers team this year were also selected to the best rookie team, of which Leonard and Thompson were selected for the rookie team, while Thomas Jr. and Chandler were selected for the second team.

This did not surprise Richard, under normal circumstances, these people are actually selected for the rookie lineup, but now that they are on the Clippers, they have more playing time and more rigorous training, and the data has improved compared to normal circumstances, so it is strange not to be selected for the rookie lineup.

Of course, what makes Richard most happy is not that he got COY, nor that Sun Yue unexpectedly got the sixth man, but that Leonard was selected for the best defensive second team this year!

It's just the best defensive team, and it's only a second team, but it's definitely quite a great achievement for a newcomer.