On Feb. 18, the Trail Blazers host the Seattle SuperSonics, who are among the few teams that have beaten the Trail Blazers this season.

At the beginning of the season, the SuperSonics' main power forward, Tom Chambers, was abducted by the Suns, and the team did not have any special reinforcements, and everyone thought that the SuperSonics would slowly enter a rebuilding period and fall into the lottery for a while.

As a result, after the ups and downs of the early season, the Seattle SuperSonics began to stabilize in January, losing three games in January, two fewer than the Trail Blazers, and they defeated many strong teams such as the Lakers, Trail Blazers, Hawks, and Rockets.

There are several important reasons for Seattle's unexpected strength, one is that although Chambers left, the power forward Michael Cage, who was transferred from the Clippers, did fill the void relatively well, although his scoring ability is not as good as Chambers, but he provides interior hardness, rebounding and defense that Chambers does not have.

The second reason is the further explosion of the SuperSonics' leading scorer Dale Ellis this season, the scoring guard who was selected by the Mavericks in the first round in 1983, because of the presence of Blackman and Aquili, he has never been given the opportunity to play, and talent and talent have been buried on the Mavericks' bench.

In the 1987 season, the SuperSonics swapped Ellis to the team, Ellis completed a gorgeous turnaround, playing small forward in the Mavericks and switching to a scoring guard in the SuperSonic, averaging points per game soared from 7.1 points last season to 24.9 points, more than three times the original score, and his ability was fully unleashed in the SuperSonics, and he won the title of the most improved player that season.

By 1989, with the departure of Chambers, Ellis reached the pinnacle of his career, averaging 27.5 points per game, making him one of the best backcourt scorers in the league.

Moreover, Ellis is also one of the most lethal three-point shooters in the league at present, he averages 4.1 three-pointers per game, hitting 2, and the three-point shooting rate is as high as 47 percent.

It was his three-point containment that disrupted the Trail Blazers' defensive deployment, and the SuperSonics beat the Trail Blazers in an upset.

The second reason for the supersonics' success is that they have a super sixth man, Xavier "X-man" McDaniel.

As a student in the same class as Ewing in 1985, McDaniel was second only to Ewing in the selection of the best rookie for his outstanding performance, which made him sympathetic to Gan Guoyang.

As a high-ranking pick in the fourth round of the first round, McDaniel has always sat on the bench, not because he is not good, but because he is a professional sixth man.

The 6-foot-7 is actually very similar to Buck Williams in his position, both are small forwards and big forwards swinging, but Williams is biased towards power forwards and McDaniels is biased towards small forwards, this is because McDaniels has better outside skills and projection skills, which allows him to both grab rebounds on the inside and shoot from the outside, just like his nickname "X-man", he is a jack-of-all-trades player with X functions.

And McDaniel plays extremely tough, no matter who the opponent is, he is not afraid of the emperor, so after the SuperSonics left Chambers, a soft white man, these two players became leaders on the court and on the bench, and the team's record did not fall but rose.

For the Trailblazers, both were a headache.

As a result, throughout the game, when the starters of the two sides fought on the court, the Trail Blazers could always maintain their advantage, but once they entered the lineup rotation and McDaniel played, if Gan Guoyang could still treat him on the court, Gan Guoyang would be lawless when McDaniel was off the court, but Gan Guoyang could not stay on the court forever, and Adelman was always worried that Gan Guoyang would fight with McDaniel, and the physical conflicts between the two on the court were extremely frequent.

McDaniels grabbed 37 points in the whole game, shooting 12-of-21 from the field, and the shooting rate was as high as 57 percent, which can be described as majestic, Buck Williams still looks much older in front of McDaniel, and the Trail Blazers backcourt really lacks a bench.

What's worse is that Drexler also missed the game due to a cold, and Adelman had to let Andre Brans replace the starter, this player has mediocre ability, and the key start is unambiguous, scoring 4 of 14 shots in the game, and allowing the opposite Ellis to score 33 points.

Even if Gan Guoyang made a big show tonight and scored 45 points and 13 rebounds again, Drexler's absence, the slump of outside players and the excellent performance of the opponent still made the Trail Blazers lose to the SuperSonics by one point at home 115:116, and Gan Guoyang's killer shot at the last moment was also knocked out of the basket, and the Trail Blazers lost at home, and they were also defeated by the SuperSonics twice this season.

After the game, Gan Guoyang passed by the bench and saw Jim Paxson sitting on the bench in civilian clothes, who had missed several games due to a foot injury.

Gan Guoyang stepped forward and asked Paxson, "When will you be back?" ”

Paxson listened to Gan Guoyang's words, and just wanted to say that I should be able to come back in the next game, but suddenly thought about it, Gan Guoyang seemed to have something to say.

Gan Guoyang did have something to say, he asked Paxson "when will he be back", not only asking when Paxson will be able to return from injury, but also asking when Paxson will be able to regain his form.

In the 1986 season, Paxson was replaced by Drexler as a backup shooting guard, and that season he played well on the bench, becoming the most consistent outside output point on the Trail Blazers' bench and a major contributor to the team's ability to reach the Finals.

But by 1987, Paxson's form began to fluctuate, and the All-Star guard was not performing well as he was getting older and suffering from injuries, and he averaged 12 points per game in 1987, the first time he had dropped to less than 15 points per game since his rookie season.

By 1988, his scoring average had dropped further, averaging only eight points per game, playing time had shrunk, and when he was on the floor, he was limited in both defensive and offensive contributions, and he was on the court more to give Drexler some rest.

This season, with Paxson's form declining further and injuries plagued, Adelman was reluctant to even let Paxson play, and many times he played as a dual point guard for Danny Young and Terry Porter, and was blown up on the defensive end, and was reluctant to let Paxson play, because Paxson really couldn't keep up with the pace of others.

Now, Inman has been looking for a trade to package Paxson for a reliable and consistent shooting guard as a backup for Drexler, who has also played a career-high 39 minutes this season, and the Trail Blazers desperately need a reliable backup.

But in Paxson's state, there are no good players to change, the strong team doesn't want it, the weak team doesn't have good players, and what makes Inman even more distressed is that Gan Guoyang doesn't really want to replace Paxson, the two had a very bad relationship in the past, but after a few seasons, especially after the retirement of Jack Ramsay, Paxson became a firm ally of Gan Guoyang, and the relationship between the two became better, and Gan Guoyang always hoped that the management could give Paxson some time to change his style of play and recover.

Paxson looked at Gan Guoyang, hesitated, and said, "I don't know, maybe I will never come back." ”

"What are you talking about? You've put in so much hard work and sweat in the summer just to win a championship in the new season, do you want to just be traded away or wear a suit and get a ring? ”

Paxson didn't want to return, he made great efforts to recover in the summer of 1988, he hired a special trainer for recovery training, and also took time out to do high-intensity shooting practice with Gan Guoyang, but at the beginning of the new season, intermittent injuries made him not get the opportunity to play at all, which made Paxson, who was originally full of pride and wanted to play with Gan Guoyang, a little disheartened.

"Jim, tomorrow we're going to Chicago, Clyde still can't play, Dr. Cook has already told me, tomorrow you can go to training, the day after tomorrow to play well, we don't have a guard on the bench anymore!" Come on, Jim, Mr. Ramsay's dream, you're not done yet. ”