Chapter 363: On How to Deal with Rondo
"Ouch, what's the matter with your call? Don't mention that slut."
From the tone of the eldest cousin, it can be heard that she is very unhappy. Aaron Loveski's latest film "Mother", she is the heroine, but unfortunately the movie hit the street both in word-of-mouth and at the box office. In addition, Aaron Loveski broke up with her on the grounds of 'age gap', but turned around and dated a young model, the anger in her heart can be imagined.
"It's nothing important, just want to see if you're free lately, and help me make an appointment with Paul George"
"What? Are you going to buy someone to join your team yourself? ”
"Where, I want to see his injury" Zhang Feng is serious.
"What you say is what, anyway, now you are my boss, it just so happens that the crew is free these days, I will go to Los Angeles to organize a party, if you have time, let's play together"
"Yes, I can arrive in Los Angeles after the 31st, you can arrange to notify me."
Professional people do professional things, this time to find out the injury of Paul George, Zhang Feng decided not to come forward in person, in addition to the reason not to make the alliance ugly, there are also concerns about trouble. Let the eldest cousin invite Paul George, and things will be much easier.
After finishing the meeting, Zhang Feng turned around and set off for the hotel where the team was stationed, and when he let him into the room, there was a knock on the door. When I opened the door, it was head coach David.
"Has Divac told you in detail?" David asked immediately after closing the door.
"I already know, the whole league knows that our forward line is weak, but the Cavaliers' plan is too insincere, I asked Divac to tell the Cavaliers to exchange Love and Rose."
The Cavaliers' trade plan, Frye Shambaught plus the second round, first of all, Frye could not help the Kings improve their forward defense, and secondly, Frye's offensive ability was not as good as Willy, Justin, and Giles, that is, the Kings had no role in getting Frye.
Speaking of Shambaugh, a garbage contract, although it expires in 19 years, the most important thing the Kings are currently lacking is a shooting guard, because the Kings already have Buddy Hield, Bogdan, Temple, Malachi Richardson, and even Carter and Zhang Feng can also play cameo shooting guards.
The last second round does not play much role for the Kings, in the current lineup, in addition to the 4 rookies who have played steadily, such as Zhang Feng, Mason, Justin, and Bogdan, as well as Malachi, Papa, Skal, Giles and other rookies who urgently need to be cultivated, in this case, there will be no sufficient playing time allocation if a second-round pick is selected in the summer.
So Zhang Feng proposed to let the knights exchange Lefu Garros for Hill, but he didn't expect Divac to agree, at first Zhang Feng thought that Divac was flattering and perfunctory him, but he didn't expect David to get the news, so it seems that Divac will really tell the knight management what he said.
Divac is more serious, David is not more serious, he knows that Zhang Feng proposed to use Lefu as a bargaining chip to play the knight management, but a person's subconscious is often very wonderful, to Lefu easy to understand, but what is Rose for?
"Derrick Rose has had a recurrence of an old injury this season and hasn't been doing very well, so you asked to trade him, is there any particular reason?".
"The so-called dead camel is bigger than the horse, Rose used to be the youngest MVP, even if he has very little playing time now due to injuries, but his skills are still there, and he may be able to burst out with amazing combat effectiveness at critical moments. Besides, I'm proficient in medicine, and if a doctor with a scalpel can't solve a problem, I might be able to give it a try."
Looking at Zhang Feng's eyes, David knew that he was serious, and he couldn't help asking: "I'm very curious, how do you solve the incurable diseases that the most famous doctors in the United States can't solve, after you treated Hayward before, his recovery speed is far faster than expected, and now he can shoot freely."
"Hehe, this is my secret" Zhang Feng smiled sheepishly.
"Could it be that you tried your best to get a meeting with Paul George, and you also planned to take advantage of the fire?" David suddenly thought of a possibility.
"Robbing while it's hot? Haha, I don't like this word, it would be better if it was replaced with a discerning hero"
"I hope it's the same as you think, but it's still quite troublesome, not only that the Thunder management can't solve George's recurrence of this old injury, but also that he is willing to accept your treatment"
The two talked again about the Spurs game before parting.
Early the next morning, the eldest cousin called Zhang Feng back, and she told Zhang Feng that he had contacted Paul George through various channels, and the other party expressed his willingness to participate in PART, of course, nominally a social gathering, and the time was set for February 1st.
As long as George agrees to participate, Zhang Feng knows that the matter is half done, and now he is waiting for the reaction of the Thunder management, as long as it is rumored that the Thunder management intends to give up George, then Zhang Feng is 80% sure and will bring George to the king.
In the ensuing game against the Spurs, the Kings won comfortably.
Why is it so easy? Because of the recent internal and external troubles of the Spurs, it was once rumored that the kawaii team was very dissatisfied with the comeback plan arranged by the Spurs management for Kawaii.
It's understandable that kawaii's contract is coming to an end this summer, and his performance this season will directly determine how much of a contract he gets next.
If a player wants to sign a big contract, he must first come up with data, and secondly, he has to have other teams raise the price, but he doesn't even have the opportunity to play, so where can he come up with data?
In the past, everyone would have thought that the Spurs would directly offer the cap salary, but now the situation has changed.
First, the 'double German' combination did not work well, and the best result was the second round in the west, and after Gasol's arrival, the situation did not improve.
Second, the external enemy is too strong, the Warriors are already very perverted, and this season there is another Rockets who can wrestle with the Warriors, and the Spurs have added another strong team to face in the playoffs. Of course, this is still without considering the Thunder and the Kings, if you count the Thunder and the new Kings, the Spurs' day to win the championship is far away.
In addition, Parker officially handed over the command scepter to Dejounte Morrie, but Murray was completely blown up against Zhang Feng, Curry, Paul, and Wei Shao, and from this point of view, the Spurs lineup is not very ideal.
Coupled with the aging of Gilobili and Danny Green, San Antonio's small city is struggling to attract superstars, and the Spurs are already in a dead game.
So, rumors have it that both the Spurs and the kawaii team have some distrust of each other. The Spurs are afraid that kawaii will be abducted by a big contract in the summer, after all, Duncan was almost abducted by the Magic in the first place. The kawaii team is afraid that the Spurs will deliberately not let him come back in order to reduce the performance of kawaii, as long as kawaii can't attract the interest of other teams, then the Spurs can lower the price at will.
This is a situation that the Spurs have not seen in many years, and it makes sense that they lost to the upgraded Kings due to internal and external troubles.
With a win over the Spurs, the Kings set off for New Orleans for their final game of a six-game road streak – against the Pelicans.
The Pelicans have been in the thick recently, they first relied on the Clippers to break into the top eight in the West, Cousins got the same data as Chamberlain in the overtime battle, and the day before yesterday, the NBA officially announced that Cousins and Davis were both selected as Western All-Star starters.
There's nothing more confident than that, so they began to openly call out for the God of War Kings, and Zhang Feng got 23 assists on the Pelicans.
This kind of thing that ran to Zhang Feng's Twitter to leave a message before the game, he saw too much, originally he had no fluctuations in his heart, and even wanted to laugh, but the fan left a message mentioning Rondo, and the fan said that he could do whatever he wanted when Rondo was not there last time, and this time Rondo will play, and he can no longer pass and shoot comfortably.
When it comes to Rondo, Zhang Feng is interested, because Rondo's defense is really good, as a championship point guard, Rondo's psychological quality must also be very good, and judging from the previous news, Rondo's ability to read the game is also very strong, and he often cracks the opponent's tactics in advance.
Neither can fight psychological warfare, nor can it be crushed through tactics, Zhang Feng couldn't think of how to deal with Rondo for a while.
However, there is a lot of power in numbers, and during the pre-game meeting, Zhang Feng raised his own questions, and the Kings players joined in the discussion of 'how to deal with Rondo'.
"Rondo's passing is very good, he will definitely play the ball for the Pelicans twin towers, and needless to say, the quality of their coverage will also be very high, and if Rondo directs the high post strategy, we will struggle very much" As center Randolph first expressed his concerns.
Randolph's concerns are understandable, once the Pelicans block and dismantle, the Kings will have to face Rondo inside, although Rondo is not fast, but the fake fax shooting is amazing, and the Kings' interior defensive pressure will definitely be very high.
"The high post should just change the defense indefinitely, compress them to the perimeter as much as possible, and as long as they get out of the paint, Cousins and Davis will be at least half less lethal," assistant coach Brown commented.
"I agree with Brown that I've worked with Cousins a lot in the past, and if he gets him out of the paint, he's going to start attacking at guard, which is great for us inside," Willy added.
"Rondo will definitely see through our tactics, and what will he do when he directs the outside line to cover the hoisting pass?" Mason questioned.
"Yes, the only one on our back line who can put pressure on Rondo is Zhang Feng, but he can avoid Zhang Feng by covering and then make a pass, so there is nothing he can do about us," Hill said after contemplation.
"Guys, your suggestions are all good, but they are all relatively one-sided, we should think from the overall situation" David saw that everyone was discussing fiercely, but the direction was a little wrong, and he hurriedly reminded him.
"What the coach said is reasonable, why don't we use the tactics of last time?" Skar, who had not spoken for a long time, suddenly spoke, and everyone turned their eyes to him, of course, with encouraging eyes.
Encouraging, Skar continued: "This is the method that Zhang Feng taught me last time – draw salary from the bottom of the kettle."
As soon as the four words of the bottom of the kettle came out, Zhang Feng suddenly realized, he high-fived Skar excitedly, and then said: "Skar is right, I don't know if you have found a problem?" ”
"What's the problem?" The king instinctively asked.
"That is, Rondo is not in the game, and the Pelicans offense is more chaotic, but as long as Rondo is there, the Pelicans' offense is very reasonable, and the winning rate is higher."
"Well, Zhang Feng is right, from the data resistance, Rondo played in the game, the Pelicans have a winning rate of 65%, which is quite a scary statistic," assistant coach Brown said after zooming in on the picture on his phone.
Seeing the data, the Kings players seemed to understand what Zhang Feng meant, and Randolph asked excitedly: "What do you mean?" You killed Rondo the whole time, and directly let the Pelicans attack can't be opened? ”
"Yes, that's what I meant," Zhang Feng smiled confidently.
"So how do you solve the pick-and-roll problem? As long as one of Cousins and Davis blocks you, Rondo will have a chance to get rid of it, and we can go around, but we don't have an advantage in the power confrontation, and I'm afraid we won't be able to maintain the whole game well," Randolph said worriedly.
"There are two ways to prevent death, one is to make the opponent unable to catch or play the ball, and if you want to do this, you must defend the whole court. The second is to let the opponent get the ball and pass it out immediately, and if you want to do this, you have to press it all the time. Compared to the two, against Rondo, I choose the second one"
Zhang Feng was full of confidence in his words, and the other players of the king were not good at refuting for a while, but a bad refutation does not mean that they can't refute, after all, everyone won the game.
"Rondo's ball control skills are also superb, and it's hard to press all the time, and if you do that, it's easy to lose the defensive position, and it's very risky, are you really sure you want to do that?" Also as a point guard, George Hill knows how difficult it is to steal Rondo, so even if he fully agrees with Zhang Feng's strength, he can't help but ask questions.
"You can try, in case the effect is not good at that time, it will be too late to change tactics temporarily" Zhang Feng has not yet responded to Hill's question, and David played a round in advance.
"No, no, no, you're mistaken, my purpose in forcing Rondo is not really to grab the ball, the real purpose is to disrupt the Pelicans' offensive rhythm, didn't you just say? As long as the Pelicans are offensive chaotic, their win rate will be greatly reduced."
As soon as Zhang Feng said this, the king and everyone immediately reacted.
"I'll go, you're still a chicken thief, there's a set!" Randolph gave a thumbs up.
"Hey, you're so good, I can't think of that, I'm too limited" Hill shook his head and sighed.
"Don't sigh, if you want to win against the Pelicans, you have to work a lot, they still have Holiday who is easy to shoot, and he will be handed over to you"
"You can try, in case the effect is not good at that time, it will be too late to change tactics temporarily" Zhang Feng has not yet responded to Hill's question, and David played a round in advance.
"No, no, no, you're mistaken, my purpose in forcing Rondo is not really to grab the ball, the real purpose is to disrupt the Pelicans' offensive rhythm, didn't you just say? As long as the Pelicans are offensive chaotic, their win rate will be greatly reduced."
As soon as Zhang Feng said this, the king and everyone immediately reacted.
"I'll go, you're still a chicken thief, there's a set!" Randolph gave a thumbs up.
"Hey, you're so good, I can't think of that, I'm too limited" Hill shook his head and sighed.
"Don't sigh, if you want to win against the Pelicans, you have to work a lot, they still have Holiday who is easy to shoot, and he will be handed over to you"