Chapter 19: Winter is coming

Two days later, the Timberwolves moved on to the American Airlines Center in Phoenix to face the Suns, a game that received a lot of attention, and everyone wanted to know the outcome when the rookie point guard took on Nash, the league's two-time MVP!

Li Shihao's strength in the first two regular season games has attracted the attention of many teams and media, and he has beaten the league's famous point guards in a row, Devin Harris and Mor Williams, everyone wants to know, where is his limit?

As a rookie, Li Shihao led the Western Conference Timberwolves to win two consecutive regular season games, defeating the New Jersey Nets and the Cleveland Cavaliers in succession.

The Timberwolves, who were blind and unorganized on the offensive end last season, have gradually metamorphosed this season.

In the first two regular season games of the new season, the Timberwolves played extremely smoothly on offense as a whole, especially on defensive counter-attacks.

This has to do with the fact that the Timberwolves controlled the vast majority of the rebounds in the game, and the Timberwolves' rebounding monster Kevin Love was a standout performer in both games, with 33 rebounds in two games, including 11 frontcourt rebounds.

In such a situation, the cooperation between Kevin Lefu and Li Shihao is extremely surprising.

One of the two is a player from the class of '08, and the other is just entering the league this year, and the damage caused by this new inside and outside combination is huge, even the Cleveland Cavaliers are not immune.

After Lefu grabbed the rebound, he crossed the half-court long throw pass and accurately passed to Li Shihao's hands.

This season's Timberwolves can be said to have changed greatly compared to last season.

Since the selection of the Chinese rookie, the Timberwolves' offense is no longer confined to individual singles on the inside, and the offense has begun to become fluid, even if there are still some obscure areas where offense and defense transition, and in this regard, Bruce Lee has not done as mature as the top point guards in the league.

However, the data shown in these two games shows that this ordinary defender, who is only 1.89 meters tall, has an extraordinary sense of the big picture and excellent passing awareness!

Take a look at Al Jefferson, the power forward who was hit by injuries last season and missed the second half of the schedule, performed brilliantly against the Cavaliers, with 22 points and 7 rebounds!

The Chinese kid fed him the ball on the offensive end, and when the Chinese kid was caught in the bag and attracted most of the Cavaliers' attention, the Chinese kid could always insert the basketball straight into the interior like a scalpel and pass it comfortably to Al Jefferson, so that the latter could shoot easily.

That's why Al Jefferson was at his peak in that game!

The Chinese rookie can be said to have vaguely shown the potential of a top point guard, which is something that many people did not expect!

More importantly, he seems to have a quality in him that can make his teammates better, just like Jason Kidd and Stephen Nash have done!

This is something that cannot be shown by the data, and can only be observed by being in person.

It is a great honor that because of the little emperor LeBron James, many authoritative experts in the basketball world have personally experienced the "wolf pack tactics" constructed by Chinese kids!

As a result, countless authoritative experts were shocked!

In this year's draft predictions, Lee Se-ho and Stephen Curry, two star point guards in the NCAA who perform extraordinarily, are not favored. They all have an Achilles' heel and they don't play well physically, which is likely to be the biggest constraint on their achievements in their future NBA careers.

Of the five positions on the basketball court, outside players have more room to shoot than interior players, but shooting percentage is a consideration for every outside player.

In the video footage of Lee Se Ho and Stephen Curry's college games, most of their scoring methods are shown as jump shots, which may work in the college league, but once they get to the higher intensity of the NBA, their scoring may not be so easy!

In the NBA, a series of problems such as defense, offense, and running will wear down the physical strength of players little by little. Add to that the season-long 82 regular season games, many of which are back-to-back games, which will be a huge challenge for the players' physical strength and willpower.

In such a situation, it will be a huge problem whether the outside line can maintain a good feel!

When faced with this problem, many outside players in the league often choose to break through to the basket and score through layups or throws, where they are closer to the basket and more efficient offensively, such players can often be used as the core of the perimeter, and if they have the ability to divide the ball, then they will be much more dangerous on the offensive end.

Another way to improve efficiency is to deeply engrave the shooting feel into the bones through practice day after day, so that players can calmly and quickly hit the basket at the moment when they cooperate with their teammates' blocking and dismantling and their own running positions.

But such a running shooter can often only become a firepower supplement for the weak moment of the game, and obviously cannot become the core of the team's construction, so in the summer of this year, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors chose Li Shihao and Stephen Curry as the core of the team.

Let's ask, the team used such a stupid and sluggish vision to select such a rookie, is it not to be bad, is it difficult to compete for the championship?

Under such circumstances, Li Shihao and Stephen Curry's NBA careers have been questioned a lot, and many people think that their future achievements are limited, and they may be eliminated by the league after a few seasons!

The idea of relying on them to rebuild is far away, and many authoritative pundits have even written comments on the draft rosters of the two of them with limited potential for upside.

In fact, this evaluation undoubtedly represents the mainstream view of American basketball!

In the game between the Warriors and the Rockets on October 29 this season, Stephen Curry started the game, scoring 14 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals on 7-of-12 shooting in 36 minutes.

Curry has been completely blocked in terms of shooting and positioning, and his shooting space has become extremely limited, so it is not surprising that Curry scored 14 points.

This undoubtedly confirms the views of those authoritative experts!

But before they could let those experts take a breath and drink a cup of tea, they got the news that Li Shihao beat the Nets in the first game, made his debut, and repelled the Cleveland Cavaliers led by the little emperor in the second big game!

This resounding slap in the face undoubtedly crackled the face of experts in the field of basketball in the United States.

What about the average of more than ten points per game?

What about the all-round suppression that is said to be good?

How many mistakes are there in the good words?

Everything has quietly changed after the rookies of the class of 09 entered the league, and everyone knows that there is a turbulent undercurrent hidden in the calm league, and the pattern of the league may be about to change!

Two days later, in the early morning, Li Shihao looked at the schedule behind the Timberwolves, and his eyes were unexpectedly calm.

He understands that winter is coming!