On October 5, the Hornets finally officially signed Brandon Roy to a three-year, totaling 15 million contract, signing the former rookie of the year, an All-Star, and held a press conference for him.

For the Hornets' recruitment, the league did not take it to heart, Roy no longer has a meniscus, and no one needs to think much about what the competitive state will be. It's just that after Roy joined the Hornets, the Hornets suddenly had three original members of the Trail Blazers, Gerard Wallace, Greg Oden, and Brandon Roy.

Long before the official announcement of the signing, the Hornets have begun to call, the Hornets need more run-in, last season's bench players have been released a lot, the current role players are only Jason Smith who is a player from last season, and the others are all new players who must be trained to run in.

In this season's preseason, the Hornets have eight playoff games, starting on October 8.

Preseason has always been a game for teams to grind in players, and in preseason, few teams will play seriously, and the Hornets are no exception.

In the first preseason game against the Hornets in Brazil against the Magic, Wang Meng, Gasol, and Wallace all played 5 minutes, Oden and Roy played 15 minutes, and the rest of the time was given to other role players such as Yi Jianlian.

In the end, the Hornets lost to the Magic 81-87.

In the next game, Wang Meng and others still played very little, including Roy, who did not play much time, so the Hornets' preseason results can only be regarded as average.

8 games, 3 wins, 5 losses.

In order to make up the team list, Liz signed center Milicic, who was cut by the Timberwolves, with a base salary in free agents, and then randomly found two players in the development league and gave two ten-day short contracts.

At present, except for Wang Meng and other main starters, and preparing to play Roy as the sixth man, the Hornets' bench lineup is as follows.

Point Guard: Fisher, Anton (Development League) Shooting Guard: Slaton (Development League) Small Forward: Barnes Power Forward: Yi Jianlian, Smith.

Center Milicic.

The general performance of the preseason did not disturb the fiery mood of the Hornets fans, because everyone knows that the preseason is just a child's play, and only those rookies who have only gone through the electives, and those players who can't get out of the development league will be taken seriously as an important game, even if the Hornets have a mediocre record in the preseason, but in the regular season, they will definitely show the strongest combat effectiveness, for no other reason, Wang Meng's performance in the Olympics is really amazing.

Especially in the finals, many Americans watched the live broadcast of the Dream Ten team against the Chinese team, Wang Meng simply fought against the entire American team by himself, in the offensive process, although Wang Meng only defended the players in the point guard position, but there were many players who played against Wang Meng head-on, including Kobe, James, Durant, Anthony and others, all of which made Wang Meng burst without exception.

The American players have not been able to prevent the existence of Wang Meng, which is already the consensus of everyone.

Many people maliciously thought that they didn't know if the general manager of the Lakers would regret sending Wang Meng in order to bring in Howard and Paul when he saw the current scene.

Finally, under the watchful eye, the NBA preseason is over and the regular season officially begins.

On November 1, 2012, the Hornets finally ushered in their first regular season game, and their opponent was the Spurs, who successfully introduced Yao Ming and became the favorites to win the championship again.

The game was home to the Hornets, and the stadium was sold out early. Not only that, many TV stations have chosen to broadcast this game live, including many Chinese media, no way, this game is the first game of Yao Ming's comeback, and it is also a derby battle with Wang Meng and Yi Jianlian, the gimmick is enough, and for the games of other teams, this game is undoubtedly more attention-grabbing.

Yao Ming called Wang Meng and Yi Jianlian after coming to Wasp a long time ago, and the three of them went out for a meal. So there wasn't too much greeting on the field.

Wang Meng stepped onto the court as the last player of the Hornets in the cheers of the whole stadium, listening to the cheers of the fans, Wang Meng's face was full of smiles, playing at home is really a pleasure.

Waving his hand to the audience, Wang Meng's eyes subconsciously drifted to the VIP box located not far from the stadium.

Today, Taylor came over to watch his game, of course, accompanied by Lis, somehow, Wang Meng always thinks of Liss and Taylor alone, his heart beats faster for no reason, and he is a little afraid of the consequences if Taylor knows that something happened to him and Lis.

"He's looking this way." Taylor saw Wang rushing to look at him, and couldn't help but stretch out his hand and wave at Wang.

"Come on, the glass here is one-way, you can see the outside here, and you can't see the inside outside." Liz rolled her eyes and said, "So don't waste your strength." ”

"It's his business whether he can see or not, and it's my business whether I do it or not." Taylor chuckled, turned his head and looked back at Lis, who was comfortably lying on the sofa chair, "But then again, didn't you say what you said before to watch Wang Meng for me and run to London?" What do you think? The final result is that I won, Wang Meng will definitely not go out and fool around. ”

"Damn! Don't mention it, okay? Let's watch the game! Liz slapped her forehead depressedly, good fellow, he really didn't go out to fool around, he just messed up the old lady.

On the pitch, the game is about to begin.

The Hornets started the same as last season, with Wang Meng, Allen, Wallace, Gasol and Oden. On the Spurs' side, it was Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan and Yao Ming.

Auden and Yao Ming jump ball, although Yao Ming's height has an advantage, but Oden has been very strong under a season's workout, and Oden is not lost to Howard and other spring people in terms of bouncing, and Yao Ming is not explosive enough after all, and he is much higher than Oden, but he was still grabbed by Oden first.

For the Hornets, even the league evergreen Spurs did not dare to underestimate the slightest, and at the same time that Wang Meng received the ball, Parker had already greeted him.

"Hey! Wang Meng, it's a pity that I couldn't play against you in the national team. Parker looked at Wang Meng and said with a smile.

"It's not too late!" Wang Meng dribbled the ball directly and passed the ball to Wallace, after Wallace held the ball, he quickly glanced at it, and then hoisted the ball to Gasol, who had quickly entered the inside, Gasol held the ball, singled Duncan, and easily sent the basketball to the basket with a hook hand.

The first ball of the Hornets was unhindered and played very comfortably.

Actually, the game between the Hornets and the Spurs was not very exciting, because the defense of both teams was too strong, and every time the defensive teams met, the game would always get very boring.

The Hornets' defense is strong in one-on-one defense, Wang Meng, Tony Allen, Wallace, Gasol and Oden are not defensive strongmen, all have a glorious defensive history. The Spurs' defense is more focused on the joint defense with Duncan as the core, and Duncan is the most critical link in the Spurs' defense.

It's not the better of the two defenses, but it's true that they are the ones that can cause headaches for any team in the league.

When two extremely strong defenses come together, the effect is not very good.

Aside from Gasol's surprise hook attack at the beginning, neither the Spurs nor the Hornets were able to effectively run a smooth offense.

The offensive core of the Spurs' side lies in the blocking and dismantling cooperation between Parker and the Spurs players, and the Hornets are similar, most of the time they need Wang Meng to hold the ball, the only difference is that Wang Meng's threat range after holding the ball is much higher than Parker's.

"It's a really ugly game." Monty clasped his hands to his chest, watched the players on both sides on the field keep striking iron, and said with a wry smile.

The game has been going on for 4 minutes, but the score of the two teams is a pitiful 7:9. With strong defenses from both sides, it will be difficult for either the Spurs or the Hornets to score.

To be honest, Monty didn't want to meet a team like the Spurs in the first game, as the first game at the beginning of the season, Monty would prefer to meet a team with a weaker defense, even if the team's offense is very strong, it doesn't matter, just like the Knicks, Thunder, Warriors and the like, although it is not necessarily better than the Spurs, but at least it is a smooth offensive rhythm, whether you win or lose, you can play the player's state well. In the face of the Spurs, such an iron-blooded defense can easily make the players' hands extremely bad, which will have some impact on the subsequent games.

"Wang Meng! You add a little more ball-handling offense! Monty yelled from the sidelines that since the Spurs' defense was so tight, they could only quickly smash the shield with the sharpest spear.

Hearing Monty's words, a smile appeared on Wang Meng's face.

The game started for 4 minutes, and Wang Meng only shot twice, both from the outside, and hit a two-pointer. For most of the rest of the time, Wang Meng was passing the ball to respond to his teammates' attacks, and Wang Meng's idea was simple, he wanted to pile up the feelings of his teammates. After all, in the face of the Spurs' regional defense, Wang Meng can only rely on the breakthrough of the instant explosion if he wants to score, and the physical consumption of the instant explosion is very high after all, and it is very unwise to consume too much physical strength too early when playing the Spurs.

Standing in front of Parker with the ball, Wang Meng noticed that Parker's defense was a little lax.

Think about it, I have been passing the ball for half a day, basically not attacking by myself, no matter who it is, there will be a little feeling of relaxation, this is human nature, it's just that.

"Since that's the case, you're welcome~!" Wang Meng did not hesitate and immediately started an instant outburst.

(To be continued)