Chapter 975: The First Shot of the New Year
The defeat of the warrior monk in the fighting match made Chamberlain unhappy for several days, and he had already made an appointment for the Shaolin Temple to visit Songshan this summer offseason, but after this incident, he directly pushed it down.
The reason why he turned down the invitation was not Erlong's defeat, but the reaction of the Shaolin Temple after the game.
Before the competition, the organizer has been playing the name of Erlong is the first warrior monk of Shaolin Temple, so it can attract so many audiences, but after the failure of the Erlong competition, Shaolin Temple came out to clarify for the first time, saying that Shaolin Temple has nothing to do with Erlong, he is not his own warrior monk at all, let alone the first warrior monk.
This kind of irresponsible behavior is what Chamberlain hates the most.
In fact, Erlong was knocked out, and Chamberlain just regretted it, because Captain America Agrot was obviously a heavyweight heavier than him, in addition, Erlong was not in a coma at that time, but he couldn't go on due to the rules, if he was replaced by an opponent of the same heavyweight, Erlong would definitely have the strength to fight.
After watching this fighting match, 2010 came to an end, and the little gangsters who were blackmailed by him with his wrist-wrestling strategy did not trouble him again, and Chamberlain once again focused on the game.
In the first game of the new year, the Warriors' opponent was the Grizzlies.
There is often a saying in sports competitions, called "XXX's biggest enemy is himself", for example, Chamberlain is very applicable to this sentence, and now experts mention Chamberlain, they will say 'Z's biggest enemy is himself', how high his status is, it depends on how big his heart is.
This statement is often not derogatory, and there is an artistic conception of breaking through the limits of self-pursuit. But in the Memphis Grizzlies, there is really a story of "fighting with yourself and having fun" every year. There are joys and sorrows in the lively series, the good news is that the grizzly bear does have the ability to turn evil into good fortune, and the worry is that those troubles were originally caused by themselves, and they can't complain about others.
In the last two years, the Grizzlies' draft has been quite criticized.
For example, Hashim Thabit was selected with the No. 1 pick last summer, and Brandon Jennings and Tyrek Evans, who were ranked lower than the Tanzanians, were both point guards who were much better than Conley.
And after signing Tabitt, the Grizzlies found that they didn't need the big man at all, and then Grizzlies owner Hasley fought with the rookie for a measly $200,000 for a summer, which made a terrible impact. The boss lacks the pattern of doing big things, which big name does he expect to bring a gun to take refuge in the future?
In the end, it was difficult to satisfy Grizzlies fans, and after a summer, Tabit was still taken away by the Warriors with a paper trade exception.
As for the $200,000 fight with the rookie, the impact is even worse.
The reason for this is that Grizzlies owner Michael Hesley is unwilling to offer Xavier Henry and Graves Vasquith 120% of the standard contract that the average first-round rookie gets, and Haisley's idea is to use 20% of the standard contract as a bonus clause in the contract.
In an interview, Haysley admitted that he only learned this summer that the collective bargaining agreement allowed for contract negotiations with a first-round rookie, and that it was his staff member who sued him.
It also explains why last year's Grizzlies' two first-round rookies, Hashim Thabit and DeMar Carroll, were able to get 120% of their max salary contracts.
In the interview, Haesley also said that he had not looked at the terms of labor, and he asked rhetorically if others would sit down and study them.
As the owner of an NBA team, that is, the team's top management, he has not studied the most basic labor terms of the NBA, which has to be said to be a big surprise.
However, the Grizzlies have a reputation right now, including selling Tabit for just a paper trade exception, which many believe is not necessarily a bad thing.
The confidence that can be brought to fans comes from the fact that the Grizzlies sent away captain Gasol in exchange for the contract-paying offensive interior Zach Randolph.
Originally, this trade was logically unreasonable - since they let the Los Angeles Lakers "hijack" Pau Gasol to save money, why did they go back and recruit a power forward player whose price is not inferior to that of the "God Tower", but not necessarily the same level?
Randolph's scoring firepower was comparable to that of Gasol, but the two were far from each other as a team, and the Grizzlies were considered to have a problem of not scoring enough points at the time.
The result? After Randolph came to the Grizzlies, he suddenly changed his mind and became a new man, and the prodigal son did not change his money, and the Grizzlies did find a piece of dog's head gold this time.
No one thought - probably Randolph didn't expect him to come to the Grizzlies so suitable, this team was simply built for him, and now his performance on the Grizzlies is enough to even retire his jersey here in the future!
The Grizzlies had already made a breakthrough last season, and in the first two months of this season, the team has performed even better, and now it has overwhelmed traditional giants such as the Mavericks and Spurs to become the fourth team in the West.
The New Year is such a tough battle, and the Warriors don't know how to thank Stern, but the other teams are happy to see such a scene, because last December, the Warriors won all 16 games, and the other teams want to see who can destroy them!
Although the Grizzlies management is more brainless, their players are very strong, and the lineup is also very reasonable.
In the backcourt No. 1 position, Mike Conley was the No. 4 rookie in the class of 2007, but the left-hander apparently didn't play the corresponding game, and things improved slightly last season, averaging 12 points per game, 5. 3 assists.
Conley's bench is Assi Law and rookie Graves Vasquez, and from that point of view, the Grizzlies are a team that lacks roster depth. Assi Law played for the Hawks for the previous two years and traveled around last season, playing for the Bobcats, Warriors, Bulls and other teams, averaging 4 per game. 3 points.
Position II, O. J. Mayo was once a Grizzlies hopeful, but he didn't improve at all last season, averaging 17 per game. 5 points. Mayo was a good ball handler but didn't do much to help him, playing a whopping 38 minutes but only three. Two free throws and just three assists per game, and the Grizzlies tried to make him point guard in Summer League, only to have six assists and 15 turnovers in two games.
Tony Allen is a player brought in by the Grizzlies this summer, Allen made a name for himself in the Finals last season by defending Kobe Bryant, he has very good marking skills, but his shooting is very bad, and Allen is expected to play as a small forward bench.
Up front, Guy is a pure attacker with a tall jumper, long arm span and a height advantage in the No. 3 position, so his jump shot is difficult to block, averaging 19 per game last season. 6 points, 5. With nine rebounds, if his three-point shot is more accurate, he could hopefully become a shooter like Granger.
Tony Allen is an option on the bench, and Sam Young was the only player on the Grizzlies' second-tier team to score last season, and he and Allen are expected to share time off the bench at the second and third positions.
At power forward, Zach Randolph played a career-best last season and was named to the All-Star Game. Averaged 20 per game. 8 points, 11. 7 rebounds, 4 per game. One offensive rebound is among the best in the league.
He's a player who is very good at catching second offensive opportunities under the basket and brings a lot of help to the Grizzlies' interior offense.
Randolph's replacements were Darrell Arthur, with DeMar Carroll having some athleticism but limited offensive ability and foul play defensively.
Grizzlies center is Marc Gasol, who improved significantly last season, averaging 14 per game. 6 points 9. 3 rebounds 1. 6 blocks and a staggering 58 hits. 1%, is good at using his wide body to make fouls, and also has a certain amount of mid-range shooting.
Gasol Jr. is still the only player in the Grizzlies team who is willing to pass the ball, and it is very valuable in the collective "black" Grizzlies.
Gasol Jr.'s replacement was Hamed Haddadi, and there was Tabit before, and now that Tabit has been purged, it's Haddadi's turn to contribute.
Haddadi reached 2 in height. At 18 meters, the World Championships table is brilliant, but he is destined to not achieve much in the NBA because he is not fast enough to keep up with the team's offensive and defensive rhythm, which is fatal.
The Grizzlies overestimated Haddadi, and they only saw the Iranian center's performance at the World Championships, so they drove Haddadi away, only to find that the pace of the NBA was too fast for Haddadi to play at the start of the season.
On January 2, the two teams met in Memphis.
The starting lineup of the Grizzlies is: center Gasol Jr., power forward Randolph, small forward Gay, playmaker Conley, and shooting guard Mayo.
The Warriors' starting lineup is: center Chamberlain, power forward Ibaka, small forward Jamison, playmaker Outdoor West, and scoring guard Curry.
Chamberlain and Gasol Jr. jumped the ball and picked the ball to West first, and the Warriors immediately went down with all the stops, and the game kicked off.
Chamberlain matched West to run to the three-point line, then stopped to cover him, and West immediately changed direction and killed the basket.
Seeing this, the Grizzlies were taken aback and hurriedly shrunk the defense, and this was the result that West wanted, the opponent pulled the defense inside, and he passed the ball to Chamberlain, who was in the open space on the outside.
Chamberlain jumped, but at the beginning of the game, it was still very cold, the ball bounced out directly, and Randolph flexibly twisted the thick bear waist and ran over, picked up the rebound and threw it to Conley.
Conley has not played the expected strength, one of the main reasons is his heart, he does not have a strong heart, several seasons of poor performance made him lose himself, there is no longer the courage to dare to rush, to the front court he saw that West's defense is not leaky, and passed the ball to Guy.
Gay may be the happiest man this summer, as big boss Michael Hasley threw him a five-year, $80 million contract, and the outside reaction to this can be described as an uproar.
Indeed, throwing an All-Star-level salary, or even a Dwight-Howard-level salary, for a player who hasn't yet been selected as an All-Star, Hesley's "brain-dead" trait has once again become the focus of attention. And for Guy, who would have trouble with money? Of course, the higher the salary, the better.
Guy didn't figure out one thing, the boss gave him such a high salary not because he was handsome or the boss was kind, but hoped that he could make more money for the team and take on more responsibilities!
However, to expect Guy to take on the responsibility of leading the Grizzlies forward is, and it has something to do with his character.
Guy and O. J-Mayo is a pair with different personalities, Mayo is "hateful to lose" and Guy is "likes to win", and there is a fundamental difference between the two.
Overall, Guy isn't an office worker who clocks in every day, but he's not a particularly ambitious player either. With his ability, it is not difficult to earn a contract with any team that is enough to support his family and honor his ancestors. His scoring ability is already well known, and as for his persistent slump on the defensive end, it doesn't affect his future, so he can't be expected of anything more.