Min Congda's image in Anthony Davis's mind became more and more mysterious and tall.

Anthony Davis knew about Min Congda's name before, and he knew it in various NBA non-basketball news.

scolded the referee for a fine today, slammed the referee's head tomorrow with popcorn, and scolded the league for being unfair the day after tomorrow.

Of course, there are also good things, such as advocating for black players, leading the establishment of the African Youth Basketball Development Foundation, and so on.

In short, in the eyes of Anthony Davis, a young man, Min Congda belongs to the kind of high-profile, hype, and professional managers who are good at playing with power.

Anthony Davis is also a fan of NBA-Batman, and often brushes NBA-Batman to expose Min Congda's "evil deeds" in the Clippers, which further deepens Anthony Davis's impression of Min Congda's power grabbers.

Unexpectedly, after a period of contact, Anthony Davis found out that Min Congda was not what he thought he was at all.

Min Congda is not high-profile at all, his daily life is very simple and simple, he drives an ordinary car, wears ordinary clothes, likes to eat in the training camp canteen when he eats, and usually speaks simply and clearly, never drags the text, and makes long speeches, giving the impression of being very low-key.

And Anthony Davis can feel that Min Congda actually doesn't like to socialize, especially not like to participate in some big parties and social events.

Instead, he prefers to stay at home playing games and watching TV, much like Anthony Davis, and the two have become good gaming friends.

But what Anthony Davis didn't expect was that Min Congda, who was short in stature (178 is a dwarf in the eyes of basketball players), was mediocre in appearance and didn't feel like he knew anything about the ball, but he was recognized as a top basketball player by the Clippers.

"He's the most talented guy on the team." Curry said so.

"Smart has a lot of talent in basketball, but he doesn't have much interest in basketball." Cole said.

"If Smart grows taller and 10 years younger, I'll recruit him to play on the team." Team advisor Mike Dunleavy says so.

During the two-week training camp, Anthony Davis kept hearing from different mouths that Min Congda was very talented in basketball.

At first, I thought Curry was joking, but then I listened to Kerr and Lue and tell me that I was skeptical.

Wait until you listen to the old Deng later, it will definitely not be fake, Mike Dunleavy is not a person who likes to joke.

In the process of playing 2K with Min Congda, Davis felt Min Congda's superior tactical understanding.

Until the end of training camp and the preseason was almost over, Davis couldn't beat Min Congda on 2k.

Davis later wanted to find Min Congda one-on-one in training, saying that he wanted to see Min Congda's basketball level.

Min Congda said bluntly: "I don't know how to play basketball at all, what do you want?" ”

"But they say you're very talented in basketball."

"Just because you have a lot of talent doesn't mean you can play."

"But you're 2k good."

"I'm still very good at League of Legends, will I flash?"

“……”

Regarding Min Congda's statement that he can't play basketball, Anthony Davis has always been skeptical and feels incredible.

But when I asked my teammates, everyone said, "He really doesn't know how to play basketball." ”

As a result, the fog shrouded in Min Congda's body deepened.

It's the end of October in the blink of an eye, the preseason is over, and the new regular season season is about to begin.

In the preseason, the Clippers' performance was so-so, and the whole team practiced tactics, with 3 wins and 3 losses in 6 games, which made Min Congda earn a little pocket money.

Anthony Davis made his first NBA appearance, starting two of those games.

The performance on the field is quite good, although the data is average, but the presence on the field is very strong.

When he is defending under the basket, the opponent's action to attack the basket is obviously hindered.

And Davis, as a flexible interior lineman, has a wide defensive range, speed, and a large defensive area, which is quite Kevin Garnett's style.

And this kind of defensive ability is exactly what the Clippers have been lacking.

As a meat shield center, Marc Gasol has a strong ability to protect the basket under the basket, but he is very average in terms of defense and co-defense.

Not to mention Randolph, the defense is like that, almost enough.

So the Clippers used a lot of joint defense in games last season, and they dominated the defense with a conservative retreat, which lacked aggression and relied on offensive imagination and individual talent.

In this way, the Clippers won the championship, and they didn't even play a tie-break all the way, a proper version of the son.

And with Anthony Davis, the Clippers have no shortcomings in the composition of the roster.

The biggest problem became how to arrange the players' playing time and how to distribute the ball.

After all, there is only one basketball, and a game is only 48 minutes.

A player's skills need to be fed and accumulated in actual combat.

The Clippers are full of potential youngsters waiting to be fed, and everyone wants to get enough playing time.

If it is changed to another team, when there are many potential young players, they will generally choose to establish the core, and then trade the remaining young players who are dissatisfied with playing time and have average potential evaluation in exchange for veteran instant combat power.

In this way, the team's lineup will be more reasonable and balanced.

For example, the Rockets selected Rudy Gay that year, because there was already Maddy on the team, and they thought that there was no time and space to cultivate Gay, so they sent him to the Grizzlies in exchange for Sean Battier.

Now Gay has moved to the Spurs after a multi-party trade and has become a consistent No. 3 scorer.

Although it is difficult to make a big deal, Maddie also declined early due to injury, and the Rockets did not get cheap in the end.

The good thing about the Clippers is that first, in order to pay more luxury tax in the future, Min Congda can use the bird rights to renew these young people, so he refuses to trade; Second, the strategic idea that everyone has the ball to play has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the Clippers, especially winning the championship, which makes everyone more convinced of the correctness of this strategy.

The nominal boss of the team is Curry, and Curry's average playing time per game is controlled to less than 30 minutes.

This playing time is quite small, compared to LeBron James, in the third season of his career, the average playing time is 42.5 minutes per game, ranking among the top in the league.

There is also fellow point guard Russell Westbrook, who averaged 35.4 minutes per game last season.

No one on the Clippers averaged more than 35 minutes per game last season.

The person who averaged the most minutes per game was James Harden, who averaged 32 minutes per game.

Like George, Leonard and others, the playing time is controlled at about 25 minutes.

Now with the addition of Anthony Davis, Randolph's playing time will obviously suffer.

The Clippers also have Milicic and Bonner on the bench inside, but they don't want playing time and have very different functions, adapting to different opponents and different game situations.

The Clippers coaching staff has plenty of cards in their hands.

On October 29, the Clippers' preseason training camp officially ended.

On October 31, the Clippers will begin their 2012-2013 regular season tour.

On the day of training camp on the 29th, the Clippers coaching staff and advisory team held a common but important meeting in the conference room of the training hall to discuss the strategic direction of the Clippers for the new season.

In fact, the Clippers have been discussing related issues internally before, but there has been no agreement.

This is also due to the power structure within the Clippers, which is not like other teams, where the head coach is the absolute core and has his own team.

For example, when a coach joins the team, the first thing he does is to replace the assistant coaches with his own people to form a solid leadership team.

What tactics the team will play in the new season, who will be the core, and what strategic goals will be taken by the head coach.

The Clippers are different, although Tyronn Lue is the head coach of the Clippers, he is actually the commander of the light pole, and none of the assistant coaches are brought by him.

As a rookie head coach, he himself has no one to bring, his qualifications are too shallow, and there are really no assistants in the circle.

The assistant coaches are divided into two groups, one is Steve Cole and Jeff Ball, the sleeping dragon and phoenix chick of Min Congda.

Both have been general managers of the team, and both were recruited by Min Congda to join the Clippers, one in charge of tactics, and the other in charge of logistics, player development and operations.

The other faction is the old man left behind by Mike Dunleavy, old Kim, Lucas, and a group of former Clippers ministers such as scouts.

Theoretically, their group should have been purged long ago, and as Lao Deng took a back seat, they left one by one to look for work in other teams.

But Min Congda was very "lenient" and kept everyone, with the simple purpose of increasing the team's spending.

Let the fine traditions such as "people floating in things", "redundant officials and redundant personnel", and "post overstaffing" be carried forward and inherited by the Clippers, and contribute to the bankruptcy plan of the Clippers.

A coaching staff is already a three-point game, and now there's a team of advisors involved: Mike Dunleavy and Jerry West.

After Lao Deng recovered, he received a high salary and worked as a consultant, and his small life was very comfortable.

And Lao Deng actually has an advantage, that is, to stabilize people's hearts.

As long as Lao Deng is here, old ministers like Lao Jin and Lucas who are not very capable can be protected to a certain extent in the team.

After all, Dunleavy is veteran in the Clippers and can speak in front of Min Congda, so everyone can do things with peace of mind without worrying about being laid off.

And Jerry West is famous, with extremely high prestige in the circle and a wide range of connections.

Previously, the Golden State Warriors also hired Jerry West as a team advisor.

After ending his partnership with the Warriors last season, Jerry Davis came to the Clippers and accepted Min's invitation to become a special advisor to the Clippers.

For a while, the Clippers' coaching staff, like their roster, was star-studded and outnumbered, but lacked a real core.

In fact, they have a core, that is, Min Congda.

But Min Congda didn't want to come to the meeting at all, at the end of October, this kind of autumn weather is cool, he should go out to sea to fish, what kind of meeting.

The result of the lack of backbone is that some tactical and strategic issues within the Clippers have been inconclusive.

Seeing that the regular season is about to start the day after tomorrow, the team's squad, tactical ideas, and season strategy have not really been established.

So the meeting became very important, and the initiator of the meeting was none other than the team's head coach, Tyronn Lue.

Don't look at Coach Lu as the commander of the team, but he occupies the title of head coach after all, and Tyronn Lue has done a good job in interpersonal communication with the Clippers, from the player to the assistant coach, to the canteen chef, to the sweeping aunt, and the relationship with Coach Lu is good.

This is very different from many historical coaches.

Many famous marshals in history were arrogant and even had strange tempers.

It's normal to have conflicts with players, especially with the stars of the house.

Some of them have a very bad temper, and they are going to kick a dog when they pass by.

There is no way, the position of head coach is huge, and the requirements for leadership, command ability, and adaptability are very high.

If a person is a head coach, his face can not be old, his temper can not be bad, and he can get more and more moisturized, and only Phil Jackson has done it in some seasons.

At the end of the dynasty founded by Jackson, the same edifice was about to collapse, the people were panicked, and finally the relationship broke down because of irreconcilable conflicts with management or players.

Tyronn Lue has gone the other way and has become a typical "glue" type of head coach.

He is not the most authoritative in the team, he is not the most powerful, and he has no temper.

can occupy the position of the head coach and can act as an intermediary to glue and win over the relationship between all parties.

In such a meeting where all parties gathered, only two people in the whole team could start this, one was him, and the other was Min Congda.

The beginning is the beginning, but Tyronn Lue doesn't interject much in the discussion at the meeting.

The main ones who really participated in the discussion were Cole, Dunleavy, West, and a few other qualified and capable people.

Among them, West and Mike Dunleavy are two old men in the advisory group, and believe that the team should establish a core in the roster as soon as possible.

"Last season's championship had an element of luck, there was no core, and it wasn't good for the team to let the young players grow."

West believes that the core of the team should be the two-top combination of Curry + Davis.

Just like Kobe + O'Neal, Curry and Davis will definitely be the most talented and dominant combination of the new era.

With these two people at the core, the rest of the Clippers will have to revolve around Curry and Davis.

Gone are the days of last season where players split their tactics and used their imagination and creativity to play.

"Iron discipline and a stable lineup are the key to building a dynasty."

West's career as a general manager has been nothing short of impressive, and he has created two dynasties for the Lakers.

The Lakers in the 80s were Magic + Abdul-Jabbar as the absolute core, and everyone else served the two.

The OK combination in the 00s, and even the later Kobe + Gasol combination, are all the same.

Dunleavy used to coach with the Lakers, and both of them are veterans, so it is natural to wear a pair of pants.

And Steve Cole and Jeff Ball are adamantly opposed to this practice of establishing an absolute core.

Kerr thinks the Clippers are going to be a good team like never before.

Their team-building ideas and core strategies will be different from those of the NBA teams in the past.

"Times have changed Jerry, and I don't agree with what absolute core is established. The current NBA will be different from the past regardless of tactics and playing styles, do you know what the bigger difference is? It's people! These young children grew up in a completely different environment than ours and your generation, they were freer, more self-conscious, and more imaginative. We will be stronger! ”

"Also, both Curry and Davis are too young."

"Just because they're the core doesn't mean that other people don't have a role to play, and because Curry and Davis are young, other people will play an important role as well. A team without order will not go far. ”

"But we won the championship last season."

"Are there fewer teams that disintegrate after winning the championship?"

"We're not going to break up! We have a core in the team! ”

"There is a core, who is the core? Who is the boss? Stephen? The core of the 30 minutes on the pitch. ”

"No, Mr. Smart is at the heart of us. With him, the Clippers won't disintegrate. ”

Cole countered that at this moment he also became a staunch supporter of Min Congda.

Although he is dissatisfied with Min Congda in his heart, Kerr also has his own ambitions, but he is aware of Min Congda's status and role in the Clippers.

The conference room was quiet for a while, and Jerry West looked left and right, wondering if this was true.

To be honest, if you were a different consultant, you wouldn't have just joined a team and just pointed fingers.

But West is different, he is too senior, he is very capable, and he has a rather strong personality.

He didn't come to the team to fight for power, but he really wanted to do something.

He, like Kerr, could see that Curry was a great, subversive seedling.

At this time, Lao Deng opened his mouth and said, "Jerry, I think... Let's listen to Steve. ”

West had an incredible expression on his face, thinking to himself, Old Deng, why did you rebel?

Dunleavy continued: "With Smart here, the Clippers really can't disintegrate, you have to rest assured of that. I think as a consultant is more focused on making recommendations. Moreover, the strategy of everyone has a ball to play was established by Smart when he first entered the Clippers, and I don't think he will agree to establish any dual-core. ”

"I'm just giving them advice, and I'm saying it's not in conflict... I..."

As he spoke, Jerry West was also deflated.

After all, he is only an advisor, and Steve Kerr is on the coaching staff, and he has more say than consultants.

Besides, the person who really has the right to decide went fishing, and said that this person is the core.

After some controversy, the meeting came to a conclusion.

In the new season, the Clippers still implement the big rotation strategy of last season, give full play to the imagination and initiative of each player, and resolutely implement Mr. Smart's strategic policy of "everyone has a ball to play".

After this topic, we will talk about the games and opponents of the new season.

Jerry West reminded: "The new season, or next season, the Warriors will be the team's fierce rivals in the West!" Their recruitments and drafts this summer are very targeted. They will be formidable opponents in the coming years. ”

West was an advisor to the Warriors last season.

Out of professional ethics, he won't reveal the details and strategy of the Warriors' team.

But since he is an adviser to the Clippers, he has an obligation to remind the Clippers that the Warriors are already keeping an eye on the Clippers.

(End of chapter)