In fact, to say that Butler's play was disappointing is not strictly appropriate.

He's just a little bit worse than the other three rookies.

As a player selected with the 23rd pick in the first round, Butler has averaged 4.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 16 minutes per game so far, and his performance is indeed inferior to Parsons and Thomas Jr., who were drafted in the second round.

But this is also a matter of no way, Wang Chao knows very well how strong Butler will be in the future, but Butler does belong to the kind of player who grows up hard by hard work, and his immediate combat power when he first entered the league is not strong enough, at least in terms of talent, with Leonard, Chandler. Parsons is a lot worse than the two.

And the Rockets have Courtney at the shooting guard position. Lee and Korver.

Both of these shooting guards are shooting above 40 percent from three-point range. Lee is a standard 3-and-D player who has a three-point shot and a good defensive ability, while Korver doesn't have Lee's defensive ability but has a more accurate three-point shot.

The two occupy the vast majority of the team's playing time at the shooting guard position, and Butler naturally has little chance left to perform and play when it is his turn.

Because of his mediocre performance, Butler was directly excluded from the Rookie Challenge, and the situation was quite embarrassing.

This makes him work harder and harder in his daily training.

Anyone can see Butler's agitation.

He worries that he will be the only rookie on the team to be eliminated due to poor performance, after all, the last thing the current Rockets lack is young players with potential, so if the team needs to make personnel changes, he will definitely bear the brunt.

Such an idea is naturally unfounded, Wang Chao is impossible for the team to send Butler away, in the entire 11-12 rookies, Butler is a top star who can be ranked in the top five or even the top three!

Compared to Leonard, Butler is indeed slightly inferior, but compared to Irving and Thompson, Butler may not necessarily lose.

Originally, Butler should have really shown his strength in his fourth year in the league.

The rookie season averaged 2.6 points and 1.3 rebounds per game, 8.6 points and 4 rebounds per game in the sophomore year, and the personal data in the third season has reached 13.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

At the same time, even Leonard averaged only 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, and it is worth mentioning that that year, that year, in the 14-15 season, Leonard was selected for the best defensive team and won the DPOY award for best defensive player, while Butler was selected for the best defensive second team, both of whom are the most outstanding defensive players at the forward position.

Of course, Leonard's situation is unique, and the Spurs' tactical system dictates that players have to serve the team more often.

In the past ten years, the Spurs have very few players who have averaged more than 20 points per game in a single season, and the whole team has scored very evenly, and the tactical system itself has also restricted Leonard's growth and performance.

The topic is a bit far away.

All in all, Leonard and Butler, two rookie rookies, have a very important position in Wang Chao's heart, and it is absolutely impossible to send them away in at least the past three or four years. Parsons and Thomas Jr., due to their very obvious flaws, are only temporary transition players, and once they play a good price, they can be traded away as chips.

This can't be helped, the existence of the sparring potion gives Wang Chao even the confidence to train some originally mediocre players into excellent role players, but that is limited to his own ball skills and ability on the court.

Chandler. Parsons' future is not about his own ability, but about his mentality.

Before signing a big contract, Parsons played very hard and was no worse than Butler, Leonard and others.

However, with the end of his rookie contract and the signing of a 10 million contract with the Mavericks, in the first season of the Mavericks, Parsons was still able to keep to himself, averaging 15.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game and worthy of his annual salary of 10 million, but with the injury in the second season, Parsons began to gradually expose his "true nature".

After the injury, the other players are actively training and trying to recover and return to the game as soon as possible, but Parsons has completely begun to rot after the injury, and every day the club is young, and almost all the news related to him is going out with all kinds of beautiful women.

Then one of the most unjust grizzly bears in history came.

Faced with an injury that has not yet fully healed, Chandler's professional attitude is doubtful, and his future is uncertain. Parsons, the Grizzlies directly sent a four-year, $94.8 million contract to poach the rich man from the Mavericks.

Then Parsons played 95 games in three years with the Grizzlies and told the league that he was going to stand up and make money!

It's a shame that there are countless talented people in this league who have been ruined by injuries, but Parsons is purely self-inflicted and doesn't deserve a little sympathy. Bynum was pretty much the same, he did it all by himself.

Even so, Parsons still earned more than 127 million yuan in his entire career, more than most stars in the league.

Wang Chao doesn't feel that he can change a person's mind, as the so-called country is easy to change, and some players start to mess up once they sign a big contract and are not bad money, which is a matter of self-discipline and professional attitude.

Therefore, Wang Chao made a plan from the beginning, and after Parsons played a certain value, he would send it away as a trade chip in exchange for his favorite player or first-round pick.

The same is true of Thomas Jr.

Unlike Chandler. Parsons, Thomas Jr.'s professional attitude is very good, he is a model of inspirational players, but his height eventually restricts his development, no matter how good he performs, his height of 1.75 meters is also destined to position him in the defense of black holes.

The Warriors' Curry's defensive ability has always been criticized, but even so, his defensive efficiency can be ranked in the top five in the entire team, and his real defensive ability is seriously underestimated, not bad at all among point guards, and can even be ranked in the forefront.

The main squad of a team that aims to win the championship must not have such obvious shortcomings.

This is also doomed to the fate of Thomas Jr. being sent away after playing a certain value.

Of course, these are all plans that stay in Wang Chao's mind, at least in the last two rookie contract seasons, the four rookies will be the main cultivation targets of the Rockets.

——

On January 21, the Rockets play the Spurs at home for the third game of the season.

The Rockets, who were at home and had a two-day break, were full of energy, especially Da Yao, who played excellently, shooting 10-of-18 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line, with a double-double of 27 points and 11 rebounds.

The Rockets eventually defeated the Spurs 105-99 to win six in a row.

And after the battle with the Spurs, the Rockets ushered in another wave of welfare games.

Defeated the Timberwolves 107-92 on January 23, defeated the Bucks 114-105 on January 25, and slaughtered the Wizards 103-76 on January 27......

Facing several teams with the lowest strength in the league, the Rockets are not ambiguous at all, and with Wang Chao and Da Yao in the background, even if the Rockets are too young, they will not lose these games.

On January 28, the Rockets hosted the New York Knicks.

Originally, the Knicks were the powerhouses of the East, and after forming the Big Three lineup of Anthony, Stoudemire and Billups last season, they were once one of the favorites in the league to win the championship.

Who would have thought that after the start of the new season, the Knicks have played exceptionally badly, with only 7 wins and 12 losses so far.

The team's two biggest stars, Anthony and Stoudemire, have suffered injuries in turn, and the team has been unable to get back on track.

In this game with the Rockets, the Knicks still couldn't solve their own problems, and finally lost to the Rockets 84-97.

Stoudemire scored 23 points and 8 rebounds on 10-of-20 shooting in this game, and his performance was decent, but when Anthony was absent due to injury, only 3 Knicks scored double-doubles. Chandler struggled to support himself.

Unfortunately, Chandler's opponent in this game is still his bitter master Da Yao.

Tyson. The grievances between Chandler and Da Yao, as I said before, when Da Yao had not yet landed in the NBA, he put Tyson, who was the No. 1 high school student in the United States at the time. Chandler hangs and hits, let alone now?

Wang Chao and Da Yao, the two main players, both clocked in and left work early before the third quarter of the game, watching the substitute players stay on the court for a long time.

Then Wang Chao saw Jeremy Lin, who came off the bench for the Knicks, running back and forth on the court, performing quite hard.

Now it's almost time for Jeremy Lin to explode.

Just a week later, on February 4, Jeremy Lin broke out in the Knicks' game against the Nets, scoring 25 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists, officially starting his crazy journey.

As a Chinese-American guard, Jeremy Lin's storm in the league can be called a "miracle" both now and in the future, after all, Jeremy Lin is not open, unlike Wang Chao's systematic blessing and assistance, in the NBA league where the strong are like Lin, even if he only played 7 peak performances, it is really incredible.

After the league shutdown ended and the free agency market opened, the Rockets actually had a chance to sign Jeremy Lin.

In fact, in the original history, the Rockets signed Jeremy Lin at the beginning of the 11-12 season, but before the start of the regular season, the Rockets chose to cut Jeremy Lin to make room to sign Samuel. Dareham Porter, that's what made the Knicks pick up a leak.

But after hesitating for a moment, Wang Chao finally did not sign Jeremy Lin.

The reason is simple.

Wang Chao is not sure whether Jeremy Lin will be able to set off a storm that will sweep the league after joining the Rockets like he did with the New York Knicks.

I'm afraid it's probably not.

Jeremy Lin is indeed very capable, but there is one thing to say, the 7 games in the Knicks were also super level for Jeremy Lin, simply put, the right time and place are indispensable.

Without the injuries of Anthony and Stoudemire, without head coach D'Antoni grasping at the task of saving a life, and without the Knicks' unique team situation, Jeremy Lin really might not be able to play.

So Wang Chao finally chose to give up and watched Jeremy Lin finally join the New York Knicks.

If he asks the Rockets to sign Jeremy Lin, it wouldn't be a problem for Jeremy Lin to replace Brooks as the team's starting point guard after some intensive training with a sparring potion, which would be a pity.

Jeremy Lin obviously has the opportunity to become a hero in the Knicks and shock the whole league and even the whole world, but Wang Chao doesn't want to let Jeremy Lin miss out on this precious experience that can be remembered for a lifetime.

"Jeremy Lin played pretty well."

Sitting on the bench, watching the whole court rushing and forcing Jeremy Lin, who was very active, Da Yao, who was sitting next to Wang Chao, couldn't help but say.

At the 2010 draft, Da Yao knew about Jeremy Lin, who also participated in the Rockets' tryout, but eventually became an undrafted pick and was signed by the Warriors.

Da Yao originally thought that Jeremy Lin would have no ball to play after being cut by the Warriors in the offseason, and it was very likely that he would go to the CBA to play, in fact, Jeremy Lin did test the CBA during the shutdown, and once represented the Dongguan New Century team in the Asian Professional Men's Basketball Challenge and won the MVP.

But after the league shutdown ended, Jeremy Lin chose to return to the NBA to look for a job, and successfully landed a base salary contract with the Knicks.

Although Jeremy Lin, as a Chinese-American, is technically a Chinese, it is still gratifying to see more and more Asian faces appearing in the NBA.

Hearing Da Yao say this, Wang Chao suddenly became interested, he turned his head to look at Da Yao and said: "This kid is very powerful, do you believe it or not, he can set off a storm in the alliance in a week at most?" ”

"Stirring up a storm in the Alliance?" Da Yao was inexplicable and didn't understand what Wang Chao meant.

Wang Chao didn't continue, talking too much about this kind of thing would only expose his identity as a traverser, but if he stopped talking, he would further shape his unique characteristics.

After all, almost all of the four rookies selected in the Rockets draft have taken on some responsibilities within the team, which is one of the reasons why the Rockets are now able to dominate the West.

——

After defeating the Knicks, the Rockets have unknowingly won ten in a row! With a record of 17-3, the Bulls surpassed the 16-4 Bulls to become the league's No. 1 player, a result that no one expected before the start of the regular season.

But the Rockets' winning streak didn't end, and on January 30, the Rockets defeated the Timberwolves 120-108 to reach an eleventh straight victory.

Immediately after February 1, the Rockets challenged the Spurs away, which was the last game of the regular season between the two teams this season, because the consecutive games were still away games, this game was suspended as usual, and Wang Chao led the team to face the Spurs, and finally lost to the Spurs 91:99, and the winning streak ended.

Although he lost this game, Wang Chao did not regret it, Da Yao's health came first in his opinion, and it didn't matter whether the regular season record was good or bad, after all, this was a shrunken season, and the Rockets couldn't get 67 wins or a better record even if they performed in the regular season, after all, there were only 66 games in the entire regular season.

In the tight and intensive shortened season, the health and fatigue of the players will directly determine the outcome of the playoffs, and it must be taken seriously, especially Da Yao, a dangerous person who should have retired due to serious injuries, and it is not too cautious to be careful.

(End of chapter)