At the end of September, all members of the Nuggets officially reported to prepare for the preseason of the new season.

After some manipulation and trade reinforcements in the free market in the summer, the Nuggets' lineup has met Wang Chao's expectations.

The starting lineup of the Nuggets for the new season is: point guard Donovan. Mitchell, shooting guard Jamal. Murray, small forward PJ Tucker, power forward Wang Chao, center Rudy Gobert.

This lineup has both offense and defense, both offensive and defensive ends are led by Wang Chao, the offense has Mitchell and Murray, two small guards, strong ball-holding breakthrough and projection support, and the defense is Gobert and Tucker to assist Wang Chao.

The main man on the bench was Derek. Ross & Kyle. Kuzma.

The above seven people are the absolute main force of Wang Chao in the Nuggets championship in the new season.

In addition to these 7 people, the Nuggets also have 7 role players, almost all of whom are some of the remaining unknown ordinary players of the Nuggets last season, most of whom Wang Chao doesn't even know their names, and they can't play any outstanding performances in the future, but considering that the salaries of these players are generally not high, and the Nuggets must make up the squad, they are all retained.

The outside world does not have any confidence in the Nuggets' lineup, Wang Chao can understand, after all, they don't know how strong Gobert and Tucker's defense is, and they don't know the offensive ability of Mitchell and Murray, in their opinion, the Nuggets' lineup can only be described in one word - rotten.

And Wang Chao is also absolutely sure, and surprised them all at the beginning of the season.

Moreover, in addition to the players, the Nuggets have another advantage, that is, the devil's home court, which is deeply feared by the whole league.

Altitude sickness, combined with the fanatical atmosphere of Nuggets fans, has made Pepsi Center Denver, home of the Nuggets, one of the league's most well-known devil's home arenas, even worse than the Boston Celtics' home stadium, TD North Shore Garden Arena.

This can be seen from the fact that the new players of the Nuggets team have come to report to the Nuggets team one after another, and they have some symptoms of altitude sickness to varying degrees in daily training.

It doesn't matter, even physically fit athletes can experience brief discomfort from strenuous exercise at higher altitudes, and the main reason for this reaction is that they play the Nuggets too few times each season.

The Nuggets themselves play at least 42 games a season at home in Denver, while teams in the West will mostly only play four games with the Nuggets and even fewer in the East, with only two games per season.

Unless it weren't for the special circumstances, no team would have brought their teammates to adapt to the Nuggets' plateau environment in advance.

This has always been the biggest advantage of the Nuggets in the league, including in the past few years, whenever the Nuggets have made the playoffs in the past few seasons, as long as you investigate it, you will find that the Nuggets' home win rate is much higher than that of the away team, and even some idle boring guys have done a special research, in the past 30 years of more than 40,000 games, the home win rate and the away win rate are compared, the Denver Nuggets are at the top of the league with a 28% win rate difference, which means that the Nuggets' home win rate is 28% higher than that on the road, the league is the best one.

It is worth mentioning that the difference in winning percentage with the Nuggets is close to that of the Utah Jazz, which is also one of the league's well-known devils' home courts.

The Denver Plateau, where the Nuggets are located, is 1,600 meters above sea level, and Salt Lake City, where the Jazz are located, is also 1,300 meters above sea level.

Of course, whether it is the altitude advantage of the plateau or the home court advantage of the Devils, it is only a small part of the factors that affect the game, and it cannot be the key to the team's victory, otherwise the Nuggets and Jazz would not have won a championship so far.

What really determines the outcome of a game is the team and the players.

——

At the beginning of October, the preseason of the NBA2017-18 season started as scheduled.

A lot of people are watching the Nuggets in the preseason, but the Nuggets are back alive in the preseason.

In eight preseason games, Wang Chao only played two games and played less than 10 minutes.

In the remaining five games, the Nuggets sent the main lineup of Mitchell, Murray, Tucker, Kuzma and Gobert.

Even though it's only a preseason, these Nuggets players are all desperate to prove themselves, so they work very hard during the game, and Gobert is the hardest-working.

In early July, when the Nuggets signed Gobert for 4 years and 64 million, the entire league said he didn't deserve an annual salary of 16 million.

Admittedly, judging from Gobert's performance on the bench for Whiteside with the Rockets, a contract of more than 10 million is a very lucrative offer for him, and the Nuggets' 4-year 64 million does seem to be a premium contract.

From that point on, Gobert wanted to prove to everyone that he was worthy of the contract.

After officially coming to the Nuggets to report, he was once again highly praised by Wang Chao.

In early September, when taking photos of the Nuggets' makeup, Wang Chao mentioned Gobert, the second highest-paid player on the team, in an interview with reporters.

"Rudy is a very good player, when he was with the Rockets, I valued and selected, no one knows his good qualities better than me, I am optimistic that he will be the best defensive player in the future, and his ability to protect the basket will be the defensive gate of the Nuggets, unbreakable."

Wang Chao's unsparing praise made Goebel feel a kind of death for a confidant.

Not for himself, even if it is just to respond to Wang Chao's expectations, he must also play a performance in the new season to shut everyone up.

The preseason was the first game on Gobert's rise.

In all eight preseason games, Gobert played as a starting center, averaging 11.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 27 minutes per game, showing his dominance on the defensive end of the basket.

Wang Chao was not surprised at all.

The 17-18 season was the period when Gobert won the Defensive Player of the Year award for the first time in his career, and in the 16-17 season, Gobert's strength was already selected for the All-Defensive Team.

Although in this time and space, because he was selected by Wang Chao, he was unlucky enough to become a substitute, did not have much playing time, and did not play enough games, resulting in a slight decline in strength compared with another time and space in the same period, but at the same time, Gobert also enjoyed the blessing of Wang Chao's sparring potion, and also had the development route set by Wang Chao for him, so he took a lot of detours, so his strength was not much weaker than the original.

Gobert is not the only one on the Nuggets who has been impressive.

The performance of the two small guards in the preseason was equally surprising, especially Mitchell, a first-year rookie who is new to the league.

Mitchell's starting point is very high, although he is only the 13th pick in the first round, but in the original time and space, in the first season of entering the league, he was able to shoot 43.7% in the regular season, contributing an average of 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, becoming the Jazz's first scoring point, perfectly replacing the Jazz's main core Hayward last season.

Heading into the playoffs, Mitchell averaged 24.4 points per game, and although the Jazz were in the second round as they did in the 16-17 season, it was amazing to be able to perform like that as a first-year rookie.

After that, Mitchell's personal performance also improved steadily year by year, averaging 23.8 points per game in the second season, 24 points per game in the third season, and 26.4 points per game in the fourth season......

It can be said that the core of the Jazz defense is Gobert, and the core of the offensive end is undoubtedly Mitchell.

In contrast, Murray, who entered the league a year earlier than him, is slightly inferior, and the latter finally achieved an average of 20+ points per game in the fifth season of his career, but considering that the teams the two are on are different, the Jazz are good at defense, lack offensive means, and rely on Mitchell's scoring ability, on the other hand, the Nuggets themselves have Jokic, a ball-holding core, and Murray is only the team's second scoring point, and the average number of shots per game is naturally less than Mitchell. If Murray had taken the same number of shots as Mitchell during his rookie contract, he wouldn't necessarily have scored less than the other team.

However, in the preseason, Mitchell was the Nuggets' No. 1 offensive core, averaging a surprising 18.7 points per game.

"Mitchell is a very impactful guard, although he is only 1.85 meters tall, he has an arm span of 2.08 meters, and he also has top athleticism, which makes him extremely lethal with the ball, excellent finishing ability under the basket, and the defense is obviously better than expected, and it is expected that he will become a powerful right-hand man next to Wang Chao in the new season."

"Jamal. Murray also showed a better preseason than last season, his shooting has become more consistent, especially from beyond the three-point line, he shot just 33.4% from three-point range last season, and the greatest three-point shooter of all time has clearly made his three-point shooting more accurate, and his three-point shooting rate was as high as 43% during the preseason, and if he can maintain this shooting rate during the regular season, the Nuggets' offensive problems will not need to worry at all. ”

Eight preseason games, Gobert, Mitchell and Murray have all been praised to varying degrees, after all, their performances have exceeded expectations.

But this is also limited to the preseason, everyone knows that the preseason is just a part of the training of the league's teams, and the wins and losses are not included in the regular season statistics.

The Nuggets, who performed well in the preseason, are still unaware of what kind of play they will show in the regular season.

But the suspense will soon be revealed.

——

On October 20, 2017, the NBA regular season officially began.

The Nuggets' first game was on the road, traveling to Utah to take on the Jazz.

is different from the Jazz team in another time and space, and the Jazz in this time and space in 17-18 years highlights a tragic word.

The two core players, Gobert and Mitchell, were both cut off by Wang Chao, not to mention, Hayward was also poached by the Celtics this summer, as in the original history.

As a result, the main player of the Jazz team in the new season is only the Spanish golden boy Rubio, and the Jazz themselves have cultivated a power forward for many years. Pevers, Joe. Ingle and the summer were cornered, signing All-Star Paul with 3 years and 90 million. Millsap.

Originally, Millsap should have joined the Nuggets for 3 years and 90 million, and in the next three years, he should have been the partner of Jokic on the Nuggets team, and made great contributions to the Nuggets for three years.

But now that the Nuggets have Wang Chao, it would be too wasteful to spend another 30 million annual salary to sign Millsap, and as a result, Millsap went around in circles and returned to the Jazz team where he played at his own price.

Just by looking at the Jazz lineup, you can see that the Jazz are going straight to the lottery for the top spot this season, after all, they currently have neither an offensive core nor a defensive core in their lineup, and they are a completely disorganized team.

Before the game, the outside world generally believed that the Nuggets would have a high probability of winning, after all, they had the first person in the history of the league, Wang Chao.

Although he didn't play much in the preseason, no one would underestimate Wang Chao's dominance on the field.

But even with that expectation, the result was surprising.

The Nuggets' official starting roster for the new season was finally in front of the game.

During the preseason, many people speculated about what position Wang Chao would play in the new season.

If they continue to play point guard like the Nets, one of Mitchell and Murray will go to the bench, after all, their height is completely unable to play the small forward position, and even Mitchell's height of 1.85 meters is difficult to play as a point guard.

The final answer is that Wang Chao appears in the long-lost power forward position.

This result is not too surprising.

In the past ten years of his career, Wang Chao has tried various positions on the court, initially when he was in the Suns, he could only serve as a small forward, but after arriving at the Magic, he can already take turns with Tekoglu in the position of power forward, and when it comes to the Rockets, Wang Chao has completely let himself go, from point guard to center, he has tried and played extremely well.

In the past, when I praised a player, I would say that the player could defend from the No. 1 position to the No. 5 position, such as Kevin. Garnett, James and later Drummond. Green.

But a player like Wang Chao who can play from the No. 1 position to the No. 5 position is really an extremely rare existence in the league.

Once Magic Johnson played a cameo as a center in the finals and led the team to win the championship and won the FMVP, which is already a very legendary event, but after all, it is a short-term cameo, Wang Chao is really a long-term center of the team in a single season, which is not a concept at all.

And now, Wang Chao has returned to the long-lost big forward position, guards Mitchell and Murray, forwards Wang Chao and Tucker, center Gobert, balanced offense and defense, and it looks very reasonable.

In the first quarter of the game with the Jazz, the Nuggets' tough strength was revealed.

On the offensive end, Wang Chao didn't have too many politeness, directly took over the ball and attacked by himself, scoring 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting in a single quarter, while on the defensive end, Gobert Gatak's presence made Wang Chao not need to help defend and wipe his teammates' butts as often as he did during the Nets period.

As a result, the Nuggets scored 33 points in the first quarter while limiting the Jazz's scoring to 20 points and taking a 13-point lead in the first quarter.

In the second quarter of the game, Wang Chao made a new attempt, reduced his shots, and handed the ball to Mitchell and Murray, two guard players, while he built a defensive system with Gobert and Tucker.

The combination of three top defenders and the formation of a defensive line is almost suffocating.

The Jazz's superior defense caused the Jazz's offense to collapse across the board, scoring only 15 points in a single quarter, shooting 5-of-15 from the field and shooting just 33.3% from the field.

Without Wang Chao's large participation in the offense, the Nuggets' offensive efficiency was not high, but they still scored 25 points in a single quarter.

As a result, the score of the two teams was 58:35 at halftime!

The Jazz scored just 35 points in the half, which is not far from the lowest first-half score in NBA history, the 24 points in the first half held by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996, but it is only 50 steps and 100 steps.

The suffocating pressure displayed by the Nuggets on the defensive end can be felt by the audience through the screen.

"It seems a little different from what I imagined......

In the second half of the game, with the rotation lineup, the Jazz's offense was finally able to pick up, scoring 25 points in the third quarter, although it was still not high, but it was reasonable.

However, in the third quarter, the Nuggets' score was still not low, with 29 points in a single quarter.

At the end of the third quarter, the difference between the two teams had reached as many as 27 points.

In the final fourth quarter of the game, Wang Chao and Gobert did not play, and even Mitchell, who was a rookie, and Murray, who was a sophomore, went up to play for 3 more minutes before going off the court.

In garbage time, the Jazz still couldn't close the score.

In the end, the game ended, and the Nuggets beat the Jazz by 32 points 114-82 and won the start of the new season.

The Jazz's performance is not mentioned, but on the Nuggets' side, all 6 players scored double-doubles, and Wang Chao scored a game-high 28 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, neither scoring 30+ nor averaging a triple-double per game.

There is no way, the Jazz team is too weak, Wang Chao didn't even play 30 minutes in the whole game, and the main thing is a companion.

Mitchell made his NBA regular season debut, scoring 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.

In addition, Murray, Gobert, and Rose and Kuzma on the bench also scored double-doubles, and even Tucker, who had an average offensive performance, scored 9 points, almost scoring double-doubles.

The Nuggets had a flawless performance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends of the regular season opener.

"In the first game of the new season, the Nuggets surprised everyone, although their opponent Utah Jazz is not a top team in the league, and after losing Gordon Hayward in the summer, the strength has further declined, but even so, the Nuggets in the game to show offensive and defensive dominance can not be ignored, the new season Nuggets under the leadership of Wang Chao may really play well."

Although the Nuggets successfully won the recognition of many media commentators with this opening game, the Nuggets' subsequent performance on the court was still surprising.

After the opener, the Nuggets' follow-up opponents were the Kings, Wizards, Hornets and Hawks.

Of the above four opponents, the only one who caused a little trouble for the Nuggets was the Hornets with Charlotte's three Jays, and even the Hornets at home failed to beat the Nuggets.

The Hornets' recruitment work this summer was not ideal, and their best goal was to get Wang Chao and form a super team to compete for the championship, but Wang Chao gave up the easy mode to choose the difficult difficulty and joined the Denver Nuggets.

Then the Hornets looked for a circle of players in the free market and did not like them, and finally had to use a five-year 106 million contract to complete a contract extension with their own player Victor Oladipo, which also completely locked the salary space of the Hornets, and the team will not have enough salary space to pursue superstars in the future, unless one of the three Charlotte Jays is traded away.

And in this game with the Nuggets, the Hornets at home actually didn't play very well.

The long-established star point guard Kemba. Walker didn't have the upper hand against Mitchell, a first-year rookie of his height.

Mitchell was considered to have a chance to become an outside defensive gate at the time of the draft, although he is only 1.85 meters tall, his confrontation is not weak at all, and with an arm span of 2.08 meters, he is very threatening on the defensive end.

Here can actually be a comparison, former Celtics star point guard Rajan. Rondo, who is 1.85 meters tall and has an arm span of 2.06 meters, is slightly worse than Mitchell.

The current Mitchell is definitely not comparable to Rondo in terms of defensive ability, but the natural advantage brought by talent can still make him much easier on the defensive end.

Kemba. Walker is 1.83 meters tall and has an arm span of 1.92 meters, and his static talent is completely incomparable to Mitchell's, and his dynamic talent is not as good as Mitchell's.

Walker is a very fast player among defenders, after all, if he wants to survive in the league with his height, he must have the support of speed.

But Mitchell, who is physically strong, is faster than him.

This is called punching the master to death.

In a one-on-one situation, Walker couldn't get rid of Mitchell's defense at all, and could only rely on his teammates to block and cover Mitchell.

But then, the question arises again, who will block Walker?

Usually, the pick-and-roll personnel are more suitable for the team's forwards and centers, after all, the big players are big and the quality of the pick-and-rolls is better.

But who are the players on the Nuggets' forward position?

Small forward PJ Tucker, power forward Wang Chao, center Gobert...... None to mess with.

Needless to say, Wang Chao is a four-time best defensive player, relying on help to defend and supplement defense, and Tucker is also known for his strong body and flexible feet.

As a center, Gobert is slow-paced, does not move fast, and is relatively weak in terms of efficiency in big defense, but Gobert's height and arm span are too exaggerated.

With a height of 2.16 meters and an arm span of 2.35 meters, standing in front of Walker with open arms is simply a cover.

In this case, how can Walker's offensive efficiency be high?

Walker's lying on his stomach, the team's first core thick eyebrows brother Anthony. Davis wasn't much better.

He mainly plays the power forward position in the Hornets, and the opposite is Wang Chao.

Wang Chao's defensive characteristics can be said to be just enough to restrain Brother Thick Mei's style of play...... No, to be precise, Wang Chao's defensive characteristics are almost no players in the current league who can't be defended.

The power of 89 coupled with the blessing of a martial arts maniac makes him comparable to James in terms of strength.

Although the height of 2.06 meters is low among interior players, it will not be suppressed by the opponent's height because of this height difference.

Strong confrontation ability, foot speed is the best in the league, bounce and explosiveness are also the top level, even if you really can't prevent the opponent, there is also a lion roar talent to the bottom.

At present, in the league, only a few top stars such as James and Durant can play normally under Wang Chao's defense.

Brother Davis is also a top star, but the situation is more special, his attacking ability is weak, although his skills are comprehensive, but there is no trick, such as Duncan's 45-degree boarding, Novis Fund Chicken Independence can be a decisive move.

This makes Davis somewhat similar to Garnett in nature, he is terrifyingly strong when he is strong, he can completely dominate the game on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and he is almost omnipotent, but when it comes to the crunch time, the team always disappoints when he needs to step up and score.

The shortcomings of the Pelicans during the thick eyebrows were not visible because of the level of the team, but after coming to the Lakers, this problem still existed.

It's not that the thick eyebrows aren't strong enough, it's just that he hasn't reached the level of the historical top that people expect, and his style of play is on the soft side, which is a little disappointing.

The thick eyebrows with a soft style of play met Wang Chao, who had a tough defensive style, and the result was that he was blocked outside the restricted area all the year round, and he could only shoot on the outside, completely Embiid and Downs.

But the problem is that under Wang Chao's defense, the outside shooting rate of thick eyebrows, as an inside player, is not high, and it is difficult to maintain even 40%.

Two of the Dallas three Jays were restricted, leaving only one Oladipo, who played well with Murray, played well throughout the game, and he was also very active when he just got a big contract, scoring 26 points in the game and shooting 46% from the field, but he didn't play well alone.

As a result, although the Hornets and the Nuggets played twice in the game, with Wang Chao's strength, they still quickly collapsed in the fourth quarter and lost the game 106-93.

(End of chapter)