The reality is like this, when a player's popularity or level reaches a certain height, any of his behaviors will be infinitely magnified with a magnifying glass, with all kinds of highest standards, but if he shows a little omission or inadequacy, he will be criticized by all kinds of verbal criticism.

This is like James in 2023, as a 38-year-old veteran, he can still average 28.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, even if he is no longer the top player in the league, he is still one of the players who play very well.

But he will still be sprayed with incomplete skin, what kind of cross-waist defense, he will only play fast attack, and the evaluation of garbage time brushing points will follow.

Limited by physical fitness, it is an indisputable fact that James' defensive ability has dropped significantly, and he has spent most of his physical energy on the offensive end, and there is no way to take care of defense, so he can only make trade-offs.

In the regular season, whether it is for the completion of Project 411 or in order to continue to sit in the position of the Lakers' leader, James chose to allocate more physical energy to the offensive aspects that can reflect the data rather than the defense.

But the problem is that under this premise, James is not bad on the offensive end, he can still maintain a shooting rate of more than 50% while averaging 28.9 points per game, and he is the most efficient player on the Lakers' offense.

Despite giving up defense, James did his job on the offensive end.

There are countless players in the league who are strong in offense and weak in defense, but James is the only one who will be singled out for all kinds of criticism.

Indeed, in various highlights, there will be a large number of James pestles that do not return to defense in place, but in 82 games in a season, can the whole network find more than 100 shots of James not returning to defense in a single season? Apparently not.

Today's NBA, with nearly 200 rounds per game, requires a lot of round-trip runs and offense and defense.

Even according to James's average of not returning to defense once per game, compared to his contribution on the offensive end, it is extremely insignificant, and the number of times James does not return to defense is far less than the average of 1 per game.

And most of the situations like this kind of non-return defense occur when the Lakers are stealing and counterattacking, and the same shots will be found on other players in the league, and a large number of similar shots will be found, but the person who did the video highlights only showed James's defense.

The funniest thing is that some people laughed at James for ranking only 104th in the league in defensive efficiency in the 22-23 season, and as a result, Leonard was 126th, Butler was 133rd, Harden was 166th, and Doncic was 244th......

Saying so much, it's not for James to wash the floor, the 22-23 season James is indeed visibly weaker, and there is less hard work in the past, the already "reasonable" style of play has become more "reasonable", and even winning is no longer the first primary goal, more often he wants to ensure good attendance in a healthy situation, so as to complete his 411 project.

To put it more simply, give James a choice, let him work hard for one season, win another championship and then retire with a serious injury, or he can continue to play healthy for four to five seasons and continue to maintain about 20+5+5 data, but he is not competitive, and don't want to win another championship, I believe James will still choose the latter.

This may also be the difference between James and Kobe.

The paranoid Kobe Bryant can even fight to rupture his Achilles tendon for the illusory promise of making the playoffs instead of a championship, an option that more often than not, James, who plays with a businessman's mindset.

But it can't be said that James's choice is necessarily wrong, because in fact, Kobe did pay the price for his impulsiveness, 13 years of fighting to rupture the Achilles tendon caused Kobe to bury his entire career, if there was no big injury, maybe Kobe Bryant could continue to be at the top for a few more years, if the Lakers made a trade in the past few years, they may not have a chance to compete for the championship.

All in all, the crux of the topic is that no matter what James chooses, he is the one who gets scolded.

There is no need to think about it, assuming that James in 22-23 gives up his personal data and focuses all his energy on defense to strengthen the Lakers' defense, there will be no fewer people spraying him, and even more.

After all, can you imagine what kind of carnival will be ushered in on the Internet if James only averages 15+10+5 per game in a season?

Wang Chao is actually a bit of James's kind of treatment now, and even those extreme fans have higher requirements for Wang Chao than James, after all, his personal honor is too good, and there is no one who can even compare, so he can only be measured by a higher inhuman standard.

Wang Chao did not practice this offseason, and choosing to spend the holiday with his daughter is a good spearhead.

The media takes it for granted that Wang Chao is content with the status quo and ready to go.

A lot of criticism is rampant, and the wind has reached the point where Wang Chao will definitely encounter Waterloo next season.

And Wang Chao, as a traverser, has become accustomed to this kind of atmosphere, and he doesn't take it seriously at all.

Even he is ready to slap these people in the face with his actual performance when the new season starts.

Isolated all these negative information, Wang Chao went on vacation with peace of mind, accompanied the big and small Keer on various tours, and even took a plane back to China to take Xiao Keer to visit his grandparents.

Time flies, and two months pass almost in the blink of an eye.

"Goodbye! Goodbye Aunt Candace! ”

In the boarding passage of Los Angeles Airport, Xiao Keer said to Wang Chao in a milky voice in her mother's arms.

Wang Chao smiled and waved his hand. "Goodbye."

On the side, Candace also smiled and waved goodbye.

After watching the mother and son board the plane, Candace turned her head to look at Wang Chao, and a pair of beautiful eyes flowed.

"Busy man, finally sent them away, and the next thing is our two-person world, right?"

"What do you say?" Wang Chao smiled, but he was secretly happy in his heart. "Fortunately, I didn't do any holiday training camp this year, this is obviously to squeeze out my rhythm, I must stock up on more physical potions, and men must not say that they can't do it!"

——

The time entered mid-September, Wang Chao was away from basketball, and during the period when he took his wife and daughter to play in the mountains and rivers, other teams in the league have been trading and reinforcing them, but unlike various big moves in early July, near the start of the new season, some of the rest of the transactions are just small fights.

For example, the Thunder made a deal with the Hawks to send Cameron, one of the Big Three. Anthony, and then the Eagles reached a buyout agreement with Anthony non-stop and became a free man.

Last season's experience with the Thunder was a nightmare for Anthony.

The average points per game slipped to a career-low 16.2 points, and he became the blame for the Thunder's loss.

How glamorous the Big Three were when they were first formed last year, and how embarrassed Anthony was when he was swept away by the Thunder, is a great shame for a player who has been a top superstar in the league for the past decade or so.

But what makes him even angrier is that his reputation has been stinky in the past year, and after reaching a buyout agreement with the Hawks, there are many teams in the league interested in him, but most of them are unwilling to give him a high salary or the promise of a major position.

In short, 25 million Anthony can't do it, and 2.5 million can be considered.

"Go to TM's 250, your whole family is 250!"

As a native of the United States, Anthony didn't know what 250 meant, but this number still made him inexplicably angry.

Joining the Thunder was really the worst decision of his career, not one of them!

After venting his anger, he can only accept the status quo and choose a strong enough team as much as possible under the condition of recognizing the base salary.

If you can't make money, you can win at least one championship.

Under this premise, the first thing he thought of was, of course, Wang Chao, who had dominated almost the entire alliance in the past few years.

Although he is not optimistic about the Clippers team chosen by Wang Chao, Wang Chao is definitely worth his bet.

But after Wang Chao learned the news, after thinking for a while, he still politely rejected Anthony.

Anthony still has gas in his tank, there's no doubt about that.

In the 19-20 season, Anthony was the team's starting small forward with the Trail Blazers, averaging 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and in the following two seasons, as a bench player for the Trail Blazers and Lakers, he was also able to play highlights.

But Anthony during the 18-19 season was clearly not the case.

At this stage, Anthony is still in the stage of insufficient recognition of his own strength and has not woken up from the past glory.

Even if he joins the team with a base salary, he will want to have more possession of the ball and prove that he is not old through the game.

This is one of the reasons why Anthony was kicked out after only 10 games after joining the Rockets in the 18-19 season.

This is the same reason that Iverson couldn't get mixed in the NBA at the end of his career, Iverson no longer has the level of a top star at the end of his career, but he is very disgusted with changing his team positioning, and his perverse personality is difficult to integrate into any team, and in the end he can only wander more teams, and finally hit a gray nose and return to the 76ers to retire.

Anthony is slightly better than Iverson, at least after the Rockets suffered a realistic beating in the 18-19 season, he realized that he needed to make a change, from superstar to role player, and he did so, which led to a decent outside evaluation in the following years.

The current Anthony has just come out of the Thunder, Wang Chao doesn't think he has recognized the reality, so even if he can sign Anthony with a base salary at this time, it doesn't make much sense, and the Clippers' forward line is already congested, Gallinari, Harris, Harrell, if you add Wang Chao, it is four forward players, in addition, such as this year's rookie Alexander is also a player who can swing in the guard and small forward position.

The Clippers can give Anthony not much playing time and ball possession, and it is basically certain that the other party will definitely have an awkward relationship with the team because of this problem, even if Anthony will not be used as the culprit and scapegoat for the team's declining record in the Clippers as he was in the Rockets, but it is still harmful to the Clippers themselves.

Anthony, who failed to hug Wang's super thigh, chose to switch to his good brother James.

At the end of August, when the news of Anthony joining the Lakers with a veteran base salary of 2.16 million yuan for one year was announced, it undoubtedly caused another violent league earthquake.

The Lakers' lineup is going to heaven!

James + Towns + Cousins + Rondo + Anthony? The Unprecedented Big Five!

At this time, people don't know that Tatum, the young player of the Lakers, will also soar into a superstar in the future, otherwise the slogan of the Big Six can be shouted.

The Lakers, who are showing off their might, completely overshadowed the Clippers before the start of the new season, after all, when Wang Chao ran back to China to play in the mountains and rivers and disappeared, all the other players of the Clippers team together are not as hot as one Anthony.

"I watched the Los Angeles City Derby in the new season! Who is the stronger of the two Los Angeles teams? ”

"Lakers Big Five vs Clippers' New God King Super!"

Under various slogans, Wang Chao finally came to the Clippers to report.

——

The current head coach of the Clippers is Doug Murphy. Rivers, the league's famous chicken soup coach.

However, due to the failure to lead the Celtics to win the championship in 08, Rivers, who did not have the title of champion coach, was slightly inferior to the reputation in the original time and space.

However, for Wang Chao's attitude, Rivers is not much different from Wang Chao's previous coaches, he can lick it, and his rich coaching experience did not make Rivers develop that unruly attitude, on the contrary, he knows very well how to keep his job.

If there is a conflict between him as the head coach and Wang Chao as a player because of the team's coaching problems, there is no doubt that the Clippers management will choose to help Wang Chao and kick him away.

Therefore, when he saw Wang Chao for the first time, Rivers had already said to himself in his heart that no matter what, he had to follow Wang Chao in the team to make money, business, and not chill.

Seeing that head coach Rivers is an understanding person, Wang Chao is also very happy, just saving the effort of tossing blindly, and Rivers himself is the founder of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and his ability to pour chicken soup for the players is even better than Tyronn. Lou.

Wang Chao is responsible for the formulation of the team's tactics and training plan, and Rivers is responsible for supervising and pouring chicken soup into the players during the game to make them scream, with a clear division of labor, and no one takes advantage of anyone. 、

Wang Chao has thought about it, starting from Ming'er, let's talk about it, I call you the coach, and you call me the big brother.

……

The Clippers rallied and began their preseason recovery work.

In the head coach's office, Rivers looked at a document on the computer in front of him and fell into deep doubt.

This document was sent to him by Wang Chao just now, which records in detail the team's training plan for next month, the team's starters, and the allocation of playing time for substitute players, so detailed that he can't find fault with a head coach.

But even though he is known as a chicken soup coach, Rivers is a veteran coach who has coached the team since 2000, and this kind of feeding him directly in his mouth is really a bit difficult for him to get used to.

"Head coach?"

Across the desk, the head assistant standing in front of Rivers looked at him with some confusion.

Rivers took a deep breath to calm down, and then said, "I'll send you the team's training plan in a moment, and you can make a detailed training plan according to the plan." ”

After arranging everything, Rivers sat alone in the office.

"The next season is going to be very different......" (end of chapter)