When the news of Glove and Malone joining the Suns was officially announced, the entire league was in an uproar.

No one even cared about the fact that the Suns cut a power forward, Mark Madson, and a center, Jack Chacalidis.

No way, Phoenix doesn't have satellite teams in the Development League, and even if they want to, they can't stay.

Before Bai Fan crossed over, twenty years later, in 2023, Phoenix still did not develop a league team, which was the only one left in the league at that time.

Bai Fan's main job now is to make money, and all the remaining 500 million dollars after buying the team are invested in the capital market, and there is no extra money to establish a development league team.

Now to build a development league team, the amount of money needed is not much, tens of millions of dollars are completely enough, and if you can find a partner, even 10 million dollars can be a good team.

By next offseason, the Suns' revenue could pretty much be used to prepare for the development of league teams.

For Bai Fan, who has a golden finger, the biggest advantage of the development league team is that they can find some players with potential and no immediate combat power, and put them in the development league to train for two or three years.

In this way, it does not occupy the Suns' 15-man roster, but also can always keep track of player trends, sign two-way contracts in time and not be poached.

ESPN and other sports media and websites have released the latest Suns team ranking predictions for the new season.

Payton and Malone didn't join the team, and the Suns, who have O'Neal, Marion, Brad Miller and rookie Wade, are sixth in the West in ESPN's predictions.

In front of them are the Spurs, the No. 2 Kings, the No. 3 Timberwolves, the No. 4 Mavericks, and the No. 5 Lakers.

The top four are all last season's powerhouses that didn't have big trades, and the Lakers and Suns are in fifth or sixth place this season.

If it weren't for O'Neal leaving, the Lakers would definitely not be unable to enter the top four, and even the addition of Payton and Malone allowed them to surpass the Spurs to become the first in the West.

Now the Lakers led by Kobe Bryant can even suppress the Suns without Payton and Malone in the case of trading for Xiaosi, single Joe, and Hardaway.

But.

The addition of the two directly makes the Suns the new version of F4, beating the Spurs in the latest prediction and becoming the No. 1 Western Conference prediction in the new season.

At the same time, it is also the No. 1 prediction in the league.

No one knows that the Suns are not just the Big Four, they are actually the Big Five.

Wade will grow at the speed of the Rockets, making it even more difficult for the Suns to match.

Outside of the five, the depth of the team is also beyond the imagination of all the media, and Ragabel, David West, and Brad Miller can have the quality of regular starters this season.

On the bench, there are five other players who are unknown but ready to go.

October 5th.

The NBA preseason season begins, and the Suns' first opponent in the preseason is the Mavericks, one of the Texas powerhouses.

Maybe it's fate, this time against the Nortian King, it's not the twilight O'Neal and the peak Wade, and the Mavericks are not the team that played two games first and pushed the Heat to the edge of the cliff.

I don't know what kind of story the Flash and King Nuo will have here.

The day before the game, in the training gym, after a day of training, Rick Carlisle walked up to the players with the starting line-up.

"Note that tomorrow is the first game of the season, although it is a pre-season, but it is related to the direction of our team in the next season, I hope everyone will show their strength and take it seriously.

Next is what you are most concerned about, tomorrow's roster and starting list, the list is posted on the bulletin board, and you will disband yourself and take a look at it later. ”

At the end of the session, Calderon and Matt Bonner walked together as they walked out of the arena, both with a look of loss on their faces.

"I don't think I'm worse than Mike James, why would I be out of the squad."

"You're okay, there's less competitive pressure, there's always a chance to play when you train hard, and there's always going to be ups and downs in a season like that.

I'm miserable, there are four power forwards on the team, and if you can't make the squad, there must be at least one power forward, and if it goes on like this, I won't go through a season in the NBA and not be able to play. ”

Both of them sighed, not noticing that Bootelo walked up behind them, one slapping him on the back.

"It's not okay to lose your fighting spirit when you first enter the league, this is my tenth season, and as an old man I didn't make the squad.

If you don't play tomorrow, you don't have to save your energy today.

Let's go, find a place to practice. ”

West Coast Arena.

The warm-up of the players from both sides is over, and the game is about to begin.

"We've seen both starters come on the court, with the Suns starting lineup being Dwyan, Gary, Shaun, Karl and Shaq.

The starting lineup on the Mavericks' side is Antoine, Dirk, Michael, Steve and Danny. ”

Although this game is a preseason game, it has received a lot of attention in the United States.

"The game started, the two sides jumped the ball, Dirk flicked the ball to the backcourt, and the Mavericks took the lead to get the ball."

Bai Fan is also paying attention to this game in China at the moment, and the sports channel did not broadcast it live, but chose to broadcast the preseason game of the Rockets and Kings live.

Watching the text broadcast on the computer makes me feel like I have returned to that student era in an instant.

Seeing the starting lineup arranged by Rick Carlisle, I don't know whether to respect the star or decide to use this set of starters.

The Mavericks' offensive tactics didn't come out, and they handed over to Nuo Tianwang to play Ma Long alone, and the two of them were also old opponents.

On the Suns' side, Wade faced Nash's defense, O'Neal came up to block at the top of the arc, and Wade used his speed to quickly score a layup.

In the next few rounds, both sides were playing tactics.

The main attackers of the Mavericks are Nuo Tianwang and Michael Finley, facing the two-meter-one-three Nuo Tianwang, the elderly Malone is still half a head shorter, and he can't let go of his mid-range shot at all.

The Suns are playing Rick Carlisle's most familiar pick-and-roll, with Wade and Payton, two ball-handling point guards on the floor, and O'Neal is not too easy to eat on the inside.

The scores were tied and with five minutes played, Rick Carlisle opted to replace Karl Malone with Brad Miller.

Sure enough, as soon as he was replaced, Miller, who was younger and taller, put more pressure on the Nuo Tianwang on defense.

Let O'Neal and Miller play the twin towers on the court for a few minutes, and with Payton, the old fritter, the cards are dealt, and the Mavericks' interior line is quickly blown up.

Seeing that the results were good, Rick Carlisle began to replace the starters one after another.

O'Neal came down first to rest and let Malone and Miller partner on the inside.

The Mavericks also replaced the Nuo Tianwang and gradually began to train the recruit link.

Four minutes later in the first quarter, all five of the Suns' starters came to the bench, with Mike James, Ragabel, Carlisle, West and Miller on the floor.