"James, I'll pass you the ball later, don't hesitate then.

Believe in the results of this training, believe in your teammates, and believe in yourself.

Tonight is your debut, and hopefully you can get a good result. ”

In the opener, the Bulls beat the Cavaliers.

The Bulls took Ben Gordon, Doon, Zhu Fangyu, Josh Smith, Milicic, such a championship-winning lineup to play the starter, but the starting lineup only played more than three minutes before choosing to suspend the substitution.

This is mainly to help Curry, Harden, Evans, and Ibaka integrate into the team as soon as possible.

Because Ben Gordon is currently the Bulls' three-man leader, he will start for a longer period of time.

Theoretically, Curry, Harden, and Evans together only have fifty or sixty minutes of playing time.

Among them, Curry also has the shortcomings of limited size and poor defense, which leads to Curry's playing time being more limited.

After all, if Curry is played with Ben Gordon, it will take Doon, Josh Smith, and Milicic to wipe the butts of the two guards.

In the long run, the Bulls may have some defensive problems due to too much pressure on the interior defense, and even the offensive end will decline because of the heavy physical effort on the defensive end.

Now that the Bulls have rebuilt, they still want to try to make the playoffs. For the sake of the team's record, Curry can only play with Harden or Evans.

And now that this timeout, the Bulls decided to replace Harden first.

One thing to say, as things stand, in the eyes of the vast majority of Bulls fans, Harden is more orthodox than Curry.

On the one hand, it's because Harden is a scout, representing talent and player ceilings. On the other hand, Ben Gordon, who is about to be traded, is also a flower show.

Once upon a time, Bulls fans had high hopes for Ben Gordon, but Ben Gordon has not yet become an All-Star.

Of course, the Bulls didn't have Garnett and Roel Deng better than Ben Gordon this year. Now that there is less competition within the team, Ben Gordon can get more balls and more support from Bulls fans, which is a chance to come out.

In addition, considering that Ben Gordon assisted Doon to receive four championship rings, starting from the championship puzzle, it is not an insult to the identity of Tanhuaxiu.

Now that the Bulls have rebuilt, Chicago fans expect Harden to be at least the second Ben Gordon!

It is precisely for this reason that Harden's debut performance tonight has made Bulls fans look forward to it.

As a former and the big brother of the team, Doon still spent a little time encouraging Harden before he played.

As early as two months ago, in training camp, Doon found that Harden's physical fitness was indeed okay, after all, he was a guard who could be selected for the Tanhua show, even if the lateral movement speed was not fast, but the average guard player could still prevent it.

In terms of technology, Harden's basic skills are also very solid, and there is no problem with passing and controlling sudden shots.

To this end, Doon revamped Harden in advance, teaching him and Curry the Magic Ball Theory.

Some people may think that the magic ball will be useless, but in fact, for NBA players, finding the right position is more important than anything else.

Doon feels that Curry and Harden in their rookie period should focus on three-point shooting and basketry, and practice catch-and-shoot and basket finishing first.

When the rookie period is over, there is still energy to learn other skills, and then you can slowly evolve.

Both Curry and Harden have been affected by the Magic Ball theory, and their abilities have declined, mainly because they are unladylike.

Curry was influenced by Kerr's theory of "singles hurt the team" and significantly reduced his ball-handling offense.

Originally, he was still in the rising stage and had the opportunity to go further, but he met Durant, who was more suitable for shooting from mid-range.

However, Thompson refused to sacrifice the ball, and Curry had to sacrifice himself for the championship, which ultimately led to no chance to hone a series of ball-holding skills such as mid-distance in the game.

As for Harden, he was still the little prince of mid-pitch at the beginning, but he was completely magically influenced by Mogou, and mid-pitch was completely abandoned.

Playing too smart, too efficient, the result is that the inefficient mid-range is completely abandoned. When it comes to the playoffs, there is no whistle, and the opponent will not be able to take out the middle distance as soon as the defensive intensity is up, and it is easy to pull the crotch just by relying on the magic ball.

Now that Doon has let Harden and Curry play the magic ball, it is certain that it will not be reliable at critical moments.

However, playing in the Bulls, it is simply not Curry's turn and Harden to play key shots, isn't there Dwan? It's not like Doon doesn't know how to go to the middle distance.

What's more, the Magic Ball works well in the regular season!

Especially in today's era when the three-point ratio of role players is not accurate, the more people in the Bulls team can shoot threes and can help the team open up space, and the Bulls' offense will play very comfortably and smoothly.

Both Harden and Curry are quite talented, and Doon believes they will quickly adapt to the Bulls' style of play and pace of play.

As long as Curry and Harden can use their talents early, make two or three three-pointers per game, and steal chickens with air cuts, or break through with the ball and score two or three goals under the basket, then they will average thirteen or fourteen points per game.

Even if you occasionally feel bad and become a 09 pair, it should not be difficult to average 10 points per game in a season.

And this year, an average of 10 points per game plus an upper-mid-level defense can be used as a team starter.

Although Curry and Harden's defense is average, two talented rookies play the magic ball, and the scoring efficiency will not be much worse.

Taken together, this is equivalent to the Bulls spending 5 million to sign a scoring guard who is slightly worse defensively and averages 20 points per game.

Therefore, it is absolutely no problem to let Curry and Harden play the magic ball.

It's just that Harden has been playing with the ball since he was a child, and now he is allowed to play the magic ball, or even play without the ball, and he still needs to continue to transform and adapt.

After Harden came on the court, even with Doon taking care of him, he still couldn't play the performance that Tanhua should have.

Of course, it's not too bad, but it can only be said that the performance is very ordinary. In more than six minutes of playing time in the first quarter, Harden shot 1 of 3 three-pointers, plus an assist, no rebounds, played normally, and was decent.

On the contrary, Curry, who came on the court in the first quarter and gave full play to his talent for off-ball and three-pointers, making two three-pointers.

Other than that, Evans isn't bad either.

Evans knew that he couldn't do three points, so the main thing was to break through the ball, focus on the basket finish, and play to his strengths.

It is also because the rookies of the Bulls are not bad, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith are also playing normally, and Doon's performance is as stable as ever, and the Bulls actually played a five-five situation with the Cavaliers in the first half.

James naturally couldn't accept this.

The Cavaliers are also a championship contender for the Eastern Conference finals, and they have been strengthening every summer, and this summer was no exception, bringing in Antoine Jamison and Anthony Parker to strengthen their shooting ability and make it easier for him to break through with the ball.

The Bulls traded Garnett and Roel Deng this summer, and their strength has declined significantly, and they no longer have the strength to compete for the championship.

As a result, Doon was able to compete with a group of rookies with them......

In order to be the MVP of the right people, James had to show his muscles to the Bulls early and show the results of his summer hard work.

However, another James on the field suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Didn't crash away? What's the situation? "James was a little dumbfounded, he obviously used his elbow to open the way to the basket, why was he blocked by a rookie.

Harden resisted James' first wave of charges and also froze: "Straight line breakthrough? Don't you need to walk on your feet? ”

In the past, Harden's interior line has been European steps, and a breakthrough method like James, which relies on strength to scare people away, has never been experienced.

But now is not the time to think about that, Harden knows that the first half was mediocre and wants to save his debut as much as possible, so now try to make up for it with defense as much as possible.

It just so happened that James was in front of him with the ball.

Although there is no idea of "you are also worthy of being called James", but against the opponent's big boss, if you have the opportunity to steal, you still have to steal.

Speaking of which, Harden still has a bit of talent in stealing, although he has not yet been opened by Artest, but he still triggered the corresponding talent in this round.

"Where's the ball?"

James just wanted to slam Harden away, but found that Harden had crossed him and was getting farther and farther away from him.

It turned out that Harden didn't know when, and he just slapped the ball with one hand.

James, as a forward player, dribbles relatively high, and it is not uncommon for the dribble to be interfered with.

It's just that in the past, he had an advantage in physical confrontations, coupled with the early closing of the ball, he was able to steal one step, two steps, and three steps, so he didn't have to pay too much attention to the details of dribbling.

But this time, the boat capsized in the gutter, and the ball was taken away by Harden, not to mention, in the blink of an eye, Harden rushed to the basket and played a conversion.

"Give me the ball!" James reached for the ball under the frontcourt basket, ready to take advantage of the Bulls' inattention and immediately play the switch.

However, Doon has too much experience in the game.

After noticing that Harden had scored the ball, he immediately ran to the backcourt.

Sure enough, the Cavaliers also paid attention to passing the ball to James, so Doon predicted the passing route in advance and intercepted Hu!

"Falk ......"

When James saw Doon who was killed halfway, he could only curse bitterly, and then chased two steps to Doon's side in a walking way.

By the time James reached the free throw line, Doon had already dribbled across half court and fed the ball to Milicic with a pick-and-roll.

Because the Cavaliers were converted again and the defense was messy, Milicic seized the opportunity to jump and dunk and successfully ate the cake.

At this time, Doon returned to the backcourt again, with the intention of getting closer to James.

Seeing this, the Cavaliers players did not have the idea of continuing to pass the ball to James, but honestly dribbled through the half.

Eat a trench and grow wise, James knows that Harden is not easy to deal with, and this time the blocking and dismantling is replaced by someone to play.

In fact, James blocked and named the guard, that is, he had a mismatch advantage, but just now he pointed to Harden, who is talented, more stocky, and good at small defense.

Nowadays, the Bulls do have certain defensive problems on the outside, whether they exchange Curry or Evans for Ben Gordon, they will be named and broken by James.

After Doon was freed by James with a pick-and-roll, James quickly opened the game by naming Ben Gordon.

And after the Bulls lacked Garnett on the inside, the defensive quality did drop a notch or two.

Milicic has no problem with his talent, but he doesn't have Garnett's defensive attributes. And if you change to Dampier, you will also be dazzled by James's Ling Bo slightly.

Even if you keep looking for referee theories, someone is walking just now, but there are people above, what can you do?

After all, it's just "who in the audience dares to sue this official".

is also because James's killing moves are better used, and the Bulls don't want to lose, so they can only rely on Doon's personal ability to offset James's scoring.

The Cavaliers also understand that winning is not just about scoring, but also about strengthening the defense and limiting Doon's offense.

Doon made a few strong shots, but most of the quarter was single, which didn't work, and he didn't have that much physical strength.

Doon will have to split the ball to Ben Gordon and Josh Smith in the hope that they will be able to continue the fire.

However, Ben Gordon has consumed a lot of physical strength because he was named by James, and now he has not been able to find his touch and wasted a little ball.

Josh Smith is playing okay, but James is not the only one who can play with the Cavaliers.

Relying on James scoring 13 points in the third quarter and Maurice Williams and Antoine Jamison combining for 10 points, the Cavaliers still took a slight lead after playing the third quarter.

78-73, the Bulls trailed the Cavaliers by five points.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Doon continued to play and helped the Bulls take the lead, but only took a three-point lead.

After Doon was out of the court, Ben Gordon and Josh Smith failed to withstand the attacks of James, Morris, Jamison and others, and the difference was instantly stretched to 7 points.

Doon returned to the pitch to bite the difference, but was still a step late.

James had a good whistle in the final moments, stood at the free throw line twice in a row, and made all four free throws, and there was nothing Doon could do.

The Bulls tried foul tactics to get the ball back, but the Cavaliers didn't miss the ball.

And Doon didn't score every three-pointer, and in the end, the Bulls still lost this year's opener by five points.

However, the Bulls are still in the rebuilding period, the four rookies are still very immature, and the team has not run in well, and they can play to this extent with a championship team like the Cavaliers, which shows some problems.

It can only be said that the Bulls have a very thick foundation, and even if they trade away two leading players, they still have good competitiveness.

Indeed, starting configurations like Doon, Ben Gordon, Josh Smith, and Milicic are at least the top three in the league.

Even if the bench lacks reliable players and instead plays with a bunch of rookies and offcuts, the Bulls have the potential to make the playoffs.

The next game also confirmed this, and the Bulls rebuilt their confidence to win in just three regular season games.

Curry, Harden, and Evans have each done their part and found their position on the team and the right style of play for them.

Only Ibaka is rougher, and it still needs to be honed and learned.

However, the Bulls are not short of people on the inside now, and the problem is not big. (End of chapter)