Hill knows Edison very well, and he also knows these current Magic players very well... Although he cannot train with these people due to injuries, he has often gone to the Waterhouse Center training hall to watch since he was able to walk.
These familiar or unfamiliar teammates train and cheer them on.
And with Hill's basketball intelligence, it's clear who's good and who's bad, and who's strong and weak. He knows very well that even though Marion and Diaw left, and he missed the season, the Magic's bench is still the best in the league.
Compared with the Magic's talent pool, the Suns are much shabby. The team has 15 registered players, which is more than the Magic. If you sit on the sidelines, two rows of seats are not enough. But Barber, a player who can really come out to play.
There are three players including Sa, Eddie House and James Jones, and the trick is that these three are all outside players.
Originally, there was a Hunter last season. Although he was not good enough, he had the height and weight to support the situation in the paint. However, because of the salary negotiation, the Suns failed to renew his contract. Now there are two
Thomas' substitute is 211cm tall Pat Burke, who is known as the first Irish player to enter the NBA.
"In the second quarter, we mainly attacked the inside, especially Kurt Thomas. He is the only player in the Suns who can stand in the paint. As long as he is knocked down, the Suns' inside will be no different from being undefended. Varejao
Wait a minute, you replace Howard and go on the court to draw that guy's offensive foul. Josh, you come on the court too, and Nash, you play a little longer, and you two move more in the paint, looking for physical contact."
So at the beginning of the second quarter, except for Nash, the Magic's four starters came off the field and were replaced by Varejao, Josh Smith, Martin and Hardaway.
"Looking at the lineup that the Magic replaced, I guess it has made many teams jealous, especially these four insiders. Varejao and Josh Smith were completely dismissed by other players. At least there is only one small player in the Suns.
Si can compare with them, but it is a pity that our main players are still sitting on the sidelines in suits today. We put aside Paul's coaching ability, and just say that his ability to rebuild the team is definitely the best in the league."
Although Vin Johnson is a veteran of the Suns, he is very fair and is very dissatisfied with the Suns' current insiders.
In fact, many people gave Edison a new nickname after "Golden Eye" - the Lucky Boy.
This has nothing to do with his increasingly brilliant achievements in the business field, but entirely with his achievements in team salary management.
Due to the existence of the luxury tax, some strong teams, especially those in small cities, had to dismantle their teams due to salary pressure. For example, the Nets sent away Kidd, the Wizards gave up on renewing Hughes' contract, and so on.
So in this case, every NBA team will have a greater gambling component in its operation. They can choose to bet on someone, but lose everything because of it, such as the Trail Blazers and the New York Knicks.
; It is also possible to choose to temporarily clear the position, but in the end find that you can no longer find better and more suitable players than the original ones, such as the Toronto Raptors who lost Carter and the Kings who lost Webber.
Therefore, in today's NBA, everything requires careful calculation, from the draft to the signing of free players. Every contract that is worth the money has been given greater significance today.
Some people may object and say that in 2006, the NBA was going through the most significant period of development, with profits increasing at an alarming rate every year, and the salary cap and luxury tax also rising to a higher level every year.
This is true, but we have also seen that that period was also a golden blowout period for NBA players. The 1996 generation is at the peak of their sports careers, and the 03 generation is about to enter a new contract cycle. These people will occupy a very important position.
Large salary space. The emergence of amnesty clauses has begun to make managers of various teams gradually calm down and begin to reconsider the value of players. Of course, the people I am talking about here do not include the New York Knicks front office. In fact, that
For a while, they were the only ones waving checks, and ended up becoming the clowns who brought tension to the league.
We generally say that there are three types of particularly valuable contracts - 1. Rookie contracts, 2. Veteran contracts, and 3. Robbery contracts.
The first two of them will not be introduced in detail. They are easy to understand. Let’s focus on the third category - robbery contract.
Generally speaking, this type of contract is mainly because the person in charge of the team has done the following: 1. Signed free players at a lower price; 2. Exchanged a player who is still on a rookie contract; 3.
, renewed the contract with the team's players at an unbelievably low price; 4, made the veterans willing to take the initiative to cut their salaries for the team; 5, acquired James.
Originally, when the league talked about careful calculation and maximizing contract revenue, everyone would unanimously recommend the Spurs' **Vitch, but now they find that the Magic's Paul Edison is also doing a good job.
The core of Edison's fortune-making is the draft and low-price contract extensions.
ESPN conducted a player contract evaluation for the Magic at the end of January. The final result was that among the 13 players on the team, only Hill had a contract value greater than his contribution. Brand, Rondo, and David Lee were considered
Breaking even, the other 9 players are all good value for money. Among them, Howard, Josh Smith, Martin, and Roy are all considered to have contracts worth more than 10 million, but in fact, the contracts of these 4 players are worth more than 10 million.
It's less than 10 million.
So Edison is really the new generation of fortune-seeking boy in the alliance. Every cent in his hands can be used as a dollar. Of course, his counterpart is Isiah Thomas, who is considered the treasure-gifting god of the alliance.
That is what is selfless, sacrificing oneself for others.
The other 29 teams in the league are already very familiar with the Magic's large-scale rotation, and the Suns are no exception. Moreover, D'Antoni is not the kind of head coach who is observant and good at adapting to the situation, so he still follows his own rules.
The rhythm of the first quarter was played. However, due to physical considerations, he replaced Tim Thomas and Laga Bell, who performed well in the quarter. McGrady did not dare to move, and he needed to hold on.
Although leaving the Magic was his own choice, for McGrady, the team was wrong for not kneeling down to try to stay, so he will definitely give 90% of his strength when playing against the Magic.
McGrady had a rough first quarter. Although he scored a lot and scored 9 points, it was not easy. Iguodala was like a piece of candy, always causing trouble for him. Iguodala was fast.
, Tracy McGrady's usual first step of a lightning-fast breakthrough didn't work today, and he's still strong enough, so McGrady really can't break through without him.
This is Tracy McGrady, who was forced to run out of moves in the end. He also has a pull-up jumper that is unparalleled in the world. Coincidentally, what Iguodala fears most is the pull-up jumper.
Iguodala has excellent physical fitness, but no one is perfect. His biggest shortcoming is his lack of jumping ability. Of course, this is inferior to his other aspects. Taken alone, it is amazing.
The most prominent manifestation of Iguodala's lack of bounce is that his bounce speed is not enough and he has no explosive power.
Although Iguodala once won the runner-up in the dunk contest, and we can often see his dunk performances with his head touching the basket during the competition. But in fact, Iguodala's bounce speed is not fast. He is not like Howard or Yoyo.
Like Smith, he reaches the highest position in an instant with his feet. Iguodala does not rise quickly, and he often has a process of secondary exertion of abdominal muscles, so his bounce requires space. Therefore, we often see
He caught the ball under the basket and then dunked on the neck of the basket or was blocked.
So this kind of pull-up is undoubtedly what Iguodala hates the most, because he can't keep up. But if it doesn't matter to others, it is difficult for ordinary people to guarantee a hit rate on pull-ups, because without dribbling, the knees cannot fully exert their strength, so when shooting
Instead of exerting force all over the body from the bottom up, it relies purely on the feeling of the upper limbs. It can be said that you are struggling with yourself. This kind of rhythm is difficult to grasp.
But what we encountered today was McGrady, who happened to be the spokesperson for Ganba, and he allowed three kills in the first quarter.
But on the other hand, if possible, McGrady wouldn't want to pull it out. After all, this thing relies too much on the feel and puts a lot of strain on the back muscles. And McGrady has just been freed from a back injury, so he doesn't want to relapse.
.
Now that Iguodala has been pulled and replaced by Martin, Tracy McGrady is happy, "This kid doesn't have a lot of meat, it's easy to deal with."
McGrady held the ball and looked at Martin sideways. Thinking of the beauty, the corners of his mouth turned up and he couldn't help but smile.
Martin looked at McGrady's expression and looked back, just in time to see Josh Smith with his back to them, and because he had to defend the inside, he stuck his butt out and blocked Pat. In an instant, Martin thought wrong, and then his stomach ruminated.
.
Although McGrady didn't know what Martin was thinking, he saw that the kid was distracted, so he took a step forward, resisted with his shoulder, and wiped it away.
When Thomas, the Suns' inside man, saw Tracy McGrady moving, he responded by first catching Varejao's attention behind him, and then quickly pulled away to free up a path for Tracy McGrady to move forward. The two of them had a very tacit understanding and waited until Varejao reacted.
At that moment, Tracy McGrady took off and it was too late to hit someone again.
But Varejao did not give up. He took a step forward and jumped up to block the shot. However, he was still a beat late and McGrady dunked the ball into the basket.
With this dunk, McGrady vented all his frustration in the first quarter, and he let out a loud roar when he landed.
However, Varejao was not discouraged and took the ball and prepared to serve from the backcourt.
In fact, this was nothing, there was no riding dunk or death dunk or anything like that, it was just a defense that failed to guard, and it was just in the background. But Josh Smith on the side thought too much and said to Varejao,
"It's okay, let me dunk him to avenge you." Then he threw off his arms and ran towards the Suns' basket, which made Varejao confused.
