Chapter 384 A slam dunk contest ahead of schedule?
From the current point of view, the Trail Blazers have the highest trade value, with Aldridge and Wang Zelin as the top players. They can already trade 1 for 1 with the cores of other teams.
Next is Lillard. It would be no problem to add some chips and exchange some of the team's core players.
Finally, there are Batum and Matthews. These two brothers cannot exchange cores, but if the Blazers just want to trade players of the same level with other strong teams, they do have the ability among players of the same level.
Higher transaction value.
However, judging from the current chemical reaction of the team, at least within these two seasons, the Trail Blazers management does not intend to make major changes to the team structure.
What they need to do is how to make the Trail Blazers even stronger while maintaining their current combat effectiveness.
Therefore, Nel Arsi quickly put aside his inner melancholy and set his short-term goal on the team's 14-strong roster.
Yes, despite the fact that the Trail Blazers' record this year is the best in the league, in fact, their team roster has not yet reached the 15-man limit required by the league.
To put it another way, the Trail Blazers' current strength actually still has room for further improvement. The details will depend on the operations of the team management.
Now, there is still about a month left before the 2014 NBA trade deadline, which is February 21st. As the trade deadline approaches, the current trading market has begun to become turbulent again.
Nel Orsi is busy digging for gold in the trade market. He doesn't want the team's last spot to be strengthened to go to waste.
This time, after the coaching staff and management unanimously negotiated the position of reinforcements, they also consulted with the team's main players, and finally chose an outside blue-collar player, preferably one who can swing from forward to guard.
Take a look back at the Blazers' current team structure.
Needless to say, there is no need to say much about the substitute players at the point guard position. The offense is provided by Mo Williams and the defense is provided by Beverley. While maintaining healthy competition, the two players with different styles also allow the Trail Blazers to face different opponents.
The opponent's No. 1 position has more options.
As for the three positions of small forward, power forward and center, Batum, Aldridge and Wang Zelin also have two substitute players behind them, which is enough to deal with most situations.
Therefore, the team placed the final reinforcement spot on the shooting guard substitute.
Connet Lee is good both offensively and defensively, and can be called a model of the best 3D player, but if possible, Nel Olshey wouldn't mind having another such high-quality substitute in the team.
The ancients said: The human heart is not enough for a snake to swallow an elephant!
But there is also a saying: How bold a person is, how productive the land is.
Moreover, there is such an old man in China, and his team has really achieved it through decades of hard work!
It is precisely because they want more that the Blazers management and coaching staff have so many happy worries.
If they are just satisfied with temporary gains and losses, based on the team's current 36-6 start, the Blazers will not be able to fall out of the Western Conference playoffs no matter how bad they are, and no matter how bad they are at the end of the regular season, they will still have about 55 wins.
With this achievement, everyone can already open the champagne to celebrate.
The fact is indeed that the Trail Blazers are becoming more cautious as they play, and every step of the next schedule is treading on thin ice.
The reason is that everyone on the team had already tasted the Western Conference Finals last season... Although everyone felt a little surprised at the time, it was still a try after all, so everyone wanted to try a different taste this year.
For example, set a small goal first ~ championship?!
…
After an hour, the players left the field one after another and went back to prepare for the game. The management and coaching staff were left behind to continue to stay in the conference room melancholy.
The Trail Blazers' opponent tonight is the Thunder, and they are playing back-to-back games. Although yesterday's loud and tough performance did not consume too much energy from everyone, the Thunder should not be underestimated after all!
In the 4 games against the Thunder this season, the Trail Blazers want to win every game, not for anything else, but to leave a deep mark on the hearts of the opposing players in the regular season. In this way, if the two teams really
When they met in the playoffs, the Thunder were definitely the team that was timid before fighting.
Tonight is the third match between the two teams this season.
In the first two games, Wang Zelin broke out, scoring a massive double-double with 31 points and 13 rebounds, and ultimately led the Trail Blazers to win the first game.
In the second meeting, it was Westbrook's turn to explode, scoring a near triple-double with 41 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. The regular season match between the Thunder and Trail Blazers ended in a 1:1 tie.
Therefore, tonight's third game, both sides from the management to the players, are paying special attention from top to bottom.
After Wang Zelin led his teammates to the Energy Arena, he found that all Thunder players had appeared on the training ground. It seemed that they had been waiting for a long time.
After Durant saw the figure of Trail Blazers No. 36, he stopped shooting and sent a fiery look from the air.
Wang Zelin noticed it quickly, turned around, and looked at Durant from afar.
After a while, both sides looked away.
"Hmph, I will make sure you look good later!"
Durant flicked his wrist fiercely, suddenly started accelerating, and shot into the basket with a one-armed tomahawk...
"boom!"
A loud noise instantly spread throughout the arena.
"Oh, you're so angry!"
Batum screamed strangely.
Matthews turned his head and looked at Wang Zelin: "Aren't you going to answer this question?"
"necessary!"
Wang Zelin just took off his jersey, grabbed a basketball, dropped Matthews, and rushed toward the basket.
"Snapped!"
After catching the ball, Matthews smiled knowingly, saw the right moment, and hit the ground hard...
"boom!"
The next moment, there was a loud noise from the other half.
"Oh ho ho ho!"
The media reporters who were already present on the sidelines raised their cameras and clicked excitedly.
After Durant completed a dunk, the reporters had already noticed something was wrong on the court and were mentally prepared in advance.
Sure enough, on the Trail Blazers' side, Wang Zelin received Matthews' ground pass and responded with a two-handed mid-air dunk.
"This boy!"
Durant was hit so hard that he immediately shouted to Westbrook: "Russell, let's do one too!"
"Uh, okay!"
Seeing Durant in this state, Westbrook knew that no matter how much he said now, it would be in vain, so he might as well let the former vent his anger first.
"Hey, David, look over there at Thunder!"
On the sidelines, a Sports Illustrated reporter quickly reminded the photographer next to him.
"knew."
The photographer named David responded and quickly turned the camera to the Thunder half court.
Immediately afterwards, I saw Westbrook and Durant standing at a 45-degree angle on both sides of the three-point line. Westbrook started first and rushed forward, while Durant slowed down and followed closely behind.
After arriving near the left free throw line, Westbrook grabbed the ball with his right hand and smashed it from bottom to top, hitting the middle of the backboard and rebounding quickly.
"drink!"
Durant accelerated instantly, took two steps forward, took off, grabbed the rebounding basketball with his right hand, and performed a fierce one-arm dunk in the air.
"Oh, my god! Oh, my god!"
"Are we here for the dunk contest?"
"Are you sure KD is not participating in this year's dunk contest?"
The reporters on the sidelines couldn't bear it anymore and started screaming.
"KD! KD! KD..."
At this time, hundreds of fans who entered the stadium in advance shouted Durant's name, and at the same time they were rejoicing in their hearts: I just entered the stadium early because I had nothing to do, but I didn't expect to witness such a wonderful event.
play.
"Damien, give me one too!"
Although there were not more than a thousand people inside the Energy Arena, the atmosphere at this time was already extreme. Batum couldn't help it anymore. After taking off his jersey, he yelled at Lillard.
"No problem, man!"
Lillard immediately smiled back.
"Look here! Look here..."
The reporters' faces turned red, and it seemed that they were all stimulated to their G-spots by this unexpected surprise.
Then...
Inside the Energy Arena, the two teams dunked against each other in the air, and the cheers were even louder.