On the first day of 2008, the Cavaliers only arranged warm-up training because the next day, they had to face the Hawks at home.
After hanging up the phone, Lin Yu glanced at the time while scanning the star voting rankings. Only then did he realize that the hands of the clock had already pointed to eight o'clock, and he was almost late.
He hurriedly took two waffles from the nanny's hand, went straight to the garage, and drove away.
Lin Yu arrived at the Cavaliers training facility and had already finished two waffles. He entered the locker room through the back door. Almost everyone he met along the way, including teammates and team staff, was congratulating Lin Yu.
"Lin, the results of the first phase of the All-Star voting are out. You are number one, and your lead is still so big. Congratulations..."
Lin Yu naturally responded with a smile, and then observed the expressions of everyone who congratulated him, and who else showed no expression when they met him.
Soon, Lin Yu compiled a list.
"Delonte (West), Joe (Smith), Ira (Newbell), Brian (Cook)... they all have nothing to say about my vote. Joe can understand that since joining Cleveland,
This guy is a fringe person in the locker room and doesn't get involved in anything. Brian can understand that. He just came here not long ago and doesn't have a close relationship with his teammates. Delonti and Ila have big problems.
Already..."
Lin Yu and Delonte West are old teammates, but they have never been able to pee in the same pot.
As for Ira Newbell, this guy has always been a member of James. This guy who has no offensive ability at all and relies only on defense can stay in the Cavaliers and get a mini-middle-class contract with an average annual salary of US$3 million.
It's his relationship with James.
If it weren't for COSCO, Ira Newbell would have been James' first knife-wielding guard.
Through Delonte West and Ira Newbell, Lin Yu clearly realized that the battle between him and James has gradually come to the table.
But think about it carefully, although he has been observing James overtly and covertly, expecting James to make various little moves against him, he behaves like a jerk.
In fact, during the entire fight, Lin Yu did not take the initiative to provoke James.
At most, he only competed for some shots. At first, Lin Yu believed that the shots he grabbed were actively provoking James, which caused James' dissatisfaction.
But later, he discovered that if he didn't fight for those shooting rights, these shooting rights would not go to James, but would be divided up by the team's role players.
But the problem is that the Cavaliers' role players this season are not outstanding. Each one has advantages, but also has fatal shortcomings.
In the starting lineup, Delonte West's selling point is defense. He also has three-pointers, but they are very unstable. Darko Milicic is in the transition period. His main selling point is defense, and he doesn't have much usefulness on the offensive end.
means of attack.
Finally, there is Big Z. Big Z, who is gradually entering the end of his career, is already a pure human shield and a pure blue-collar player, and it is really hard to count on the offensive end.
With this starting set, Lin Yu won't score, and the offensive pressure will all fall on James. This is why the Cavaliers have always performed poorly at the beginning of the new season.
Then comes the main rotation lineup. Daniel Gibson's selling point is three-pointers, but his defense is poor.
Damien Wilkins is an all-around wing player, and the word all-around is a complimentary term when describing a star player, but a bit derogatory when describing a role player, because being all-around sometimes means being incompetent at all.
As substitutes for the power forward position, Brian Cook and Jared Dudley can all get some playing time. It's not that they are all very strong, but that they are still short of something. Mike Brown is also difficult to choose.
Who should be used as a substitute?
Finally, there is the center. Anderson Varejao has secured his starting position. This guy can be considered a blue-collar guy, and his offense is all about eating cakes and tip-ins under the basket.
Therefore, in summary, for the entire Cavaliers, professional starter Delonte West and substitute Damien Wilkins can provide stable offensive firepower, and only Daniel Gibson can provide three-point firepower stably.
It seems that the Cavaliers' record in the new season ranks first in the league. This is a defending champion team that is launching a fierce attack on the championship.
In fact, the Cavaliers this season have declined a lot compared to last season.
The departures of Rashard Lewis and Drew Gooden are quite fatal.
Lin Yu's fight for the ball at the beginning of the game covered up almost all problems.
By December, LeBron James began to take action, taking away Lin Yu's ball rights and assigning them to role players in the team. The team's record also declined.
From losing only 2 games in a month to losing 4 games in a month, on the surface, the decline in performance is not big.
But the record should be viewed in conjunction with the schedule. In November, the Cavaliers had another terrifying six-game away streak, but they only lost one game during that six-game away streak.
In December, they did not have such an exciting schedule from beginning to end, and their only strong opponents were the Celtics, Spurs and Mavericks.
In January, the Cavaliers are about to face a more difficult schedule. They will go to the West and play against the top three in Texas in a row. After that, they will also face the favorites like the Phoenix Suns, which will be another six-game series.
Guest schedule.
There are six away games, four of which are against strong teams in the Western Conference playoff level, and three of which are against strong teams in the championship level.
It can be said that the upcoming wave of six consecutive visitors is more terrifying than the six consecutive visitors at the beginning of the season...
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In the Cavaliers' first game in 2008, their opponent was the Atlanta Hawks led by Joe Johnson.
The Hawks in the new season are also a dark horse in the Eastern Conference. They are on the edge of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Mike Woodson's defensive system has begun to bear fruit, and the small Big Three of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Al Horford
The combination has also begun to take shape.
All in all, this is a team full of future.
The intensity of this game far exceeded the Cavaliers' imagination. Josh Smith's various flying dunks almost destroyed the Cavaliers' inside line.
Through this game, Lin Yu also felt further changes from James, and his ball rights were further reduced.
In the past, when Zhan Lin was on the court at the same time, James would have to compromise and cooperate with Lin Yu to play some passing and pick-and-roll offenses because the opponent's defense was concentrated on the strong side.
But now, James has returned to the state of last season, starting to hold the ball more and play a breakthrough scoring system.
In the breakout system, Lin Yu became a pure shooter, whose task was to open up space and catch the ball and shoot, which greatly weakened Lin Yu's threat.
After struggling to win a game at home that should have been easily won, Lin Yu became more and more aware that a difficult January was about to begin for the Cavaliers, and his time in the Cavaliers was also beginning to count down.