CHAPTER 1277: CHAPTER 517: ANOTHER "STRONGEST YOUTH ARMY" AGAIN?

At the birthday party of the little giant, we had a blast for a day, rested on the 13th, and on the 14th, the ’Iron King Training Camp’ continued.

Back on the 8th, Zhang Yang and Kobe’s mutual teaching had already come to an end. During the next two days of training, they would occasionally ask each other questions that arose during their practice, but mainly they focused on their own training.

After two days of rest, the mutual teaching was considered over. Mainly because Kobe now didn’t want to deal with Zhang Yang; it’s also because someone just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. The Yao Ming birthday party hadn’t even ended, and he already went off asking how to cooperate with O’Neal... both entered their respective off-season final strengthening phase.

Kidd and Ariza also made adjustments to their training. Kidd reduced his basic skills training and started stamina training; Ariza increased his shooting practice, having shot 18 of 50 in the finals, and now as the season is about to begin, he’s being castigated by the Los Angeles media.

Ariza’s admiration for Kobe became increasingly strong for a reason. From being forced by the idol’s dominance to practice diligently, realizing the benefits of hard work, to external voices enhancing his motivation... but fearing hassle, he still chose to practice simply. This problem couldn’t be fixed, but he’s already 24, not messing with other skills, not being considered a core to bear too much responsibility, actually suits him.

Apart from training, Zhang Yang also kept an eye on the situation after the big five-sided trade.

The general consensus of public opinion was that O’Neal could no longer change the league landscape.

O’Neal’s first team change birthed the OK Dynasty; the second team change turned the playoff fringe Miami Heat into a top team clinching the championship; the third team change coincided with Nash’s peak form being squandered, causing the Phoenix Suns to collapse.

This time, most directly, it gave the Bobcats a center with offensive power for a dozen minutes every game.

This raised the Bobcats’ inside attack capability quite a bit. Previously, only Okafor had strong attack capability; Millsap was still a semi-skilled player, Perkins was purely a workhorse, and Brad Miller could only assist in shooting.

Rim protection, when stamina is sufficient, isn’t worse than Perkins. The improvement might not be significant on the defensive end during the regular season, but in the playoffs when sustained rim protection by a big center is needed, the enhancement would be substantial.

But it also deprived the Bobcats of an inside facilitation point, Millsap must bear the heavy load in playoffs, without the Big White Bear backing him up.

The Bobcats already relatively weak small forward position lost Mike Miller, now they don’t have a pure small forward, just swingman Cunningham, Marion with uncertain form after a year and a half slump, and Hill who grew another year older.

If encountering agile forwards like Slim Melo, Maggette, Kevin Martin etc., shooting guards need to switch defense, Zhang Yang and Afflalo are strong defensively, but at the small forward position, they’re slightly undersized, and would be at a disadvantage.

Zhang Yang scanned through experts’ analyses, found most of their evaluations reasonable, though certain aspects he felt were overlooked, like veteran mentality etc. When experts analyzed Brad Miller, they referenced the finals where the Big White Bear went all out for a ring.

The media, akin to a fraction of fans, tend to look at rosters and only see names, disregarding age, some even say if the Chicago Bulls had swapped Pippen for McGrady in ’97, they could have won more championships, outright making rookie McGrady into ’03 McGrady.

Phoenix Suns received the evaluation of ’finally liberated’.

Not because last season’s O’Neal wasn’t good enough, in last season’s West, if Duncan, Stoudemire, Gasol are regarded as power forwards, O’Neal’s performance was just slightly inferior to Bynum. It was simply not fitting for the Suns, ignoing the medical team aspect, both sides hindered each other.

The hidden worry is Nash turning 36 next February. If in the past year and a half his style wasn’t interrupted, criticism wouldn’t be abundant, as he’s a skilled guard. The crucial point is he played a year and a half of half-court ball with O’Neal...

The Clippers received the usual evaluation—cheap.

Al Thornton, last season averaged 16.8 points and 5.2 rebounds, his rookie contract has two years left, his age is a bit on the higher side, entering NBA at 23 and a half, soon turning 26, still a quality asset. Going to a strong team, he would surely be a key rotation member, but just to swap Camby’s long-term garbage contract for LaVrentz’s expiring garbage contract, a quality player on a cheap two-year remaining contract, said to be given to the Phoenix Suns then given.

But this Clippers maneuver was least surprising, they’ve always been like this, Odom, Big Q, Andre Miller, back then, the Clippers also directly didn’t renew rookie contracts, this time at least it was put to use, saved money, though mocked as miserly, received more ’praise’ compared to prior rookie contract maneuvers.

The Trail Blazers garnered the assessment—another big gamble by the Microsoft tycoon.

Betting Oden can recover and succeed; betting Mike Miller’s contract expiration won’t lead to him leaving; betting Andre Miller’s status; betting Batum can grow smoothly... for this, the future salary cap for the next few years was wagered away.

Aldridge and Roy both renewed early, and next summer the big contracts start. Andre Miller’s and Camby’s contracts expire in 2012, foreseeably, the Trail Blazers again face salary cap being blocked like past years by heavy contracts from Ratliff, Francis, LaVrentz and others, once again hindered space.