As a rookie, Duan's outstanding performance greatly made up for the offensive firepower of the Lakers' bench.
Duen can be said to have contributed a lot to the Lakers' four-game winning streak in the preseason.
Originally, local Lakers fans in Los Angeles were worried that the Lakers' record would be ugly at the beginning of the regular season due to O'Neal's absence.
Now it seems that even without O'Neal, the Lakers will still be one of the strongest teams in the Wild West.
For this reason, many Lakers fans changed their appearance in advance and wore Duan's No. 31 jersey.
Supporting the rookies of their hometown team and watching the rookies grow step by step and become the All-Stars, superstars, and superstars they expected will give them a greater sense of accomplishment.
Although in the regular season, Duan will not have as much possession of the ball as in the preseason, but it still cannot stop everyone's expectations for Duan.
What everyone pays attention to about Du En is not just the data. They all watch the game seriously. Who the hell is holding on to the data all day long?
What Lakers fans expect is that Duane will play better and better in the regular season and become an extremely reliable backbone of the Lakers. Then he will further evolve in the playoffs and become the future star of the Lakers.
Just like the next preseason game, the Lakers faced the Suns again.
Duan only scored 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. However, his playing time has also increased to 27 minutes, but he did not perform as well as his previous consecutive 20+ performances.
The Lakers even lost to the Suns by 3 points.
Because the Lakers' main players did not play again after the first half, and Duen was leading the team in the second half. Duen should indeed be blamed for the loss.
However, when this happened, most Lakers fans seemed a little unwilling, but they were not disappointed with Duan.
It is normal for rookies to perform sluggishly occasionally, and besides, Duan's performance is not bad.
If you really want to talk about it, you can only say that Du En's performance before was too brilliant.
Usually third-year and fourth-year rookies, very few can score 30+ points in a row in the preseason.
It was Duen's unusual and stunning performance that gave some fans the illusion that they compared the first-year rookie Duen with Kobe, who had already reached the top ten in the league!
With Kobe's ability, it is indeed normal for him to lead the team to win at critical moments. After all, Kobe is a top-paid player.
However, Duan is just a rookie who has just entered the league and has not played a single game in the regular season.
Everyone hopes that Doan can catch up with Kobe Bryant, and that the Lakers can take advantage of Doan's rookie bonus to win more championships. But he didn't make too many demands on Du En, who always trained hard.
Of course, the day after the game, some media played a video of Doan training after the game.
There are also basketball commentators who commented in the media that the reason for Doun's slightly poor performance is not due to Doun's instability, but because of the schedule.
The time interval between the two games between the Cavaliers and the Suns was relatively short. Duen's performance was worse than before because he trained too hard and failed to properly allocate his energy and adjust his condition.
It's not the first day for Lakers fans to watch the game. They know about the rookie wall and know that rookies will perform sluggishly in away games and back-to-back games.
Duan is also famous as a training gym rat! Even with insufficient physical strength, he still managed to score 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. What else is there to dissatisfy?
The future is promising and that’s all!
Next, Duane did live up to the expectations of Lakers fans.
When facing the Cavaliers again, Duan's scoring data was still higher than that of the No. 1 pick James, and he helped the Lakers win again.
Against the Los Angeles Clippers, a team from the same city, Duan continued his efforts and set a new high in preseason scoring, scoring 35 points.
However, because after playing the Clippers, they will play the Kings the next day, which is a back-to-back schedule.
In addition, the Kings are a strong team in the playoffs and their defensive intensity is much higher than that of the teams they have encountered before. Duan's performance has dropped a lot.
Playing time was 31 minutes, 6 of 16 shots, 1 of 5 three-pointers, 3 of 5 free throws, only 16 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal.
After being taught a lesson by the King, Du En realized that the upcoming regular season was not that optimistic.
In today's Wild West, many teams' benches are not bad either.
If Du En wants to travel at staggered times and produce good data, it also depends on how his opponent makes moves.
If the opposing player has strong defense, he should try his best to play pick-and-roll. The opponent will set up a zone defense and pass the ball to Kobe.
Sometimes, if you can use your teammates to attract defense and make the game easier and more efficient, there is no need to take the ball and do it yourself.
Anyway, in the regular season, the three core players of Payton, Kobe, and Malone basically played more than 35 minutes.
Duen's shot rights will basically not exceed 10 times.
It is too difficult to score high points just with such a penalty kick.
To take a step back, since there are so many big players in the Lakers team, Du En will do his job well and the rest will be done. There is no need to stand out.
Maybe, with the efforts of the Lakers F4, they can defeat their opponents in the first three quarters.
In this way, Du En still has the opportunity to lead the team alone in the fourth quarter and bring the substitutes to brush up the statistics.
If you still have energy that cannot be expended, you can also think of more ways to do it in marketing.
It is said that during the recent period, sneakers related to Dun are selling well in major cities in Asia.
To this end, Nike has begun to put Dune's signature shoes on the agenda, striving to release the Dune generation before the All-Star Game.
Time has come to the end of October in the blink of an eye, and the regular season is about to begin.
"Duane, I have good news for you."
Two days before the opening game, Kupchak came to Toyota Center and called Duane into his office.
Seeing Kupchak's mysterious look, Du En thought there was something good going on.
After asking around, I found out that it was not a good thing!
Because Kobe had to attend the hearing and was forced to miss the opening game, someone needed to take Kobe's place.
After much deliberation, the Lakers management and coaching staff could only temporarily replace Kobe Bryant's position with Dunn as the Lakers' starting shooting guard.
Because the OK team missed the opening game, and the Lakers needed someone to lead the bench, Duen was just a pseudo-starter like the preseason, a true sixth man.
In addition, Kobe will return to the team soon after missing the opening game, and Duan does not have to daydream about taking advantage of Kobe's absence to take over immediately.
Kupchak asked Duen to come over and have a chat, hoping that Duen would not think too much and could calm down and play well.
Du En said there was no problem and he would definitely do his job well and not mess around.
Not long after, the Zen master also chatted with Du En alone for a while, which was similar to Kupchak.
However, Zen Master revealed to Du En in advance that even after Kobe returns, Du En will still be the Lakers' starting player.
Just like in the preseason, assume the starting small forward position.
Jackson affirmed Duen's shooting and defense, and at the same time promised Duen unlimited firing rights in the substitute lineup.
After being PUAed by Zen Master, Du En naturally nodded in agreement and expressed his willingness to work for Zen Master.
In the next day, under the guidance of the coaching staff, Duan ran tactics with his teammates, trying to play like Kobe as much as possible.
It's just that I have already adapted to the 3D role of the starting small forward before. This time I suddenly have to be the core of the team, which is a little uncomfortable.
When the time came on October 28, the coaching staff made a defensive arrangement for the Dallas Mavericks, and asked the Lakers players including Duan to temporarily practice defensive positioning, running, and strengthen their defensive memory.
When the time came to three o'clock in the afternoon, we all took a bus to Staples Center and then started eating the buffet dinner prepared by the team for the players.
Most of them are high-calorie carbohydrate foods such as burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, pizza, burritos, rice, and of course fish, chicken, vegetable and fruit salads...
Most players eat the buffet provided by the team, but the big-name stars mostly eat dinner prepared for them by their personal nutritionists at home, so they usually arrive at the arena an hour or two late.
If it is an away game, since there is no buffet prepared by the team in advance, the team will give some meal allowances so that the players can prepare their own dinner.
After the players had finished dinner and rested for an hour or two, it was almost 5 o'clock in the evening, and the team reorganized the players' warm-up training.
It was almost 7 o'clock in the evening when the game officially started.
Before the game starts, players can eat bananas, energy bars, etc. in the locker room, or drink energy drinks to replenish energy.
If you want to drink some wolfberry or something, that’s okay, but you have to put the wolfberry into a Gatorade cup first.
Closer to home, with the Mavericks starting five - Nash, Finley, Danny Fortson, Antoine Walker, and Nowitzki on the stage, it was the turn of the home team Lakers' starting players.
"Welcome Gary Payton wearing the purple and gold jersey No. 20!"
Under the introduction of the Lakers DJ, Payton took the lead.
The order of appearance in the NBA is usually particular. The second oldest player appears first and the oldest player appears last.
Because the OK team was all absent, Payton was arranged to be the first to appear.
The Lakers fans at the scene also cheered loudly for this, cheering Payton to become a member of the purple and gold giants.
"Welcome our future star, No. 31 Du——En from China!"
"Duane, Duane, Duane!"
"Duane, awesome——"
The cheers when Du En appeared were louder than Payton's. During this period, Du En also vaguely heard Chinese people in the front row supporting him in Mandarin.
After Duan appeared, Grant and Devin George followed one after another, and Malone played as the main axis and finally appeared...
