Min Congda's image in Anthony Davis's heart has become more mysterious and taller.
Anthony Davis knew Min Congda's name from various NBA non-basketball news before.
Today you scold the referee and fine him, tomorrow you slap popcorn on the referee's head, and the day after tomorrow you yell at the league for being unfair.
Of course, there are also good things, such as speaking out for black players, leading the establishment of the African Youth Basketball Development Foundation, etc.
In short, in the eyes of young Anthony Davis, Min Congda is the kind of professional manager who is high-profile, good at hype, and good at playing power.
Anthony Davis is also a fan of NBA-Batman. He often sees NBA-Batman breaking the news about Min Congda’s “evil deeds” in the Clippers, which further deepens Anthony Davis’s impression of Min Congda as a power player.
Unexpectedly, after a period of contact, Anthony Davis discovered that Min Congda was not who he thought at all.
Min Congda is not high-profile at all. His daily life is very simple and plain. He drives an ordinary car, wears ordinary clothes, and likes to eat in the training camp cafeteria. His speech is simple and clear at ordinary times. He never writes or talks at length, giving people a very low-key impression.
And Anthony Davis can feel that Min Congda actually doesn't like to socialize, especially not to participate in some big parties and social activities.
Instead, he prefers to stay at home, play games and watch TV. This is very similar to Anthony Davis, and the two have become good gaming friends.
But what makes Anthony Davis even more unexpected is that Min Congda, who is short in stature (178 is a dwarf in the eyes of basketball players), has an average appearance, and feels like he doesn’t know much about football, is actually recognized by the Clippers as a top player. Basketball master.
"He is the most talented basketball player on the team," Curry said.
"Smart's basketball talent is very high, but he has no interest in basketball." Cole said.
"If Smart grows taller and is 10 years younger, I will recruit him to play on the team." Team consultant Mike Dunleavy said this.
During the two-week training camp, Anthony Davis kept hearing from different people that Min Chongda was very talented in basketball.
At first, I thought Curry was joking, but later I listened to Kerr and Lue’s guidance and was dubious.
When I heard what Lao Deng said later, it was definitely not true. Mike Dunleavy was not a person who liked to joke.
While playing 2k with Min Congda, Davis felt Min Congda's superior tactical understanding.
Until the training camp was about to end and the preseason games were almost over, Davis failed to beat Min Congda in 2k games.
Davis later wanted to meet Min Congda one-on-one during training and said he wanted to see Min Congda's basketball skills.
Min Congda said bluntly: "I don't know how to play basketball at all. What are you thinking?"
"But everyone says you are very talented in basketball."
"High talent doesn't mean you can play well."
"But you 2k are very powerful."
"I'm still very good in League of Legends. Can I flash?"
"..."
Anthony Davis was always dubious about Min Congda's statement that he couldn't play basketball, and felt incredible.
But when I asked my teammates, everyone said, "He really can't play basketball."
As a result, the fog shrouding Min Congda deepened.
Time has arrived at the end of October in the blink of an eye. The preseason is over and the new regular season is about to begin.
The Clippers' performance in the preseason was so-so, and the whole team just practiced tactics. They had 3 wins and 3 losses in 6 games, allowing Min Congda to make a little pocket money.
Anthony Davis made his first NBA appearance and started two games.
His performance on the field is quite good. Although his statistics are average, his presence on the field is very strong.
When he is defending at the basket, the opponent's attack on the basket will be obviously hindered.
And as a flexible insider, Davis has a wide defensive range, fast speed, and a large defensive area. He is quite similar to Kevin Garnett.
This kind of defensive ability is exactly what the Clippers have been lacking.
As a meat shield center, Marc Gasol has strong ability to protect the basket, but his follow-up defense and help defense are very average.
Not to mention Randolph, the defense is just like that, that's about it.
Therefore, the Clippers used a lot of zone defense in the game last season, and mainly relied on conservative retreat in defense. The defense lacked aggressiveness and relied on offensive imagination and personal talent.
In this way, the Clippers won the championship, fighting all the way without even a tiebreaker, a perfect version of the game.
After acquiring Anthony Davis, the Clippers have no shortcomings in the composition of their lineup.
The biggest problem becomes how to arrange players' playing time and how to distribute the ball.
After all, there is only one basketball and a game only lasts 48 minutes.
A player's skills need to be fed and accumulated through actual combat.
The Clippers are all young people with potential who are waiting to be nurtured, and everyone hopes to get enough playing time.
If you change to another team, when there are many potential young players, they will usually choose to establish the core, and then trade away the remaining young players who are dissatisfied with playing time and have average potential assessment, in exchange for veterans who are ready to fight.
In this way, the team's lineup will be more reasonable and balanced.
For example, when the Rockets drafted Rudy Gay, because they already had Tracy McGrady on the team, they thought they didn't have the time and space to develop Gay, so they sent him to the Grizzlies in exchange for Shane Battier.
Now Gay has gone to the Spurs after a multi-party trade and has become a stable scorer at the third position.
Although it is difficult to become a great player, McGrady also declined early due to injury, and the Rockets did not get any advantage in the end.
The good thing about the Clippers is that, first, in order to pay more luxury tax in the future, Min Congda could use the bird rights to extend these young people, so he refused to trade; second, everyone has the strategic thinking of playing ball, and in the Clippers It has become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, especially winning the championship, which makes everyone more convinced of the correctness of this strategy.
The nominal boss of the team is Curry, and Curry's average playing time per game is controlled within 30 minutes.
This playing time is quite small. Compare it to LeBron James. In the third season of his career, he averaged 42.5 minutes per game, ranking first in the league.
There is also Russell Westbrook, also a point guard, who averaged 35.4 minutes per game last season.
No one on the Clippers averaged more than 35 minutes per game last season.
The person who averages the most minutes per game is James Harden, averaging 32 minutes per game.
People like George, Leonard, etc., all play for about 25 minutes.
Now that there is another Anthony Davis, Randolph's playing time will obviously be affected.
The Clippers also have Milicic and Bonner sitting on the inside bench. They don't ask for playing time, and they have very different functions and can adapt to different opponents and different game situations.
The Clippers coaching staff has quite a lot of cards.
On October 29, the Clippers’ pre-season training camp officially ended.
On October 31st, the Clippers will begin their 2012-2013 regular season journey.
On the day at the end of training camp on the 29th, the Clippers coaching staff and advisory group held an ordinary but very important meeting in the conference room of the training hall to discuss the Clippers' strategic direction for the new season.
In fact, the Clippers have been discussing related issues internally before, but they have never reached a consensus.
This is also caused by the power structure within the Clippers. Unlike other teams, the head coach is the absolute core and has his own team.
For example, when a coach takes over the team, the first thing he does is replace all the assistant coaches with his own people to form a solid leadership team.
What tactics the team will use in the new season, who will be the core, and what strategic goals it will have, all are determined by the head coach.
The Clippers are different. Although Tyronn Lue is the head coach of the Clippers, he is actually the head coach, and none of the assistant coaches are brought by him.
As a rookie head coach, he himself has no one to guide him. His qualifications are too young and there are really no assistants in the circle.
The assistant coaches are divided into two groups. One group is Steve Kerr and Jeff Ball, Min Congda's twin brothers.
Both of them have been general managers of the team, and both were recruited by Min Congda to join the Clippers. One is responsible for tactics, and the other is responsible for logistics, player development and operations.
The other group is the old man left by Mike Dunleavy, Lao Jin, Lucas, and scouts and other Clippers old officials.
Theoretically, this group of people should have been purged long ago, leaving one by one with Lao Deng relegating to the second line and looking for jobs in other teams.
But Min Congda was very "lenient" and kept everyone. The purpose was of course very simple, to increase the team's expenses.
Let the fine traditions of "overstaffing", "redundant officials and redundant personnel", and "overstaffing of positions" be carried forward and inherited by the Clippers, and contribute to the Clippers' bankruptcy plan.
A coaching staff is already one of the best in the world, and now there is also an advisory team involved: Mike Dunleavy and Jerry West.
After Lao Deng recovered, he received a high salary and worked as a consultant, and lived a very comfortable life.
Moreover, Lao Deng actually had the advantage of stabilizing people's hearts.
As long as Lao Deng is here, old officials with poor abilities like Lao Jin and Lucas will be protected to a certain extent in the team.
After all, Dunleavy is senior in the Clippers and can speak in front of Min Congda. Everyone can work with peace of mind without worrying about being laid off.
Jerry West is well-known, has high prestige in the circle, and has wide connections.
The Golden State Warriors also previously invited Jerry West to serve as a team consultant.
After ending his cooperation with the Warriors last season, Jerry Davis came to the Clippers and accepted Min Congda's invitation to become a special consultant to the Clippers.
For a time, the Clippers' coaching staff was the same as their team lineup. It was full of stars and had many soldiers, but it lacked a real core.
In fact, they have a core, and that is Min Congda.
But Min Congda didn't want to come to the meeting at all. In the nice autumn weather at the end of October, he should go fishing at sea. What kind of meeting should he have?
The result of not having a backbone is that the Clippers have not yet reached a final conclusion on some tactical and strategic issues.
Seeing that the regular season is about to begin the day after tomorrow, the team's roster, tactical ideas, and season strategy have not yet been truly established.
So this meeting became very important, and the initiator of the meeting was the team's head coach Tyronn Lue.
Even though Coach Lu is the bare-bones commander of the team, he still occupies the title of head coach, and Tyronn Lue does a good job in interpersonal communication with the Clippers, from players to assistant coaches, to cafeteria chefs, and on to I have a good relationship with the sweeper aunt and Director Lu.
In this regard, Tyronn Lue is very different from many historical coaches.
Many famous coaches in history were arrogant and even had weird tempers.
It is normal to have conflicts with players, especially with leading stars.
Some of them are so bad-tempered that they will kick a dog that passes by.
There is no way, the position of head coach is extremely stressful and requires very high leadership, commanding and adaptability capabilities.
If a person is a head coach, his face can not age, his temper can not be bad, and he can become more and more moist as time goes by. Only Phil Jackson has done this in part of the season.
At the end of the dynasty founded by Jackson, the same building was about to collapse, and people were panicked. In the end, the relationship broke down due to irreconcilable conflicts with the management or players.
Tyronn Lue took a different path and became a typical "glue" head coach.
He is not the most authoritative in the team, nor is he the most capable, nor does he have a bad temper.
But he occupies the position of head coach and can serve as an intermediary to bond and win over the relationships between all parties.
For a meeting like this where all forces gathered together, there were only two people in the team who could start such a meeting, one was him and the other was Min Congda.
It was a beginning, but Tyronn Lue was not very able to intervene in the discussion at the meeting.
Those who really participated in the discussion were mainly qualified and capable people such as Cole, Dunleavy, and West.
Among them, West and Mike Dunleavy, two senior members of the advisory group, believe that the team should establish a core in the lineup as soon as possible.
"Last season's championship was based on luck and had no core. It would not be a good thing for the team to allow young players to grow."
West believes that the core of the team should be the double No. 1 pick combination of Curry + Davis.
Just like Kobe + O'Neal, Curry and Davis will definitely be the most talented and dominant combination in the new era.
With these two as the core, the rest of the Clippers must allocate tasks around Curry and Davis.
The situation last season where players assigned their own tactics and used imagination and creativity to play games no longer exists.
"Iron discipline and stable lineup play are the keys to building a dynasty."
West's general manager career was nothing short of brilliant. He created two dynasties for the Lakers.
The Lakers in the 1980s had Magic + Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the absolute core, and everyone else served the two.
The OK combination in the 2000s, and even the later Kobe + Gasol combination, were all similar.
Dunleavy once coached the Lakers. Both of them have seniority, so they naturally wear a pair of pants.
Steve Kerr and Jeff Ball are firmly opposed to this approach of establishing an absolute core.
Kerr believes this Clippers will be an unprecedentedly good team.
Their team building ideas and core strategies will be different from those of past strong NBA teams.
"Times have changed, Jerry. I don't agree with establishing any absolute core. Regardless of the tactics and playing style of the NBA today, it will be different from the past. Do you know what the bigger difference is? It's people! These young children grow up in the same environment as us. And your generation is completely different. They are freer, more self-centered, and more imaginative. We will be stronger!"
"Also, Curry and Davis are too young."
"Establishing them as the core does not mean that others will have no role. Just because Curry and Davis are still young, others will also play an important role. A team without order will not go far."
"But we won the championship last season."
"Are there too many teams that disintegrate after winning the championship?"
"We will not disintegrate! Our team has a core!"
"There is a core. Who is the core? Who is the boss? Stephen? The core who plays 30 minutes."
"No, Mr. Smart is our core. With him around, the Clippers will not disintegrate."
Cole retorted, and at this moment he also became a staunch supporter of Min Congda.
Although he was dissatisfied with Min Congda in his heart and Cole also had his own ambitions, he knew Min Congda's status and role in the Clippers.
The conference room was a little quiet for a while. Jerry West looked around and thought, is this true?
To be honest, if it were another consultant, it would be impossible for him to point fingers like this when he first joins a team.
But West is different. He has too many qualifications, very strong abilities, and a very strong personality.
He came to the team not to fight for power, but because he really wanted to do something.
Like Kerr, he could see that Curry was a great, subversive prospect.
At this time, Lao Deng spoke and said: "Jerry, I think...it's better to listen to Steve."
West had an incredible expression on his face, thinking to himself, Lao Deng, why did you rebel?
Dunleavy continued: "With Smart here, it is indeed impossible for the Clippers to disintegrate. You have to rest assured about this. I think as a consultant, I should focus more on making suggestions. Moreover, everyone has the ball to play this strategic policy , was established by Smart when he first joined the Clippers, and I don’t think he would agree to establish a dual core.”
"I was just giving them suggestions, and I said there was no conflict between the two...I..."
As he spoke, Jerry West was also discouraged.
After all, he is only a consultant. Steve Kerr is on the coaching staff and has more say than the consultant.
Moreover, the person who really has the power to make the decision has gone fishing and is said to be the core.
After some disputes, the meeting came to a conclusion.
In the new season, the Clippers will still implement the big rotation strategy of last season, give full play to the imagination and initiative of each player, and resolutely implement Mr. Smart's strategic policy of "everyone has a ball to play". Winning the championship is just a matter of course. , it’s serious business for everyone to play well!
After this topic is over, let’s talk about the games and opponents in the new season.
Jerry West reminded: "The Warriors in the new season, or next season, will be the team's strong rival in the Western Conference! Their signings and draft selections this summer are very targeted. In the next few years, they will It’s a formidable opponent.”
West served as a consultant to the Warriors last season.
Out of professional ethics, he will not reveal the details and strategies of the Warriors' team building.
But since he is a consultant to the Clippers, he has an obligation to remind the Clippers that the Warriors are already staring at the Clippers.
(End of chapter)
