Although the undercurrent in Los Angeles is surging, and Min Congda is turning his big head with a low IQ, calculating this and that, for fun, but in the eyes of the fans, everything is prosperous, and Bass's death has not stopped the drama in the NBA. Step into the performance.
After the All-Star Game, the competition among the league's top teams has become increasingly fierce, especially among the Western Conference teams.
The Eastern Conference has now formed a duo of the Heat and Cavaliers, and there is no third team that can challenge them.
The Western Conference is still full of powerful players, and 50 wins is not enough in the Western Conference.
The four strongest teams in the Western Conference, the Clippers, Thunder, Spurs, and Lakers, two new and two old.
The Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Warriors in the second group are closely behind, and their records are very close.
In the NBA team strength rankings released by ESPN in March, among the top ten, Western Conference teams occupied seven seats, while Eastern Conference teams had only three seats.
The pattern of a strong west and a weak east has not changed after more than ten years.
However, the team ranked first in the strength list is the Miami Heat.
After experiencing struggles at the beginning of the season and adjustments in the mid-term, the Heat's galactic battleship began to enter the sprint phase at the end of the season.
During this period, Steve Nash and Dwight Howard suffered injuries respectively, but after the All-Star Game, both superstars returned.
The Heat had an astonishing 19-game winning streak in February and March, pushing the team's record to the top of the league.
The Heat are truly worthy of being number one in the rankings.
Spoelscola showed his excellent on-field coaching ability, of course, this is inseparable from the strong support of Pat Riley behind him.
Ranked second on the strength list is the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder's performance this season is very stable. Kevin Durant and Westbrook have performed extremely explosive personal performances. From a statistical point of view, they can be called the Twins. Star ceiling.
When Eric Gordon was troubled by injuries, the two teamed up to score 70 or 80 points. The two of them scored more than the opponent's team.
Ranked third on the strength list is the Cleveland Cavaliers. After Steve Kerr arrived, he carried out a very successful transformation of the Cavaliers.
Even LeBron James has embarked on a different path than in the past.
He feels quite at home in the fourth position.
In addition to having to work harder on defense, he also gives up some of the ball rights during offense and provides more assistance, allowing James to play more easily and freely.
The Cavaliers also gave up the cumbersome style of play in the past and became lighter and faster, making victory easier and more comfortable.
However, the Cavaliers have been plagued by injuries repeatedly since February, and the bodies of veterans such as Jamison, Battier, and Miller have further aged.
James knows in his heart that his time window to win the championship with the Cavaliers is not very long, that is, this season and next season.
Following the Cavaliers, ranked fourth is the Los Angeles Clippers.
Compared with the brilliance of the defending champion at the beginning of the season, after Cole left and Mike Malone took over, the Clippers seemed much more stable.
Win or lose games, a lot of lineup experiments, giving young players a lot of practice time, the Clippers are on a completely different track from other teams.
The Clippers are not competing with other teams, but are truly competing with themselves, racing against time, and fighting against their team's biggest traitor.
Fortunately, this kind of tactical play with no obvious results makes the Clippers look much lower-key, and those media reporters who only look at the regular season record and game data think that the Clippers' strength has declined.
In fact, when the Clippers' defensive system is completed, their ability in the playoffs will be more stable.
Min Congda hasn't watched the game seriously for a while. He just reads the news every day, and spends the rest of his time fishing and paying attention to the construction trends of Huawei Center.
He did not have any requirements for the construction period, but only required quality assurance. For the best quality, it didn't matter if it was delayed.
As for exceeding the budget, the more, the better.
At the same time, in order to overthrow the Bass regime next door, Min Congda regrouped the members of the two small teams originally established to implement the "Trojan Project" and re-established an information sharing center within the Clippers, named "Telescope Project". It is independent of the media department and is personally controlled by Min Congda.
On the surface, Min Congda's purpose of setting up this department is to "better deal with public opinion and public relations issues, team transactions, drafts, and internal information confidentiality issues in the new era of the Internet, and better conduct team building."
In fact, Min Congda wants to use this "information sharing center" to obtain more NBA intelligence information, especially the internal information of the Lakers, to prepare for the Lakers to change in the future.
When the information center was established, Rob Richele, who was the director of the media department, thought that if a team set up an information center like this, would it be suspected of collecting information and invading privacy?
Min Congda replied: "Isn't this what Americans have always done?"
Racheli was still a little angry at that time and wanted to argue with Min Congda, saying that the United States attaches great importance to personal privacy.
But only three months later, the Prism Project was exposed, and Racheli understood what Min Congda's words meant.
The main personnel of this center, in addition to the media department headed by Richele, Min Congda also transferred some people from Sloan's security company, and then asked five scouts from the scout team to join the center, and asked one from the video center Data analysts and a video analyst make up the Clippers' intelligence department.
The reason why scouts, data analysts and video analysts are needed is because Min Congda needs them to cover up the public and tell the outside world that they are engaged in basketball intelligence.
At the same time, while these scouts and analysts are obtaining intelligence on basketball, they will certainly also be able to obtain information on various matters other than basketball.
In addition, Min Congda also used his connections in the league office to invite Arnold Ranch, who previously worked at the NBA's New York headquarters, to the Clippers as deputy director of the information center.
Lan Qi hooked up with Min Congda from the beginning and has been waiting for this day.
So he left New York without hesitation, packed up a little bit, and came to work with the Clippers.
Previously, Lanci worked as an ordinary employee at NBA headquarters and became the deputy director of the department.
But generally speaking, there is still less money and more things to do, and there is not much room for improvement. This is how it will be in this life.
Now that he has come to the Clippers, among other things, his salary has doubled, and the living environment in Los Angeles is more comfortable than in New York.
After all, Lan Qi has worked at the headquarters for four or five years, and already has enough social connections and intelligence sources.
Less than two weeks after the information center was established, they obtained an important piece of information related to the Lakers from the grapevine: Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant seemed to have some conflicts during training, and there were signs of discord between the two.
"Are you sure it's true? Kobe and Paul are not getting along?"
Min Congda couldn't believe it when he heard Lan Qi's report.
"According to the information obtained, this is indeed the case, but it will not be reported in the newspapers for the time being, and only a few people know about it. You know, if there is a conflict between the stars in the team, once it is reported, it means that the conflict is very deep, and often It means the team is going to change.”
Lan Qi is right. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there are rivers and lakes, there will be contradictions.
Especially in a place like the NBA, it would be a fantasy to say that there are no conflicts between players and stars.
It is perfectly normal for a group of celebrities with excess hormones and excessive self-awareness, many fans, and huge assets to dislike each other.
Especially for a person with Kobe's character and background, on the one hand he is very paranoid and competitive, on the other hand his family background and growth experience make it difficult for him to get along with ordinary black players.
Unless someone can completely suppress him in all aspects such as ability, Kobe's personality must make him the boss.
What a coincidence, Paul is almost the same as Kobe in terms of personality and upbringing, and he is born with the temperament of wanting to be the boss.
There was a honeymoon period between the two last season, and the Lakers' record in the regular season was very good. The team was full of stars, and Phil Jackson was on the team. Everyone was holding back their energy to prove themselves in the playoffs. , won the championship.
The original shortened season was indeed a good opportunity for the Lakers. However, the Clippers suddenly emerged, and the waves behind the Yangtze River pushed the waves ahead, beating the Lakers to death on the beach.
Championship and victory are the best cover for all contradictions.
Kobe and O'Neal didn't like each other at the beginning, but they were still able to cooperate smoothly despite the suppression of three consecutive championships and the finals.
But once they are defeated in the finals, there will be no room or need for relaxation between the two.
As a result, the Sharks left the Heat, the league structure changed, and the Heat won the championship the next year.
After Paul and Kobe's honeymoon and failure last season, once the team's performance is not going well this season, or there is little hope of winning the championship, conflicts will naturally appear.
Kobe's problem is that his condition is declining and he is no longer the league's leading scorer in the past.
And Paul is in his prime. It stands to reason that he should be the future of the team and the head of the Lakers, but as long as Kobe is around, it is impossible for him to give up his position as the boss.
If Paul wants to steal Kobe's lead, he must use his performance in the game to prove that he is a player who can beat Kobe.
It's a pity that Paul is very strong, but Paul is not strong enough to beat Kobe.
Paul also lost to Kobe Bryant in the 2008 MVP race.
At the beginning of the season, the Lakers' momentum was quite good. With Iguodala, the team became younger and had a suitable third-in-command on the outside.
However, the Lakers have two problems that are always difficult to solve. One is Kobe's aging, and the other is that the Lakers always lack a strong pillar inside.
The Lakers' record fluctuated after the All-Star break, and they gradually fell from second place in the Western Conference to third in the Western Conference.
After losing to the young Grizzlies and Nuggets one after another, the Lakers have fallen to fourth place in the Western Conference, gradually widening the gap with the Spurs, Thunder, and Clippers ahead of them.
Judging from the Lakers' lineup and on-field performance, it is extremely difficult for the Lakers to break out of the Western Conference and win the championship this season.
If Kobe is in his prime, the combination of him and Paul can indeed solve many problems in the playoffs.
In the 2009 and 2010 seasons, the Lakers' lineup was not super luxurious. It mainly had strong core competitiveness.
Now that the core competitiveness has declined, and the peripheral role players are still at or even inferior to the previous level, how can they compete with the monsters in the West?
Once the prospect of winning the championship is unclear and the team loses consecutive games, it is not surprising that the two star players will quarrel.
Moreover, the Lakers are still facing a dilemma: It has been a month since the death of Jerry Buss, and the internal fighting between Jenny Buss and Jim Buss and the battle for team control have gradually come to the fore.
There is some panic throughout the Lakers. Once they fail again in the playoffs, no one knows whether they will experience the big split in the 2004 offseason again.
This information is very important to Min Congda, because once the Lakers experience huge turmoil in the lineup, whether Kobe Bryant leaves or Paul leaves, it will be a major blow to the Lakers management.
At the same time, fans will definitely be dissatisfied with the Buss siblings. Public opinion will be fierce. Once they lose power in a certain public opinion incident, they will be greeted by the same fate as Sterling.
However, Min Congda could not say these words to anyone. He still had to consider this news and related issues from the perspective of the Clippers' playoff pattern.
"If the Lakers are in turmoil, their ability to fight in the playoffs will definitely be limited. They are currently ranked fourth and we are ranked third. It's a pity that we can't meet them."
Min Congda just said casually that internal discord within a team would definitely be a disadvantage in a high-intensity team confrontation like the playoffs.
If the team encounters a slight headwind, the team's morale will be low, and then it will collapse and disintegrate.
Lan Qi heard Min Chongda's words but kept them in mind. After leaving Min Chongda's office, he reported the situation to Richele and said: "Mr. Smart believes that the Lakers are not strong enough. Maybe we can compete with him early in the playoffs." They collide and that works to our advantage."
Richele understood the meaning and said to team manager Olshey: "Our current ranking is too low. If we could be higher, it would be great to meet the Lakers earlier in the playoffs. Play the Lakers in the semifinals , both in terms of box office and final game results, it will be beneficial to us."
Olshey thought for a while, the Lakers are now fourth and may fall to fifth.
If the Clippers want to meet the Lakers in the second round, they must rush to the top of the Western Conference.
The Clippers are now third in the Western Conference, behind the Spurs and Thunder. This position is indeed not good.
So Olshey quickly found Tyronn Lue and the coaching staff in training and said: "Mr. Smart said that it would be better to finish first in the Western Conference in the regular season this season. He wanted to compete in the semifinals." Lakers. Playing against the Lakers is beneficial to us, so in the remaining games everyone should work harder, don’t rest or give up, and improve the record!"
Spreading these words will indeed kill people.
(End of chapter)
