As time went by, minor repairs and improvements were made, which made the strength of various powerful players a lot stronger on the original basis.
The scene of the heroes competing for hegemony in the new season is becoming more and more exciting.
This year’s team training camp will start on September 18th, and the NBA’s official start time for the training camp is September 24th, which is about a week earlier than before.
The upcoming 2016~17 preseason will officially start on October 2 and end on October 22. The Trail Blazers have 7 preseason games scheduled this year.
The opponents in the 7 games were strong and weak, including two Chinese games, in Kyoto and Shanghai, against the Thunder and Lakers.
For example, the Cavaliers and Warriors, known as the "old rivals" of the Trail Blazers, cannot get their turn during the warm-up period. They must wait until the regular season. They are real tough dishes.
…
October 1st, 9am.
Portland Rose Garden Arena.
All the Trail Blazers players remained in a positive state of serious preparation the day before the preseason game.
For the 2016~2017 season, the Trail Blazers’ new season roster is as follows:
Point Guard: Starting Damian Lillard, backup Patrick Beverley
Shooting Guard: Starting Will Barton, substitutes Connett Lee, Vince Carter, rookie Patrick McCaw
Small forward: Starting Nicolas Batum, Anthony Morrow
Power forward: Starting Nikola Jokic, substitutes Yi Jianlian, Montrezl Harrell and LaMarcus Aldridge who is recovering from injury
Center: starter Wang Zelin, substitute Ivica Zubac.
Coupled with veteran Richard Jefferson, who reached a one-year minimum salary extension with the team during the offseason, the Trail Blazers' 15-man roster for the new season is already full.
While the Trail Blazers were busy training, major media took the opportunity to announce the player rankings for the new season on the first day of October.
The first is the most authoritative ESPN player rankings in the United States:
No. 10 is Paul George;
No. 9 is Chris Paul;
No. 8 is James Harden;
No. 7 is Anthony Davis;
No. 6 is Russell Westbrook;
No. 5 is Kawhi Leonard;
No. 4 is Kevin Durant;
No. 3 is Stephen Curry;
No. 2 is LeBron James;
The first place is... Trail Blazers Wang Zelin!
This is the third consecutive year that Wang Zelin has ranked first in ESPN's new season player rankings. Even ESPN's most demanding media experts had to choose to surrender in the face of absolute strength.
The remaining major media, such as Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, Fox, Slam Dunk and many other authoritative media, the top 10 and the bottom eight are uneven. For example, Lillard entered the Bleacher Report rankings. The top ten, but the top two remain basically unchanged, James, the second, and Wang Zelin, the boss.
Rich villa area in Los Angeles.
No. 24, who did not want to be named, was furious when he saw this list. He never expected that as the boss of the Lakers, he failed to enter the top 10 of the major media's player rankings for the new season.
Even Paul got in, why can’t I get in?
Depend on!
After venting his anger, he decided to adjust his alarm clock overnight.
Tomorrow morning, he plans to start devil training one and a half hours earlier, starting from two and a half years... ahem, it's half past two.
…
The major media unanimously ranked the top spot, and the bleachers immediately expressed their high recognition. The official cover headline is:
"The era of kings continues!"
Subsequently, ESPN updated the top five players in the five major positions for the new season.
The top five point guards are Curry, Lillard, Paul, Westbrook, and Wall.
Irving and Lowry unfortunately lost the selection.
Lowry is very open-minded. He is a representative of late bloomers and has an excellent mentality. Irving, on the other hand, didn't feel very comfortable and immediately expressed his doubts about this list on Twitter.
But in this time and space, Irving did not win the championship in 2016, nor did he hit the three-pointer in the Finals that infinitely elevated his historical status. Currently, in the eyes of many experts, he is just a cricket under the wings of the great James.
Within the Cavaliers, many people even think that he is not even considered the second-in-command, and his position in the team is still behind Cousins.
Therefore, not many people care about Irving's thoughts. Instead, Irving's actions attracted ridicule and ridicule from many people.
The top five shooting guards are Harden, Thompson, Kobe, DeRozan, and Beal.
There is no doubt that when Kobe's name appeared on this list, not only did the Black Mamba not feel happy, but it was like adding fuel to the fire, further igniting his inner anger.
Not only Kobe, but also 60E behind him, felt as angry as his idol.
Are you kidding me? It’s okay if Volute can’t make it into the top 10 in active service. Why did he even give up his position as the number one shooting guard in active service?
When they took a closer look, they suddenly realized.
It turns out to be ESPN, so that’s okay. No wonder it’s a dark volute!
The top five current big forwards are James, Durant, Leonard, George and Anthony.
In contrast, the ranking of small forwards is not as controversial as that of point guards and shooting guards, and the public still agrees with it.
The five current power forwards are Davis, Aldridge, Love, Green, Griffin, plus Millsap.
Since Aldridge is almost out for the season and will probably have to wait until the final stage of the regular season or even the first round of the playoffs to appear, Millsap has been added to the power forward rankings.
As we all know, there are four Heisei heroes, so there are six current top five forwards. Is it reasonable? !
The five current centers are Wang Zelin, Cousins, Drummond, Towns, and Howard.
This final ranking can be said to be the most authoritative and recognized by fans, and there is almost no suspense.
It's just that many fans of the older generation are lamenting in their hearts. The man who was once able to trade for James in terms of trade value can now barely finish at the bottom.
If Howard cannot achieve satisfactory results with a new team in the new season, it is estimated that next season, he will bid farewell to the top five centers in the league.
Even so, Howard is mostly resting on his laurels.
There is nothing surprising about Wang Zelin. Since leaving Space City, the era that belonged to Master Huo has passed. The joy of basketball is no longer there, and the peak spark that once dominated the basket is gone forever.
As for whether Howard can complete self-salvation like in the original time and space, we don't know.
Because of Wang Zelin's arrival, the NBA's development trajectory has become more and more unexpected. No one can say what the future trend of the league will be.
Even if someone told him today that Durant would join forces with James in a few years, he wouldn't be too surprised.
Instead of caring about others, it's better to focus on tomorrow's preseason game.
On October 2, the Portland Trail Blazers will travel to Vancouver for their preseason opener against the Toronto Raptors.
As a powerful team in the Eastern Conference, the Raptors are still very strong, and they are barely qualified as a grindstone for the new season.
(End of chapter)
