On the 16th, Zhou Quan’s 22nd birthday.
The team held a simple ceremony at a Detroit hotel and then rushed to Minnesota.
On the 17th, the SuperSonics defeated the Timberwolves away from home.
On the 18th, the SuperSonics lost to the Bulls in back-to-back away games.
The regular season continued, and by the end of March, the Sonics had never lost again.
58 wins and 12 losses, first in the league.
Zhou Quan still maintains the first place in MVP, followed by Dameng, and then Jordan.
But Zhou Quan does not think he will definitely win the MVP. This is the official ranking of the league, and ultimately it is the media who vote. As a Chinese, his competitors are Jordan and Dream. What do the American media and commentators think of him? Attitude, he didn't think it would be biased towards him.
And in terms of personal data, these competitors are no worse than him. Whether it is Dameng or Jordan, they are top super giants integrating offense and defense.
There are still some strong opponents in the April games, Mosaic has two more games, the Suns have two more games, as well as the Jazz and Trail Blazers.
Fortunately, the second-place Mosaic in the Western Conference is 8 games behind the Sonics, and there are only 12 games in April. Facing the playoffs, Mosaic cannot fight against the SuperSonics, so for now, the team has locked in Ranked first in the Western Conference.
There is no problem with being first in the league. The Bulls are still first in the Eastern Conference, 6 games behind the SuperSonics and second in the league.
On April 24, 1994, the SuperSonics defeated the Trail Blazers on the road, ending the regular season schedule.
They lost 3 of the next 12 games and had a regular season record of 67 wins and 15 losses, with a winning rate of 81.7%, ranking first in the league.
In addition, in the last game, Zhou Quan scored his 5,000th career regular season point.
After the final game, back in the locker room, the coaching staff provided statistics for the season.
Zhou Quan played in 82 games this season, starting 82 games, averaging 40.5 minutes per game, 21.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 14.4 assists, 3.8 steals, 1 block, 3.2 turnovers and 2.8 fouls per game.
He averaged 8.2 of 16 shots per game, a field goal percentage of 51.2%, 0.7 of 1.8 three-pointers, a field goal percentage of 38.9%, 4.6 of 5 free throws, a field goal percentage of 92%, a true shooting percentage of 59.6%, and a turnover-to-assist ratio of 4.5.
This season, he ranks first on the team in playing time, first in field goal attempts, first in points, third in rebounds, first in steals, first in blocks, first in assists, first in defensive efficiency, first in personal plus-minus, shooting Third in hits.
He scored 1780/5008 points in the regular season this season and in his career; he had 377/1128 rebounds, 1180/2962 assists, 312/733 steals, 82/176 blocks, and 262/757 turnovers.
Other Sonics players, Schrempf averaged 15 points per game, Kendall Gill 14.1 points, and Sam Perkins 12.5 points. A total of four players on the team scored in double figures.
In addition, swingman Vincent Askew scored 9 points, swingman Nate McMillan had 6 points, Michael Cage had 4.6 points and 5.4 rebounds, and Rodman had 6.6 points.
Twelve players, three marginal players, and nine important rotations. Rookie Johnson's performance was unsatisfactory, averaging only 6 minutes of playing time per game. In fact, there were only eight important rotations.
The eight important rotations averaged 94.9 points per game combined, and the four fringe players averaged 11.1 points per game.
The Sonics are averaging 106 points per game this season, fourth in the Western Conference. The top three are the Suns, Warriors, and Trail Blazers, and they are also fifth in the league. Only the Hornets in the Eastern Conference average 106.5 points per game.
The average points conceded is 96.4 points per game, second in the Western Conference. Only the Spurs concede fewer points than the SuperSonics, ranking fifth in the league.
The average field goal percentage per game is 48.7%, second in the Western Conference, lower than the Warriors, and second in the league.
He averaged 9.6 points against his opponents per game, ranking first in the league.
Zhou Quan once again won the assists and steals title, defending the double crown honors.
It is worth mentioning that Nate McMillan, a veteran of the Sonics, a combo guard who can also play small forward, averaged 3 steals per game in only 25 minutes of playing time, which was only under Zhou Quan in the league.
It is a pity that McMillan's offensive efficiency is not enough, his shooting percentage is only 44.7%, and he has no lethality. He averages only 0.8 free throws per game, and his shooting percentage is only 56.4%. His shooting skills are not good, and he can only be a defender in the substitute lineup. people.
Kendall Gill, who partners with Zhou Quan, averages 1.9 steals per game, but his shooting rate is only 44.3%, which is somewhat low efficiency.
Main center Sam Perkins averaged 26 minutes per game and shot only 43.8% from the field. As a center who pulls out to shoot, this severely limits his development.
The main forward Schrempf's shooting percentage is 49.3%. As a small forward, his efficiency is pretty good.
Among the eight important rotation players in the team, only Zhou Quan, Rodman, and Michael Cage have a shooting percentage of more than 50%. However, Cage and Rodman's scoring is too low and their contribution on the offensive end is not great.
In particular, low-post offense and scoring mainly rely on breakthroughs from the outside. Except for a few secondary attacks, the real inside players do not have any low-post offense. They all pull out to shoot, which is too inefficient. This is why the Sonics can only rank second in the world in points per game. An important reason for ranking fifth in the league.
But Zhou Quan's field goal percentage and shot ratio have increased the Sonics' overall field goal percentage, which is why they rank second in the league.
Zhou Quan is actually worried about the shortcomings of low-post offense, because the Sonics' inside line has no way to improve the quality and proportion of low-post offense and relies entirely on outside breakthroughs to score.
After entering the playoffs, other teams with strong insiders can improve the quality and proportion of their low-post offense, thus improving overall efficiency. This is difficult for the SuperSonics to do.
Therefore, although the SuperSonics ranked second in the league in field goal percentage during the regular season, in the playoffs they encountered strong teams, so this data is not very useful as a reference.
The system's tasks for this season did not require data. Zhou Quan didn't care so much about his own data. He just looked at it and put it down.
Of the three requirements, first place in record is achieved. The remaining MVPs and championships will depend on opportunities and performance in the playoffs.
There are many stars who have never won a championship. For example, Barkley is on this path, so he has a very clear understanding of winning championships.
What he wants to ensure is that he is competitive every season, not a spectator of the championship, but one of the competitors.
In addition, Dennis Rodman once again defended his rebounding title, averaging 17.3 rebounds per game.
The season's block leader is Mutombo, averaging 4.1 blocks per game.
The scoring leader is Michael Jordan, averaging 32.2 points per game.
This is also Jordan's 8th scoring title, and the 8th consecutive one.
Rodman shook his head proudly and said: "Iron Fist, I am the third consecutive rebound leader, and you are only the second assist leader and steal leader, both behind me. Come on, you are younger than me, try to catch up with me. "
"Ha ha……"
The locker room burst into laughter.
Zhou Quan stretched out his fist and said with a smile: "Dennis, we have an agreement. From now on, you will dominate the rebounds, and I will dominate the assists and steals."
Rodman touched his fist and said with a smile: "Then it's settled, I won't lose to you."
At this time, George Karl smiled and said: "Okay, now I will announce the top eight regular season rankings of the Eastern and Western teams."
"In the East, they are the Bulls, Hawks, Knicks, Magic, Pacers, Cavaliers, Nets, and Pistons."
"The Bulls chased hard and got 63 wins, only 4 games behind us."
"Western Conference, SuperSonics, Mosaic, Suns, Spurs, Jazz, Warriors, Trail Blazers, Nuggets."
"Mosaic has 58 wins, which is 9 wins behind us, but I want to remind everyone that they are very strong, they are just holding back in the regular season for the sake of the playoffs."
"Now let me talk about the playoff matchups between the East and West."
"In the East, the Bulls vs. the Pistons, the Magic vs. the Pacers, the Hawks vs. the Nets, and the Knicks vs. the Cavaliers."
"Western Conference, SuperSonics vs. Nuggets, Spurs vs. Jazz, Mosaic vs. Trail Blazers, Suns vs. Warriors."
"The winners of the first two groups and the last two groups will play in the second round."
…
George Karl smiled and said: "We are playing the Nuggets in the first round. We have a three-to-one advantage in the regular season. I believe there will be no problems in the first round."
At this moment, Zhou Quan felt in a trance, and his consciousness suddenly appeared in a very lively arena.
"Nuggets vs. Seattle?"
In the familiar Seattle Center Arena, when he saw the lineup on the hanging screen and the players on both sides of the game, he immediately realized that his consciousness had been transported to another time and space by the system.
There is a high probability that this game may be the first round of the playoffs that will be played next, but there is no him. It is still Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Ricky Pierce, Schremf and the others, and there is no Dennis. Rodman.
Soon, this game was won by the SuperSonics, and then the second game was also won by the SuperSonics, achieving two consecutive home victories and a match point.
But then they lost two games in a row in the Nuggets' away game, and then returned to their home court to lose the last game. The SuperSonics were blackballed, becoming the first team to be blackballed in the history of the NBA, setting a record.
The first thing that made the Nuggets complete the black eight was Mutombo.
This abnormal rim protection ability is incredibly strong. In the first two lost games, he sent out four or five blocks respectively, but in the last three games he won, he sent out six, eight, and eight blocks respectively. In the five-game series , sent a total of 31 blocks, averaging 6.2 per game, and averaged 7.33 per game in the last three games.
His powerful shot-blocking and rim-protecting abilities are as terrifying as Zhou Quan's steal in the last finals, or even more powerful.
It relies on the abnormal ability to protect the basket and crazy big shots. The SuperSonics do not dare to attack the penalty area and can only make wild shots from outside.
For example, Rainman Shawn Kemp, under the care of Mutombo, only averaged 37% from the field.
After watching the five-game series, Zhou Quan's consciousness instantly returned to the current time and space.
At this time, his expression immediately became extremely serious, his smile stopped, and he said to George Karl and others very seriously:
"Coach, guys, the Suns had the best record in the league last season. They played the Lakers in the first round, but lost two consecutive games at home. The Lakers got match points and were almost defeated. So we must not be careless. The Nuggets are definitely not. Weak teams, there are no real weak teams in the NBA."
George Karl was startled, and so were the others.
Zhou Quan didn't care what they thought, and said: "Mutombo's ability to protect the basket is one of the best in the league, and the quality of our low-post offense is not high. We mainly focus on breakthrough layups from outside. He will definitely take special care of us. Once the person who rushes in is hit by him a few times, do we still dare to rush in with the ball?"
George Karl couldn't help but think that after Mutombo blocked his own outside line continuously, his own outside line didn't dare to rush in and play anymore, and the low post attack was completely lost. He couldn't help but touch his forehead, which was already sweating. He nodded quickly and said: "Iron Fist. You said yes, but we can't be careless. Once we are hacked, history will be made."
Several main players couldn't help but nod their heads. There has never been a hacker in the history of the alliance. If they were hacked, it would be a mark of Qing history, so no one dared to be careless.
At this time, a new task appeared in the series: "The host must change the original history of the Sonics being beaten by the Nuggets, and eliminate the opponent to advance to the second round. Failure will randomly deduct a point of quality, and success will reward a point of prediction."
"The prediction is not bad. No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. We must win anyway. If even the Nuggets dare to lose, they deserve to be the first to be hacked."
"However, those two idiots Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp were actually hacked for the first time. It's a pity that they actually escaped their original fate."
"No, it's not the original fate, it should be their fate in another time and space."
"But why wasn't I there in that time and space? Didn't I join the NBA in that time and space? It's also possible that I went to play ice hockey and didn't get this system. One day the system lets me see me in that time and space. alright."
At this time, George Karl said again: "You really have to be careful in the first round. If we advance to the second round, we will face the winner of the Spurs and Jazz. Relatively speaking, the second round should be easier than the first round."
Rodman shouted: "We have defeated the Spurs four times this season and won four games against the Jazz and lost one. No matter who we meet in the second round, we will sweep them."
Zhou Quan said: "If we can sweep in the second round, of course sweeping will allow us to save energy, but we should not set sweeping as our goal. It will only put more pressure on us."
Rodman squeezed in next to Zhou Quan and whispered: "Iron Fist, this time the Pistons meet the Bulls in the first round, it will definitely be over."
Zhou Quan shook his head and said: "It should be certain that the Pistons will rebuild again. Let's exchange Gloves and Rainman for draft picks, even this year's picks. I think there is no problem for them to exchange for the first and second picks in the first round."
…
On the 25th, the SuperSonics returned to Seattle.
The Sonics' first round will start on the 28th, with only one day off, and training will resume on the 26th.
At 9 a.m. that day, the league announced some of its regular season honors.
In addition to the top five data kings, the Rookie of the Year is Chris Webber, the Sixth Man of the Year is Dell Curry, the Most Improved Player is Don Macron, and the DPOY is Zhou Quan.
As the league's best record this season with 67 wins, George Karl very much hopes to get the honor of best coach. With this honor, he can also become a first-class coach.
At one o'clock at noon, just after getting off the plane, he received the news that the best coach was given to Lenny Wilkens and not to him.
Standing in the open space of the airport, he was a little dazed. After he came to his senses, a wry smile appeared on his face.
Wilkens is much older than him. He has been coaching for 21 seasons and has coached more than 1,600 games. However, he is only in his 7th season and has not won the best coach. Give it to him. Well, that's all he could think.
"DPOY is it me?"
Contrary to George Karl, Zhou Quan received good news.
This was something he didn't expect. As a point guard, he never thought he would get this honor.
Philip, who called his agent, said happily: "Tie Fist, you are the fifth guard to win DPOY and the first point guard to win DPOY. Congratulations!"
"Thanks!"
…
The results of the regular season MVP are announced after the first round series, and voting will not begin until tomorrow. However, Zhou Quan has no energy to pay attention to this. All his energy is focused on the upcoming first round series.
After taking the bus to the headquarters, he did not go home immediately. Instead, he received some information about the Nuggets and took it home for detailed research.
From this day on, the media also began to analyze the regular season MVP and playoffs.
TNT announced its predictions for the playoffs, mainly the prediction of winning chances.
The top five winning chances are the Bulls, SuperSonics, Mosaic, Knicks, and Suns. The winning chances are 22%, 20%, 18%, 13%, and 10% respectively. Starting with the sixth-placed Eagles, the winning chances are all at 5%. the following.
This prediction data actually doesn't have much value. The only thing is that TNT is optimistic about the top five teams winning the championship.
Other media also have their own prediction data, such as ESPN, which is also more optimistic about the Bulls. The Bulls' probability of winning on ESPN is as high as 33%. The SuperSonics, which has the first regular season record, only has 15%. It is not as good as Mosaic and is only in third place.
Zhou Quan doesn't pay attention to the media's predictions of winning the championship, and he doesn't even read the news. He prefers to read the analysis of MVP.
Ronnie Hambas, a famous NBA commentator on ESPN and one of the MVP selectors, wrote in a column:
"For MVP voting, I think it will be a difficult selection process, because the statistics of Jordan, Olajuwon, and Zhou Quan are all very good, and I can't even tell who is better. And from the perspective of the team's record, There is no doubt that Iron Fist has the advantage.
I personally think that based on the analysis of personal data and team record, Tekken has a greater advantage and he should score more points.
But considering other factors, Tekken's advantages are easily overlooked, so I hope this MVP can be more fair. "
Commentators and reporters like Ronnie Hambas, and others, are speaking out for Zhou Quan.
But at the same time, the attitudes of many media reporters are biased towards Jordan and Olajuwon.
Basically, at least 80% of the media believe that the MVP will be chosen among the three.
This made Ewing very disappointed, even very angry, but there was nothing he could do about it, because not only the team's record lagged behind the Sonics, Bulls, and Knicks, but his personal data also lagged behind Zhou Quan and the other three.
"Zhou, the sponsoring companies behind you all hope to win this year's MVP. Don't worry, you also have twelve first-line and top endorsements, and your capital is not small." Agent Philip called and said.
"Roger, how much have I sold for my shoes this season?" Zhou Quan asked.
"Fifty-one million dollars," Philip said.
"Where's Jordan?" he asked.
"Oh, Zhou, he sold 280 million. But Zhou, there is no comparison. Jordan's brand shoes sold 120 million US dollars in the first year. At that time, his first generation was 65 US dollars a pair, and the price was your Iron Fist generation. 350%, so you can’t compare with him.”
Zhou Quan shook his head. The price of his sneakers is still a bit low. The second generation of Tekken is only 40 US dollars, while Jordan's current shoes are more than 100 US dollars, and even the third generation of MJ is already 100 US dollars. That was in the 1980s, and now The price difference between his shoes and Jordan's shoes is nearly three times.
If the price of his shoes is the same as Jordan's, his sales this season will not be much different from Jordan's, at most tens of millions of dollars.
At this time, Philip said excitedly: "But Iron Fist, Skechers has planned to improve the quality of the third generation of Iron Fist, and the price will also increase significantly.
Skechers did not expect that you would be so strong in the past two seasons. You won the championship last year and changed the team this year. The SuperSonics still have the strength to win the championship. Their development has not kept up with your pace. "
"Oh, this is a good thing!" Zhou Quan said happily.
The technical content of the first and second generations of Tekken is not high, and they are low-end basketball shoes, so the price is low, which is not a good thing for him.
For a first-line star like him, the brand shoes he wears must be mid-to-high-end basketball shoes, or at least mid-to-high-end basketball shoes.
Skechers' skills are there, and the shoes he wears are not bad. He is fully capable of competing in the market of mid-to-high-end basketball shoes.
(End of chapter)
