One Thousand and Fifteen. South Coast Storm
Who would have thought that the Grizzlies and the 76ers would make it to the finals?
It doesn't mean that a rising new team really has a chance to win the championship. Let alone the championship, most of the young and emerging teams that once shone on the NBA stage have never even made it to the divisional finals, such as the Wizards' three musketeers in the East and the three musketeers of the Supersonics in the West.
It is even more of a luxury to enter the finals. In the past 13 seasons, the Western Conference Finals teams are the Lakers, Mavericks and Bulls, and in between there are the Kings, Jazz, Nuggets, Suns... Many teams have risen one after another, but none of them broke the Lakers, Mavericks and Bulls' domination of the finals.
Moreover, since the new century, only two teams have won the championship for the first time in their team history-the Mavericks and the Heat.
The other champions, the Lakers, Spurs, Pistons, and Celtics, are all teams that won the championship in the last century.
So it is difficult to add a new championship team, and even many superstars have never entered the finals throughout their careers.
When Kobe and James were eliminated, the media, who were like fence-sitters, began to support the Grizzlies, hoping that the Grizzlies could win the championship.
In addition to the emergence of a new championship team, there is also Nash. After the Grizzlies eliminated the Lakers 4-1 and advanced to the finals, Nash's tears on the court touched the tear glands of many old fans.
The day after the 76ers advanced, on June 12, the 76ers immediately came to Memphis and began to prepare for the game.
After a day of rest, the Grizzlies also began to prepare for the game.
Major mainstream media have begun to make programs to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the Grizzlies and the 76ers.
From the comparison of regular season matches, the Grizzlies have more advantages.
In terms of lineup comparison, the 76ers' star strength is stronger.
The starting giants of Evans, Iguodala, and Howard are very strong. As for role players, Holiday, who was selected as the second defense in his sophomore year, Louis Williams, who has the strength of the best sixth man, Judy Meeks, a high-quality shooter, and two inside players, Thaddeus Young and Hawes, who are not reliable in defense but can shoot well... The substitutes are not so good. Only Louis Williams, Meeks, and Hawes are reliable. Lavoie Allen and Sam Young are both pitfalls.
Basically, the 76ers rely on Evans, Iguodala, Holiday, Howard, four stars with their own characteristics on both offense and defense, plus the sixth man Louis Williams to rise.
As for the Grizzlies, if they compete with stars, they really can't beat the 76ers.
The only one who can be compared with Evans and Howard in terms of strength is Randolph.
But the Grizzlies have better overall coordination and stronger team strength. Sun Ce, Nash, Gasol Jr., and Tony Allen all have their own characteristics. They are first-class players in the eyes of the media, experts, and fans. In teamwork, they are top players in their respective areas of expertise.
Paul George and Jordan are both quasi-first-class players, and they perform like first-class players when doing what they should do.
Klay Thompson, Yi Jianlian, Neal, Ridnour, and Battier are also very high-quality role players.
Jimmy Butler still has a future and he didn't play well in the Development League, but the Grizzlies didn't send him away in the trade. Lewis was signed back mainly because they didn't want other teams to sign him away. Of course, it would be best if he could be used, but he only played twice in the playoffs, both in garbage time.
There is also Aaron Gray, the fifth inside player who had a good performance against Yao Ming.
In this year's playoffs, the media believes that the Grizzlies are more stable and have stronger overall strength, because once the Grizzlies have an advantage, they play very steadily. The Thunder and the Lakers were defeated by the Grizzlies in 5 games.
As for the 76ers, they led 3-1 twice, but failed to defeat their opponents immediately. They were dragged to a tiebreak by the Bulls and almost to a tiebreak by the Heat.
After analyzing it over and over again, the media think that the Grizzlies have more advantages.
Perhaps it is because people want to see a team-based team beat a team with a lot of stars.
…
Even if they don't pay attention to public opinion, the media and fans hope that the Grizzlies, who are famous for their team, will win the championship, and this will also be heard by the Grizzlies players.
Sun Ce was very happy when he knew about the change in public opinion. As a socialist successor born under the red flag and raised in the spring breeze... any player who truly integrates into a team hopes that his team will be praised.
This sense of team honor may be more exciting than personal honor.
However, Nash and Battier have been urging their teammates not to be too proud. They have played for so many years and know the difficulty of winning the championship. They have reached the last step and cannot be careless.
"Be happy until you hold the O'Brien Cup" is a sentence that Nash and Battier have been saying since they advanced to the finals.
Why do championship teams hope to introduce veterans who have never won a championship but are experienced, have been superstars or famous leaders? It is because they have dignity and know the difficulty of winning the championship, and can urge young players.
Under the tireless urging of the two veterans, the teammates did not feel noisy, because the glory of the championship was at hand, and what the two said made sense, so they all calmed down and prepared well.
After all, they didn't know much about the 76ers. Even the coaching staff only started to study the 76ers and make targeted tactical preparations on the night after defeating the Lakers and entering the finals.
Moreover, they saw the active preparations for the game in the training ground of the visiting team next door.
Evans + Howard, one of the three best point guards in the league, Evans, who is on par with Rose and Paul, and Howard, the best center in the league today, are extremely intimidating.
…
While the Grizzlies and the 76ers are actively preparing for the game, the basketball world on the South Coast is about to be in the prelude of a storm.
Pat Riley sent an email to the team owner Mickey Arison, then leaned back in his chair and sighed. At this time, sitting opposite him was the star player of their Heat team, LeBron James.
After losing to the 76ers away last night and stopping in the Eastern Conference Finals, James flew back to Miami overnight last night and came to Pat Riley's office early this morning to force the palace.
After pretending to be extremely anxious, Pat Riley began to fool: "LeBron, you have to believe me, we will definitely find a suitable center for you."
James has heard this for two years. In his first season with the Heat, he was confused about one thing: why is the best center of the team Big Z who came to Miami with him?
After Big Z retired, the team's true centers were only Eddy Curry and Dexter Pittman, two fat guys weighing more than 140 kilograms who could only play a few games a season.
So, James changed from a small forward to a power forward, and in the Eastern Conference Finals against the 76ers, he had to play center against Howard.
It had come to this point, and James didn't care about his face, even if Pat Riley revealed that he was forcing the palace, he would still do it.
James said directly: "I need a clear target for signings. Dwyane, Chris and I all cut our salaries, not to help the team save luxury tax. Our total salary this year is only 71.11 million, but we have three All-Stars, three! We didn't pay luxury tax, and we didn't even use the middle-class clause this year.
Dwyane and Chris don't want to say it, but I want to say that we cut our salaries not to help the team save money, but to use this money to bring in better teammates.
I need a clear target for signings now. If it doesn't work, I will apply for a trade this summer."
This is very clear. Pat Riley heard James' seriousness. He knew that James could definitely do what he said.
This person is not afraid of a bad personality, but afraid of a good personality collapse. But now James' personality has collapsed, and the new personality of an egoist has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In this case, no one thinks it's surprising to change teams again. Even if he forces the team to sign players, James will not be scolded more for this matter. Instead, it fits his current personality.
And this time the Heat have no reason to argue. Among the four teams in the conference finals, except for the 76ers who have two rookie contracts of Evans and Holiday, only the Heat did not pay the luxury tax. The Lakers and Grizzlies both have to pay more than 10 million luxury taxes.
As for the lack of salary space, Pat Riley knows that James is very familiar with the team's salary space. Currently, except for James and Bosh's 16.02 million US dollars salary and Wade's 15.69 million US dollars salary, only Chalmers, Mike Miller and Haslem have guaranteed contracts. Others are short-term contracts. For example, James Jones, a good friend of James, is on a low-salary one-year contract. The contracts of Joel Anthony, Juwan Howard, Eddy Curry and others have expired. Moreover, the middle-class exception this season is useless. They just don't want to keep a long-term contract and want to try their best to control the total salary below the luxury tax threshold.
Chalmers, Mike Miller, and Haslem are all good bargaining chips. In other words, the Heat only have the Big Three on fixed contracts. Even in the offseason, when the Big Three start calculating the salary space for next season, James and Bosh's salary is only 17.55 million US dollars, and Wade's is only 17.12 million US dollars, which adds up to less than 53 million. According to estimates, the salary cap for next season will be between 64 million and 66 million US dollars, which can free up at least 11 million US dollars.
After a quick thought, Pat Riley said with an anxious look: "I understand, LeBron, I have been working hard, but you know this kind of thing, saving money is definitely not my original intention, it is the boss's request, I will try my best to talk to him, but you have to give me a clear goal so that I know how to talk to him."
James nodded, thought for a while and said: "I hope to introduce teammates like Tyson Chandler or Andrew Bogut who have athletic ability and excellent pick-and-roll to help Chris share the pressure in the interior, let Chris return to the power forward position, and help me and Dwyane reduce the pressure of pick-and-roll!"
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