beast basketball

Chapter 97



To be able to compare with Duncan in the position of power forward, it is not the veteran Chris Webber, the "Roaring God" Rasheed Wallace, nor the Mesozoic "German Chariot" Dirk Nowitzki or Paul Gasol , not to mention the young Stoudemire or Bosh of the new generation, but Kevin Garnett, known as the "Wolf King".

In addition to not being as good as Duncan in leading the team, Garnett is even more dazzling than Duncan in terms of statistics. Although he joined the NBA two years earlier, he was the same age as Duncan because he was a high school draft pick. From 45 to last season, Garnett was the only player in the league who averaged [-] points and [-] rebounds per game and also scored five assists. Included in the offensive technology textbook, just like Duncan's [-]-degree angle hitting the board into the frame.

Garnett is very capable. Before LeBron James appeared, he was the only player in the league who often ranked first in the team in terms of points, rebounds and assists. With his efforts, Since the Timberwolves selected Garnett, they have entered the ranks of the playoffs every year.

However, the Timberwolves' management is very mentally handicapped and often makes some brain-dead mistakes, especially Joe Smith's "black gold case" that hurt the Timberwolves the most. In order to avoid the luxury tax, the team signed a secret contract with Joe Smith.

According to Joe Smith's ability, it should not be a problem to sign a contract worth tens of millions of dollars, but Joe Smith signed a one-year contract of 170 million with the Timberwolves under the instigation of agent Dan Fagan. Since the lockout had just ended at that time, no one noticed the strangeness of this contract. Who knew that in the second and third years, Joe Smith signed a contract with the Timberwolves for two consecutive years that was far below his worth, which finally caused a stir. The suspicion of the league, after investigation, it was discovered that there was a secret agreement between the Timberwolves, Dan Fagan, and Joe Smith.

Joe Smith promised to take three years of ultra-low salaries to help the Timberwolves avoid the luxury tax, and then three years later, use the Larry Bird clause to sign a seven-year 600 million contract with the Timberwolves. It is to be able to extract a part of the huge returns from it.

Once the secret contract was discovered, it was immediately severely sanctioned by the league, and Joe Smith was forced to terminate the contract with the team. At the same time, the Timberwolves were fined $350 million and deprived of their first-round picks for five years. Fagan was also punished.

This incident has caused great harm to any party. Smith’s high-paying contract has come to naught, and he has played for the Timberwolves for three years at a low price. At the same time, no team has signed a long-term contract with him. Just started wandering in the league.

The Timberwolves were deprived of the opportunity to strengthen for five years. You must know that the transaction is only an equivalent exchange. It is nothing more than exchanging the present for the future or exchanging the future for the present. The draft is reinforcement without any price. At the same time, affected by this , The boss of the Timberwolves has also begun to tighten the purse strings, and will no longer allow the management to pay the salary beyond the scope of the luxury tax.

You must know that Garnett's salary alone accounts for more than one-third of the team's total salary, less than one-half. The remaining space needs to sign more than a dozen players, and there can be room for other big names. Players can't renew the team's existing potential players, so they can only sign some old players who have passed away. As a result, in the [-]-[-] season, the team recruited "madman" Sprewell and " Alien" Sam Cassell and Garnett formed the league's most terrifying "three-headed monster" lineup, and entered the Western Conference decision, but faced the more luxurious and huge lineup of the "Four Kings" Los Angeles Lakers The team was eliminated by the Lakers [-]-[-].

Although eliminated, being able to enter the Western Conference finals is a great improvement for the Timberwolves. However, as soon as the season ended, two heroes, Sprewell and Cassel, both expressed their interest in the existing contract. Dissatisfied with the news, facing the three-year $100 million contract offered by the Timberwolves, Sprewell said something that shocked the entire league: "This little money is enough to support my family."

$700 million per year, this kind of income is already above 70.00% of the players in the league, Sprewell is not satisfied, such an arrogant tone has also made many teams lose interest in him, and one season has passed , In the beginning, the team offered him a full mid-level salary, but he felt that the 700 million contract was not agreed to. Now it is a shame to get 500 million. Slowly, the price fell to the 100 million basic salary of a veteran. Spur Revell was even more unwilling to give in, so he had no choice but to retire.

The reason why Robert Horry focuses on introducing this player to Stephen is to tell Stephen that even if he is confident in his own abilities, he should not open his mouth like a lion, and at the same time, when conducting business negotiations, leave such matters to professional people. Deal with it, don't speak to the media casually, and remind Stephen that a team like the Timberwolves is not worth choosing.

Even with Garnett's ability, switching to a team with a little ambition, it will not fall to the current situation. Whether it is the desire for victory or the style of play that pays more attention to the overall interests, Garnett will be able to Like Duncan, he is the cornerstone of the championship team, but in the Timberwolves, he can only waste his career. Although he is willing to be loyal, there should be a limit to loyalty.

Before the game against the Timberwolves, Stephen met Garnett. Stephen always felt that this guy would be a very arrogant and arrogant guy. Occasionally, Stephen seemed to have seen his game. In the game, this guy's performance Very passionate, Stephen felt that at least he would be a very rude guy, who knows that he actually met, Garnett was not as gentle as Stephen imagined, he was very temperamental off the court, diamond earrings, silver necklace and The gray sweater matched it very well, coupled with the tall and thin figure, walking on the bright floor was like a model.

Garnett came over and greeted many people, but his attention was still on Duncan. There seemed to be no one else except Duncan, his eyes were unusually bright, and Duncan seemed to be different from usual, The tall body seems to exude a kind of momentum.

"It seems that today's game has nothing to do with me, just let me rest." Robert Horry turned his head and whispered to Stephen after seeing the situation of the two people.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Stephen asked puzzled.

"When you meet an opponent, Tim has already achieved success. He really has nothing to pursue. It's not that when he meets an opponent that needs him to deal with, he can't get up at all, so the coach arranges him to rest as much as possible. As long as he plays 60.00% ability is enough, when he meets an opponent he is interested in, it will be like this, and then the coach will arrange for him to play more time, and he will play harder than usual." Robert Horry Watch Looking at those two tall figures, my heart is full of envy and sighs. Although I have more championship rings than the two of them combined, I have never been the boss of a team. No matter how many rings I have won, It will eventually be forgotten by history, but others can be remembered.

"It turned out to be like this. You don't have any chances, so I don't have any chances. It seems that we can take a good rest today." Robert Horry didn't have any chances, and Stephen didn't have any chances. Duncan stayed on the court In other words, the main players who usually team up with him are the few main players, and the Timberwolves don't have any strong forwards and guards, just a pretty boy with a temperament, and he doesn't look like a fierce guy.

The Timberwolves lineup looks quite scary. Garnett was the No. 2000 rookie in [-], and Olowokandi was the No. [-] pick in [-]. The most famous parallel importer is even more famous than Kwame Brown. The No. [-] rookie in [-], Szczerbiak, was the little boy Stephen saw. There was Mark Jarich, the second pick in [-], Hassel, who was also the first in the second round with Stephen in [-], and this year The [-] selected McCants from the University of North Carolina are all in their prime, and they are all high-ranked players, but there are so many people, and none of them can be used. When it comes to the court, Garnett still has to take the responsibility. From offense to defense, from organization to tandem, from boosting morale to commanding all responsibilities of teammates.

Stephen has only seen two such players, one is Garnett and the other is James. Anyway, basketball is a team sport. No matter how comprehensive you are, you still need teammates. I really don’t know these two teams What did the management of the company do to bring two people to such a point.

Just like what Robert Horry said before the game, Duncan's playing time was surprisingly long in this game. Popovich replaced Stephen and the others at the end of the second quarter. The main lineup was replaced one after another.

Stephen did some calculations, and it took about 10 minutes to play. Facing McCants, Stephen played extraordinarily unrestrainedly, defending McCants without scoring a point. After the fight, Stephen felt that he was in the How fast he has grown in the past few months, McCants' skills have not degraded, but have improved, but there is no pressure on Stephen, and it feels like Stephen is competing with a child.

In the end, the Spurs only narrowly beat the Timberwolves 88-24. Duncan and Garnett still had the same results as the two before. Duncan scored 21 points, [-] rebounds and [-] assists, while Garnett scored [-] points and [-]. With [-] rebound and [-] assists, although he achieved a comprehensive victory in terms of statistics, he lost the game. After the game, Garnett lost all thoughts of talking to Duncan and turned away.

Duncan's low score is indeed due to Garnett's defense. The long-armed and long-legged Garnett is like an eight-legged spider. It's different. For the Timberwolves, Garnett grabs rebounds alone, while for the Spurs, the whole team grabs rebounds together, and Duncan helps a lot.

After returning to San Antonio, Stephen slept until [-]:[-] in the morning. He was sleeping beautifully. Suddenly a phone call disturbed Stephen's dream.

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It’s Monday, the growth of red tickets and collections is not satisfactory, and there are no good recommendations this week, it all depends on everyone’s support, looking forward to ing


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