NBA: Warrior godfather.

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The trade between the Warriors and the Nets is going well, and Johnson is a coach who advocates for an "offensive out of place" style. He is actually single and has long coveted the Warriors' small forward and shooting guard. After two days of negotiations between Larry Riley and Billy King, the Warriors sent Azubuike and Reggie Williams, who have offensive capability with the ball, and received Yi Jianlian and two second-round picks from the Nets—one being the Nets' second-round pick in 2012 and the other being the Mavericks' second-round pick in 2011.

Liam is quite satisfied with the deal. With Clay, Azubuike's tactical position in the new season is destined to drop significantly, and his stats are inevitably going to decrease. Getting traded at the highest point of his value is the best option.

The Warriors' front line is bolstered by Butler and Matthews, and Reggie Williams will only be the third-string bench player in the new season.

As for whether the Nets will benefit from this deal, that's not something Liam needs to consider. It will be hard for a team at the bottom of the league to turn things around when they are still accumulating half-baked ball handlers.

Once the trade was completed, Yi Jianlian immediately arrived in Oakland to report, and the Warriors organized a rented apartment for him and quickly integrated him into the Warriors' training.

The coaching staff was pleasantly surprised to find that Yi Jianlian's technical characteristics, which he worked hard to polish during the summer, fit very well into the Warriors' tactical system. He blended into the bench lineup effortlessly, not holding the ball too much on offense and primarily finishing after spot-up three-pointers and blocking and dismantling—rarely staying inside—and also responding to the position at the top of the arc. Essentially, he played a "blue-collar" role.

On the defensive side, the Warriors always maintain a big center to protect the rim, so they don't need Yi Jianlian to defend inside. He'll focus on sweeping and helping with defense. He is the "poor man's version" of Green, utilizing his mobility and athleticism to the fullest.

Of course, Yi Jianlian's final success rate, projection ability, and defense are only average by league standards, but he is absolutely qualified to play as a backup.

This allowed Yi Jianlian to integrate into the Warriors' system in a very short period, without needing too much playing time. Although the Warriors lack two ball handlers, Curry and Butler's progress in ball retention is enough to cover for this deficiency, and Green can take on some of the playmaking duties, so the team's offense hasn't been greatly impacted.

The only issue is that Klay and Tony Allen in the second spot aren't as well-rounded as Azubuike, but overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Klay is a better shooter than Azubuike, and Tony Allen's defense is far from comparable to Azubuike's. This gives the Warriors more options for their lineup, rather than relying on Azubuike, who knows a little bit about everything but is not outstanding, like last season.

After Yi Jianlian reported to the team, Liam also announced to the team that there would be no more trades before the start of the season to reassure everyone. He asked Larry Riley to take the initiative to release the news to the media, rejecting all teams interested in these young Warriors players and preparing for the games.

The rest of the chapter would continue with similar changes, adjusting each name, location, and reference to fit the new instructions.

October 9

After more than a month of intense training, the Warriors' training camp was finally coming to an end.

Today, the Warriors would play their first preseason game, and they had a total of eight preseason games scheduled, mainly against teams like the Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and other teams from the Pacific Division, as well as the Trail Blazers—all relatively close opponents.

Today, the Warriors faced the Clippers at home. Even though it was just a preseason game, eager Warriors fans filled the entire Oracle Center, creating a fiery atmosphere.

Since the beginning of the preseason, the Oracle Center has been at full capacity, a feat unmatched across the league.

It's expected that the Warriors will have another successful season commercially, but their success at the end will depend on the team's performance.

Last season, the Warriors found commercial success. Liam reviewed the financial department's reports and a third-party evaluation of the Warriors' market capitalization, which reached $510 million for the 2009-2010 season, ranking fifth in the league, behind the Lakers, Knicks, Rockets, and Bulls.

Liam's $500 million premium contract with the Warriors was no longer in short supply.

Last season, the Warriors' operating income reached $160 million, ranking fourth in the league, above the Bulls. The gap between the top teams was minimal—the Lakers, at the top, had only $209 million in annual operating income, and with the Warriors' insane ability to draw money, it's not an exaggeration to say that their operating income this season could approach $200 million.

Last season, Chinese companies were still watching the Warriors' development. They were unsure whether the Chinese market could embrace a second "all-democratic team" other than the Rockets. After all, there was a gulf between coach and star appeal, and many companies were hesitant, refusing to cooperate with the Warriors at first. Only a few bold companies became Warriors sponsors.

But this summer, with Curry's blessing and Coach Liam's great relationship with Yi, countless Chinese fans joined the Warriors. Many Chinese enterprises reached out to cooperate with the Warriors, and the national sponsorship contract alone brought tens of millions of dollars to the Warriors. Larry Riley even joked that Liam was the Warriors' "golden goose".

Not only in Chinas, but the Warriors were also quite popular in the United States and South America. Liam's origin, nationality and age created a strong legend around him, which attracted many fans. The Warriors' offensive style, uncommon in the league, is beautiful and attractive. Curry's revolutionary style of play helped attract numerous Warriors fans, turning them into passionate supporters.(1)

Curry's fourth-place ranking in jersey sales last season is a testament to this. He ranked ahead of stars like Kobe, LeBron, and Garnett, with only his close friend Rose ahead of him. These two superstar point guards have a massive fan base across the country, surpassing stars like Howard, Wade, Paul, Pierce, and Anthony.

Today, these fans filling the Oracle Center were also here for Curry, but their expectations were not fully met. Curry played only 18 minutes, scoring 14 points and 5 assists in a relaxed performance, and then went to rest. Jeremy Lin, however, played as the point guard for 30 minutes.

Since his first season with the Bulldogs, Liam had seen the preseason as an opportunity to experiment with tactics, test lineups, and develop backups.

In his view, offseason training had a decisive impact on a player's condition for the new season, and even if successful, it would take time to have an effect and influence the team's performance.

To this end, he issued a strict order that all players must maintain appropriate training in the offseason, at least to retain their shape from the previous season. Otherwise, they would find themselves sitting on the bench.

Fortunately, the Warriors' roster is dominated by young players, most of whom have rookie contracts or base salaries, and have not yet reached the retirement stage. They have been working very hard and have not violated this rule.

In the first half of the 2018-2019 season, Klay was even more fierce, known as "Tieguanyin" by the fans, until he scored 14 three-pointers in an away game against the Bulls, breaking the NBA's single-game record for three-pointers. Afterward, he returned to his normal state.

Liam had reminded Mitchell Thompson and Klay's agent to pay attention to his summer training, and so far, there seemed to be no problems, but it was hard to say in the future.

Under Liam's attitude, the Warriors played without restrictions. He not only used the five-shooter lineup of Curry, Klay, Butler, Anthony Toliver, and Yi Jianlian, but also deployed a pure defensive lineup of Tony Allen, Butler, Chandler, Green, and Matthews. This allowed the fans to experience two games with one ticket.

The Warriors players also played boldly with their fast-paced tactics. Green distributed passes bravely at the top of the arc and even took on point guard duties at times. But there were many mistakes, as Green at that point did not have the precise and ingenious playmaking ability of later generations. Many imaginative passes were intercepted by the Clippers players in the middle.

This led Liam to decide not to let Green take on too many playmaking responsibilities until his passing improved significantly.

Curry made several logo shots in a short amount of playing time, and his shooting percentage remained very high, surprising the Clippers players. Liam had to replace him quickly to prevent the point gap from widening unnecessarily.

Jeremy Lin attacked the Clippers' defense through pick-and-rolls. The Clippers had little information on him and were repeatedly beaten by Jeremy Lin inside. Once the Clippers focused on him, Lin passed to his teammates, and the Warriors' bench offense played with vigor.

On the defensive side, the Warriors adhered to a strategy based on infinite switches, supplemented by ball handlers pinching.

With so many good defenders on the team, it was impossible for Liam to let go of infinite defensive switches. Even if Curry, Jeremy Lin, Klay, and other guards had average defense, their level of defense could still reach the league's average.

The Warriors' infinite defensive switching wasn't mindless; Liam made sure that the strong defensive players took on the opposing ball handlers and protected guards like Curry and Jeremy Lin.

If they faced a ball handler's team attack, the Warriors' forwards would clear out the opponent's non-spaced points to pinch the ball, forcing the opponent to pass and then rotating to fill the gaps left by the co-defender.

And if the opponent targeted the Warriors' defensive weaknesses, such as the previous life of Liam and James, the targeted guard would not choose to switch the defense. Instead, they would advance and delay switching after a long pause, trying to slow the opponent's pace to find defensive weaknesses and consume the opponent's offensive time. Even if the opponent finally found the Warriors' guard, there wouldn't be much time for follow-up actions. Even if they eventually found the opponent, the Warriors would decisively help on defense.

The Clippers had not thought about targeting the Warriors' point guards in this way and were a bit stunned by the Warriors' infinite rotations, a strategy that made it nearly impossible for the Clippers to get easy scoring opportunities, and they could only finish their offense with simple shots.

It was only when the Clippers' offensive anchors, Gordon, Griffin, and Carman, faced off against the Warriors' Tony Allen, Green, and Chandler that they could score through tough shots, but it was inefficient. The Warriors launched a fast break quickly, and the point gap widened rapidly.

Ron Adams couldn't help but sigh when he saw Carman finally shake Chandler with a delicate post move and make a low-handed layup.

"Ronan, we have the strongest individual defense and the best help defense, and I can't wait to play the regular season," Liam said.

At that moment, Griffin was still standing at the edge of the paint on the other side, waiting to grab a rebound.

He had little shooting ability and no offensive threat from a distance, so Green could help defend in time. Even if he stood beyond the three-point line, Green wouldn't pay attention to him.

This was another defensive strategy of the Warriors—placing Green in a non-spaced position against the opponent, allowing him to help boldly and use his top-tier defensive instincts.

After the game, despite the Warriors experimenting with their lineup and practicing tactics, they still had a total of 20 turnovers but relied on their good discipline and individual player ability to finally defeat the Clippers 114-91.

And that was just the beginning. In the next 7 preseason games, the Warriors won more and lost fewer, finishing with a 5-3 record, mainly losing to strong teams like the Lakers and Trail Blazers.

In every game, most of the Warriors' bench players appeared. Curry, Butler, and Chandler, who had been starters last season, played around 20 minutes per game, and even when they played, they mostly focused on tactics. Butler's ability to retain the ball improved rapidly, and Curry's finishing ability under the basket also showed substantial improvement.

On the contrary, Matthews had about 36 minutes of playing time per game, and Liam specifically allowed him to run Clay's tactics and hold the ball to attack. This made Matthews play the preseason like a playoff and work hard every minute.

The coach is going to reuse me, I can't let him down! I want to seize this opportunity!

Fueled by this mindset, along with Matthews' hard offseason training, he made great strides, developing his ball-handling ability, and had a solid preseason performance, averaging 18.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.4 steals per game, which was comparable to the previous season.

For a while, all eyes were on Matthews' incredible performance, but they overlooked the progress of Curry, Butler, and Tony Allen's amazing 73.4% field goal shooting.

Of course, no one thought that Klay's 45.2% three-point shooting would last into the regular season, and they didn't pay attention to Green's seemingly omnipresent defensive performance.

The two rookies with lower draft rankings were still young. How could they be so strong?

Everyone's attention was on the defending champions, the Lakers, and the superteam Heat, but no one cared too much about the Warriors.

A columnist wrote about people's thoughts:

"The coach Liam, didn't change to a strong star to help Curry but selected a group of rookies. Does he think that as long as there are enough young players, he can win? He's ruining the Warriors' good fortune! They won five games, but it was only the preseason, and the Warriors will show their true level in the regular season…"

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(1)For possible future chapters I will not make drastic changes in this chapter.

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