Author: Grove Street Brothers

No matter how weak a sheep is, it cannot get the mercy of a lion.

What Shay did in Orlando perfectly illustrates the meaning of this sentence.

Hardaway had been beaten to a mental breakdown, but he still couldn't stop Shea from leaving a famous scene in Orlando like "very few young people can force me to use my seven-seven success".

Orlando people were no longer arrogant, and the fans tore down the "Hardaway, the best team" sign one after another.

The on-site commentators also suffered from selective amnesia, and there was a huge gap between their comments before and after the game.

Before the game: Anfernee is already the strongest defender after Jordan!

After the game: Shea and Jordan are already a level above other guards!

Poor Penny, from Jordan's successor to Shay's pretentious material.

But for Hardaway, the bad things don't end there.

After becoming a fodder for Shay to show off, he became a fodder for O'Neal's ridicule at the post-game press conference.

"Only 8 of 24 shots were made. It seems that Anfernee needs to practice shooting more than me. Hahahahahaha. You might as well give me a few more shots."

Although Shark's words were a joke on the surface, if you listen carefully, you will know that he is an old Onmyoji.

If Shark doesn't come back, the team will have 13 wins and 2 losses, and can still beat the Bulls.

As soon as the Sharks came back, the team immediately lost a game, and it was a disastrous defeat.

It’s strange that a shark can be in a good mood!

If O'Neal were to play in New York, the New York media would have a "shark law".

The Shark, who was in a bad mood, attributed all the reasons for losing the game to Pence.

In fact, Pence himself has a good personality and is happy to share the ball.

And because he is tall enough, Hardaway is very good at lobbing the ball inside.

It can be said that Hardaway is actually very suitable for the Sharks, and there is no conflict between the two.

But the shark is a big guy with a big body, but a small brother and a small mind!

Hardaway's reputation is getting better and better, making O'Neal extremely jealous.

Think about it, if an author has readers in the review section of his novels who have better ideas than he does, so that he can only copy book reviews every day, he will definitely be jealous of the readers' talents.

The same goes for Shark. Hardaway, you are just a bad support player. Why are you more popular than me now?

Hardaway felt miserable. Even if he was beaten and not comforted, he would also be ridiculed by his teammates.

However, the current Shark cannot even imagine that the Magic management will have to give him a decisive moment this summer.

There is no way, these days, every team has this view:

The super center is very strong, but if you want to win the championship, you have to find guards like Shay and Jordan!

You know, Olajuwon has never won a championship in this history.

From 1987 to last season, for nine seasons, the championship teams were all teams with defenders as the core!

Magic's Lakers, Thomas' Pistons, Jordan's Bulls and Shea's Lakers all have guards as their core, and one of the characteristics of these teams is that they don't have a super center.

In 1987, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had nothing to do with the term "super center".

Therefore, the Magic will naturally prefer Hardaway.

However, Shea has no control over the Magic's affairs. I don't know what kind of story the Sharks will cause this summer.

After beating Hardaway, the Lakers' record became 34 wins and 11 losses, temporarily ranking third in the Western Conference.

Second only to the SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns, who have suddenly emerged this season.

Overtaken the Utah Jazz.

Although it is basically impossible for the Lakers to surpass last season's 63-win record, their final ranking will certainly not be too low.

This made the teams in the Western Conference nervous.

I thought the Lakers would die after disintegrating this season, but unexpectedly, the Lakers' defense ranked first in the league, and their record improved steadily.

This makes every team have to be wary of the Lakers again.

In February, because the trade deadline was approaching, each team had a deep understanding of the team's strengths and weaknesses after playing for half a season.

Therefore, February is often the month with the most frequent transactions in the middle of the season.

Therefore, the teams in the Western Conference tried to survive in the cruel environment and fight against the still strong Lakers.

They all started an "arms race" one after another.

What determines whether a KTV business is good or not is not the sound quality.

Just like whether a team's record is good or not, it's not tactics.

The most important thing is the people!

If the team wants to become stronger, it must work hard on "people"!

The Sonics, ranked second in the Western Conference, were the first to attack. They were afraid that the Lakers would usurp their second place.

Therefore, the Sonics took out starting shooting guard Jose Hawkins, who averaged 15.6 points per game and shot 38.4% from three-point range, as well as two draft picks in the first and second rounds of 1996.

Derrick McKay was acquired from the Indiana Pacers - a second-defense forward last season!

Derek McKay's scoring ability is mediocre, and he can only score 11 points per game with a shooting rate of less than 50%. Such efficiency is definitely not excellent in the paint.

But his active defense and extremely quick defensive mobility make him favored by the SuperSonics.

George Karl's SuperSonics were originally a team that relied on high-mobility forward attacks to contain the opponent's offense. Now the introduction of second-defense forward McKay will undoubtedly add to this foundation.

In the original history, the role of McKay originally belonged to Sam Perkins.

But now Perkins is with the Lakers, so the Sonics acquired McKay to take his place.

However, Derek McKay's defensive ability is even better than Perkins!

Perkins has never been selected to the defensive team in his career, but McKay was not only selected as the best second defense player last season, but also the best second defense player in history this season.

His joining has simply made the Sonics' defense even more powerful.

It's like wearing silk for long legs in winter, it's warm and looks good, and it has obvious effects!

With such a reinforcement from the Sonics, it's not certain whether Shay will cry, but Dameng will definitely cry.

In the West, the team that is most restrained in terms of tactical style is the SuperSonics.

Because of Supersonic's highly maneuverable front line, they really are not afraid of being shot all over the place.

They were able to repeatedly jump between Dameng and others, both double-teaming Olajuwon and using their height and mobility to block three-pointers.

Of course, for Shea, this will undoubtedly make the playoffs more difficult.

The guard of the Sonics was Payton, who became a god in a game in 1996.

This means that if Shai plays with the Sonics, his hit rate on strong mid-range shots will not be particularly high.

Offense must rely on breakthroughs.

But at this time, the SuperSonics brought out a help-defense monster like McKay.

In addition, Ceballos, who was previously traded to the SuperSonics,

The West is really so rolled up that there is no way for people to survive.

If they meet the SuperSonics in the playoffs, it will definitely be a tough battle.

The SuperSonics trade was just the beginning. Soon, the Utah Jazz couldn't bear it any longer and strengthened their lineup through trades.

The SuperSonics are afraid of being surpassed by the Lakers, while the Jazz want to surpass the Lakers!

The Jazz traded away the aging former All-Star guard Jeff Malone and the 1996 first-round pick, and acquired the godfather of team-breaking experts—Rod Strickland—from the Trail Blazers.

Since Slider left, Strickland has been the de facto leader of the Trail Blazers. I thought that with Strickland, the Trail Blazers could start a happy journey of success.

As a result, the Trail Blazers have struggled on the edge of the playoffs every year. Strickland also had all-around statistics of 18.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.8 steals last season!

This made the Blazers very embarrassed. Their record was not much better, and their draft ranking was not much higher.

As for Strickland, the star player's statistics are very good, but his box office appeal is almost non-existent.

In the NBA, the most fearful thing is this kind of lack of success.

After seeing that the Suns were determined to fail and had already acquired Webber, Hill and the Flying Pigs, the Blazers decided to follow suit.

I completely put down my face and started to show off like crazy!

In addition, Strickland is in the last year of his contract and he also wants to leave. If the Trail Blazers don't trade him, the team will not get any money when Strickland's contract expires in the summer.

So the two sides hit it off immediately, and the godfather of the breakup team was sent to Salt Lake City.

The Trail Blazers got their wish and started to mess up, while the Jazz got the perimeter scoring points they dreamed of!

Since Jeff Malone has aged, the Jazz's offense can only rely on that big elbow Malone.
To be continued...