One Guard

With the beginning of the summer training camp, the NBA's new season is about to reignite. Every year before the start of the new season, various TV stations will invite experts to make a prediction for the situation of each team in the new season. Although from past experience, most of these predictions are far from reality, but fans love to listen to those. The experts are nonsense, filling in the boring time with no games to watch before the season starts.

This year, ESPN has made a prediction ranking as always. This time, the experts learned well and didn't say anything stupid like "The Mavericks can make the playoffs is a victory". They improved the Mavericks' ranking this year, placing them in fourth place ahead of the Lakers, Spurs and Grizzlies.

That's right, fourth in the Western Conference, this is the highest expectations experts have for the Dallas Mavericks. After a summer of reinforcements, experts predict that the Mavericks' ranking will be one lower than last season.

No way, who made the Mavericks sign this summer all the guys who are not well-known? Although Iguodala is an All-Star, compared with a name like Howard, it is indeed not enough.

The Clippers dug up the hottest champion coach Doug Rivers, so the experts put the Clippers first in the West. The Rockets got Howard, so they were ranked second in the Western Conference. The Oklahoma City Thunder owns Durant and Westbrook, two big names with both fame and strength, so even though they were eliminated by the Mavericks last year, they still ranked third in the Western Conference. What about the Mavericks who introduced Iguodala? Fourth in the West, why? Your Iguodala's reputation is not as loud as those mentioned above. People don't think an Iguodala can bring any qualitative change to the Mavericks.

In this age of superstars and giants, the combination of Yiyang + old driver + Iguodala is indeed shabby on paper. The Mavericks are not the worst. Look at the San Antonio Spurs who didn't make any big moves in the summer. They were ranked sixth in the Western Conference.

Last season, the Spurs went through numerous difficulties, surpassing the strongest in the West, entering the Finals and the Heat's inextricable team. It's such a team, but it was only placed sixth in the Western Conference! This shows how stupid these so-called "experts" are!

Carlisle threw the newspaper aside and smiled contemptuously. This predicted ranking is the same as before, completely without reference value. If they put their team fourth in the Western Conference, it doesn’t matter. Put the Spurs sixth in the Western Conference? I'm afraid this group of guys and others are not watching the same NBA.

Carlisle drank the remaining coffee in his cup in one breath, forgot the ridiculous prediction ranking, and opened the office door.

On the basketball court, the players are actively preparing for the battle, and all of them perform their duties and carry out different training programs. The whole training hall looked very lively, and this busy atmosphere made Carlisle feel that he was a lot fulfilled.

Tomorrow, the NBA preseason will officially start. Although it is not a formal game, it is also a good opportunity for the players to warm up. However, in these preseason games, Carlisle does not intend to show true strength. It is a wise choice to keep your strength in the real battle.

So in the next half month of the preseason, the high-profile Dallas Mavericks played a total of seven games, but only won two of them. This result is completely different from the advancing Rockets and the easy-going Clippers.

Although Carlisle didn't put the main players on the field much in the preseason, he was experimenting with various tactics and tapping the depth of the bench, but reporters don't care why you lose, they don't care about the process, only the final result.

"Last season, the Dallas Mavericks miraculously achieved the third place in the Western Conference under the leadership of Ye, and also reached the Western Conference Finals. It can be said to be very miraculous. But miracles mean that this is not something that can be replicated often. Look at them. The performance of the preseason, I think the Mavericks situation this season may be very embarrassing."

"2 wins and 5 losses, I am not surprised by the Mavericks' preseason performance, because they are a team of this level. Do you want them to return to the top? Wake up, this is not a single-core team that can solve the problem. It's the age!"

"Neither Iguodala and Nowitzki are really the core. In fact, the Mavericks are still a team with only one superstar. Last year, the Lakers were still unable to have 4 superstars. To stand out in the West, the Mavericks want to hit the championship with this lineup. I have to say that Mark Cuban is really a bold visionary."

Unsurprisingly, the experts have surprisingly agreed on the Mavericks. When the last preseason was interviewed by reporters, when reporters asked Yiyang what he thought of the experts' comments, Yiyang just opened his hands and looked meaningless.

"From the time I joined the league until now, people have commented on us like this before the start of each season. You ask me how I feel? I don't feel it because I'm used to it." Yiyang said coldly, then turned and left. He was neither angry nor excited. In the fourth year of his professional career, Yiyang had already taken offense to these things.

At the end of the bleak preseason, the outside world's comments on the Mavericks all the way down. But within the Mavericks, their morale was not low. Because everyone knows that they are only training in these seven games, not playing.

People only saw the Mavericks' five losses, but no one saw the tremendous pressure they brought to the opponent when they defended with all their strength. They didn't see the Mavericks' extremely smooth offense when Yiyang was on the court, and they didn't see Nowitzki's comparison. In a better state this season, he didn't see Gobert's body that was almost a lap stronger than in the draft.

The failure of the preseason is nothing. When the real battle begins, Yiyang and his team will let the entire league experience the horror of the Dallas Mavericks!

※※※

The start of the new season is approaching day by day, and the Mavericks' training is becoming more and more systematic. This almost rebuilt team has formed a basic system and has a very good run-in.

Originally, Carlisle chose a bunch of players suitable for the team and Yiyang. It is not difficult to get them together.

On October 29, 2013, the NBA opener officially kicked off. But this year, the Mavericks were not arranged by the league in the three games of the opening game. The first game of the new season for the Mavericks will start on October 30, one day after the opening game.

Therefore, on the night of the 29th, Carlisle announced the end of training early, allowing the players to go back and have a good rest to deal with the actual battle the next day.

Almost all Mavericks players went home to rest after training, even Yiyang, who likes to practice extra training, is no exception. This summer, he has practiced enough. Tonight, he just wants to recharge his energy, and then do a big job tomorrow!

Since the Asian Championships, Yiyang has not played a formal game, the Dallas guard has long been hungry and thirsty. And in tomorrow's game, Yiyang will put on his first-generation signature shoes for the first time, which undoubtedly makes him look forward to more.

Yiyang drove home early and was about to call Vignali, only to find that his mobile phone was in the locker room.

There was no way, Yiyang had to return to the US Airline Center Arena before dinner. It seemed that I was really too excited and didn't care about anything except the game.

Walk directly into the player passage from the underground parking lot, and Yiyang walks through the training hall to the team's locker room. But when Yiyang passed the gate of the training hall, he suddenly stopped. Because he faintly heard the sound of basketball hitting the floor.

Yiyang opened the door of the training hall curiously. He didn't expect that now the Dallas Mavericks had a man who was more enthusiastic about additional training than himself.

When the door opened and the brightly lit stadium appeared in front of Yiyang, the guy training on the court did not exceed Yiyang's expectations, it was him!

"Rudy, aren't you going home yet?"

The tall Rudy Gobert is standing on the free throw line, tirelessly practicing his free throw. Seeing Yiyang coming in, the French center just smiled, and then devoted himself to his own affairs again.

Yiyang seemed to travel back four years ago, seeing himself at that time. It's just that at that time, he was obsessed with honing his skills outside the three-point line.

"Why don't you tell me if you want to practice more?" Since it's all here, Yiyang simply walked over to Gobert and sat down.

"Looking at you in a hurry to go home today, I didn't call you." Gobert's mouth was answering Yiyang, but his hands didn't stop.

"Is it because I'm too nervous? I don't want to leave the court." Even for Yiyang, who is about to start his fourth professional season, tomorrow's game will make him very excited, let alone entering the league in the first year. Gobert.

"No, it's just... tomorrow's game, I don't want to mess up. Because that was my first show, and... and our opponent is the Atlanta Hawks!"

At the mention of the words Atlanta Hawks, Gobert seemed to be angry. Yiyang smiled. It turned out that it was because of this incident.

In this year's draft, the Hawks have two consecutive first-round picks, the 17th and 18th, and in the previous trial, they also promised to use one of these two picks to select Gobert.

However, the fact is that Gobert was not selected by the Mavericks until the 27th overall pick. If it weren't for the Mavericks, he might even fall out of the first round. The Atlanta Hawks undoubtedly wrote a bad check to Gobert who was full of expectations.

It's not that Gobert is eager to play in Atlanta, but the tragic abandonment by the Eagles, which made Gobert feel contempt and disrespect.

Since you didn't take good care of me at the beginning, why did you make those beautiful promises? You don't think I'm worth a draft pick in the middle of the first round. Tomorrow, Gobert will prove how stupid the Hawks' choice is.

And this ~www.novelmtl.com~ is also the reason why Gobert chose No. 27 as his jersey number. He always reminded himself of the humiliation he received in the draft, and then turned these anger into strength. Now Gobert has no games to play, so he vented his emotions on the training ground.

Seeing Gobert's performance, Yiyang couldn't help but smile. This 21-year-old French center is really full of enthusiasm.

"Go back and rest, Rudy." But Yiyang did not encourage Gobert to continue training, but urged him to go home.

"Listen to me, keep your strength, tomorrow let's take a good beating of those bastards!" Why couldn't Yiyang understand the humiliation that was looked down upon? Until last season, few people in the league were willing to admit that Yiyang would become a superstar.

Respect, I won it back!

After Yiyang finished speaking, he stretched out his fist. Gobert smiled and fisted with Yiyang gently.

The new season has just begun, and the two "Avengers" inside and outside are already preparing to do some big things...