After defeating James to claim their first ever 50-win season, the buzz was palpable post-game.
The morning after beating the Knights, Zhang Yang read the morning paper and browsed online news. Even though it was the day of the March Madness finals, their game from last night still made front-page news and had headlines on website homepages.
From a traffic standpoint, reaching a 50-win season by defeating the Knights indeed "maximized benefits" more than doing so against the Wizards or the Miami Heat.
But such benefits were not what Zhang Yang wanted.
For the following seven games, they needed five wins to reach 55 victories. If they had won one of those two games, the subsequent ones would have been much easier.
After resting until noon, Zhang Yang drove to the airport to meet up with the team.
Today the NBA was on a one-day break for the NCAA Basketball Championship finals, but the players’ work couldn’t stop; those who needed to prepare for the games did so, and those who had to travel to away games did just that.
The Bobcats were headed to Milwaukee, the home city of their next opponent, the Bucks, for a back-to-back series.
This was originally a highly anticipated league matchup. Before the season started, the Bobcats were rated as a team likely to win 50 games. In the East, a 50-win team is a top-four contender.
Meanwhile, the Bucks were a playoff-contending team last season and strengthened their roster over the summer through a series of trades and signings. They were seen as a 45-win level team, a strong candidate for the fifth or sixth spot in the East.
At the time, the league and media believed that these two teams might meet in the first round. Clashes between two rising powerhouses would definitely attract high attention.
Similar matchup predictions included the Bucks and the defending champion Miami Heat, and the Bucks versus the Chicago Bulls, who had acquired Ben Wallace... These matchups were also scheduled as high-profile events for the regular season’s final sprint. But now these games have been canceled from live coverage.
Zhang Yang considered the Bucks’ moves over the summer and felt there were no major issues; they were headed in the right direction for success.
Last season’s sophomore Mo Williams showed great talent, and to support him, the Bucks traded away Ford and got defensive forward Ruben Patterson and Chris Bosh’s backup, the "unibrowed warrior" Villanueva.
This trade was indeed a good one. Mo Williams moved up as a starter and averaged 17 points and 6 assists; Ruben Patterson had the best performance of his career, averaging 14.7 points and solid defense; in his sophomore year, Villanueva developed a three-pointer and good space-stretching capabilities.
To support Bogut, trading Magloire to the Trail Blazers for Blake was also a good move.
Blake was the guard Reed found most comfortable to play with since entering the NBA. This season, when he was on the court with Blake, his shooting percentage was as high as 48%. Last season, it was just 41% alongside Ford and only 43% with Mo Williams.
Mo Williams was more suitable for Reed than Ford, but that was just a comparison between the two.
With Magloire gone, Bogut was also better cultivated, averaging 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks, no longer being criticized as an unworthy first overall pick like in his rookie year.
Signing Charlie Bell, a quality backup point guard from the Warriors, drafting the Turkish talent Ilyasova in the second round, and signing versatile power forward Brian Skinner with a competitive 1-year, 5.4 million US dollar deal from the Bobcats and the Nets...
The Bucks management showed excellent ability, clear trading directions, outstanding operation skills, good draft pick insights, and clear objectives in signing free agents,
Head coach Terry Stotts had a strong ability to develop young players and was decent in coaching skills.
But their luck was as bad as ever. Just after they built a suitable roster around Reed, he missed 20 games in the first half of the season and another 10 in the latter half.
It wasn’t just Reed; Bogut, Mo Williams, Ilyasova, Charlie Bell... and other key players all missed more than 15 games. The main power forward "The Unibrowed Warrior" even missed more than 40 games. They were indeed a camp of injuries.
As a result, people saw a Bucks team that could boldly defeat the Mavericks, but also collapse and lose to the Celtics...
By the end of February, the Bucks management had to accept their fate. After the All-Star Weekend, they started tanking intentionally. Blake, who had a strong character and refused to tank, thereby declining to re-sign, was sent to the Nuggets Team by the Bucks management in exchange for Boykins’ expiring contract. Blake had signed a two-year contract with a minimum salary in ’05 which was about to expire; they couldn’t retain him anyway, so the Bucks’ management pushed the deal through as a favor.
That evening, Zhang Yang went to Felton’s room and watched the championship final between the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Acorn Team with his teammates.
The number one seed from the East, North Carolina, fell in the Elite Eight to second-seeded Georgetown University. It wasn’t unjustified—the Tar Heels might have ranked higher, but their main players were all freshmen and sophomores, whereas Georgetown had the super center Roy Hibbert, an NCAA overlord-level player.
However, Georgetown also fell in the Final Four, as their opponent Ohio State had an even stronger super center Greg Oden.
After watching the final, Zhang Yang realized just how absurdly strong Oden was during his student days.
Facing the Gators’ twin towers Horford and Noah, Oden went 10 for 15 from the field, plus 5 out of 8 free throws, securing 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He completely outplayed them single-handedly.
His head-to-head opponent, Noah, was defended to a meager 8 points and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes, scoring only 1 out of 3 field goals plus 6 free throws. Horford also only managed to score 6 out of 15 attempts.
Having watched this game, Zhang Yang thought that even if he were in charge as the Trail Blazers’ general manager with the "Eye of Providence," he’d be tempted to gamble on the chance of properly healing Oden’s uneven legs.
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