The Knight had heavily relied on three role players over the past two years. Donnell Marshall had collapsed this season, averaging 4 points in preseason games with a shooting percentage of 25%, and only played 6 minutes tonight. Including this season, he still has 2 years and 13 million left on his contract; Snow had been dropped from the opening game, still with 2 years and 14 million left; Damon Jones also had 2 years and 9 million left on his contract, with 1 out of 4 shots made in the opener.
Such a group of players, salaries plus luxury tax, nearly a hundred million...
The Knight’s owner is willing to spend money because of ’money printer’ James. Since the implementation of the salary cap until before the 05-06 season, the Knight’s payroll had always fluctuated around the cap line, never splurging. But after James’s rookie season, the Knight’s spending started soaring.
It’s just that the way they’re spending... Even if you give out overpriced contracts, at least give them to the young ones!
Giving a 4-year 26 million to someone like Matt Carroll, who is at the peak of his career, might be expensive but nobody would complain. Like Gooden and Varejao’s overpriced contracts, not many grumbled. But long-term big contracts for soon-to-retire players like Snow and Donnell Marshall were recognized as trash contracts the moment they were signed.
Zhang Yang could only lament that the Knight’s owner was truly ’caring for the elderly’.
Turning off the official website, Zhang Yang opened the forum to check out the post-game comments from netizens.
Seeing that the post-game discussion heat of his team, the Bobcats, against the Knight was higher than Yao Ming’s battle against the LA trio, Zhang Yang couldn’t suppress a smile.
The Lakers versus the Chicago Bulls game seemed exciting when looking at the stats, with fans giving it high praise.
Kobe had an efficient game tonight, with assists from Kidd, Garnett, and Luke Walton. He only had 2 assists tonight, scoring 40 points with 13 out of 25 shots.
Garnett had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks with 10 shots 6 hits; Kidd had 3 hits out of 6 shots, including 2 out of 5 three-pointers, plus 2 free throws, resulting in 10 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists; Luke Walton had 8 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists; Fisher came off the bench and scored two three-pointers along with one break through to total 8 points.
The Lakers performed excellently as a whole.
On the Bulls side, Yao Ming had 30 points and 12 rebounds with 10 out of 16 shots, plus 10 out of 12 free throws; Ben Wallace had 5 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks; Hinrich had 15 points and 9 assists; Luol Deng had 20 points; Nocioni had 12 points... they also performed well.
The result of the game was the Lakers lost, with a score of 102 to 105. Garnett tied the score with a heroic mid-range shot off a pass from Kobe, but Hinrich hit a game-winning three-point shot against Kidd’s defense.
There were star showdowns, Kobe VS Yao Ming+Deng; offensive organization battles, Kidd VS Hinrich; defensive master showdowns, Garnett VS Ben Wallace... The score was tense, there were game-winners and counter game-winners, yet the heat of the game was still not as high as the Bobcats versus the Knights.
A 40-point difference, in all NBA history openers, ranks fifth!
In the 87-88 season opener, the Nuggets team crushed the Clippers by 46 points, 139 to 93, which is the biggest point difference in the history of openers.
The most recent opener slaughter with a 40+ point difference was the 91-92 season when the Spurs beat the Mavericks by 41 points, 140 to 99. After 15 years, the Bobcats did the same.
The reason why fans discussed this slaughter so enthusiastically was that it was completely unexpected!
It was generally recognized that the Knight couldn’t beat the Bobcats, even with the Bobcats missing Gerald Wallace, not many people thought the Knight could win.
Even rational Knight fans and James fans acknowledged this point.
But a 40-point difference... Not to mention the fans watching the live broadcast, even the Bobcats fans at the scene were dumbfounded. Didn’t they think the Knight were that bad?
After thorough analysis by the media and fans, they reached a conclusion similar to Zhang Yang’s— the Knights with the league’s 4th highest payroll, only have 6 players above standard, aside from the big three and rookie contracts, the rest are either overpriced or trash contracts.
As a result, Zhang Yang saw the classic post in the forum— the Knight lost, but KING, who scored the highest points of the game, didn’t lose.
Zhang Yang was not sure if those extreme fans making such comments really expected James to improve.
In the past, if anyone had said this after Jordan, O’Neal, or Kobe lost a game, they would have been scolded to death.
If Zhang San had good stats but lost, he would have been cursed too.
But with James, the public opinion seems a bit too kind, as if... pampered by a bunch of ’mommy fans’? About the same as the short beans.
Zhang Yang reflected on the regular season when he first faced James, which he found quite astonishing!
Compared to the 05-06 playoffs, the first time Zhang Yang faced James in the 06-07 season, it felt like the latter was about to transform. He obviously practiced long shots during the offseason, became smarter in playing, improved his cooperation with teammates, and changed many defensive habits... But this time facing James, it seemed like, besides making better use of his body than last season and getting smarter, his techniques and fundamentals had again stalled...
The next day, a new month had arrived.
With little playtime in the opener, Zhang Yang arrived at the stadium at 10 am for some extra shooting practice.
Currently, he had two training objectives— to elevate his mid-range shot to 90, and to accumulate 120,000 shooting value before the end of 2007 to improve his talent.
In the afternoon, he participated in the team’s preparation training for tomorrow’s game against the Bucks.
After the training, the ’Four Youngsters Squad’ sat together for a chat.
Felton: "I was worried that the teammates would get arrogant after winning by 40 points last night, and today’s training proved to be very restless."
Zhang Yang: "It’s normal for the defending champions, after slaughtering the Eastern Conference top-four hopeful Knight by 40 points in the opener, to be a bit complacent. Should you prompt them a little?"