Chapter 255 254. There is finally a new person in Xia Village!

In terms of strength, the major championship contenders do not regard the Bobcats as the strongest competitor for the championship in the new season.

This summer, public opinion generally believes that the Bulls and Lakers are going to rise and become the strongest teams in the East and West.

The Pistons, who kept their main lineup and selected two older rookies with outstanding immediate combat effectiveness, Noah and Dudley, are considered the second strongest team in the Eastern Conference.

There are more teams competing for the second place in the Western Conference, including the Jazz, Mavericks, Spurs, Suns and other four teams.

Among them, the Jazz were the most favored, as they got Korver and retained Matt Harpring in the competition with the Bobcats. Deron, Kirilenko, Boozer and Okur grew another year.

The Jazz's only loss of strength this summer was being fooled by Fisher.

Fisher said he wanted to accompany his child back to California for medical treatment and asked the Jazz to buy out his contract. His contract was signed with the Warriors in 04 for 6 years and $3700 million. He had 3 years left, totaling $1850 million. He was willing to give up most of his salary.

The Jazz believed that Fisher was a good father who loved his children, so they agreed to this request and bought out Fisher's contract for $667 million... Two days later, Fisher officially signed a contract with the Lakers for three years and $3 million.

In other words, Fisher will get 3 million from the Lakers every year for the next three years, and 500 million from the Jazz every year. He successfully returned to his parent team with three years left on his contract, without causing any loss to his old club, and can still get an extra million in salary every year.

The Utah media was madly criticizing Fisher and calling the Jazz management fools. Although Zhang Yang had expected this, he couldn't figure out the Jazz management's train of thought when he saw the news.

Boozer joined the Jazz because of the advanced medical care in Salt Lake City, and he wanted to take his children to Salt Lake City for medical treatment, right? Did the Jazz management believe Fisher's reason?
It is easy to imagine that Fisher wants to return to the Lakers. Although he would be a substitute for Kidd if he returned, he would also be a substitute in the Jazz, and a substitute for the third-year Deron, and in that damn place, Salt Lake City.

The people who are happiest about this are the Cavaliers fans - it’s a reward for all!

As for the Bobcats, although they are the defending champions, major media generally rank them outside the top five, believing that their most likely ranking in the new regular season is third in the Eastern Conference, and they may face challenges from the Cavaliers and Raptors in the rankings.

After all, they lost Gerald Wallace. Even if Felton, Zhang Yang, Rondo and Okafor grow up in a year, it will be difficult to make up for the loss of strength caused by the loss of Gerald Wallace.

Gerald Wallace is not only the spearhead in attacking the basket, but also the connecting point of the Bobcats' inside and outside defense. The loss of strength is too great.

From a strength perspective, the Bobcats have nothing to do with the "public enemy," but the 19-year-old Zhang Yang...

Teams aiming for the championship don't want to see the Bobcats strengthen their front line through trades or signings, especially forwards like Joe Smith and Matt Harpring who can play both inside and outside defense.

If the Bobcats can fill the gaps in their front line defense, God knows what crazy performance Bad Boy Jack can lead the team to in the playoffs. The Bobcats' performance in the playoffs last season was amazing.

After the Mavericks and the Suns were eliminated one after another, people thought that the Spurs had won the championship. Unexpectedly, the Warriors defeated the Mavericks in the first round and the Spurs defeated the Suns. In the end, they were just making things difficult for the Bobcats.

Relying on their youth, the Bobcats had almost no chance of beating the two teams that were unexpectedly eliminated, which means that the Bobcats not only performed beyond expectations, but also had ridiculous luck.

Zhang Yang was extremely depressed when he saw the free market situation.

But he thinks Boss Joe also needs to take some responsibility - the Jazz spent an average of 600 million per year to snatch Korver and 700 million per year to keep Matt Harpring. It is hard to say whether it was because the competition was Jordan's team.

Fortunately, he made an easy move at the beginning...

It was September 9th, and the lease of Nash's vacation villa had expired, and Zhang Yang and his team's journey of seeking advice would also come to an end.

Both sides were reluctant.

Zhang Yang, Felton, Rondo, and Alan Anderson all learned a lot of game experience and practical details from Nash, which is something that even top trainers like Grove cannot provide.

Nash was also reluctant to part with them. He tried his best to guide the four young players, but more than ten days were not enough for him to leave enough traces of himself in Felton and Rondo's playing styles... Ahem, he was reluctant to part with several young talents. Training with the young players made him feel younger.

But the new season is getting closer and closer, and they all have to return to their own teams to prepare for the new season.

Both teams will face a very difficult situation in the new season.

As for the Suns, they lost three main players: Jalen Rose retired, Kurt Thomas was poached by the Supersonics for 3 million for three years, and James Jones was traded to the Knicks and then sent to the Trail Blazers...

And the Western Conference also has the giant Lakers.

The Bobcats lost Gerald Wallace, and the East gained a giant team - the Bulls.

This is where Nash's favor towards the young players of the Bobcats increases. They feel sorry for each other!

At noon, the group of seven people had a farewell meal and then came to the airport.

Lola and Bella each held onto one of Zhang Yang's thighs, reluctant to let go. Nash forcibly took his two worthless daughters away - your dad is also a great basketball player, okay!

After agreeing to train together next year and saying goodbye, Nash and his two daughters boarded a flight to Phoenix International Airport first. After a while, four members of the Bobcats also boarded the plane, but the four were not on the same flight.

Rondo and Alan Anderson flew to Charlotte International Airport, while Zhang Yang and Felton flew to the South Coast...

Zhang Yang: I’m sorry, Teacher Na!

Anyway, you can't beat the Lakers, so I, Zhang San, snatched that player away first. When you completely lose hope of winning the championship with the Suns, if you are willing to come, can we compete for the championship together?

...

A few days later, on September 9, the Bobcats were doing a tryout at the Charlotte Turkish Airlines Arena's practice field 15. It was just a tryout for a minimum-salary contract, but Jordan, Bickerstaff, and Carlisle were all there, and even the team's medical staff came to watch.

Because the player trying out is Grant Hill!

The tryout had reached the 1-on-1 defensive test phase. Originally, Bickerstaff, who was in charge of the tryout, arranged for Alan Anderson to test Hill, but Alan Anderson was quickly blocked by the furious Hill.

Jordan decisively gave orders over the chain of command and arranged Jarrett Jack, Felton and Zhang Yang to match up with Hill.

Hill can effectively limit Jarrett Jack. Hill cannot defend Felton and Zhang Yang one-on-one, but he does a good job in guiding Felton's breakthrough route and interfering with Zhang Yang's outside shooting. If there is an inside rim protector behind him, the defensive effect will be foreseeable to be better!
Jordan was surprised by Hill's defensive performance, but it was not the defensive performance itself that surprised him, but...

Jordan asked Thomas Carter, who was standing by, "Thomas, how did you do it? How did you manage to get Grant back to this state?"

Thomas Carter shook his head and responded, "Grant's treatment is all the most basic conservative treatment, which is not much different from other doctors who treat him."

Jordan: Do you take me for a fool? If it's a trade secret, then don't tell me. What's the big deal? I want to fire my employer... No one can be fired! Fuck!
Thomas Carter found Jordan's expression funny and explained, "The Magic's team doctor's treatment of Grant was actually correct. Grant has been injured all the time, which is actually his own problem. He is so tall, but his breakthrough is like Iverson's. He likes to change direction drastically, play with time difference and suddenly start to accelerate. This puts too much pressure on his knees and ankles, so he suffered a serious injury at the age of 27.

After recovering from his injury, he insisted on playing in the game when the muscles of the injured part had not yet become strong enough. Naturally, his fragile injured part could not support it, and as a result, he recovered from his injury every year, but was reimbursed after playing only a dozen games each year.

Do you remember that he played 2004 games in the 2005-67 season? That was actually because he took a year and a half off. After he was injured in January 2003, he did not play until October 1, which gave the injured part enough time to recover. The long injury period also gave him enough time to train the corresponding muscle groups to be strong enough, so his attendance rate was so high that season.

But his playing style put too much strain on his knees and ankles, so he didn't actually finish that season and was ruled out in April. In the 4-2005 season, he was back on track, recovering from his injury but failing to build strong enough muscles, and was ruled out after playing for less than two months.

I took over Grant's treatment at the beginning of last year. After examining him and looking at his case history, I didn't make too many adjustments to his treatment plan. I just stopped him from playing the same way as before and made a lot of changes to his technical play to reduce the pressure on his knees and ankles.

His health condition has improved mainly because of his own perseverance and determination. He gave up the playing style he had played for 12 years and completely changed his playing habits at the age of 30. It is difficult for someone else to do it. "

Jordan, Bickerstaff, Carlisle and others nodded repeatedly after listening.

The Bobcats' team doctors were writing in small notebooks, recording what the senior masters had said.

Thomas Carter, at the request of Zhang Yang, Bickerstaff went through Carlisle and asked for help from old coach Bill Fitch, and it took a lot of effort to invite back the new consultant to the team medical department.

In fact, the Bobcats' medical team has excellent professional capabilities. When Jordan helped his former boss build the team, he paid great attention to the team doctor. He shamelessly returned to his alma mater, North Carolina, to show his connections. Through old alumni of the medical school, he hired several senior doctors specializing in sports medicine from the North Carolina Medical System, known as the "Medical Silicon Valley of the East," and formed a first-class team of doctors in the entire North American sports world.

Normally, if a consultant is parachuted in, the original team medical staff may be unhappy, but the Bobcats' team medical staff is special. Almost all of them are part-time and have formal jobs in major hospitals. So no one has any objection to having a part-time consultant. Moreover, this person is one of the best sports medicine experts in the United States and their teacher. It is even less likely that they will reject him. Instead, they are very happy to learn from Thomas Carter.

After looking at someone with that kind of eyes just now, an ordinary person would feel embarrassed after the other person patiently explained. But is Jordan an ordinary person?

As if nothing had happened, he asked, "I looked at Grant's physical examination report yesterday. His health index is higher than that of the two 30-year-old players on our team. Is it because he hasn't played much in recent years?"

Thomas Carter: "That's one of the reasons, but the main reason is that he has been training for a long time, has a good diet, lives a healthy life, and doesn't let his body go to waste. In addition, he doesn't play many games. Apart from his knees and ankles that are constantly injured, the muscles and joints that basketball players usually use are much less consumed than those of his peers, so his health index is so high."

Jordan's confusion was resolved, and he did not continue to ask questions to the team medical advisor, so as to avoid being regarded as someone who knew nothing but had to interrupt.

It was he who invited Hill to the tryout, but he didn't care about the tryout at first. He only made the invitation because Hill was the teammate Zhang Yang wanted.

As Thomas Carter said, even if Hill looked healthy last season, Jordan thought Hill was just a "last gasp" like in the 04-05 season.

Not only him, but other team management also have similar views. After the end of last season, the Magic did not offer Hill a contract extension, and there was no news of any team making an offer to Hill during the offseason. Even though he played 65 games last season and performed very well, with the highest hit rate in his career, the teams were not optimistic about his health and worried that signing him back would be equivalent to giving him salary for nothing.

But when Jordan saw Hill's physical examination report yesterday, he was full of question marks. Hill's health condition was actually better than that of Muhammad and Cardinal, two 30-year-old players. He had not planned to watch Hill's tryout in person, but curiosity drove him here.

What he saw was a Hill whose playing style was completely different from what he had imagined!
In Jordan's memory, Hill was brilliant on offense and extremely oppressive on defense.

The Hill that Jordan saw today had a plain and simple offense, and his breakthroughs were straightforward and had no aesthetic appeal. He mostly scored through spot shots, and showed more of his shooting stability after long-distance running. His defense also became very smart, focusing on interference and guidance.

Jordan felt uncomfortable seeing Hill like this. After all, he was his first-generation successor, but he had become an ordinary role player.

He asked Bickerstaff and Carlisle, "Bernie, Rick, do you want to sign?"

Bickerstaff: "Sign, didn't we discuss it before? Jack wants to be teammates with Grant, we must take this matter seriously, even if Grant's health is not ideal and his trial performance is poor, we have to sign.

The offseason is almost over, and there are no forward players we like in the free market. The players we had our eyes on before are all being competed for by other championship contenders. We only have 13 contracts now, and the league requires 14 players. Instead of signing someone at random, it is better to sign a player who can make Jack happy.

Grant's health and competitive state are much better than we expected. I think he is no worse than Matt Barnes and Matt Harpring, two players we didn't get, and he deserves to be signed."

Jordan shook his head: "I'm not talking about this, but...is he suitable for us?"

Bickerstaff was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and teased, "Hey, Michael, I didn't expect you to have such a side. What is this called, empathy?"

Seeing Jordan's expression turn sour, Carlisle quickly interrupted: "Grant's offensive and defensive characteristics are exactly what we need. I think he is definitely ready to join us. He has studied the defensive habits of our wing players and inside players. I think we can sign him... We can even try to let him serve as a single defender on the forward and guard line."

Jordan snorted at Bickerstaff and said, "Then you guys talk to him. Once you're done, come to my office for my signature. I'm going to go back and burn incense for the Second Master. I almost forgot about this."

Looking at Jordan's back as he left and Bickerstaff's smug smile after he amused his boss, Carlisle felt bitter!
I shouldn't have opened the door for Jordan. If I hadn't opened the door for him, I wouldn't have been kidnapped here. If I hadn't come here, I wouldn't be in such an environment, where the boss has a bad temper, the general manager is a naughty old man, and the star player can make people angry...

(End of this chapter)