Chapter 288 287. Becoming a role model for the new generation?
Yao Ming won the Player of the Week award and led the Bulls to second place in the Eastern Conference, which brought pressure to Zhang Yang. However, the advantage of four wins is there, and it is unlikely that the Bulls will catch up with the Bobcats anytime soon, so the short-term impact will not be significant.

The pressure from the Western Conference Player of the Week winner is more direct - Brandon Roy!

上周开拓者队4场比赛3胜1负，罗伊场均23分5.2板6.2助攻1.5抢断，投篮命中率50%，拿下西部周最佳球员奖。

At the meeting on the 1st to prepare for the 5-game road trip, Zhang Yang saw that the coaching staff attached great importance to the Trail Blazers, who had only 8 wins and 7 losses at the time, and specially investigated the Trail Blazers' information this season.

The Trail Blazers did not play well at the beginning. Their head coach Nate McMillan referred to the "Three Musketeers" formation of the Supersonics and let Roy take on the main role like Brent Barry, with Channing Frye, Travis Outlaw, Aldridge, LaFrentz, James Jones, Blake... and other pitchers as core rotation. They used the "Five Musketeers" formation and suffered three consecutive losses at the beginning. They only got their first victory by playing against their old team, the Supersonics.

The luxurious lineup that Paul Allen spent a lot of money to build during the offseason was turned into a defense by McMillan.

However, as a young coach, McMillan has many advantages - he is not stubborn, can realize that it is his own fault rather than the players', and can make changes.

McMillan used Steve Blake as the core point guard to free Roy from holding the ball for a long time.

Let Aldridge return to the power forward position, and blue-collar center Przybila will be mentioned back to the starting lineup as center. Aldridge no longer has to challenge the opponent's center and is freed from the basket.

Let Channing Frye, who has strong shooting ability but negative defensive role, play as the backup center, and LaFrentz, the top-paid center who was devastated by injuries and only has long-range shooting, be demoted to the third center, and put the "Musketeer Formation" into the rotation lineup stage.

In addition, they boldly used the 05 "fake high school student" Martell Webster as the starting small forward, and let the stronger 03 high school student Travis Outlaw play as the sixth man.

The starters are Roy, Aldridge, Blake, and Webster are enough, and O'Neal is a little too fast for the other four in the starting lineup. Webster, who has less athletic ability, is more adapted to the rhythm of those four. With O'Neal as a substitute, there is a stable scorer and counterattack expert, and the lineup is more balanced.

The Trail Blazers went 11-7 in the rest of November.

After winning the first two games in December, the Trail Blazers' record reached 12 wins and 10 losses, entering the third tier of strong teams in the Western Conference along with the Nuggets, Warriors, Grizzlies and Rockets, competing for seventh and eighth places.

Zhang San: Kawhi Leonard is right. The game against the SuperSonics the day before yesterday was just a warm-up game for our five-game road trip...

...

At 7:40 p.m., at the Rose Garden, the Bobcats and the Trail Blazers entered the court one after another.

When Zhang Yang entered the venue, the boos he heard were not very loud. Of course, there were not many cheers either, just a few sporadic ones... The atmosphere was not very enthusiastic, even though the more than 20,000 seats were almost full.

He has become accustomed to such situations. It has been like this when he played here for the past two years. The Portland Prison Team has a very bad reputation.

He looked at the player on the opposite side and felt like he saw two words - rich.

The Trail Blazers have 5 starters, 3 players on rookie contracts, Webster from the 05 class, Aldridge from the 06 class, and Roy, with a total salary of 8139 million.

The fact that the venue was full is also a reflection of the Trail Blazers' wealth - the Trail Blazers' average ticket price this season ranks 22nd in the league.

When Zhang Yang arrived at the Rose Garden Arena this morning, he saw a ticket promotion advertisement - the cheapest price for a ticket is $9, of course this price is for the outermost stands, and a rose is also given.

Normally, a team in a big city and a big basketball market like Portland would not sell tickets like this.

After arriving in Portland yesterday, Zhang Yang was browsing news about the Trail Blazers and came across an interview with the owner of the Trail Blazers on media day during training camp two months ago.

A reporter from Forbes Sports asked a question, which roughly said - if the Trail Blazers multiplied the ticket price by three, the ticket sales rate would definitely not be reduced by two-thirds or even one-third, and the ticket revenue would at least double.

Paul Allen's response after hearing this was - "I don't care whether it's profitable or not. Making money is the best, but the first priority of my financial department employees is to ensure that there are no empty seats when I go to the game."

When netizens saw this interview report, they didn’t find it strange at all.

Since Paul Allen bought the Trail Blazers, the team has not made a profit and has always had the highest deficit in the league every year. For example, in the 02-03 season, the Trail Blazers' total revenue from tickets, sponsorships, and broadcasting fees reached 1.85 million, surpassing the Lakers' 1.75 million and ranking second in the league only after the Knicks' 2.8 million. However, that season the Trail Blazers were still the team with the largest losses in the league, with a net loss of more than 3000 million.

Because the Trail Blazers' salary that season exceeded 1.05 million, and the luxury tax threshold was 4649 million, they paid more than 5800 million in luxury tax alone, and the player salaries alone almost wiped out all their income.

Just when Zhang Yang was lamenting the inhumanity of the Microsoft tycoon's wealth, suddenly, he heard a fan behind the technical desk shouting "Jack, look over here".

Are there fans of Zhang San in the Rose City who buy such front row seats?
Zhang Yang turned around and looked... Several fans were holding a big banner - "Jack, Brandon will be as strong as you."

Zhang Yang: ???
Hill patted Zhang Yang on the shoulder and said jokingly, "Jack, even basketball fans in the Northwest think you are the best of the new generation."

Zhang Yang: "Aren't they afraid that Roy will be unhappy if they say that?"

Hill: “Wrong?” Zhang Yang: “I entered the NBA only one year earlier than Roy.”

Hill: "If I had entered the NBA in 80 and someone said I could be as good as Magic, I would have been so happy that I would fly."

Zhang Yang: “…”

Hill's personality is quite different from that of other black teammates. Other teammates, even Okafor, give Zhang Yang a feeling that they are emphasizing something, but Hill does not do that at all.

Zhang Yang took another look at the slogan, feeling ashamed and immature, but he couldn't help but feel a little proud...

...

At 8 o'clock in the evening, the Bobcats' away game against the Trail Blazers will start!
Okafor beats Pulzybila to win the jump ball, and the Bobcats attack first!

Bobcats starting lineup: Felton, Zhang Yang, Mike Miller, Millsap, Okafor.

Trail Blazers starting lineup: Blake, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, Przybilla.

Felton advanced to the frontcourt and passed the ball to Zhang Yang in the high position on the right side.

Roy was behind Zhang Yang. Zhang Yang received the ball, turned around and made a fake move. Roy didn't fall for it. Zhang Yang turned around to face Roy and raised his hand for a fake move. Roy didn't move. Zhang Yang directly raised the ball, jumped and took a long two-point shot!
Roy reacted quickly and jumped up to interfere immediately... but it was ineffective.

Zhang Yanggan made a long two-point shot!
On the Bobcats bench, veteran coach Paul Silas saw Roy's defense and lamented, "This little Jack's defense is really smart. He has average athletic ability and can easily be caught by Jack in a confrontation. He is tall enough and chooses to trust his predictive ability to perform interference defense. It's a pity that his wingspan is too short. He has neither athletic ability advantage nor static physical condition advantage. He cannot be a good defender. It's a pity for his defensive awareness."

Carlisle nodded and said, "If we change to a new generation perimeter player as our opponent, Roy's physical condition will be less of a problem. His defensive style is a bit like Jack. He has a good grasp of the timing of jumping and stretching his hands. It's easy to scare the opponent. It's just that he met Jack."

At the beginning of the game, the two coaches of the Bobcats were discussing the star players of the Trail Blazers.

Because in their view, the dual core of Roy and Aldridge has already been formed, there is a group of outstanding role players, and there is an obvious talent of Oden on the injury list. In the next two years, the Trail Blazers will have about 3000 million garbage contracts expiring...which is too similar to the Trail Blazers ten years ago. When the garbage contracts expire and the three cores are still on rookie contracts, if they can grab the All-Stars of the 09, 10, and 01 classes who are at their peak in 02 or 03, they will be able to soar to the sky.

For some teams, when they have several young talents, they dare not rashly give free agents maximum salary contracts. Otherwise, they will face the pressure of huge luxury taxes after renewing the contracts of the young talents. This is a headache for many teams when building their teams, but for the Trail Blazers, this is not a problem at all. Paul Allen is the number one dollar player in the NBA.

The Lakers are the number one imaginary enemy of the Bobcats coaching staff as the final opponent in the championship race in the next two to three years, followed by the Suns and Spurs. However, Carlisle is not only focusing on the present, but also the future. The Trail Blazers, Hornets, Jazz and Grizzlies are the teams in the West that currently seem most likely to dominate the West after Lakers-Horse Day.

On the court, it was the Trail Blazers' turn to attack.

After Blake advanced to the frontcourt, he passed the ball to Roy, and the first attack was for the boss.

In just one year, Roy drove Randolph away, restored order, led the team to become a member of the playoff competition team, and became the absolute leader and star player in the eyes of all the players of the Trail Blazers.

The media's evaluation of him - he has the leadership ability of Raymond, the offensive talent of Jack, and the psychological quality of Emeka.

As for the fact that Roy is 4 years older than Zhang Yang... let's not worry about that for now.

Roy waited for Blake to move to the wing and started playing one-on-one. The person guarding in front of him was Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang was very focused in defense, and Roy was also very dedicated in his singles play.

Roy leaned forward and changed direction to dribble. The range of his movement was average, but his frequency was extremely fast and his fake moves were very realistic.

But Zhang Yang did not move rashly, but whenever he determined that Roy was really going to make a move, he moved quickly and decisively.

Zhang Yang defended very well, but Roy still seized the difference in rhythm, quickly pushed the ball forward with his fingertips, and moved forward, blocking Zhang Yang's position before he could move sideways, gaining the advantage in position.

What was beyond Roy's expectation was that after Zhang Yang lost his position, he did not retreat to defend against the attack, but stuck to him tightly.

In a split second, Roy made a decision and continued to advance!

Zhang Yang made good use of his speed advantage and stuck closely to Roy, not being thrown away even when he reached the elbow area.

Suddenly, Roy grabbed the ball, exerted force to push Zhang Yang away, took two steps into the three-second zone, jumped, and shot before Okafor could block him... and the shot hit the backboard!
Zhang Yang, who failed to defend this ball, cheered for Roy in his heart.

The rhythm of changing direction in front of the body, the grasp of the speed transition from breaking through to attacking the basket... Facing Zhang Yang, Roy's only advantage in terms of physical fitness is static strength, which he utilizes to the extreme in the two links of breaking through and attacking the basket!
Zhang San: Where is Mr. Na? Come and learn this and then teach me!

(End of this chapter)