Chapter 295 294. The Eastern situation changes again!

At noon on December 12, at Zhang Yang's parents' home, Zhang Yang, his parents, and Yao Ming and his wife were making preparations for Christmas Eve tomorrow.

By the way, there is also a little Monkey King who is a hindrance. He is really a hindrance and just hangs on his big brother's thigh and won't let go.

After Yao Ming finished wrapping the light strips for the two rows of large Christmas trees that were 2.5-6 meters high in the yard, he said to Zhang Yang, "Yangyang, the light strips are ready. Turn on the power and give it a try."

Zhang Yang responded, "Okay, Brother Yao, please stand further away. Be careful of electric shock."

After Zhang Yang pressed the leakage protection switch, Yao Ming checked the lights on several Christmas trees, all of which were on. He shouted to Zhang Yang, and Zhang Yang turned off the lights.

Back in the living room, Yao Ming asked, "Is there anything else I can do at height?"

Zhang Yang: "The work is almost done. After lunch, we went to the roof to fix Santa Claus on the chimney with a bracket."

Yao Ming: "Uh... OK..."

Yao Ming looked around the decoration of the living room. It was traditional Chinese style. Apart from the color red, there were no other Chinese elements. It was mostly foreign stuff. But it was also foreign style. This kind of decoration style looked gorgeous no matter how you looked at it...

Yao Ming: "Yang Yang, I didn't expect your family to celebrate Christmas so grandly."

Zhang Yang: "Since we are here, we should follow the local customs. But we are not used to celebrating festivals like Americans, so we try to combine Chinese and Western customs."

Yao Ming: "It's a great combination! I was thinking that we finally have three days off for Christmas, but we still have to go to an away game. Now I think Stern's arrangement is really good. If we play the Christmas game at home, I won't be able to see how you celebrate Christmas. I will definitely sit in front of the computer and play games every day during the three-day holiday."

Zhang Yang: "After you joined the Bulls, I guessed that Stern would definitely arrange for us to play in the Christmas game. I also thought it would be arranged at the United Center. That arena is much more famous than ours. It is also the arena where Boss Joe made us famous. It is more talked about. I didn't expect it to be arranged at our home court. It may be because we are the defending champions."

Yao Ming: "You are the defending champions, that's amazing... I'll take a nap this afternoon, can we play the dungeon together? I brought my computer!"

Zhang Yang: "Okay...eat, sleep, and play Warcraft?"

This double entendre made Yao Ming burst into laughter.

Howard's performance further improved in his senior year. So far this season, he has averaged 21 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks per game, officially becoming a superstar-level player.

Both were No. 1 picks, both were centers, and they entered the NBA only two years apart. Yao Ming and Howard will definitely be compared together.

Compared to Howard who occasionally scored 20+ in double digits, Yao Ming only scored around 25 points and seven or eight rebounds per game. He rarely even scored 30+ in a single game, which really looked a lot more dull.

After losing weight, Yao Ming has drastically reduced his "momentum ball" style of play, which involves forced dunks. The visual impact and viewing experience of the game are much worse than that of Howard, who uses various cut-in forced dunks, volleyball blocks, and fast break dunks.

Moreover, Howard just turned 22 at the beginning of the month, while Yao Ming is already 27 years old. Many media and fans believe that Howard will catch up with Yao Ming's technical advantages in the future.

This season, the Magic changed Stan Van Gundy as head coach and implemented a star-studded tactic. Howard's team performance also improved. Many people think that Howard has surpassed Yao Ming and become the league's top center.

Yao Ming was naturally unhappy with such public opinion, but he really couldn't make up for those disadvantages, so he had no choice but to hammer Howard when playing against the Magic.

The two have faced off twice this season. In the match at the end of last month, Yao Ming played 31 minutes, made 18 of 10 shots, scored 26 points and 8 rebounds, and Howard made 6 of 2 shots, scored 8 points and 16 rebounds; in the match last week, Yao Ming played 34 minutes, made 13 of 8 shots, scored 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Howard made 11 of 5 shots, scored 13 points and 13 rebounds.

11 of 5 shots seems poor for a center, but this is the most goals Howard has scored against Yao Ming, and his hit rate is higher than his average hit rate against Yao Ming. In the first 1 times the two played against each other, Howard's hit rate was 6%, averaging 42.8 points and 11 rebounds per game.

两人职业生涯至今交手7次了，霍华德只在05-06赛季赢过1次，魔术队76比74险胜，那次赢球和霍华德关系也不大，是弗朗西斯面对老东家大爆发狂飙27分，霍华德那天被姚明防得9投4中只拿到12分。

After chatting for a while, Zhang Yang's mother called out to the kitchen to bring the bowls to eat. Zhang Yang took down the Monkey King pendant from his thigh and put it on the ground: "Wukong, go wash your hands and eat."

Little Wukong responded crisply, and went to the bathroom to wash his hands...

After lunch, Zhang Yang and Yao Ming went to fix Santa Claus, and then they had nothing to do. It was up to Zhang Yang's parents and Ye Li to prepare the raw materials for tomorrow's steamed and braised dishes.

When Yao Ming saw Zhang Yang's Christmas Eve menu, he was thankful: "Fortunately there is no turkey. I tried it once and don't want to eat it a second time..."

When a person plays computer games, he can take a nap when he wants to and play games when he wants to. The desire to play games is not that strong.

But it’s different when two people are playing together. The agreed nap is forgotten. After securing Santa Claus, the two went to the study and prepared to play the next dungeon together.

While Yao Ming was plugging in the power, turning on the computer, and fiddling with the network connection, Zhang Yang opened the website to check the news and waited... "Fuck!"

Yao Ming: "What happened to Yang Yang? Did your computer crash?"

Zhang Yang: "That's about right, Brother Yao, come and have a look!"

Yao Ming stopped what he was doing and leaned forward to take a look... "Fuck!"

...

At 2007 noon on December 12, 23, the Hawks completed two transactions in one go.

Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Speedy Claxton and Salim Stoudemire were sent to the Celtics in exchange for Paul Pierce.

Anthony Johnson, Tyronn Lue, Lorenzen White and Shelden Williams were sent away from the Kings in exchange for Mike Bibby.

These two transactions came very suddenly and were very shocking!
The Hawks and Celtics trades were better.

22岁的约什-史密斯，开局至今场均16分8板3助攻1.5抢断2.6盖帽；21岁的马文-威廉姆斯，场均13分5板1.5助攻1抢断。

刚满30岁的皮尔斯，这赛季至今场均26分6.2板5.2助攻1抢断。

ESPN, TNT, and Fox Sports all rated the Hawks B or B+ for this deal, which is between good and excellent. Yahoo Sports gave the Hawks the highest rating, an A. Yahoo Sports' rating: The Hawks traded two potential players for an All-Star in his prime, forming the league's strongest two- and three-position combination, while also getting rid of Speedy Claxton's three-year, $3 million garbage contract, freeing up salary space for another deal.

Yahoo Sports columnist Wojnarowski, who made the evaluation, has a different opinion from the reporters of several other media outlets who were responsible for reporting this matter. One point is that Josh Smith's talent is not as good as he seems.

Wojnarowski said: "Since Smith entered the NBA for more than three seasons, his playing style has been unstable, his positioning is unclear, his basketball IQ is not high enough, and he seems to be able to do everything, but he has not done any job particularly well."

Other media outlets have given Josh Smith extremely high praise, believing that he is a defensive LeBron James... I don't know whether this is to raise Josh Smith's status or to lower James' status.

However, the media gave the Celtics a consistent score - C or D.

TNT sports commentator Kenny Smith's evaluation was widely recognized by fans - "The return the Celtics got from this trade exceeded my expectations. I thought they would at most get a young talent in return. Ainge showed excellent trading vision. He guessed what the Hawks wanted and acted decisively. In the Pierce trade, he got enough returns to satisfy the management and Boston fans.

But the result of the trade is not good for the Celtics. This trade makes the Celtics' front line more bloated, they can't train so many young talents, trades become more difficult, and the trade value has declined because of this trade. "

After the Celtics completed this deal, the front line has a total of 6 players on rookie contracts who were called "geniuses" during the draft - Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Jeff Green, Ryan Gomes, and Adam Morrison.

When fans saw the Celtics' lineup, they thought they had read the wrong team name and thought it was the Hawks' forward line, a bunch of young players between 203-208 cm tall.

The soap opera of "Where is Pierce going?" has finally ended. It was a hot topic and fans were discussing it enthusiastically. However, this deal was not that surprising. The biggest point of contention was "How talented is Josh?"

What really shocked the media and fans was the trade between the Hawks and the Kings.

Anthony Johnson, who just returned in December, has played 12 games so far, averaging 10 points and 4 assists per game.

Lorenzen Wright, a veteran of the 96 golden generation, is at the end of his career, averaging 1.2 points and 2.8 rebounds per game so far this season.

Tyronn Lue averaged 6.8 points and 3 assists per game. His points and assists were the lowest since Lue became a main rotation player.

Sheldon Williams is the only valuable chip. He was a lottery pick in 06, but the word "thank you" has basically been scratched out on this ticket.

With these four players, they actually got Mike Bibby, who was 4 years old and in his prime!

If we have to say what value these four players have, it is that three of them have expired contracts and one has a rookie contract. The Hawks used the salary space to eat up part of Bibby's salary. The Kings' current salary has been reduced by more than 4 million, and they can reduce it by more than 3 million next summer.

The media's comments on this deal were all unanimous, and they played the role of the fans' mouthpiece very well - S for the Hawks and F for the Kings.

The two transactions of the Hawks were equivalent to exchanging Josh Smith and Marvin Williams for Pierce, while also freeing up space to take up part of Bibby's salary, forming an outside combination of Bibby, Joe Johnson and Pierce.

Although the team's interior strength has dropped significantly due to the loss of two talented power forwards, they are still not short of manpower. Rookie and third pick Al Horford has averaged 9 points and 8 rebounds per game since the start of the season, and has good potential and immediate combat effectiveness. Pachulia has averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds per game in the past two seasons, and is a blue-collar player with strong low-post defense and a dirty style of play.

This five-man group is very competitive in the relatively weak Eastern Conference!
Popovich once again took the initiative to accept an interview and commented: "This is more like robbery than trading Gordon for Yao Ming."

But this time, Popovich's face was so smiling when he said this.

Both were robbery trades, but Popovich had a completely different attitude, which neither the media nor the fans were surprised about.

The only super team has been born in the Eastern Conference, which is very unfavorable for the Spurs who aim to win the championship. However, since a super team has already been born in the Eastern Conference, the more first-class and top teams there are in the Eastern Conference, the more beneficial it will be for the Spurs!

And there is another key point - the Mavericks have been pursuing Mike Bibby, and the bargaining chip they offered is Devin Harris.

If the Mavericks were given Bibby, who plays a steady style, is good at key shots and can fight tough battles, Popovich would be torn.

If Harris was replaced by Bibby last season and Bibby was in control of the game, the Mavericks would most likely not collapse.

The Kings still maintain the trading mentality of a "championship-contending team"... Regardless of whether the Kings have the strength or not, they have the intention, otherwise they would not have waved the quartet of Bibby, Kevin Martin, Artest, and Brad Miller to recruit inside superstars during the offseason.

Although the Kings management's operations are confusing, they know how strong the Mavericks will be with Bibby, and they are determined not to send Bibby to their "direct competitor" in the West.

Now that Bibby has landed on the Hawks, it's no wonder Popovich is smiling like that. Although the Kings firmly rejected the Mavericks' trade offer with the idea of ​​not aiding the enemy, Popovich will definitely not feel at ease until the matter is finalized.

The Hawks formed a super outside combination and became the focus of the moment. On the Charlotte side, Zhang Yang and Yao Ming had no interest in playing games and were sitting in front of their computers reading the news.

The happier Popovich smiled, the uglier Zhang Yang and Yao Ming's expressions looked.

The Hawks are currently third from the bottom in the Eastern Conference. With this lineup and more than 50 games left, they are fully capable of making the playoffs this season, and will definitely be in the bottom half.

The three strongest teams in the Eastern Conference, the Bobcats, Bulls and Pistons, dominate the top three and are unshakable.

The Magic, Raptors, and Cavaliers are also firmly in position 4 to 6.

So if the Hawks make a comeback and make the playoffs, they will most likely rank seventh or eighth.

What a coincidence, the star players of the first and second teams in the Eastern Conference were sitting in front of the same computer and reading the news about the Hawks' trade.

After Yao Ming and Hinrich finished their phone call, they asked Zhang Yang, "What do you think of the Hawks' trade, Yang Yang?"

Zhang Yang stared at Yao Ming for two seconds and responded, "Brother Yao, you haven't retired yet and haven't gained weight yet, so don't ask me that."

Yao Ming: “Huh?”

Zhang Yang: "Ahem, just as I said nothing, the Hawks' trade can be regarded as finally turning the talent they have accumulated for so many years into strength. Among their five starters, only Horford was selected by them, and the others were traded back with young talents.

The Kings and Celtics... I think they're taking revenge on society because they had a rough offseason!"

(End of this chapter)