The first quarter first and second grade rookie challenge was very good, the game was fierce and compact. Although Carter and Kobe both chose to withdraw, the game was still good, making people look forward to the future rookie challenge.

This game can indeed allow fans to see the future of the league.

On the comprehensive event day, Zhang Hao led the team, making the comprehensive event day the most peak year since its establishment.

In the All-Star Game, Jordan, who returned to the game, won the All-Star MVP on his 37th birthday, and it was expected to end with a happy ending.

From the current perspective, no matter what, the first All-Star Weekend after the shutdown is so perfect.

The ratings and topics made the league and team bosses very happy. The NBA has successfully gotten rid of the negative impact of the shutdown.

...

On the evening of February 18, 2000, Zhang Hao came to the Key Stadium, and Ben Wallace was waiting for Zhang Hao to come in in the parking lot.

"Ben, the coach said there is something to talk about you, and you were beaten by Bailey again? He was so beaten that he couldn't play the game?"

"I wasn't beaten by Boli! She was just a little stricter... She wanted to hit me the day before yesterday, but she didn't succeed. I ran fast!"

At noon the day before yesterday, on All-Stars Comprehensive Event Day, there was an interesting news about the Supersonics - Ben Wallace was chased by his wife in the mall.

The reason, Ben Wallace revealed in an interview that he took his eldest son, whom he had with his ex-girlfriend, to the mall to buy things, but when he left, he forgot his son. When he got home, he found out that he quickly came out with his wife to find his son.

After finding it, Bai Li grabbed a stick in the mall and chased Ben Wallace.

The news is quite funny, but Ben Wallace's family situation has made many people envious.

Baili Changda Wallace, originally Changda was her surname. After marrying Ben Wallace, he also left his surname in his name. He looks good and was a college water polo player. He reached out to be agile. Although Ben Wallace entered the NBA, his ex-girlfriend found him and said that he had a son with him and asked him to give him 100,000 yuan to custody his son. The buyout type, Baili agreed and then raised him as his own son...

Then Bai Li took over the absolute right to speak at home...

With only Zhang Hao, Ben Wallace mentioned this matter with pride and was very proud of his skills.

Yesterday we played the full star game. Zhang Hao had just returned to Seattle at noon today. In the afternoon, Howard Schultz notified him to go to the stadium and talk about things related to Ben Wallace.

When I arrived at the head coach's office, the team's management and coaching staff all arrived.

"Aix, congratulations on getting the three-point king and the dunk king..."

After congratulating me on the happy things, we quickly got to the point.

"Startup companies" are always so efficient when they are not short of money.

"Aix, Detreff has told us that you want to make the playoffs in the first half of the playoffs, and we agree with your idea, and we have been studying what aspects of the team can strengthen over the past few days."

When we started talking about serious matters, the members of the coaching staff were very happy. Even Silver Fox was very motivated by the current situation.

Although they ended the first half of the season with a record of 37 wins and 14 losses, public opinion generally does not believe that they can maintain the top four in the West in the end. Even except for the local media in Seattle, no other media thinks they will eventually win 50 wins.

Silver Fox is very used to and likes such an unfavorable situation.

For the rest of the coaching staff, if they can really win 55 wins as Zhang Hao expected and enter the playoffs as the top four in the West, they will be a big hit in their coaching resume.

Unlike Scott Collins, who is just to help students, his brother Doug Collins likes this job very much and took over Larry Harris's words and said: "The strength and characteristics we showed in the first half of the season are difficult to achieve a record of 18 wins and 13 losses in the second half of the season. We have analyzed that we may continue to play with the strength of Ratliff's trade, and it may really win at most 10 games..."

When Doug Collins said this, Ben Wallace lowered his head, and he knew that it had a huge relationship with him.

Losing Ratliff's more comprehensive close-range protection ability, their defense in late January and early February was greatly affected.

Alwan Adams, the general manager consultant next to him, patted Ben Wallace on the shoulder: "Ben, we are not talking about your shortcomings, what we want to discuss today is about you."

Doug Collins continued: "Yes, Ben, we've repeatedly studied your defense these days. When Aix protects the rim at the basket and James can switch to those tall shooting power forwards at any time, you're ranked fifth in defense, second only to Kevin Garnett and Clifford Robinson, Rashid Wallace, and Anthony Mason Jr., this is amazing, but we haven't taken advantage of this before.

Ben, although you don’t have high frame protection efficiency when you meet a high-tech center, with Aix, he can switch defense with you. At this time, you go to the power forward and your defense performance is not bad!

It’s just that we had Ratliff before, and you didn’t play much, so we didn’t notice this.

Ratliff's defensive comprehensiveness is better than you. After we traded him, we asked you to directly replace him. Now it seems that we are not doing well enough.

But if you look at the defensive ability of athletic centers, you are much better than Ratliff. We have found professionals to count all the centers in the league against athletic centers, only O'Neal, Duncan and Mourning do better than you.

When Aix is ​​protecting the frame, when James plays as a small forward, your defense replacement, assisting and restoring defense are also top-notch.

Although your defense is not that comprehensive, it is stronger than Ratliff!

Aix, Ben, you need to communicate more on the defensive end and do more training. If you can reach the level of free switching in this regard, I think our inside defense will not only not be worse than when Ratliff was there, but may also become better. Ratliff does not have the kind of explosion speed that can keep up with the point guard when he encounters a pick-and-roll..."

Doug Collins took various data tables to analyze to Zhang Hao and Ben Wallace.

After listening to it, Zhang Hao felt that it was similar to what he remembered.

Ben Wallace's peak defense year was when Prince played as a small forward, and Rashid Wallace was really fierce.

However, not to mention the defensive tandem ability with Garnett, Clifford Robinson and others, even with Duncan, O'Neal and Morning, Ben Wallace is much worse than the simplest comprehensive franchise ability with Duncan, O'Neal and Morning.

Ben Wallace's height is destined to be stronger in defensive functionality than system construction ability, so he does not have the ability to support the defensive system like Garnett.

But what makes Ben Wallace better than all other defensive masters is that its functionality is almost extremely powerful!

Listening to Doug Collins' analysis, Ben Wallace, who was originally very frustrated, began to get excited. He actually didn't expect his defense to be so good at certain moments!

In fact, it can't be said to be a specific moment, because those things can become the norm, but the previous defense was around Zhang Hao and Ratliff, not around him, so from the data of the past half season, it looks like a specific moment.

Doug Collins said something roughly and the Silver Fox began to tell Ben Wallace the details.

Zhang Hao was also thinking while listening...

"I remember Da Ben didn't start to become the top defensive player in the 2001-02 season. He should have been very good in the 200-01 season, but he was not selected for the best defensive team. What suppressed him was... Mutombo and O'Neal? It seems to be.

Daben directly won the Best Defensive Player in 2001-02, and started his peak period for the 5-year and 4th season of the Best Defensive Player. The 2005-06 season was controversial. That year, the call for the Best Defensive Player in Kirilenko was even higher... This is not important, at least from the 2001-02 season to 2004-05 season, it was its peak period.

But the best defense team in the 00-01 season did not even make it...

This was chosen by the coach, and there is no problem that the media prefers popular players.

So what is the difference? It is not the gap from defenseless lineup to the best defensive player in a year...

By the way! It's a bad Carlisle!

In 2001, Carlisle joined the Pistons and built defense around DaBen! Defensiveness was built based on its characteristics. DaBen just reached its peak in athletic ability and immediately won the best defensive player.

Unfortunately, Carlisle spent two years completely building the defensive system and was fired by the Pistons.

In terms of the wide applicability of the defensive end, there is a big gap between Big Bo and Big Bo, and Big Bo can cover the three-second zone alone...

But it is not difficult to build a defensive system around DaBan. His strength is too strong, and it is easy to match him with a defensive partner. Our team is based on defense and building a defensive system around DaBan is simpler...

I think about it, our team's current defense... seems to be built around me... creating the upper limit of defense around me is obviously lower than building the upper limit of defense around me...

Otherwise, although Da Ben is not the strongest defensive player this season, it is possible to get through the first and second teams with our defensive efficiency and record, and the defense will become better..."

After thinking it through, Zhang Hao had a clear idea.

After the Silver Fox finished explaining the general direction of the team's defense adjustment, Zhang Hao immediately said: "Coach, I agree with your opinion. To change our defense, we need to adjust the defense around the original one, and ignore me. He is the core of the defense end."

So decisive? The coaching staff members were surprised and told Ben Wallace how excellent he was. The team wanted to adjust the defense around him. This was just a notice. No matter what Ben Wallace thought, the notice would be enough.

But on Zhang Hao's side, they originally wanted to communicate well.

But before they could even say anything, Zhang Hao took the initiative to give up the tactical position of the core of defense!

...

"I thought Aix would not give up his defensive tactical core position so easily. His defense is also in a period of rapid progress. It is very important for him to serve as the defensive tactical core, but he took the initiative to give up his position to Ben without waiting for us to speak..." Paul Westfal didn't know how to describe his thoughts.

Zhang Hao’s style of playing this season is so domineering, and he is at the same time as the offense and defense.

Generally speaking, even if a player is not a basketball dominant's personality and style of playing before, when his playing style changes in this direction and after playing for a year and a half, even if his personality is still not a basketball dominant, his style of playing has become a basketball dominant style and it is difficult to reverse it.

This is also something that the Supersonics management and coaching staff are very worried about Zhang Hao.

It will be more difficult to build a team around it, especially the ball-to-dominated style that is comprehensively attacking and defense.

There may be a new player who has a distinctive style of play before and has outstanding strengths, but when he comes to the player who plays with a dominant style of play, he will gradually become a shooting cut-in role player.

"I said I don't have to worry about Aix. His obsession with winning is even more exaggerated than you think. Do you know how good he did in the year I won 73 with him? He just won the scoring champion last season. In the new season, he can directly give up the team's first move." Zhang Hao was away, and Silver Fox praised decisively.

Start showing off 73 wins again...

But others are used to it, and if they lead the team to win 73 wins, they feel that they can tattoo 73 wins on their faces.

Scott Collins said: "No matter what, Aix has agreed. Let's continue to discuss how to adjust. Actually, I don't think there is any need to worry about Aix's growth. His defensive progress seems to have nothing to do with us. He has already practiced defense after he has come back for a year after he has rested and returned..."

Doug Collins interrupted his brother and said, "We have to be busy next time, but we have to pay attention to it - we can't be anxious. Ben is 25 years old now. We must ensure that his strength will not decline now, and we must also ensure the development direction of Ben in the next three or four years. We have not used his functional strength well before, and he also played so well. I think the defensive efficiency of the fourth and fifth in the inside is not his limit..."

...

...

February 19, 2000, the last day of the Supersonics All-Star Weekend.

Yesterday, the Supersonics players all returned to Seattle. Except for Schramff and Travis Best, who could not come back to play immediately, there was no problem with other players.

The defensive end began to make adjustments. It was useless if no players had any opinions. Zhang Hao gave up his core position on the defensive end. Such a situation is also an opportunity for other defensive players, and of course, it is also accompanied by risks.

For example, Artest has fewer roles on the defensive end.

When the Silver Foxes talked about Artest and Scott Collins, they also felt sorry. Artest's defensive talent is too good, not inferior to Ben Wallace, Muqi Brecklelo, Zhang Hao and others. Perhaps Artest will become a greater outside defense player than Muqi Brecklelo in the future.

But Artest's defensive style is almost the same as Ben Wallace, and its height is almost the same. However, Artest is out of the outside and Ben Wallace is inside. If Ben Wallace is to be the core of the defensive, then the position overlaps with Artest.

And James Percy, the inside defensive combination formed by Ben Wallace and Zhang Hao, seems so compatible.

It is impossible for everyone to be happy in a team. It’s okay now, but the record is good. If the record really declines like a cliff, then negative emotions will burst out.
To be continued...