Chapter 651: Chapter 201: Bodyguard in Position (Part 3)
"Okay, boss..."
Having received a response, Zhang Hao walked away with satisfaction.
It took Ben Wallace a while to snap out of it... What did Zhang Hao say to him again? Change his style, that was easy, he also liked those flashy looks.
But practicing boxing to build muscle... Apparently, Zhang Hao was a real stickler on the court.
"I get it! The boss wants a bodyguard... that’s fine, I’ll start by doing the bodyguard work well and reconsider after. Weren’t those two Davises from the Pacers also bodyguards in their past?"
...
...
O’Neal’s injury called the Lakers’ strength into question, and negative statements continuously surrounded the Lakers.
But no matter what, time keeps marching on, and on October 9th, after the end of the training camp and a day’s rest, the Lakers began their pre-season journey at home.
October 9th and 11th were alternating home and away games against the Clippers, the 14th a home game against the Grizzlies, the 19th an away game against the Nuggets and the 21st against the Mavericks, finally wrapping up with home games on the 24th and 27th against the Kings and the Warriors.
During the pre-season, the Lakers’ performance was just so-so. Although they directly entered the integration phase, at first, actual games were needed to assess the current competitive state of Kenny Anderson, Fisher, Brian Shaw, Byron Scott, James Robinson, Barkley, Jerome Kersey, and others, to see what their current ability is, given that most are veterans and Del Harris is not like Zhang Hao who could see ability evaluations.
But even Zhang Hao needed to observe his teammates’ play styles in actual games. Though he could infer from his teammates’ ability evaluations, an inference is, after all, just an inference.
In the pre-season game where the Clippers played the Lakers, they were fiercely competitive because, from their perspective, the pre-season might be their only chance to beat the Lakers, and they wanted to make the most of it.
Moreover, Elgin Baylor made significant improvements in recruitment and trade over the summer, greatly boosting their strength compared to last season, and the Lakers were defeated twice in a row by the Clippers in the pre-season.
Finally, when playing against the Grizzlies, the evaluation period for the Lakers’ coaching staff ended, and they began to seriously implement strategies. Their coordination on defense was still lacking, but fortunately, Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson, George Lynch cooperated well on the offense, making it seem like Zhang Hao and Kenny Anderson were back to their form a year ago, running at full speed, with George Lynch also playing excellently.
The Magician teamed up with Doug Christie as the wing-back combo, with Zhang Hao drawing attention, and the combination of Jason Williams and Barkley on the inside worked quite well.
to 108, the Lakers defeated the Grizzlies.
However, in this match, Del Harris had a headache, though he had prepared for it.
Clearly, in the first two games when assessing skills, Barkley was unstoppable when holding the ball, charging like a cannonball, the Clippers’ interior defense couldn’t stop him.
But when it came to strategy implementation, Barkley showed no desire to attack, simply taking on threatening duties...
Plus, that little brat! He actually took fewer shots! Doesn’t he know the team needs a scorer?
Having Kenny Anderson, Barkley, O’Neal, and Zhang Hao on the team, yet lacking a player willing to take more shots, left Del Harris feeling hopeless.
He thought managing internal relationships would be the most troublesome task, making a distribution in terms of possession and shot attempts that satisfied the star players would be the challenging part.
Unexpectedly, locating someone to be the core and finding someone willing to shoot more became the headache!
That just meant relying more on the perimeter, increasing Zhang Hao’s shot opportunities in the strategy.
Before heading to the away games, the Lakers held another team meeting, leaving Kenny Anderson and the Magician feeling quite lamentable. After three practical games, the coaching staff indeed confirmed they were the cores.
Coincidentally, they saw a mashup of previous news clips in the newspaper.
"Now, I feel like I don’t need to score 27 points every game, or take 20 shots each game. I think playing 30 minutes and getting 17 or 18 points is enough."
"I thought I was going to be the star, but I found myself tagging along with a star, and now I can happily think about what to have for dinner every day..."
"With better teammates now, I can ride to victory!"
After the strategy meeting, Kenny Anderson and the Magician were in the locker room, looking at reports from interviews with the three most recognized star players on their team...
The Magician, uncertain, asked, "Are they talking about us?"
Kenny Anderson, also uncertain, replied, "It seems so."
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...
The pre-season soon concluded. On October 27th, the Lakers defeated the Warriors, finishing with a pre-season record of 3 wins and 4 losses.
Next, they will have a two-day break, with players getting some rest and the coaching staff making final strategic adjustments before the regular season starts. They’ll head to New York on the 30th, and on the 1st of next month, they will face the New York Knicks on the road, kicking off the new season.
After seven pre-season games, Zhang Hao felt that his teammates had become stronger, but their cooperation was indeed far from the nearly perfect synergy they had last season.
Yet, Zhang Hao did not think this year was any worse; they had the opportunity to become even stronger, whereas last year’s roster could at best reach the second round.
With great difficulty, Zhang Hao had two days of rest time, planning to relax and clear his mind.
However, on the evening of October 28th, a piece of news made it impossible for him to relax...
Someone somehow leaked the 50 Greatest Players list, which was supposed to be announced at noon tomorrow!
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