Basketball trainer, I created a super giant

Chapter 404 The sun really did set.

Tang Sen decided to wait and see regarding the Sun's unexpected rise.

Winning early doesn't mean you've won; the season is still long.

In the first five games of the season, apart from the Nets, the other opponents were not considered strong teams.

Moreover, the Suns' roster isn't bad to begin with.

Even as an offensive point guard, Nash was still one of the league's top players.

Ray Allen and Shawn Marion are both All-Star caliber players.

Joe Johnson, who averaged 16.7 points per game last season, could easily reach 20+ points if given some ball possession.

On the bench, Barbosa and Quentin Richardson are both excellent players.

Let's have another number one draft pick like Howard.

The Suns have a decent roster, so they should have the ability to win. It would be strange if they lost.

But if the Suns have the ambition to climb higher and contend for the championship, they will understand where the gap lies when they encounter truly strong teams.

After a four-game road trip and two days of rest, the Suns faced their first tough opponent of the season.

They will host the Kings.

The match was close from the very beginning.

The Suns' one-on-one plays are very threatening.

Brad Miller plays a very tough style of play, making him an outlier among white centers.

Moreover, he is technically proficient and intelligent enough.

Before he arrived in Sacramento, everyone thought he couldn't pass the ball and couldn't replace Divac.

But as it turned out, he did even better than Divac, perfectly integrating into the Princeton system.

He couldn't completely stop Howard, but he did provide Howard with a good limit.

At halftime, Howard had only scored 16 points.

Apart from Howard, the other Suns players did not perform well enough.

The Kings are famous for their offense, but their defense isn't all that bad either.

However, compared to championship-caliber teams, their defense is somewhat lacking.

Moreover, the progress of Peja and Weber should not be overlooked.

In terms of roster, the Kings are not much worse than the Suns.

In this game, the Suns lost 105-110, a difference of 5 points.

Howard delivered another dominant performance, racking up a stellar stat line of 29 points, 16 rebounds, and 5 blocks.

This defeat caused the Suns to plummet to fourth place in the Western Conference.

But the failures were not over yet.

In their next game, the Suns travel to Dallas to face the Mavericks on the road.

The Mavericks' record hasn't been bad since the start of the season.

Secondly, the Mavericks' record heavily relies on Nowitzki's performance.

Nowitzki is on fire today, so we're guaranteed a win.

No one can stop him; as long as he has the stamina, he can keep scoring.

But if Nowitzki has a bad shooting night, the Mavericks will lose.

But today is clearly not the latter.

Nowitzki was in excellent form, shooting 7-for-9 in the first quarter and scoring 15 points.

In this game, Nowitzki was still put at the center position.

The Mavericks want a top-tier center, but they can't find one on the market.

Don Nelson, with his mad scientist-like talent awakened, simply used Nowitzki as a center and perfected his shooting and offense.

Therefore, during this season, there were times when the Mavericks' interior defense was completely empty.

Nowitzki has become physically stronger, but his defense is still not good.

They can't stop a top-tier center like Howard, at least not.

In the first quarter, Nowitzki kept pulling out to the frontcourt and operated from the high post, scoring 15 points.

However, Howard also scored 11 points efficiently.

In other words, the two of them swapped jobs.

This was exactly what Don Nelson wanted: for Nowitzki and Howard to trade blows.

He focused his defense on the perimeter, specifically targeting the Suns' three-pointers.

As a result, Howard scored a high of 34 points, but he couldn't stop Nowitzki from scoring 47 points and leading the Mavericks to defeat the Suns.

The Suns have lost two straight.

Unexpectedly, the wasp stung the sun the next day, back to back.

The Hornets traded two players in the summer.

One is the core point guard, Baron Davis.

The Hornets had complaints about his constant injury problems and inability to play full games, and there were even rumors in the summer that they would trade him.

But in the end, they still sent him over.

The fact that the Hornets are willing to use their roster spot on him shows that they are still willing to give Davis another chance.

Davis is a player with excellent physical gifts. He has the right size, speed, and jumping ability.

His skills are also comprehensive. He's proficient in everything a point guard needs, from driving to shooting.

Graduated from a prestigious university, possesses an excellent overall perspective, and has remarkable organizational skills.

Their defense is also quite aggressive; they can use their weight to defend against many players.

The only problem is that it's too brittle and easily damaged.

Without a doubt, this is definitely related to his playing style, which is too explosive and his sudden bursts are as fast as lightning.

In addition, I injured my cruciate ligament during my freshman year of college.

Having suffered such a serious injury, continuing with such an explosive fighting style, it's no wonder he got hurt again.

Tang Sen's training strategy for him was simple: slow him down and allow him to meticulously hone his skills.

Learn to play with technique and rhythm, instead of relying on physical talent to charge and attack recklessly.

Everyone flies in the sky, but we must accept the reality that one day we will be struggling on the ground.

If it were any other trainer, given Davis's fiery temper, they would have spat in his face.

But faced with the prestigious reputation of Townsend, Davis chose to accept.

Since the start of this season, his offense has become less sharp, but his efficiency has improved.

In previous seasons, his shooting percentage was consistently around 40%.

He was good at shooting three-pointers, averaging 8.7 attempts per game last season, but unfortunately only made 32% of them.

But after the start of this season, his shooting percentage jumped to 51 percent.

With fewer shot attempts, he was able to focus more on organizing the offense.

The direct result of this change is that the Hornets have a pretty good record, currently ranking fourth in the Eastern Conference.

The current league is no longer the one where the West is stronger than the East.

The east is no worse than the west.

Being ranked fourth in the East is good enough.

As for the other player the Hornets sent, it was center Jamal Magloire.

Last season was his contract year, and in order to keep him, the Hornets sent him to training camp without hesitation to express their sincerity in renewing his contract.

But after Tang Sen actually met him, all he could say was that the Hornets had been fooled and had chosen the wrong person.

He excels at coaching players who lack technical skills but possess explosive physical attributes.

Their decline is often due to a lack of proper training and patient guidance from the team.

That's how the Knicks succeeded.

As for Magloire, all Tang Sen could say was that apart from his amazing wingspan, this guy really had absolutely no athletic talent.

If we're talking about athletic talent, Swift and Martin from his year are the real talents.

Magloire being selected 19th overall is enough to prove that his talent is limited.

For players like this, intensive physical training is not very effective.

In the NBA, such players are too easy to replace; if they want to establish themselves, they have to take an unconventional approach.

So Tang Sen made him practice his basic skills, such as mid-range shooting, pick-and-roll, positioning, and rebounding.

If you can't become a superstar center, then max out the skills a blue-collar center should have.

Especially his rebounding; if he could develop to the level of Harvey, he wouldn't be short of a contract anywhere.

Just as star athletes have their own training methods, blue-collar workers also have theirs.

The Hornets didn't win this game easily; they were behind for the entire game and had to chase the score.

Until the last minute or so, the Hornets were still down by 6 points.

Then the situation changed drastically.

Davis and David Wesley hit consecutive three-pointers and made a steal, tying the score in one go.

This surge in points caught the Suns off guard.

At a crucial moment, David West defended Marion's corner three-pointer.

Davis faked a drive and then hit a step-back three-pointer, turning the game around and extinguishing the Suns' hopes of a comeback.

There are reasons for this failure, such as a lack of luck.

For example, playing back-to-back away games can cause fatigue issues.

Ray Allen's 2-for-7 shooting from three-point range is the best proof of that.

Regardless, the Suns lost again, their third consecutive defeat.

The Suns, returning to their home court, will also face a tough challenge, as they will host the Lakers on the 19th.

No suspense.

Before the game, O'Neal boasted that he could teach Kwame Brown a lesson back in the day, so he could teach Dwight Howard a lesson this year.

He scored a whopping 37 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, living up to his bold statement.

Howard was clearly lacking in ability against O'Neal.

Unlike Yao Ming, who had sufficient weight and superior height, and whose shooting range didn't even cover the three-point line, he couldn't punish O'Neal with his shooting.

Howard scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

His performance was alright, but compared to O'Neal, he was far inferior.

Thus, after a five-game winning streak at the start of the season, the Suns suffered a four-game losing streak, dropping to sixth place in the Western Conference.

The sun has really set.

(End of this chapter)