Champion, please stay!

Chapter 156, Section 154: Being Targeted and Offseason Plans

On the evening of the 21st, the Knicks faced off against the Trail Blazers on the road.

In the first quarter, relying on fast breaks and strong low-post play against rookie Nicolas Batum and Travis Outlaw from the 2003 draft class, Yi Shui drew double teams and passed the ball to David Lee or Harrington on the other side of the elbow area, keeping pace with the Trail Blazers and taking a 27-26 lead.

However, Yi Shui rested for half of the second quarter and was hit with a 20-7 run... When Yi Shui came back on, they were already down by 12 points, 34-46, and began a long chase.

第二节后半段比分16比13、第三节比分26比24，尼克斯队将比分追至76比83，分差缩小到7分。

After being pressured by the Knicks led by Yi Shui for a quarter and a half, Roy led his team to a 31-point run in the final quarter, withstanding the Knicks' 32-point attack in the final quarter.

Ultimately, the Trail Blazers narrowly held on for a 114-108 victory.

Yi Shui was quite efficient in scoring tonight, making 10 of 18 field goals, including 2 of 4 three-pointers, plus 9 of 10 free throws, for a total of 31 points, along with 7 rebounds and 8 assists, but still couldn't fill the hole.

On the 23rd, the Knicks traveled to Toronto in the north for the final game of their five-game road trip spanning the holidays, facing the Raptors on the road.

靠着易水21分9板5助攻、库里20分3助攻、大卫-李23分10板，尼克斯队3人得分上20，以117比96击败了拿到28分12板4助攻的波什率领的猛龙队。

On the morning of the 24th, Yi Shui returned to New York with the team. After resting for a while at noon, they went to Madison Square Garden in the afternoon.

He felt like it had been a long time since he had played at home. The last time was probably on the 6th, the first game of a back-to-back series against the Hawks.

After their five-game road trip, they got two days of rest. Their next game is the day after tomorrow, which means it will be a full 20 days!

In the past two weeks, he has only come to Madison Square Garden once, apparently to attend a drama awards ceremony.

Yi Shui came to the stadium this time to continue his intensive training with his non-dominant hand. It will last for 7 days. He trained for 1 day in the afternoon when he went to Portland, and he didn't have time to train on the day he flew from the West Coast to Toronto. There are 6 days left, and it is expected to take 2 weeks. He is eager to finish it as soon as possible and then intensify his technical training to add more left-hand assistance.

In the game against the Trail Blazers, he was in such good form, but he just didn't have the opportunity to shoot more. He had no problem with his stamina in that game, and D'Antoni did a good job of allocating his playing time, only playing 36 minutes. However, when faced with some targeted defenses, he could only choose to draw fouls or pass the ball.

Just as the defense he faced became more targeted after Christmas, the defense against him intensified again after the All-Star Weekend.

In January, he managed to get through the tough time by learning Beasley's mismatch isolation plays and some of McGrady's three signature techniques. This time, he certainly wants to avoid hitting a wall as well.

But during the season, there is never enough time.

Fortunately, the 'Ambidextrous' growth card doesn't only improve after completing all 7 days of training. Instead, it shows some effect after just one day of training. You might not need to wait until you finish all the training to start learning Beasley's mismatch isolation plays and McGrady's triple threat in advance.

...

Before training, Yi Shui arrived at the head coach's office, where the coaching staff, advisor Mark Jackson, and president Walsh were all present. After he arrived, the coaching staff meeting began.

Lead assistant coach Dan D'Antoni provided a detailed analysis of the opponent's playing style in that game against the Trail Blazers—ensuring offensive and defensive stability and keeping the score close in the first quarter, allowing Yi Shui to play the entire quarter, and then maximizing defensive intensity and focusing on fast breaks during Yi Shui's rest in the second quarter.

They also predicted that many teams would likely use this method against them in the upcoming matches.

Dan D'Antoni projected an op-ed onto the screens of the attendees' seats. The author was basketball expert John Hollinger, and the article was published on February 13, the second day of the All-Star break.

The Knicks had an amazing 7-1 record in the eight games leading up to the All-Star break, improving their record to 36-16 and placing them in the top five of the league. This made them a major focus of analysis for various media outlets, including Yi Shui, who won the All-Star vote.

Hollinger's column, which dedicates a third of its length to a comprehensive analysis of the Yi River, offers a truly comprehensive perspective.

During those days, Yi Shui was busy with endorsement activities every day. When he had free time, he would only browse the news to see if there was any gossip. He didn't have the mind to look at these professional things. This was the first time he had seen this column article.

He quickly skimmed through the analysis of him, his attention drawn to a 'suggestion' for defending him—limit his shot attempts, and he provided a detailed analysis of where to limit his shots, where not to double-team, and where to leave him open to cut off passing lanes…

He recalled the game against the Trail Blazers, where he dominated Batum or Channing Frye in the low post. The Trail Blazers didn't even try to defend him with Aldridge; instead, they preferred to leave David Lee or Harrington open and use Oden to collapse the defense. And Oden's collapse wasn't a double-team; it was simply blocking his baseline turnaround space. Batum or Channing Frye were only responsible for blocking his turnaround shot...

This article was almost entirely referenced!

Yi Shui scrolled down and saw Hollinger's analysis of their team's attack.

There is a key statistic: when he is on the court, the team has the best offensive firepower in the league;

When he's off the court, the team's offensive firepower ranks 12th in the league, which seems pretty good, above average. However, their overall defense ranks third from the bottom. When he's off the court, their defense is worse than the Suns, allowing 113 points per 48 minutes, only slightly better than the Warriors' 113.2 points per 48 minutes.

Hollinger concluded that the Knicks won because of the league's strongest offense. Teams can adjust their offensive and defensive rhythm to counter this. He suggested that teams playing against the Knicks should try to wear down Yi Shui at a certain stage, forcing Yi Shui to have a long rest period, and take advantage of this time to play all-out defense and gain an advantage.

Yi Shui then thought of the Trail Blazers, and they actually did just that! And they succeeded!
The Trail Blazers started the game steadily with back-and-forth offense and defense. In the first half of the second quarter, the Trail Blazers focused on defense and launched a furious counterattack, building a lead of more than ten points in just half a quarter.

Wait a minute, Yi Shui thought back to last night's game against the Raptors. It seems the Raptors also used the same strategy?
However, the Raptors' own defense is among the bottom ten in the league, and their offense relies on Bosh to achieve an average of 99 points per game, which is the league average. Executing this strategy, they were crushed by the Knicks by 21 points.

However, this article was not intended for tanking teams or teams like the Raptors that don't want to tank but are just bad. Dan D'Antoni only analyzed the game against the Trail Blazers.

Yi Shui could foresee that this column article would have a huge impact on their upcoming matches!

He couldn't help but feel annoyed. Did this Hollinger have a grudge against them? He casually scrolled to the beginning of the article... Damn! So that's it!
He hadn't paid close attention to the beginning, and only now did he notice that Hollinger was an ESPN basketball expert, also known as the 'King of NBA Data Analysis,' whose masterpiece was the introduction of PER, or Player Efficiency Rating.

After the attendees, mainly Yi Shui, finished reading the article, the coaching team began to discuss how to respond.

The discussion resulted in the following: Yi Shui's playing time would be increased, his shot attempts per unit of time would be reduced, his tactical movements would be made more threatening, and Harrington's playing time would be increased to help him complete the ball movement...

...

The meeting ended in less than half an hour. The discussion was very short, and it was clear that the coaching staff already had a plan. Yi Shui knew that calling him here was just to 'inform' him.

Clearly, such adjustments are insufficient to resolve the current predicament, and don't even qualify as a temporary fix. However, Yi Shui couldn't think of a better way to solve the problem, and he felt that the coaching team had already done a good job.

He recalled that the Lakers had a terrifying start to the season, but starting in December, Kobe's playing time was reduced to less than 35 minutes, Bynum and Gasol's playing time was also reduced, and Odom's playing time was increased. Now their record has fallen to third in the league, behind the Celtics and Cavaliers.

The Lakers have a 9-man rotation, and the only reliable substitutes besides Odom are Farmar, Luke Walton, and Shannon Brown. They are a team that wins purely based on their core six players.

If the Lakers are in such a state, imagine how much worse it is for a team whose salaries are mostly filled with bad contracts and retired players.

They had come up with a solution instead of just sitting and waiting to die, which was already quite good for them. After the meeting, Yi Shui was called to Walsh's office.

At this time, if there's something to discuss, we can't talk about it in a meeting... Yi Shui asked, "Donnie, are we planning to make a deal?"

Walsh chuckled, "You're really perceptive in this area... We have a chance to get O'Neal, what do you think?"

Upon hearing the name, Yi Shui paused for a moment, but immediately replied, "No! This is not a good deal!"

Walsh wasn't surprised at all and said with a smile, "Your answer was exactly the same as Mike's. He also refused immediately. So I didn't mention it at the coaching meeting. I just wanted to ask for your opinion. After all, that's O'Neal. If we have a chance to get him, we definitely have to ask for your opinion... Don't worry, I'll persuade the boss."

Yi Shui breathed a sigh of relief, thought for a moment, and said, "O'Neal is very strong. This season, even if you add Duncan, he's still one of the four best centers. But he's not a good fit for us. If he joins, I might not be too affected, but our team's offense will definitely collapse. We can't stop; we have to keep running..."

Moreover, although O'Neal stayed healthy and played very well with the Suns, it's not certain that he will be able to do so with our team. Our team doctor... to be honest, I'm very worried.

Mark (Bartelstein) investigated for me. Our female team doctor… I'm not prejudiced against female doctors, but she actually came to our team right after graduation, with absolutely no actual work experience in a hospital, and she didn't even study sports medicine. She's good at nursing, but it still makes me worried about our team medical department; they're so unprofessional.”

Walsh didn't expect Yi Shui to suddenly change the subject and bring up this. He recalled for a moment and replied, "You mean Linda? I remember she was Thomas's classmate... and also Thomas's ex-girlfriend. She was the team doctor he recruited when he was the general manager."

I understand. Don't worry, I'll handle this.

As the team president, he naturally wanted to do everything well, but how could anyone be perfect in every aspect? Especially with the mess left by the previous president, he hadn't even finished dealing with those troublesome issues yet. The team medical staff, who seemed to be doing well at the moment, just like Yi Shui said, the female team doctor named Linda Kate hadn't caused any trouble either, so naturally he didn't have the extra energy to pay attention to them.

In front of Yi Shui, he called his secretary over and arranged to review the resumes of everyone in the team's medical and training groups, deciding whether to transfer them to other positions, dismiss them, or hire new people.

Yi Shui was very satisfied with the situation. He thought about the team doctor. During the All-Star Weekend, he met Warriors player Kylana Azubuke who came to watch the game. He had a deep impression of this unlucky guy in his 'past life'.

Midway through the 09-10 season, after Azubuike was traded to the Knicks, he needed knee surgery. However, his knee was reattached backwards, and the wound, even after healing, failed to fully recover. A re-examination revealed this, necessitating another surgery, which ultimately led to his retirement. Afterward, the Knicks were ordered by the league to review the qualifications of their medical staff, only to discover that Thomas had filled the medical team with nepotism during the 05 'rebuilding of the logistics'!

Because the Knicks didn't have any major injuries in those years, the treatment and care for those with connections were quite good, and no one really noticed until Azubuke's surgery... It is said that Gallinari also became injury-prone later because of improper treatment of his injury during his rookie season.

Upon hearing that Walsh had arranged to review the trainers' department as well, Yi Shui casually mentioned that Clark, the university's star coach, wanted to leave the university and become a personal trainer.

Walsh made a joke, but did not refuse, and arranged for his secretary to meet with Clark.

It's just an extra trainer's salary, no big deal. Besides, he's the top trainer in the Big East League, so he'll definitely be snapped up by many teams when he enters the market.

After arranging the review work for the logistics department, Walsh returned to the main topic: "Regarding O'Neal, my thoughts are actually the same as yours and Mike's; I also feel that he is not suitable."

The Suns' general manager, Kerr, contacted the owner, wanting to trade Shaquille O'Neal to us. He only required us to give up one of Nate, Mario, or Chris (Duhon). They needed a more established backup point guard, and we could fill in any other contracts, as long as the salaries were balanced. The owner was tempted.

Yi Shui's eyes widened: "Holy crap... cough cough, has Cole gone mad?"

Walsh shook his head: "He wants to save money. The salaries of four players—Nash, O'Neal, Richardson, and Stoudemire—already exceed the salary cap. If their current contracts continue, they will have to pay more than $20 million in luxury tax this season and next season."

If they keep O'Neal, they'll have a hard time making the playoffs in the West.

Their Houston Rule hasn't been used yet; it can be used to waive a contract signed before 06. Kerr doesn't dare to waive O'Neal, since O'Neal just made the All-Star team. The only way to achieve this is through a trade.

They knew we would definitely include Eddie (Curry) in the trade. If we waived Eddie, they could immediately reduce their salary by $1000 million this season and pay $1000 million less in luxury tax.

Moreover, they don't need the playing time we give them. If they can get back to their run-and-gun style, they might be able to make the playoffs in the final moments.

After listening, Yi Shui replied, "You bosses have so many things to consider. If Kerr's move really works and they make it to the playoffs, his reputation will definitely turn around immediately."

But to be honest, Downey, I was tempted by that trade offer... but it's still not feasible. The Suns have O'Neal on their hands, and so do we. We can't afford not to give an All-Star player playing time.

"Wait, I have an idea, Boss, would you like to hear it?"

Walsh asked curiously, "What are you thinking?"

Yi Shui: "We won't reject Kerr, but we won't accept him either. We'll drag it out until the trade deadline has passed."

Walsh asked, puzzled, "What kind of operation is this?"

Yi Shui: "It's hard for any team to accept O'Neal's contract. It's $2100 million a year. Strong teams don't have the cap space, and weak teams can't use it. O'Neal can't sell tickets anymore, and very few teams have a contract like ours..."

CEO: You're not insulting me, you're not insulting me!
"If the Suns don't manage to trade O'Neal, they'll definitely give him enough playing time to maintain his remaining trade value. We can wait until after this season and then actively seek a trade with them. They'll also have salary cap pressure next season and will have to trade O'Neal as well. We still have a chance to acquire O'Neal and use him as trade bait in the offseason."

Using O'Neal as a bargaining chip to clear cap space would definitely cost us less than trading away Jerome and Curry.

If they can't trade O'Neal, they can just cut him and say it's the owner's decision; he's not afraid of being criticized.

Even if we don't get Shaq in the end, at least we won't lose out.

This time it was Walsh's turn to widen his eyes, and after thinking for a while, he said, "Brook, you're really... perceptive when it comes to basketball!"

Yi Shui: "..."

I feel like I've been insulted, but I don't have any evidence.

Walsh continued, "Indeed, it's a hot potato for us to get O'Neal right now, and we don't have much time to use him as a bargaining chip. But it will be different after the season ends, all summer long... I was still thinking about how to convince the owner, but now I have a way."

The O'Neal trade is on hold for now; we still need to optimize our point guard position. Chriss, Mario, and Nate are all potential trades in exchange for the frontcourt players we need.

Yi Shui nodded, having no objection. Four empty seats were enough for a mahjong game; this was bound to happen.

After the exchange, Yi Shui went to the training ground to warm up and begin the second day of intensive training with his non-dominant hand...

The two-day break flew by, and February 26th marked the Knicks' 55th game of the season, as well as the trade deadline.

Before noon, while browsing the news, Yi Shui saw that the NBA official website announced a last-minute trade—the Rockets sent Alston to the Magic!

(End of this chapter)