The Godfather of Basketball

With a one-year contract of 3.5 million, Rondo has no reason to reject the Nets.

Except for the Pelicans and the Nets, no other team is willing to offer him a contract above the minimum salary.

After the Nets assured him that he would become the team's first backup point guard at the beginning of the season, he signed the contract without hesitation.

Playing time and a chance to chase a championship is something he's always wanted, and now the Nets are giving him that chance.

After signing Rondo, the Nets' lineup for the new season has also reached 14 people, and they still have a spot.

But Tang Tian doesn't need it for the time being.

On the one hand, the team has exceeded the luxury tax, and it does not make much sense to sign a 15th man who does not play much. On the other hand, if necessary, they can wait until the trade deadline or even the buyout deadline before making a decision.

After that, the Nets offered a two-way contract invitation to Ding Yanyuhang, a Chinese player who performed well in the summer league.

The latter did not refuse like in the previous life, but chose to accept it.

This was beyond Tang Tian's expectation.

But after thinking about it, it seems understandable that the Nets still have 1 spot, two-way contract players have the opportunity to become regulars, and the Nets now have a big brother Yi Jianlian, which will help him a lot.

In addition to Ding Yanyuhang, the Nets signed center Adrian Payne with another two-way contract.

The two two-way contracts of the Nets last season, Ferrell and Dillon Wallace, both received guaranteed contracts in the free market. This success rate also makes some bottom NBA players happy to choose the Nets.

After finishing the lineup, Tang Tian directly started to organize the training camp, instead of going on vacation like last year.

The team has changed a lot this year. If the goal is to defeat the strongest warriors, this team needs to make more efforts. At least new players need to get familiar with the team as soon as possible.

In the past two years, the Nets have been able to reach the finals and grab a championship from the Warriors. The tacit understanding is a very important part.

After Irving reported to the team, he started training. He also trained with several rookies of the team. In addition to Dillon Brooks, who has been traded away, the remaining Mitchell, Markanen and Kuzma They are all there, and Ding Yan Yuhang is also there.

These are all directly after the summer league, just in time to catch up with the training camp.

Two days after the start of the training camp, Tang Tian also met Paul George, who had completed the team physical examination and officially became a member of the Nets.

"Hey, coach." George still respects Tang Tian very much, not only because of Tang Tian's status as the godfather of basketball, but also because Tang Tian is willing to give away Devin Booker, who has been trained for two years, in order to get him. .

"Well, George." When he first met George, Tang Tian didn't call him by his first name, but was more polite.

The two chatted for a while, even if they met face to face.

George also went to say hello to Irving. The two have a good relationship in private. It is a kind of luck to play on the same team at the moment.

Because George has other arrangements during the offseason, he will not join the training camp.

Tang Tian didn't care either. George may not be fully focused on the Nets now. Although he is confident that he will keep him tomorrow summer, it will definitely be a relatively long process.

The training camp was proceeding in an orderly manner. Tang Tian took time to go back to China and spent most of his time in the training camp.

As time went on, other members of the team joined the training camp one after another.

Butler, Jokic, Tucker, and Green are the second batch, Yi Jianlian, Brogdon, and Oden are the third batch, and George also reported to the training camp in early September.

The training hall at the Barclays Center was very lively, and the players were sweating and laughing during the training.

They want to prove themselves, but also want to beat the Warriors. This is a group of like-minded people.

Among them, Ding Yanyuhang's progress is particularly obvious.

The domestic CBA foreign aid system has always been criticized by fans, but it has to be mentioned that it is precisely because of the outstanding ability of foreign aid that domestic players have to improve themselves, and a group of outstanding defenders such as Guo Ailun and Zhao Jiwei (domestic players) have emerged. Most of the big foreign players are defenders).

Most of Ding Yanyuhang's opponents in China are local players. When he comes to the training camp to fight against people who are a few ranks better than him, he naturally likes to compete, and he will naturally work harder, and the improvement he has obtained is also visible to the naked eye.

According to this level of progress, even if he doesn't get a chance to play in the Nets in the new season, he has a great chance to play in the NBA next season.

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, it is October. After a long rough period, the preseason finally kicks off.

With the new lineup of the Nets, the preseason is still based on running-in.

Compared with the Deron period in the previous two seasons, the Nets still have relatively big changes in the new season.

In the new starting lineup, Butler and George can shoot and defend, but they are not very good at organizing. Of course, Yi Jianlian, of course, even Irving plays more of a terminator role.

This also means that the new lineup Jokic will be the core organization point, which can also maximize his organization ability.

The effect of several preseason games is also very good. Although the playing time is not long, the Nets still give fans a feeling of greatly increased strength, and it also makes fans look forward to the upcoming new season.

After all, like last season, the Warriors booked the championship season in advance, and they don't want to see it again.

In addition to making people look forward to starting, what made fans even more delighted in the preseason was the newcomers of the Nets.

Mitchell, Markkanen, and Kuzma shined in the summer league, but it was only the summer league after all. Many people who performed well in the summer league may not be able to get a non-guaranteed contract. The pre-match is the stage to really test the players.

The performance of the Nets' three new stars did not disappoint the fans.

After 7 games, Kuzma averaged 20 minutes of playing time and surrendered 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds. In addition to his outstanding rebounding ability, his three-pointers surprised everyone, and his 39% three-point shooting rate surprised others. The team was very annoyed, which scout said that this is a striker who can't make three-pointers? !

Markkanen's performance is stable, averaging 25 minutes per game, 10.2 points and 5.6 rebounds, shooting 45% from the field and 35% from three-pointers.

It was Mitchell who really exploded. His breakthrough with the ball was full of lethality. He averaged 15.6 points and 2.8 assists in 25 minutes per game, and even had a performance of 28 points in a single game!

This is not the summer league, but the real preseason game!

It wasn't until this time that the other general managers came to their senses. No wonder Tang Tian dared to exchange Booker for George. It turned out that he chose such a treasure!