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At the press conference, facing interviews from journalists, Wang Chong had a very high profile.
"As I said before, I came to Cleveland to challenge myself to see if I can still lead the team to a championship without the Bulls, and I want to achieve that goal in the new season, to create a three-game championship dynasty that belongs only to me."
Such an arrogant statement about winning the championship naturally caused displeasure among many reporters.
When even one reporter asked,
"Mr. Wang Chong, don't your words seem too arrogant? With the current lineup of the Cavaliers, do you dare talk about winning the championship? Are you not belittling all the other teams in the league?"
Wang Chong shook his head and responded, "It's not that I underestimate other stars on other teams, but I have confidence in the Cavaliers and my teammates."
"We have offensive skills that I believe are on par with Curry. Irving, along with Mark, Gasol's older brother, Paul, who has even more offensive tools, Gasol himself, and physical condition comparable to James, can be seen at a glance. And Andrew Wiggins, the talented player. The Cavaliers are definitely not as weak as you think, and I believe in them and even more in myself. So winning a championship is not impossible."
Wang Chong's comments left reporters speechless.
There's something wrong with arrogance, but there's nothing wrong with believing in your teammates.
So one reporter asked, "Then, who do you think is the most threatening opponent for the Cavaliers' championship quest in the new season?"
"The Bulls, of course," Wang Chong answered without hesitation. "Although I left them this summer, it was the team I stayed with after all, and I don't think they will be discouraged by this. Curry will step up when his teammates need him and become the new leader of the Bulls. Gasol and Jimmy Butler's growth will definitely make them the biggest opponents to the Cavaliers' championship hopes."
The Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, which reporters might have expected to mention, weren't even brought up by Wang Chong.
In his opinion, neither of the two teams is a real rival to the Cavaliers.
As for the Heat, it will only continue to weaken over time. What can James do alone? As for the Celtics, Durant became the only player in the league who could slightly be compared to Wang Chong in scoring after winning the MVP of the regular season. But the current Celtics roster is far from ideal.
Within the Twin Towers, Jefferson and Paul Millsap are actually valuable players with contracts over 10 million, but both of them just completed contract renewals with the team, and their new contracts are over 15 million, which is a bit more expensive. Coupled with the big contracts of Durant and Rondo, the Celtics' salary pressure is quite high. This is why the renewal of veteran Pierce's contract wasn't carried out, and he was directly let go.
Pierce had bad luck, playing for the Celtics for over ten years, only to be discarded by the team when he got older, and could only join the Washington Wizards for 2 years and $11 million.
As a result, the Celtics' salary has risen, but their strength hasn't increased, but decreased. Not to mention competing with the Cavaliers, it's questionable if they can even surpass the Bulls and the Heat.
As for the Western Conference, at present, Wang Chong looks at the Spurs, who are somewhat threatening, but the Spurs in the 2015-16 season are already in a somewhat green phase. Leonard's skills are still developing, and his stats of 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game in the regular season can only be considered decent. At least in terms of DPOY accomplishments, Leonard on the defensive side is doing well, but offensively, he's not strong enough.
Duncan's greater decline has also caused many problems for the Spurs' interior defense, with the only exception being Rudy Gobert, who is now with the Spurs.
Gobert on the Spurs can't fully compare with Gobert on the Jazz. After all, he has a top-tier interior defender with a long career and rich game experience, so under his teaching, Gobert's progress is definitely much faster than when he was with the Jazz.
In the original 2014-15 season, Gobert hadn't fully become the Jazz's starting center, playing 82 games, 37 of which were as a starter, and contributed 8.4 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks on average over 26 minutes per game, with very good efficiency.
It was precisely due to this performance that Gobert successfully became the Jazz's starting center, and in the following 2015-16 season, he averaged 9 points, 11 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game, evolving into a full-fledged interior defensive gatekeeper.
With this exception, the Spurs' interior defense might not be sufficient due to Duncan's aging, even though the team's offensive firepower is weak, but with strong defense, they can still fight to survive in the current West without a leader.
At least in Wang Chong's opinion, neither the Los Angeles Clippers, where Paul is paired with Harden, nor the Oklahoma City Thunder with Westbrook and Griffin are rivals to the Spurs.
Of course, even so, the Spurs are not a match for the Cavaliers, and the strength gap remains too large.
——
Wang Chong's "wild words" at media day, as expected, received much verbal criticism. After all, it's hard for anyone to give an excellent evaluation of the Cavaliers' lineup.
Irving, who can be called a combat force, is the only one who might be considered a true power, but Wang Chong led the team to Irving, who is always at the bottom of the league, and Stephen, an Eastern Conference All-Star starter who has been selected for the All-Team twice. Comparisons with Curry still make people feel it's a bit exaggerated.
However, Curry felt flattered by Wang Chong's evaluation.
Who is Wang Chong? The current number one player in the league, a superstar who has threatened Jordan's position as the greatest of all time. Irving was also one of Wang Chong's small fans when he played basketball in high school and college. Although his favorite was Kobe, he couldn't stand Kobe Bryant losing to Wang Chong in the finals year after year. No wonder he empathized.
Wang Chong based his comments on this and directly earned Irving's favor. Later, when the team practiced, Irving always took the initiative to greet Wang Chong enthusiastically, not at all bothered that Wang Chong's arrival stole the spotlight that would have belonged to him on the Cavaliers.
During a practice game, Coach David Blatter briefly had a slight disagreement with Wang Chong about the starting lineup.
Blatter is a legendary coach with a famous career in Europe, while Wang Chong is a ball-dominating superstar who's been repeating the same things with the Bulls for several years, creating a bit of tension.
In fact, the biggest disagreement between them was over the choice of starting center.
Blatter leaned toward having Paul Gasol play as a guest center, Wang Chong as a power forward as he did with the Bulls last season, Wiggins as a small forward, and a defensive role player filling the shooting guard position.
Wang Chong, who had already planned the starting lineup for the team, certainly didn't agree. He believed that the starting lineup of Irving, Wiggins, himself, Pau Gasol, and Whiteside would be far more imposing and dominant.
Both men insisted on their own opinions and wouldn't back down. Whiteside, who was at the center of the discussion, was confused.
How could someone so undervalued as him, with a minimum salary, be trusted to start? He never dreamed that Wang Chong would believe in him so much and want him to play as a starter.
After some fruitless discussions, Wang Chong realized that, after all, Blatter had just started coaching in the NBA and had been in the European league before. There was still a difference compared to other NBA coaches. The best way to convince him was to show him results.
So, at Wang Chong's suggestion, the Cavaliers held an internal training simulation.
After the practice game, Blatter changed his mind and accepted Wang Chong's suggestion of starting Whiteside.
If you don't agree, you can't agree. But in the practice game, Whiteside, who seemed to be an unknown player, actually outperformed Gasol in grabbing 5 offensive rebounds. His incredible rebounding sense, mobility, and blocking judgment under the basket made Blatter understand why Wang Chong insisted on having Whiteside start.
Although this guy's offense is terrible, aside from the occasional second-chance opportunity after receiving the ball and grabbing offensive rebounds, he doesn't have many ways to attack with the ball, but even this is enough. Combined with his strong shot-blocking ability under the basket, he can definitely become the team's defensive gatekeeper.
At that moment, Blatter finally realized why the NBA respected Wang Chong so much. He wasn't just good at playing, but also had such a keen eye for talent, which must have been honed after years of playing.
If Blatter knew that Wang Chong had this kind of view, Wang Chong would definitely feel a little embarrassed.
His eye for talent was sharp, simply because he was familiar with Whiteside's technical characteristics and skills as a rim protector.
This small episode further solidified Wang Chong's position with the Cavaliers. Even former team leader Irving and Coach Blatter were convinced. Who else dared to disagree?
Soon, it was early October 2014, and the preseason began as scheduled.
Unlike the Bulls' preseason in previous years, Wang Chong had no intention of coasting through this preseason.
After all, the Cavaliers were a new team formed this summer, and their chemistry couldn't be compared to the Bulls. So naturally, they needed to play a lot of games to build that understanding.
In the 10 preseason games, Wang Chong and the other starters played about 28 minutes per game, which was neither too high nor too low, but the offensive firepower displayed by the Cavaliers with a full lineup still shocked the entire league.
In fact, the Cavaliers' offensive tactics are very simple, and most of the time, there are just a few sets of plays.
First, Wang Chong drives with the ball.
Second, Irving drives with the ball.
Third, an inside attack revolving around the great Gasol.
There's no mistake—one move, one rhythm, one interior attack, one consistency.
But such a simple offensive tactic made it difficult for teams against the Cavaliers to compete.
Wang Chong didn't need to say more; his attack was originally impossible to prevent.
As for Irving, as Wang Chong said, in terms of offensive ability, Irving can definitely compete with Curry. His combination of various dazzling dribbling skills and innovative pace when attacking with the ball has a unique aesthetic that differentiates him from Rose, Westbrook, and other innovative ball handlers.
Paul Gasol's inside offense surprised Cavaliers fans. At 34, Gasol still had superb footwork and a soft shooting touch. His strength hadn't diminished compared to previous years, and it seemed that the Rockets' poor performance last season wasn't really his fault.
With the performances of the three, the Cavaliers won all their preseason games, which left many media members who had been waiting to see the Cavaliers' failure somewhat dumbfounded.
But they still had excuses.
"The preseason record doesn't tell the full story. Whether the Cavaliers are really this strong or not needs to be tested in the regular season or even the playoffs."
Although they still refused to admit defeat, the team power rankings for the new season published by ESPN after the preseason said it all.
In the power rankings, the Cleveland Cavaliers were at the top of the list, with the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls in second and third place.
But this wasn't surprising at all. A team with Wang Chong at the helm being number one on the power rankings was entirely reasonable.
The Cavaliers' first regular season game was on October 31, 2014, where they faced the Chicago Bulls.
As always, the league clearly understood the buzz around this match.
Wang Chong's first battle against his former team in the new season would definitely explode in the ratings.
And indeed, that was true.
On game day, the Cavaliers' Quickloan Arena was packed, and Cavaliers fans came to cheer for the rejuvenated team.
Although Cleveland is a small city, the enthusiasm of the fans was no less than that of teams like the Bulls.
When the live DJ started introducing the Cavaliers' starting lineup one by one, the home crowd reached a fever pitch, and fans stood up, cheered, and screamed wildly.
Wang Chong, as the last player to make his debut for the Cavaliers, when he stepped onto the court, it felt like a tsunami was about to erupt.
This was Wang Chong's popularity and influence!
After the Cavaliers players made their debut, the two teams began warming up.
Wang Chong took the initiative to approach the Bulls and cordially greeted his former teammates and coaches.
He left so suddenly that many people still cannot understand why Wang Chong left.
However, this did not affect their relationships; at least Curry, Gasol Jr., Butler, and several other players who had received Wang Chong's favor had not changed their friendship with him and warmly embraced him.
"From today, we are opponents."
Looking at Curry and the others, Wang Chong smiled and said half-jokingly and half-seriously, "No one knows your strength better than I do, so I won't let up for a second during the game. I'll do everything I can to handle the match."
"Of course, and we'll do the same," Curry and the others said, their eyes blazing.
In the past, they were teammates and never had the opportunity, but now they finally had the chance to challenge Wang Chong, the top player in the league. Even Curry, who wasn't typically competitive, couldn't help but feel the desire to defeat Wang Chong.
After a brief warm-up, the game officially began.
Bulls starters: Stephen Curry, Danny Green, Jimmy Butler, Luol Deng, Marc Gasol.
Cavaliers starters: Kyrie Irving, Andrew Wiggins, Wang Chong, Paul Gasol, Hassan Whiteside.
The players from both teams stood in their respective positions, and Whiteside and Gasol Jr. jumped for the ball at center court – and the game was about to start!
End of this chapter
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