Bishop of the Devil

The top three in the Western Conference are the Jazz, SuperSonics and Lakers!

Fourth and fifth are the Suns and Spurs respectively. The records of these two teams are similar!

And then there are the Portland Trail Blazers...

However, even though he is currently ranked sixth in the Western Conference, Richard does not feel any dissatisfaction. The reason why he is not ranked high is because he encountered a disadvantage in the beginning!

If it weren't for the suspension, the Trail Blazers' current record would definitely be better than the Spurs and Suns!

Even surpassing the Lakers, who are third in the Western Conference, is not a problem at all...

The Lakers currently have 11 wins and 3 losses, which is only two more wins than the Trail Blazers.

But now that the season has just begun, it is actually not too late to catch up on the record from now on. The gap between the two wins may not take many games to recover.

With the overall strength of the Trail Blazers significantly improved, Richard's ambitions must be much greater now...

Last season, Richard didn't really have high demands on the record. As long as he could make it to the playoffs, even if he was swept in the first round, he wouldn't be able to accept it.

In the end, they reached the Western Conference semifinals and even defeated the Jazz. In Richard's opinion, last season was successful enough!

This season, Richard's goals are set higher. After all, as people go higher, they should have some breakthroughs.

Richard's goal is to reach the top half of the Western Conference playoffs, and he has excluded fourth place from his goal. His real goal is the top three in the Western Conference!

If others knew that Richard's goal was to reach the top three in the Western Conference, I'm afraid they would have to call Richard crazy again...

However, Richard feels that there is no big problem with the goal he has set. The Blazers are fully capable of achieving it!

The overall strength of today's Trail Blazers, in Richard's opinion, is really strong!

With the gradual maturity of Ben, O'Brien and Kobe, it can be said that the Trail Blazers are now a team with almost no shortcomings.

Without shortcomings, the opponent will have no way to target, and can avoid some losses that should not occur.

According to Richard's estimation, the current Trail Blazers will have a greater chance of winning than the Lakers last season, even without any extra moves or any luck...

The strong strength is naturally the confidence that Richard is determined to reach the top three in the Western Conference!

If they can really break into the top three, it will be a lot of benefits for the Trail Blazers...

The biggest advantage is that they don't have to face the Lakers in the first and second rounds of the playoffs!

For O'Neal, Richard really has a headache. It is difficult for such a player to deal with it. It is not impossible for him to lead the team to be eliminated by one mistake.

If the Sonics play in the second round, Richard would be more willing to accept it...

Because of this year's playoffs, the SuperSonics encountered the Lakers in the second round, and then were defeated by the Lakers. They were eliminated by the Lakers with a score of 1:4.

It is obvious that there is still a gap in the real strength of the two teams.

There is no unsolvable point like O'Neal in the SuperSonics lineup. Richard is naturally more willing to face the SuperSonics...

It's just that the season has just started, and the plan can't keep up with the changes...

…

After three consecutive away games, Richard led the team back to Portland for the next four home games.

This wave of four consecutive home games can be said to be very dangerous. The four opponents are all extremely strong, and there is no weak one!

The first game was against the Phoenix Suns. Against the Suns, Richard felt that they had a pretty good chance of winning against the Suns.

Mainly because of the three super-powerful teams in the Eastern Conference, which gave Richard a bit of a headache...

Miami Heat, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls!

These three teams were clearly the top three teams in the Eastern Conference last season, and their winning percentages all reached a terrifying 70%.

With such a devilish home schedule, Richard didn't know whether to cry or laugh...

Now Richard feels that the Blazers are very strong, but since he has not encountered any decent strong teams during his coaching after returning from suspension, Richard is not sure how strong they are...

It's like a player has blind confidence in his own strength and feels that he can defeat the sky and the earth. Unless a big move comes to wake him up, he will never know what his strength is...

So now Richard urgently needs a decent touchstone to check the quality of the Trail Blazers.

But now there is a touchstone, and four pieces appear in succession...

Except for the slightly weaker Suns, the three Eastern Conference teams are extremely difficult to deal with. Richard is really afraid that he will lose four consecutive games this time.

Just a seven-game winning streak, and then another four-game losing streak, this is obviously not a good thing...

…

In addition to this wave of devil's home games in the future, Richard is also worried about his own system tasks.

The primary god-making movement, these three tasks, Richard feels a bit tricky now...

It's too difficult. If you really expect the players to complete the task naturally, then they will probably have to wait until the Year of the Monkey!

It is estimated that when Richard leads the team to win the championship, there may not be any players who can complete it.

So in this case, Richard must take action...

He can mobilize all the players on the team to help one person brush up the data and complete the task when the team can win.

But the next wave of four consecutive Devil home games is obviously not going to work...

In a normal game, I don't know if I can do better than others, let alone help players brush up their statistics. It would be weird if they don't get beaten by others.

…

November 21, Rose Garden Arena.

Since the opponent was the fast-paced Phoenix Suns, Richard put on a starting lineup that fans had never seen before.

Center Ben Ben, power forward Rasheed, small forward Wu Sheng Jackson, shooting guard Bowen, and point guard Kobe Bryant.

This starting lineup, although Richard has been practicing in training so far this season, has been put on the field for the first time.

After the fans saw this new starting lineup, they couldn't help but wonder, isn't this martial artist Jackson a player picked up by Richard...

Since the beginning of this season, Wu Sheng has not had many opportunities to play. He averages three to five minutes per game and basically has no outstanding performance.

Now that such a player is suddenly put into the starting lineup, could it be that the Blazers' original starting lineup was injured?

The fans looked towards the Trail Blazers bench. Both O'Neill and Robinson were in good health, sitting on the bench in warm-up clothes...

Could it be that this Martial Saint is another secret weapon created by Richard?

Just like Richard picked up Bowen last season, is Stephen Jackson also a leak?