Bishop of the Devil

Leonard is just a rookie with the 13th pick, on the verge of being a lottery pick, and he is not an all-around player. The only thing he can show off is his defensive strength.

Generally speaking, no team will use a pure defensive player as the absolute core of the team...

Therefore, Leonard never thought that he would become Richard's number one general...

Among the rookies who entered the league in the same class, Klay Thompson was ranked higher than him. Although his defense is not as good as him, his offensive firepower is stronger than him...

Among other players, there is Horford, a player who entered the league as the third overall pick.

In Leonard's view, these two people may have a better chance than himself of becoming Richard's most valued players.

But now Richard told him that he would be the absolute leader of this team. This great trust made Leonard feel like a man would die for his confidant.

He is a person who is not good at words. If it were someone like Sun Yue who was smooth-tongued, I am afraid that he would be holding Richard's thigh and crying bitterly at this moment...

"Thank you, coach."

"I will work hard!"

Leonard said to Richard with a firm look.

Richard nodded, "Go ahead and train hard. During this offseason, you will live in Los Angeles and train hard for me. If you don't have a place to live, stay at my house. I will let that kid Kobe Bryant take you to train with me." of."

…

After Leonard left, Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

He likes the player Kawhi very much. In his previous life, Richard was a philanthropic fan and liked many teams, one of which was the Spurs.

During the years when Kawhi was playing for the Spurs, Richard fell in love with Kawhi so much. Even though Kawhi later had a conflict with the Spurs, Richard did not give up his love for Kawhi because of this.

In his opinion, no one was to blame for the nasty incident between Kawhi and the Spurs. If he was to blame, Kawhi's uncle was to blame.

Think about a sixteen-year-old child who has lost his father. At this time, his uncle stepped forward to take over the role of his father. Xiaoka himself is not the kind of child who is very independent, so he will naturally be greatly influenced by his uncle.

In this matter, Xiaoka is more like a puppet, like a robot controlled by his uncle...

In addition to the blaming uncle, Jordan also had to take some of the blame.

(Jordan: MMP?! None of my business...)

Kawhi was a signed player in the Jordan series when he was with the Spurs. Fans may not believe it when told that his sneaker contract was only $500,000 a year...

Even if it expired later, the other party only provided Xiaoka with a four-year, $20 million contract, which was really embarrassingly low.

Jordan Brand is not a charity, so there must be a reason why it gave such an embarrassing contract offer.

The reason is simple, that is, the commodity value of Spurs players is low...

It is no exaggeration to say that the group of players with the lowest commercial value in the entire league is Spurs players.

One is because the Spurs are in a small market, and the other is because the media in the Holy City is not good enough. They only benefit from their own influence, and rarely praise their own players.

For example, Duncan, the greatest player in the history of the Spurs, has never received even one DPOY in his career. The league owes Duncan at least three DPOY.

In various historical rankings, James can be selected into the top five by the media, but when has Duncan's name appeared in the top five?

Could it be said that Duncan is inferior to James?

The two met in the finals 16 times, and Duncan won 11 times. Of the five times they lost, most of them were due to age.

From this point of view, there is no rationality in this ranking at all. It is completely done by the media based on their own preferences.

Players who are well-known and have good relations with the media can improve their rankings. As for idiots like Duncan who have little commercial value, they will naturally suffer big losses.

…

As for the media being involved in the selection of so many important awards in the league, Richard naturally knows the reason.

The league needs to use the media to expand their influence, which is why the league forces players or coaches to attend some press conferences. If they do not participate, they will be punished...

…

Two days later, the first round of the playoffs between the Lakers and Clippers started in G4.

In the first three playoff games, Kobe averaged only 21 points per game. This may be his lowest scoring average in a playoff round since joining the Lakers.

But the more this happens, the more terrifying this Lakers feel, and the Lakers' offensive efficiency becomes higher.

In fact, if Kobe plays all kinds of crazy singles like he did against the Mavericks in the playoffs last season, then the Clippers may not be unable to win one of these three playoff games.

…

The game on the court has begun. The Clippers are really desperate. They don't care about physical fitness on the court and they are crazy about defending against the Lakers.

Especially Leonard, it seems that the machine is overclocked. Before, he just refused to let Kobe take action, but now he even refuses to let Kobe pass the ball. He is like an octopus, as if he is directly attached to Kobe's body. Generally speaking.

The Lakers may also have a big score of 3:0, and the previous three games were relatively easy to win, so this game was a bit lax. As a result, after the start, the Clippers directly gained a big advantage.

The defensive intensity Leonard showed tonight has left the fans at the scene dumbfounded. They knew Leonard's defense was good before, but they had never seen Leonard like this.

From the beginning to now, Leonard has been by Kobe's side all the time, frantically restricting Kobe's catches, shots and passes...

This kind of crazy defense made Kobe a little angry when he was directly defended. If it weren't for the opponent being Richard's Clippers, I'm afraid he would have gone crazy by now.

He has not enjoyed this level of perimeter defense for several years.

In a previous interview with the media, Kobe publicly said that the best player in the league to guard him was Tony Allen. However, Leonard's current defense made Kobe realize that the expressionless defense in front of him... Definitely much better than Tony Allen.

It's not that Leonard's current defensive awareness is better than Tony Allen's. The main reason is that Leonard's physical condition is much better than Tony Allen's.

Tony Allen is actually only 193 centimeters tall, and his wingspan is not that outstanding, but Leonard is not the same. His height and wingspan, plus terrifyingly big hands, are simply born for defense.

Perhaps because Leonard was guarding him and he lost his mind, Kobe then increased the number of his shots.

"Boy, I will take action here next."

"You can't guard me at all! I will blow you to pieces in this game." Kobe looked at Leonard and said provocatively.

Leonard still looked expressionless, not even looking at Kobe, and followed his teammates into the offensive round.

Kobe was a little confused as to what kind of newcomer he was facing.

There was no breath of life on Leonard's body at all. Even if he was so provocative, Leonard was completely deaf and simply treated Kobe as nothing.

…

In the next offensive round, Thompson ran out of the open space and hit a three-pointer, further widening the point difference.

When it came to the Lakers' offensive round, Kobe did not break his promise and took control of the ball and headed towards the designated position.

His high-post post-up technique is a masterpiece. This is Kobe's specialty in the league for more than ten years, and he used it directly against Leonard at this moment.

Leonard did not fight against Kobe's back, but stepped back step by step, always maintaining the space to jump and block shots at any time.

When defending a post-up, unless you have an absolute advantage in height and strength, it is unwise to hold on to the opponent, because this will cause the opponent to lean on you and use force to fall back.

Of course, the bigger reason is that it is easy to get fouled by the opponent.

Leonard has played against Kobe many times this season and has already figured out Kobe's routines and summed up the best way to defend Kobe.

Just as he was about to commit a five-second violation, Kobe reached his most confident shooting point and suddenly turned around and leaned back to shoot.

Leonard had already been waiting for this opportunity. Like a tightly programmed robot, he jumped and stretched out his big hand.

"Pfft..." A small voice reached Kobe's ears, and he felt a thump in his heart, knowing that his offense was finished.

Sure enough, Kobe's shot was a miss and fell directly into Monroe's hands under the basket.

The fans at the scene gasped. There is only one explanation for this ball, and that is that Leonard blocked Kobe's shot and changed the trajectory of Kobe's shot.

Otherwise, even if Kobe often strikes, he won't be so biased.

What surprised these fans even more was that the referee's whistle actually sounded at this time.

"Beep beep!" The referee signaled Leonard for a defensive foul.

There were still some Clippers fans at the scene, although the number was certainly not as large as the Lakers fans...

It's embarrassing to say that this game is the Clippers' home court, but the number of fans of the home team is not as large as the fans of the away team.

The fans of the home team booed at this moment, because in their opinion, the ball was so clean that it was a bit inexplicable to call a defensive foul.

And those Lakers fans were too embarrassed to speak at the moment. There was indeed no possibility of a foul being called on this ball. It was an extremely clean defense and there was no suspicion of foul play at all.

Even Kobe was stunned for a moment. As the person involved, he knew clearly that Leonard had not even touched a hair on his head...

If there was really a suspicion of foul play, Kobe wouldn't have looked upset just now. He might go directly to the referee to ask for a penalty.

Now the referee's call is beyond Kobe's expectation. Kobe will definitely not be stupid enough to tell the referee that Leonard did not foul...

After Leonard was called for an inexplicable foul, although he was stunned for a moment, he did not go to the referee to argue.

Fans who often watch Leonard's games can easily notice that Leonard is not the kind of player who likes to ask referees for penalties. Even if he is given some nonsensical whistles, he remains expressionless...

Richard stood on the sidelines, intending to yell at the referee, but after thinking about it, yelling at the referee now was really not a wise thing to do.

Kobe has already received two free throws. If he is called for another technical foul, the situation will be quite unfavorable to the Clippers.

Now Richard somewhat understands Popovich, why he is called the Roaring God of the coaching world...

Because Spurs players are very bored and rarely ask the referee for a whistle. If Popovich doesn't put pressure on the referee, the Spurs will not be able to play the ball.

…

Kobe made two free throws, but they were still lagging behind in the next game. With the Clippers working hard, the two sides maintained a point difference of about ten points.

In the second half of the game, the Lakers increased their offensive and defensive intensity, but in the end they were unable to erase the point difference.

Sun Yue showed off his power in the second half, shooting a terrifying 8-of-10 shooting percentage, including 4-of-5 three-pointers. He scored 21 points in the half, which made the Clippers fans excited to watch.

Although Sun Yue played on the bench this season and was not selected for the All-Stars, his performance on the bench was still quite impressive.

At the moment, Sun Yue can be said to be the Clippers' chief backup point guard and chief backup shooting guard. It is not impossible to even add the chief backup small forward.

His playing time is no less than that of Klay Thompson, and his statistics are slightly less than last season, but he still averaged 17+4+5 per game.

If nothing else, Sun Yue will definitely get the honor of the best sixth man this season.

In Richard's view, the current Sun Yue is a bit like Lu Wei, the Clippers' super sixth man in the future...

With Sun Yue's strong outburst and Leonard's crazy defense, the Clippers finally saved their home court and avoided the embarrassing situation of being shaved off by the Lakers.

Richard is already satisfied with winning this game.

He is the owner of the Clippers and does not work for others, so there is no need to be pretentious and say anything to express his determination to advance.

Advance? It's as hard as climbing to the sky, but now that he can win one game, Richard feels that this season has been a successful one.

In the next G5, the Clippers lost the game at the Lakers' home court. From then on, their journey this season was completely over.

As for the regular season awards selection in the second round of the playoffs, the Clippers unexpectedly received many honors.

First of all, Richard won the COY honor for the sixth time in his career...

Last season, the Clippers were third from the bottom in the Western Conference. This season, they improved to seventh place in the Western Conference. Richard has not won this honor for some years, so this time he was awarded the Best Coach of the Year again.

If Richard cannot get this honor, then others will be even less qualified to get it...

Six times, a disappointing six times COY, at least in terms of the number of COY awards, Richard is truly unprecedented, and there will be no one in the future.

There will never be any coach who can surpass Richard in the number of COY awards in the future.

Richard actually didn't expect that he would get another COY, but since he got it, he naturally couldn't have too much.

Not surprisingly, Sun Yue won the honor of Sixth Man of the Season, which directly made Sun Yuele happy.

Before this, although Sun Yue had many championships at hand, these were all team honors after all. In terms of personal honors, he had none...

Not even the most inconspicuous personal honors such as Rookie Team or Weekly Player of the Week.

Now he suddenly won the honor of the best sixth man, which directly drove Sun Yuele crazy.

Not only Sun Yuele went crazy, but also the domestic media and fans went crazy.

After looking forward to it for so many years, it is not easy to finally get an honor from a domestic backcourt.

The four players who joined the Clippers this year were also selected to the All-Rookie Team. Among them, Leonard and Thompson were selected to the Rookie First Team, while Thomas and Chandler were selected to the Second Team.

This is not beyond Richard's expectation. Under normal circumstances, these people are actually selected for the rookie lineup. Now that they have arrived at the Clippers, they have received more playing time and received more rigorous training. Compared with normal circumstances, the data is It would be strange not to be selected for the rookie lineup due to his promotion.

Of course, what makes Richard the most happy is not that he got the COY, nor that Sun Yue got the sixth man as expected, but that Leonard was selected to the best defensive second team this year!

Although it is only the best defensive team and only the second team, this is definitely a quite remarkable achievement for a rookie.