The Fifth Point Guard

The next opponent of the New Jersey Nets is not strong.

Atlanta Hawks.

The Eagles' record this season is on par with the Bulls, Cavaliers and other teams, and the competition for the position of chief and deputy squad leader in the Eastern Conference is quite fierce.

Although they have been the top teams in the Eastern Conference in recent seasons, the Eagles actually have a very glorious history, but it's just a little old.

The five years from 1957 to 1961 were the peak of the Eagles' history.

Under the leadership of Bob Pettit, they ranked first in the Western Conference for five consecutive years.

That's right, you read that right, it is indeed No. 1 in the West, but then the Eagles moved their address and moved from the West to the East.

In these 5 years, the Eagles reached the Finals 4 times and stopped in Game 7 of the conference finals 1 time.

In the era blocked by the Celtics, the Eagles, who broke through from the West and reached the Finals five times, won the only championship in team history in 1958.

In the finals that year, with Pettit's 50 points in Game 6, the Eagles narrowly beat the Celtics by 1 point and won the championship 4-2!

Since then, the Hawks have gone wildly obsessed with Pettit-style offensive linemen, swingmen at the three and four positions.

It's just that in the next 50 years, neither the "human film essence" Dominique Wilkins, Josh Smith, nor Al Horford could make the Eagles the king again.

The history of the Atlanta Hawks is like the movie "Gone with the Wind" that was filmed in this city, exuding a strong nostalgic style, but they have never been able to find their true son again.

Now the ace of the Eagles is Sherif Abdur-Rahim, who was a No. 3 show in 1996 and played for the Vancouver Grizzlies in the first 5 years of his career.

There, except for the 18.7 points per game in his rookie season, he averaged more than 20 points per game in the other four seasons, and he also had more than 10 rebounds in the 99-00 season.

In the last season of playing for the Grizzlies last season, Raheem averaged 20.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He can be regarded as an all-around power forward.

It's just that Rahim also has obvious flaws.

The height of 2.06 meters is a bit short for the power forward position, and Raheem is not that kind of powerful player, which makes him full of confusion when fighting inside.

Secondly, as an All-Star insider, Raheem's blocks are not good, hovering around 1.0 blocks all the year round, which makes people doubt his true contribution in the game.

For example, although you can average 20+10 per game, your opponent can also get similar data. In this case, your contribution on the court is actually far less than what the data shows.

After changing the stadium, everything started from scratch. The Grizzlies, who said goodbye to the past, finally gave up Raheem, who was tasteless and a pity to discard, and sent him to the Atlanta Hawks.

Raheem quickly adapted here and established himself as the team's starting power forward.

This is due to the appearance of another inside player. He is the tough center who averaged 3.7 blocks per game and became the league's block leader last season, Theo Ratliff.

Complementary to Raheem, Raheem likes to float outside and shoot, but Ratliff really likes to fight inside.

Although the center forward Ratliff is only 2.08 meters tall, he is very lethal near the basket, especially his offensive rebounds, averaging nearly 3 times per game, which is very terrifying.

His blocked shots make up for Raheem's lack of defense at the basket, which allows Raheem to roam around and shoot from the outside with confidence.

The starting candidate for the small forward is a very familiar old guy, the Croatian player who became the best sixth man in the Chicago Bulls, Toni Kukoc.

After Jordan left the Bulls, Kukoc, who was struggling to support the Chicago Bulls, finally couldn't bear the tremendous pressure and left there for Philadelphia.

But in Philadelphia, his style of play didn't fit well with Larry Brown's positional play around Iverson.

Last season, the Philadelphia 76ers, who rushed to No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, believed that Kukoc was no longer important and sent him to the Atlanta Hawks.

The so-called tree moves to death, and people move to live. Kukoc, who came to the Eagles, was reused by the head coach.

The iron tree blossomed, and the second spring of his career broke out.

Averaged 19.7 points (career high), 5.7 rebounds (career high), 6.2 assists (career high), and shot 49.2 percent from the field (second career high) and 48.1 percent from the field The three-point shooting percentage (career high), let people exclaim that the European trapeze is back!

Seeing Kukoc's explosive performance in Atlanta, I don't know if the 76ers, who reached the finals but lacked a second scoring point, regretted it.

But the reality is that there is no if. The goal of Kukoc, who is playing the second spring of his career, is to lead the Eagles to the playoffs again.

When facing an interview at the beginning of the season, Kukoc once vowed that after the players of the Eagles get along well, the team will definitely play better and better. As the game continues, the Eagles will gradually return to people's vision.

The position of shooting guard should be the biggest weakness of the Eagles, and it may also be the weakest opponent that Shentong has faced this season, Dean Grove.

The 1.96-meter guard was selected by the Eagles with the 20th overall pick in the first round of 1999.

This season is his third season. In the first two seasons, Grove did not have the style of a first-round pick. Every time he played, it was like going through the motions. So far this season, he has not played well. , Averaged 8.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. If it weren't for the fact that the Hawks didn't have a better shooting guard, it would be absolutely impossible for Grove to start.

Just like the barrel effect, the Eagles themselves know that if this shortcoming is not made up, the team will not be able to advance to a higher level.

They are currently also actively looking for teams to trade, but they don't have the right chips to match the asking prices of other teams.

Although Kobe is good, there is no guy in the Eagles who the Lakers look up to.

Although the shooting guard is not very good, their point guard is still remarkable, Jason "Jet" Terry.

When he played for the Eagles early in his career, Terry, who is 1.88 meters tall, was still a point guard.

In the second season, Terry showed his super scoring ability, averaging 19.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, and immediately became the focus of the Eagles.

This season, Terry's data went further, averaging 20.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game, showing the posture of an All-Star guard.

Terry, who started his career with the Eagles, represents the current style of the Eagles.

Resilient, unruly.

I dare to break my wrists if anyone comes, you can beat me, but I just refuse to accept you.

Terry is such a character, and so is the current Eagles.

Facing the New Jersey Nets with a tsundere record of 13 wins and 2 losses, the entire Eagles team is very unconvinced.

The ranking was still below me last season, and this season it will take off directly?

Resolutely do not agree.

The only thing flying in the air is my eagle.

In any case, the Eagles are ready, and Ratliff is gearing up, saying that he will use a pair of giant palms to greet the Nets with the "lob team".