Super Lord of the Rings

In mid-September, Wang Jun returned to Sacramento and rested for a few days before training camp started.

When the team took final makeup photos, the status of the players changed, and the core four joined center Vucevic.

He is now very optimistic. Without Brand, he will have more playing time. Some experts believe that he will become a "double-double machine."

There are also experts who are not optimistic about the prospects of the Kings in the new season. They believe that the management has planted a big hidden danger. Three assistant coaches have left. Kidd has contacted the new assistant coach himself. The cooperation will definitely not be as tacit as last season.

With Adelman retiring, Kidd is not the only one eyeing the head coaching position. Who doesn't want to "become a regular"?

In comparison, Kidd had the least qualifications and was the youngest. The former assistant coach was not convinced by him. Other teams offered him an olive branch in a timely manner and easily agreed.

Terry Porter became the new coach of the Timberwolves, the Kings won consecutive championships, and the assistant coach became popular.

Jack Sikma went to the Nuggets as an assistant coach, with the purpose of waiting for new coach Brian Shaw to be fired, and he might be able to become the head coach. Not many people are optimistic about Xiao's future with the Nuggets.

TR Dunn joined the Rockets as an assistant coach.

The only player left is Bill Bayano, who has average ability.

Half a month ago, Kidd formally extended an invitation to former Nets coach Lawrence Frank, hoping that the latter could serve as the team's assistant coach, and Lawrence agreed.

Lawrence previously coached Kidd for more than five seasons when he was the head coach of the Nets. He was still the coach of the Pistons last year, but due to poor record, he resigned after the regular season.

Lawrence's Pistons assistant Roy Rogers and former Raptors assistant Eric Hughes joined the Kings and became Kidd's assistants. The coaching staff was assembled before the start of the game.

The Kings played well in the preseason, winning all 7 games.

Just when people thought that this would be another season in which the Kings would kill everyone, the Kings lost in the third game of the regular season to the Golden State Warriors.

Lowry and Thompson are in excellent form, and the newly joined Iguodala has strengthened the team's defense. The substitutes also include Harrison Barnes, O'Neal Jr., and Jordan Crawford leading the offense.

In the fifth game, the Kings lost again to the Spurs, who introduced Aldridge and formed a super lineup.

The Spurs' pick-and-roll and three-point shooting are better than last season.

With a tacit understanding of positional warfare, Leonard, Green, Parker, and Ginobili can also counterattack quickly.

Then, the Kings' chief assistant Lawrence Frank dismissed get out of class, and hidden dangers broke out faster than expected.

Vivek Ranadive was very angry and dissatisfied with Kidd's work.

Kidd does lack experience and has rich theoretical knowledge. He responds poorly to situations and fails to call timeouts in time. He is like a mascot on the sidelines.

There is a difference between theory and practice after all. At this time, the experienced Lawrence always likes to stand up and give advice, just like he did with Kidd when he was with the Nets.

But Kidd was a player at that time, and now he is the head coach. Which coach can tolerate his assistant acting as the boss and repeatedly overstepping his authority?

A league insider revealed that their partnership has irreversibly broken down since Kidd accused Lawrence at a staff meeting.

In the past few weeks, they also had conversations aimed at improving the team, but Kidd's final decision was to let Frank go.

Someone else broke the news: "For Kidd, when he points the finger at you, you can't run away. It was like this when he was a player, and now we see it again."

Countless people began to question Kidd's character and talk about the bad things he did back then.

The Kings' troubles don't stop there. Curry and Thomas had conflicts in the locker room.

Thomas took more shots than last season, and his ambition to replace Curry as the starting point guard is clear.

The media often says that Thomas is the most capable person in the league with the lowest salary, and he has become seriously dissatisfied with his salary.

The same problem also occurs with Vucevic. He takes more shots. When defending, he only wants to grab rebounds and is unwilling to go out to defend pick-and-rolls.

This is Vucevic's third season. He hopes to get a maximum salary and renew his contract in advance. Data is particularly important to him. The media said that he could become a "double-double machine", so he worked hard to develop in that direction.

If a meat shield player wants to have good statistics, the best way is to stay out of the penalty area on the defensive end, so that he can get more rebounds.

The coaching staff has nothing to do with Vucevic. The other two centers are very tall and far inferior in strength.

In particular, Gobert is too thin. His arms swing wildly when he runs, and he is terrible in confrontation. If he is allowed to play, he will be knocked around. If he wants to play well in the NBA, he must first strengthen his strength.

Carter, Ray Allen, and Patterson are also not good defensively, and the abilities of the two veterans are deteriorating. Battier, who likes to defend, retired, and Brand left.

No one thought before that the result of the two blue-collar departures would be problems with the Kings' overall defense. James and Wang Jun alone cannot drive the entire defensive system.

In November, the Kings lost four games. According to the standards of ordinary strong teams, the record is good, but they did not lose so many games in total last season.

In December, the Kings lost five more games, which is already a gratifying statistic. Many games were won by the super abilities of Wang Jun and James in the final quarter.

Wang Jun's playing time and statistics have increased. He scored 33.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2.1 steals in 38.8 minutes. The team's record ranks fourth in the Western Conference, behind the Spurs, Thunder, and Warriors.

In terms of playing time, Wang Jun's offensive efficiency has dropped a bit compared to last season.

James played 36.7 minutes, 25.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks. As the second in charge, this data is worthy of praise, but it is nothing to James. He is just depressed.

For the first time in his career, James averaged fewer assists per game than Wang Jun, which means that his ball rights are further reduced. Two young men, Vucevic and Thomas, can share his ball rights.

The Kings scored the league's highest average of 118.6 points per game, but the points loss was equally astonishing. There was a big problem with their defense.

In January, something even more unfortunate happened.

Curry suffered a severe ankle sprain during the game. After examination, it was confirmed that he needed ankle surgery to repair the ligaments.

Dr. Richard Fickell, who has performed Achilles tendon surgeries on hundreds of NBA players, explained to Curry and his family the various possible outcomes after the surgery. The worst outcome is that part of the healthy Achilles tendon must be removed from the deceased patient's body and replaced.

After hearing these words from the doctor, Curry told his family with dark eyes. "I don't know what my future holds."

When Wang Jun went to visit Curry, he burst into tears and felt that he had harmed the team.

He signed a four-year contract with the Kings, and this is the first year of his tens of millions of annual salary. If he doesn't play well, his contract won't expire until 2017. There has been a lot of news that Curry's long-term contract may turn into a bad contract.

Before entering the operating room, Wang Jun comforted him and he stabilized his mood.

Fortunately, the operation was successful, and Curry does not need to replace the Achilles tendon on the corpse, but he will have a difficult recovery period of four months, and this season will basically be cancelled.

Even if he can come back in the playoffs, the coaching staff does not plan to make such arrangements. A hasty comeback will risk re-injury.

Thomas became the starter as he wished. Fortunately, there is also Barbosa, a combo guard, so the Kings will not have anyone available at the No. 1 position.

Everyone realizes that it will be very difficult for the Kings to defend their title this season.

PS (To be continued.):