Before Weizhong beat his predecessor and his new partner in a "forget the world and I won't forget you" approach, Bradley Beal stepped onto the stage in Michael Tyson for most of the season, before Falling down in Nate Robinson's position.
Without this thrilling victory over the Nets on the first day of February, the Wizards' biggest attraction of the season is only Bill:
Bill was lying on the guardrail, Bill was leaning on the bench, Bill was lying on the floor, and Bill was crouching in the middle of the field.
Bill held his head, Bill pinched his face, and Bill put on the mask of pain.
Bill looked up and asked the sky, the sky did not respond, Bill looked down and asked the earth, the earth fell silent, Bill finally asked the reporter:
Is the sky blue?
On Jan. 28, Beal played 40 minutes and 5 seconds, shooting 17-of-37 from the field, including 6-of-14 from beyond the three-point line, with 47 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals, with just three turnovers, before the team lost the Penultilian Pelicans of the West by 18 points, a typical Wizards game. Was the ill-intentioned reporter after the game ask him depressed?
Bill asked the astronomical question above. Because he really didn't know how to answer the other questions, the questions about why wizards were so bad.
"So what do you want me to do?" If I sat there laughing, what would you media say?"
Indeed, no matter how bad the team is, Beal has never been like Jimmy Butler, who frantically tried to escape Minnesota in 2018, sitting on the bench waving towels with the fans of the opponent when the team was defeated, showing an expression that didn't care about himself but I was really happy.
Bill described the memes he left on the field as "angry" and "unwilling", with Bill saying "I just want to win". But the media has no interest in honoring the deepest primal desires of a non-All-Star player, and the headlines they send to the front page of the site must be concise and thought-provoking:
"Bill admits he's frustrated!"
Bold, if you can, the word "frustrated" should also be added red, the reddest kind of red.
It's clear that the instincts of the media and the instincts of the players will never be in the same orbit. What the media wants is that we now see a guy who averages a league-high 35 points per game, but has scored 40+ points in 10 consecutive games and then lost, a guy who needs to face the team and lose 13 of 16 games. The media and the masses love scripts like this, and the questions we really look forward to getting answers to deep down in our hearts are:
When will a player who looks good on a bad team break down?
The times are different, but the times have not changed much, and being the boss of the bad team has never been an easy task, especially when your data is quite prominent, people are more concerned about how much moisture is present in it. Beal's basic stats aren't too much of a problem, unless he leaves after winning the scoring cap and then admits to the media that "I didn't work so hard in Washington," then he will be described as follows in the year-end summary after the season:
In 2021, a 1.91-meter-tall shooting guard named Bradley Beal squeezed his three-point shooting percentage in an anti-trend way, increased the proportion of mid- and long-range jumpers within the three-point line, and then won the top scorer.
What is an anti-anachronistic trend? The trend of the times is the digital optimization of the shooting area, the data website BBR will be the basketball court according to the distance distribution, of which 0-3 feet for the basket area is not mentioned, 3-10 feet for the near frame area, we previously had a saying called half-cut basket, 10-16 feet for the near frame to the free throw line area, we call this the middle distance, 10-23 feet for the free throw line after the three-point line, we generally call it high, then from the basket circle 3 feet to the three-point line distance, we can call it a unified distance of medium and long distance, but not including three-point shots.
Under the optimal distribution of the most popular magic ball concept, the basket + three points + free throw is the best shot distribution, reducing the long-distance shot with low income, which is in line with the needs of contemporary basketball. But Beal did the opposite, shrinking his three-point shooting percentage this season, increasing the percentage of long-range shots to 55 percent, and the sum of his shooting percentages in the three zones reached 155 percent, which is already a historic level of mid-range shooting performance.
Of course, where and how to shoot is only a personal choice for Bill, and the more important data is the following:
When Beal is on the floor, the team's offensive efficiency reaches 114.4 points, which can rank 6th in the league, but when Beal is not on the floor, the team's offensive efficiency plummets to 101.1 points, which is 3.3 points less than the League's bottom-up Timberwolves. Of course, this will not be the fundamental reason for the Wizards League to be at the bottom, Beal has to play 36 minutes on the court, the remaining 12 minutes, although the offense is sparse, but it is enough to make the Wizards' offensive level rank in the middle of the league, the problem is that their league's second-to-last defensive efficiency, Bill himself has a considerable contribution, when he is on the court, the opponent's offensive efficiency can reach 118.5 points, and when he is off the field, the opponent's offensive efficiency drops to 110.2 points.
In terms of offensive means, Beal is not hardened or LeBron's level of top ball carrier, in addition to the biggest head of the ball holding by the cover attack, in the no-ball cover, fixed point projection, hand delivery, single head, empty cut and other aspects of a certain output of shots, Beal's performance belongs to the upper level of the league, in other words, Beal is a highly adaptable player, there is not much to be picky about, the fly in the ointment is in the conversion of offense, The average of 4 conversions per game can only be exchanged for 3.6 points, far below the league average, unfortunately: the Wizards are the team with the most rounds in the league, the conversion offensive league is the 6th most, the conversion offensive efficiency is the 3rd to the bottom, the bad team generally likes to be fast, but the Wizards and Bill themselves are fast and soft, and the experience is extremely poor. On the defensive end, when it comes to single-player defense, Beal is at the upstream level in terms of defending ball-holding blocks and running people without the ball, but it is average when defending fixed-point pitchers.
So after squeezing out the water, the conclusion is now very clear:
Beal is not a player who is good at defending or can make a big impact on the defensive end, but he is a player who is too good at attacking. Beal's positive output on the offensive end is enough to cover the damage he does to the team's defense when he is on the field, and he is a plug-and-play quality combat force worth pursuing by all teams interested in going further, especially those with mature positional warfare systems.
And this Bill is only 27 years old, just entered the peak of his career, and there are at least 4 years to go before embarking on the downward spiral of life. Bill's early career injury history is also gradually forgotten, into the first 4 years of the league, Beal has three years to play no more than 63 games, wrist, calf, pelvic bone, shoulder have been injured invasion, especially 4 calf fibula stress fractures shocking, and even some experts judge that Bill has a strange hereditary fracture constitution, career will be limited.
But since 2016, Bill's health situation has taken a sharp turn, in addition to the impact of the epidemic last year, each season has played more than 77 games, including two 82 full-time seasons, these years have also played more than 35 minutes, and now Bill is no longer a glass man, he has evolved into fiberglass.
In addition to playing, using well, and being tough, perhaps more exciting for other managers in the league is that this Bill's personality looks fantastic!
The rarest thing in this era is the word "patience", but any player who is a little quiet in the league will not be indifferent to the current situation of his own quagmire, and walking to the general manager's office is already the easiest way. Since Lebang turned around and left in 2010, the big stars have left the nest faster and faster, and the appearance of the two sides breaking up has become more and more ugly. The players saw very clearly that a card from the fans "IT'S OK U CAN GO" like Nash's near twilight years would not bring more comfort to themselves, and it would only be painful to get the championship and more victories.
But Bill is still different from those stars in the past, Le Bang was the boss in Kecun for 7 years, Pepper was in India City for 4 years, Durant was in Goose City for 9 years, Harden was in Hugh City for 8 years, Bill was selected by the Wizards at the age of 19, this year is his 9th year in the league, but when it comes to being the boss, if you leave aside the acting boss in the first half of the 2017-18 season and the second half of 2018-19, Bill has only been the real boss for 2 years in the days without Wall, which happens to be the worst two years for the Wizards.
In other words, the Wizards have been missing a top-paid player on the court for the past two years, but they can't cross the account off the ledger and thus can't make it up, and in this case, any double-core team in this situation, the team's remaining other core can't lead the team to play a decent game - as strong as LeBron in 2018, in the case of Irving's departure, at least those who have been replaced by Luck and Irving, and those who have changed back.
In fact, after Bill's health and before Wall's injury, the Wizards still had a sweet time, they have reached the playoffs four times in 5 years, including three in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the most glorious moment is the 2016-2017 season, in the league for the 7th year Wall 26 years old, Cut a career-high 23.1 points and 10.7 assists, it is a good time to be energetic, at that time the world knows that Wall has excellent sprinting ability, on the single soldier to change the world invincible, and the team's overall instantaneous climax ability may only be comparable to the second team of Fire Courage and Sakurai Zhixiang at that time, the 24-year-old Bill is also able to give up his own in front of his little brother, the same average of 23.1 points per game, the two people led the Wizards to the 4th place in the East, but only 4 wins away from the first green Kai in the East.
So when they lost seven games with the same young Green Kai in the Eastern Conference semifinals, there are naturally plenty of reasons to look forward to the future. As early as the 2015 Warriors' first championship, Wall and Bill dared to announce in unison in an interview that "we are the best backcourt combination in the league", even if the host threw out the championship backcourt combination of Curry and Clay, the two still insisted on their own opinions, and through the battle in 2017, their confidence was more abundant, Wall thought he was the best point guard in the league, and Bill followed up with the determination that Strange was the strongest team in the league, so that the two were interviewed together again in the 2017 offseason. Wall threw out the famous "Wall Judgment":
The Cavaliers slipped to second place in the East in 2016-17 because they didn't want to meet us Wizards in the semifinals.
Bill, who was sitting nearby, smiled, listened mesmerized, and nodded frequently.
Unfortunately, the ambition can not withstand the slap of reality, just in the summer of 17, the fate of the two teams of wizards and green Kai began to part ways, and then green Kai has 3 Eastern Conference Finals trips waiting for them, and the Wizards chose to renew a 4-year 170 million US dollar super maximum salary with Wall in advance, and matched the Nets offer, 4 years 106 million maximum salary to renew Porter. Two super contracts were signed, the Wizards space was officially locked, Wall also began to be injured from this time, the new season only played 41 games, the Wizards were out of the first round, with the arrival of the 2018-19 season, the fate of the Wizards and the two began to take a sharp turn.
On the surface, the Wizards did their homework around three top salaries in the summer of 2018, recruiting players who looked pretty good, including Rivers Jr., Jeff Green, and Howard. At that time, not only did the ball critics praise this is the best summer that the team president Glenfield has operated for so many years, and the boss Lyonsis is obviously quite satisfied with it, the 135 million luxury tax and 40 million arena upgrade funds are real money and silver confessions, he told everyone not to be impatient: "We want to become a force to be reckoned with in the East!" ”
The boss's generosity was somewhat unexpected by the employees, and Bill blurted out his heartfelt words: "Thank you boss for not giving up on us." Behind a joke is somewhat mixed with complex personal value judgments: as far as those of us who have fought like this over the years have not yet disbanded on the spot?
Boss Dorkin is patient and has shown his knowledge: "From the centre forward to the flanks to the backcourt players, we have a lot of bench points, we have 10-11 people rotation depth. ”
Unfortunately, everything is only superficial prosperity, this thick-looking Wizards came up with 1 win and 7 losses, the team's locker room began to collapse, Wall fired that some people are worried about the right to shoot, not actively defending, last year he also shouted to the team: "Don't try to do what you can't do." But the characteristic of Wall's shouting is that he scolds, does not punch his face, and never names his name when shouting. At this time, Bill was still willing to support Wall more, and also stood up and said: "Sometimes we just play our own game on the field, complaining about our own shots, complaining about playing time, etc." 」
Supposedly, the old center Gottart, who tweeted during Wall's injury the previous year, has left, and Wall and Bill are good enough to wear a pair of pants, then the person they can blame can only be Potter, from the scene, Potter is indeed in a slump, but Whether Wall said that Potter is not, people can only rely on guessing, there is no evidence, at this time, the head coach Brooks, who holds a salary of 7 million, jumped out, and he comforted the young man after a game of 6 shots and 2 shots at Porter: You can't worry about your own shots."
Now everyone is sure.
After a dismal start, the Wizards finally ushered in the team's last straw - Howard, before Howard went to the Lakers on an unsafe contract, his reputation at that time was already a "locker room cancer" that urgently needed to save his career, so the most absurd part of the Wizards story in the 2018-19 season appeared: a toxic locker room was counting on a locker room cancer to save.
Of course, Howard did not save the Wizards, he only played 9 games after his comeback, helped the team 4 wins and 5 losses, and then hung up the exemption card due to injury, and never came out this season; Wall struggled to hold on to 32 games, and finally decided to go to surgery in late 2018 to remove the bone spurs in his left heel, leaving the rest of the season to Beal.
Fortunately, Wall's surgery was a success, and he posted on social media a photo of himself lying in a hospital bed after the operation, smiling like a flower, with the caption: "Smiling is good for the soul."
Bill must have been more motivated after seeing this photo, as long as he survived this season, Wall can still come back, and two months later, a message sneaked into the Wizards locker room: Hey Bill, there will be no Wall for the rest of the season, and there will be no more seasons in the future.
In February 2019, two months after the operation, the laughing boy Wall slipped in his home, torn Achilles tendon, and was reimbursed next season.
Shortly after Wall's reimbursement, the Wizards traded Potter out again, and their super dream of three salaries seemed to have been shattered in just a moment, and the next Wizards were Bill's wizards.
In fact, this season has played so far, the situation of the Wizards is not significantly different from last season, when Beal led the team alone, they were a team in the middle of the offensive league and at the bottom of the defensive league, this season Bill's personal performance was more exaggerated, but the team folded the starting center Bryant earlier than last season, and lost a few games closer, which has the current situation that everyone feels very miserable. Bill's wife, distressed by her man, sent a "disgusting death" message to express her mentality after another high score loss.
But Bill's wife does not understand how hard his man is, in 2006 as strong as Kobe Bryant has been unable to bear to apply for a deal, and then the Lakers brought back a big Gasol for him; Bill never made a trade application, and even last year took the initiative to say that he would not give up to stay in Washington, the Wizards were very moved, and then brought back Weizhong for him.
Wohl, who recovered from his injuries until July 2020, is still nostalgic for the old days, the reporter asked about the "backcourt combination" again, Wohl did not change his original intention, stretched out a finger, "After I came out, we are still stronger."
Wall added: "Bill is our leader and I can't wait to get back to him."
The former sentence is romanticism, the latter sentence is realism.
But in real life, Wall went to the Rockets as a leader, and Wei Zhong brought the Wizards beautiful triple-doubles and fewer appearances than Wall, as well as the phrase "I have to play better" after every game.
Last season, Beal's scoring performance also failed to enter the All-Star, Beal was very unhappy, but in the Three Voting System in the Eastern Conference backcourt, the players cast him to No. 2, second only to Kemba Walker, the media cast him to No. 5, in front of Kemba, Blowing Young, Ben Simmons and Lowry, it was the fans who really pulled Bill's hind legs, they only voted him to 9th, in addition to the 5 selected by the media, there were Rose, Lavin and Jaylen Brown. So this year Bill talked about All-Star only one sentence left: "No hope."
According to rumors, Bill still maintains his loyalty, although loyalty is not valuable, but since Bill has done so, it is now up to the Wizards to respond, and it is said that the Wizards' return is to fulfill the verbal promise when renewing Bill:
Only trade Bill where he wants to go.
Then this story is very touching, right, Bill, as the captain of his own peak, insisted on not being able to sink a ship; if Bill wanted to go, the Wizards would try to meet Bill's wishes first, rather than see who gave more chips, very warm. I think that if you use "still thinking about Xiang Yu and refusing to cross Jiangdong" to describe Bill's lonely courage, then the wizard should be Bill's Yu Ji.
******
At this point, the article has been written, and I will add a little common sense:
1. If a player has been with a team for 7-9 years and has not been traded since his rookie contract, it is possible that he will sign a designated veteran's maximum salary contract with a starting salary cap of 35%.
2. The designated veteran can sign the contract when there are 2 years left in the current contract, and can sign a "2+4" or "1+5" contract for a total of six years.
3. Designated veterans can sign if their maximum salary meets one of the following conditions: (1) the player has been selected to the Best Team in the season before signing or in two of the last three seasons; (2) the player has been elected best defensive player in the season before signing or in two of the last three seasons; (3) in one of the last three seasons, the player has been elected regular season MVP.
4. Bill is now on the honor rolls, with nothing but two-time All-Star and Best Rookie Lineups.
5. Bill is now in his ninth year of his career and the ninth year of the Wizards, with two years left on his contract.
6. Ten-year veterans can also enjoy the starting salary income of 35% of the salary cap, but it is difficult for the super team to adjust so much space.
7. Since playing in the best team with three teams, there has not been a situation where the scoring king cannot enter the most team.
And who is right about the future?
At the end of 2020, the alphabet brother stood silent in front of the designated veteran super salary, and the American Yang Yi A Smith urged the letter to sign, and the Bucks were not grateful for this, because the words spoken by the old radio behind were enough to make all the team management afraid:
"Signing, signing a super contract doesn't mean staying in the team, you can always ask for a trade to leave the team, just like some stars, you can get money and compete for the championship." 」