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There were many questions reporters wanted to ask Wang Chong. After all, since officially joining the Lakers, Wang Chong had basically stayed out of the public eye, living a life with his baby every day. Even when occasionally spotted by reporters in public, he would refuse to be interviewed.
Therefore, the Lakers' media day was also the first time Wang Chong had attended a press conference since then.
"Wang Chong, what made you choose to join the Los Angeles Lakers? Is it because you wanted to reunite with Kobe Bryant, or is it because the giant Lakers team and the metropolis of Los Angeles give you more comfort?"
In response to the reporters' questions, Wang Chong's answer was simple and straightforward.
"Of course, because this is Los Angeles and my family is here. The team here is my focus, and the Clippers couldn't afford to give me a proper contract, so it's the Lakers."
When many reporters heard this, they felt a little embarrassed.
This reason had been speculated many times before. After all, the Lakers didn't really have an obvious advantage over most teams in terms of lineup. If Kobe Bryant were three or five years younger, it could still be called a strong combination to describe this team, but now it seemed a bit inappropriate.
Now, Wang Chong had finally admitted the reason for joining the Lakers… How to put it, it makes sense, but only Wang Chong has the strength and confidence across the entire league to say the same when joining a giant team like the Lakers.
As the team with the most championships in NBA history, the Lakers have won the league 16 times. The Celtics were unable to form a big three in the 07-08 season due to Wang Chong, which resulted in 15 championships, with the Lakers leading by one championship.
16 titles may seem a lot, but Wang Chong has personally won 8 championships, and just the number of personal championships has reached half of the Lakers' titles, a team with a history of nearly 70 years.
Looking at the entire history of the NBA, only the Celtics' legendary Bill Russell, the Lord of the Rings, can temporarily overshadow Wang Chong in this regard.
But considering Wang Chong's current age of 30 and the development prospects of the Lakers, it is not impossible for him to surpass Russell in the number of championships in the future.
Some reporters also asked Wang Chong how long he thought it would take to bring a championship to the Lakers.
Unlike when he was with the Cavaliers, when he said he would win the championship that season, this time Wang Chong was a bit more reserved.
"The current roster of the Lakers has great potential, but it will take some time to settle in and grow. There are also some very strong opponents in the league, so in my plan, it should take two to three years for the Lakers to win a championship."
If it were a regular player saying that they could win a championship within two or three years of leading the team, they would definitely be considered arrogant.
But when these words came from Wang Chong, everyone thought that Wang Chong was rarely humble.
After all, in the last eleven years of his career, Wang Chong has won the championship eight times, almost monopolizing the NBA championship. For him, winning a championship is as simple as eating and drinking. How could it take two or three years for such an achievement?
Everyone also knows who Wang Chong is referring to when mentioning strong opponents.
There is no suspense; it must be the Chicago Bulls with the addition of James.
The combination of James + Curry should not be underestimated, and in theory, it shouldn't lose to the combination of Wang Chong + Curry.
Wang Chong is undeniably stronger than James, but at that time, Curry didn't have the strength and stature he does today.
After James officially confirmed his addition to the Bulls two months ago, they immediately became the biggest favorites to win the championship, and no team could shake their champion status, not even the Lakers with Wang Chong + Kobe.
There really is no way, as no one is optimistic about the combination of Wang Chong + Kobe, to be precise, no one should be optimistic about Kobe, who is 37 years old with a serious injury history. His debuff is already full, so how can he still play well?
As for Wang Chong's comments about the potential of the Lakers' players, unfortunately, no one can really see it.
Clay Thompson is just an average All-Star caliber player averaging 20+ per game, and aside from Klay, do the Lakers have any other players worth expecting? Does Wang Chong rely on people like Jokic and Draymond? Can anyone in the second-round pick of Green achieve that? It's not possible.
Thinking this way, the reporters couldn't help but focus on the two second-round players the Lakers brought in during the summer, thinking they should interview them just in case.
The Lakers' media day was over, followed by the preseason training.
The current head coach of the Lakers is Byron Scott, a coach who isn't very good at the elite level but enjoys putting on a show.
His career as a player is much better than his career as a coach. After all, he won three championship rings alongside Magic and Skyhook, and he even contributed 21+4+4 per game during his prime regular seasons.
After retiring and becoming a coach, Scott's biggest characteristic is that he always finds himself with the best point guards.
In his early days coaching the Nets, it was Jason Kidd. Later, he coached the Hornets and met Chris Paul.
The bottom line of the best point guards is usually good, although the upper limit of their teams tends to be limited. Looking at the history of the league, true champions like Magic Johnson, Curry, and some others can be considered the main forces.
But both Kidd and Paul kept Scott's record stable above a 60% win rate, so his reputation in the league is still quite good.
Unfortunately, after Paul left the team, Scott immediately revealed his true form. After being swept by the Hornets, he coached the Cavaliers for three years, leading them to two first-round picks in three years.
He then coached the Lakers in the 14-15 and 15-16 seasons, showcasing records of 21-61 and 17-65, the second-worst in the team's history, and his reputation was completely tarnished.
However, as a head coach, Scott has one characteristic that many other coaches lack: he knows how to flatter.
He understands well who the core player of the team is, and he also knows how important it is to keep a close relationship with that player. Therefore, in many cases, he can lower his head, humble himself, and even bow down to the team's main players without a final outcome.
This was most evident during his two years coaching the Lakers.
In the 14-15 and 15-16 seasons, Scott truly became a hardcore Cormi, doing everything he could to bow down to Kobe in various ways, eager to make Kobe the best in history.
It is estimated that because of this, during the 14-15 season, when he led the team to only 21 wins, Scott was able to continue coaching the Lakers for another year and accompanied Kobe Bryant during his farewell tour, which was swept by the Lakers.
A coach like this, with Wang Chong on the team under his command, it's clear how things would unfold.
At the media day, Scott had already begun his own path of flattery.
"Wang Chong is the best and greatest player in NBA history. I have dreamed of playing with this great player someday, and I didn't expect it to really come true. The Lakers have Wang Chong, and we have a bright future ahead. I have no doubt about what Wang Chong just said; we will definitely win the championship in two or three years!"
When asked who would be the team's first core player in the regular season, Scott didn't hesitate at all and directly mentioned Wang Chong's name.
He's not stupid. Even Kobe Bryant took the initiative to give his number 24 jersey to Wang Chong—how obvious is that?
"When we train in the new season, I will focus on Wang Chong's opinion because I know very well that Wang Chong is not only a player, but he also has unique knowledge of team building and tactical play. Whether it's the Bulls or the Cavaliers, we can see him holding a tactical board during timeouts, explaining tactics to his teammates, and we will definitely inherit this tradition."
Scott's words say it all, and the meaning is already quite clear: how the Lakers will play in the new season, how the main rotation will be organized—don't come ask me as the head coach, first ask Wang Chong what he said.
Such an attitude saved Wang Chong a lot of trouble, and it also gave Wang Chong the idea to let Scott remain as the team's head coach.
Wang Chong is also a normal person and enjoys being praised and sought after.
If the coach who trained him were someone like Larry Brown or Popovich, a coach with a very stubborn temperament who prioritizes team basketball and dislikes personal hero complex, Wang Chong really couldn't stand it.
In this regard, there's nothing wrong with Leonard leaving the Spurs. Can you imagine that when Leonard had grown and needed more ball control and shooting to show his skills, the coach clearly expressed dissatisfaction with this and asked him to shoot less and focus on the team?
Not everyone can work as hard as Duncan or Ginóbili, who is willing to serve as the sixth man despite having the quality of a starting All-Star.
During Lakers training, Scott focused on Wang Chong's advice.
According to Wang Chong's requirements, the Lakers' starting five for the new season would be Kobe, Thompson, Wang Chong, Green, and Jokic.
Although Scott didn't really understand why Wang Chong wanted the replacement from the Bulls, Green, and the rookie center Jokic, who was debuting in the NBA, to be the team's main starters, he didn't question Wang Chong's arrangement and did it appropriately.
And during the training process, he gradually discovered the advantages of Green and Jokic.
First, Green, although he didn't make a name for himself with the Bulls, had played in the NBA for three years. Green's body had reached its peak, and his defensive ability was extremely outstanding, which would definitely be comparable to the level of a future DPOY.
In terms of ball control and passing, Green seemed a little rusty because he hadn't had long-term training with the Bulls, but as long as he received some training, he could learn it. Even if the Lakers didn't use his passing and ball control, his defensive ability, both inside and outside, would fully reflect performance value below his annual salary of 6 million.
As for Jokic, Jokic in his rookie season was more than a little worse than in his peak years.
But that's only compared to his prime.
Jokic, who had played several years in European professional leagues, perfectly inherited the characteristics of European interior players, with a soft touch and delicate technique, and his range could extend beyond the three-point line. He also had the ability to fight against most European interior players, something that many others didn't possess.
Wang Chong's expectations for Jokic had never changed.
Because in the original 15-16 season, after Jokic, who had signed with the Nuggets, landed in the NBA, he averaged 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game in his first season, and that was when he only played 21 minutes per game.
In the second season, Jokic's playing time increased to 27.8 minutes, and his stats immediately jumped to 16.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.9 assists, with a shooting percentage of 57.8%.
Since the third season, Jokic officially became the best interior player in the league, and his personal stats have never dropped below 18+10+6 per game.
Of course, Wang Chong had reasons to believe that Jokic, who was valued in advance and trained according to his own technical characteristics, would grow much faster than the original Jokic.
Compared to these two young players with a lot of room for growth, Wang Chong's favorite and most satisfying player was Klay Thompson.
I have to admit, Thompson is definitely the best championship puzzle piece around a superstar.
His defense can reach the first-line level in the league, and his shooting accuracy, especially from three-point range, is only surpassed by Curry in his prime. He doesn't possess the ball at all, and the average time he holds the ball per game is lower than most scoring guards in the league. Yet, he can consistently contribute 20+ points per game.
A player like this is unique in the league.
In fact, Wang Chong has always felt that the scariest thing about the future five-star Warriors isn't the two MVP-level stars of Curry and Durant joining forces, but when those two unite, the Warriors still have Thompson, interspersed between the two superstars, and he can still consistently contribute 20+ points per game, without being affected at all.
Looking at NBA history, there are many teams made up of superstars, but very few teams with three players who can score 20+ points per game at the same time. After all, the ball in a game is so small; after the first and second cores divide it, there's not much ball left for the third core.
During the Heat's Big Three era, James averaged a double-double, and Bosh sacrificed his stats.
The same happened during the Cavaliers' 2.0 era, when Timberwolves' averages were 26+12 rebounds per game, but after joining the Cavaliers, his stats dropped to 16 points and 9.7 rebounds.
But Thompson's stats barely changed before and after Durant joined the Warriors, which has a lot to do with his off-ball play.
This type of player is exactly what James likes as a ball-sustaining core, and Wang Chong certainly likes him too. After all, he has deliberately strengthened his ball control and passing ability this season, and with the support of his powerful offensive firepower, he can also emulate James by playing as a forward.
Since the overall evaluation of Wang Chong's skill value had already reached 99, although the improvement from this enhancement was not small, the overall evaluation of the skill value did not change.
Wang Chong's main areas of improvement had three key values: ball control, passing ability, and passing awareness.
These three skills were originally rated 92, 88, and 78, which are not low, and they are more than enough for a forward.
After Wang Chong's intensive training, these three skill values increased to 94, 92, and 90, respectively. Among these, passing awareness saw the biggest increase, rising by 12 points. This was mainly due to the initially low base value of his passing awareness.
This is because the lower the statistical value, the faster the improvement during training. When the statistical value goes above 90, it becomes much harder to make further progress.
Wang Chong's dribbling and passing abilities improved by a total of 6 points, while his passing awareness increased by 12 points, which was twice as much as the first two combined.
At the same time, Wang Chong successfully redeemed ten pennies for the playmaking badge. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Wang Chong could now at least compare to a second-tier point guard in the league. He had truly become a super numerical monster
End of this chapter
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