In the preseason finale, the Golden State Warriors faced the Los Angeles Lakers, who played all off the bench, and finally won by 58 points, paying tribute to Chris Paul who left the team this offseason in a special way. As a result, the Warriors are also undefeated in six games in the preseason journey, the morale of the whole team is high, and Kerr's rotation is extremely abundant, so that the championship coach has not decided to start and finish the new season. But through the preseason, Cole discovered at least one all-round fighter in the team and found his instruction manual, and this all-round player is Comrade Li Kaier, the national player of the Chinese men's basketball team.
In the last three preseason games, Lee Kyle had a plus/minus of +21, +22 and +32, respectively. While Sledgehammer's base stats aren't impressive, his role is often not simply measured in points, rebounds, and assists, so when he's on the court, the players he plays with always feel very comfortable, which is why Kyle Lee always has a high plus/minus. It is precisely because the Warriors' current rotation is very deep, so the sledgehammer can organize the tandem at its own pace, on the contrary, if it is forced to use a backward jumper to score by himself like last year's Western Conference finals, it means that the team has run out of skills.
What's more, today's Li Kaier is very different from the beginning of last season, last summer Sledgehammer followed the Chinese men's basketball team to the Men's Basketball World Cup and a number of warm-up games before the main game, and it is estimated that he was beaten a little doubtful - after returning to the NBA, the three-point shooting rate in the preseason was only 22%, and I felt that the skill package was forgotten in Manila. In this preseason trip, any team that dares to let go of the sledgehammer will be punished by his shooting, 6 preseason games, Li Kaier's three-point shooting rate is as high as 54.5%, this is the so-called close to Zhu red near ink black.
Seeing Li Kaier's performance like this, I believe that the Warriors management also smiled, and found him this summer, and he really found the right person. Kerr has praised Sledgehammer more than once in interviews, saying that Lee Kyle is a great playmaker, skilled and smart, and when he's on the court, the team plays well, while he's a difficult player to defend himself. It can be seen that Cole really admires Li Kaier, which is why he has such a high evaluation.
And before this big win over the Lakers, Kerr told reporters in an interview: "I see that he (referring to Lee Kyle) has the ability to defend a lot of centers in the league. If we play him in the number five position, he's basically a point forward who can pass the ball, handle the ball and create chances for his teammates. It's a nice weapon. Of course, he also plays well in the number four position, and at the same time, he can defend on the perimeter. "That's right, Cole has already thought about it, he is going to entrust Li Kaier with a heavy responsibility - as Sledgehammer first joined the club, Dream Chaser said, the 2.06 meter Li Kaier is one of the tallest players in the team, and he will play the number five position. Now it's a dream that comes true.
Judging from the results of the pre-season, Li Kaier adapted very well, and the last three games were obviously better than the first three. Let's look forward to what kind of surprises Comrade Sledgehammer will bring us in the new season. In your opinion, if Kyle Lee is in the No. 5 position in the second team, who should he play with?