Changwon LG Sakers, a representative KBL team, will challenge to win again this season. The opponents to meet in the first gateway, the semifinals, are the defending champion Seoul SK, and a prestigious emerging school that has won three championships. LG and SK were founded side by side in 1997. Expectations were high from the time they were founded, as both teams had strong parent company support and passionate fans.
LG was good to begin with. Through an extreme strategy of leaving the scoring machine Bernard Blunt on offense and focusing on defense for domestic players, the team finished second in the regular season in the first season. LG fans had high expectations for the victory as they began to thread the first bead well. The club also provided unconventional support. However, time passed without knowing it, and even after a lot of time has passed, it remains an irrelevant team that has never won the championship game.
In the meantime, SK won three championships. There was a dark period when he was criticized for not being as good as his investment, but after taking office as manager, Moon Kyung-eun succeeded in improving his constitution and now has a steady image of a strong team. The three championship wins are tied for third place with Wonju DB and Anyang KGC, following Ulsan Hyundai Mobis (7 times) and Jeonju KCC (5 times).
Excluding the new team Goyang Carrot among the current 10 KBL teams, there are 3 teams that have remained unrelated so far. Suwon KT, Daegu Korea Gas Corporation and LG. There is a saying, “The first win is the hardest.” Teams that have been thirsty for a championship for a long time can hardly quench their thirst even after time passes, but on the contrary, some teams have won the difficult championship several times.
In fact, just look at the number of KBL championships. There are three unrelated teams mentioned above, while all other teams have won the championship more than twice. There is no single winning team. For LG fans, this is a part that can feel both strange and envious. Even in the championship, it seems that the rich and the poor exist. First of all, there are many opinions that it is not easy to predict the winner of the semifinal playoff between LG and SK.
SK is not as strong as last season. This is because housekeeper Ahn Young-joon is absent from military service, and point forward Choi Jun-yong does not know when he will return. Even if they do come back, it doesn’t seem easy to immediately recover the performance they had when they were good as long as the hiatus was long. In addition, although they passed easily with 3 consecutive wins, they played 3 playoff games in the 6th round.
LG succeeded in going directly to the quarterfinal playoffs and is in a position to wait after preparing in advance. It can be said that it is advantageous in many ways when considering the thick player base, but a variable has arisen. ‘Prince of Egypt’ Asem Marey (31, 202 cm), who has been consistently active as a foreign player with the first option, is unable to play in the playoffs due to a calf muscle rupture.
Reggie Perry (23, 203 cm) hastily brought in as a substitute foreign player, but it is still unclear how much performance will be shown. In particular, I don’t know the offensive part, but it is expected that the vacancy will be quite large in the defense. Marey is like the ‘immovable iron wall’ of the peregrine falcon army. In addition to the power that comes out of a solid body, he has a good BQ and a hustle mind that does not spare his body, so his contribution in defense is very high.
In addition to rebounding, his stealing ability is also good. Depending on whether Marey is on the court or not, the entire team’s defense will change. Dante Cunningham (35‧203cm) is also a good foreign player, but there is a big difference between being centered by Marey and not. A picture of Perry failing to live up to expectations and Cunningham struggling with overload is a scenario I hate to think about.
Modern basketball is different from the past in many ways, such as fast tempo, space utilization, and increased proportion of outside shots. However, there is one thing that does not change no matter how large the change is, and it is none other than the ‘power of rebound’. As you can see from the saying that the one who dominates the rebound controls the game, the effects of gaining the upper hand in rebounding are indescribable.
Basically, you can control the flow by taking more ball possession time than the opponent team, and your colleagues can also shoot with a more comfortable mind. It is for this reason that coaches in every game emphasize ‘rebound’ and raise their voices. Marey is the rebounding champion for the second year in a row. He emerged as the dominant player under the goal last season with 13.47 points, and this season also ranked first in rebounds with 12.48 points.
In addition to that, the steel part (first place this season, second place last season) was also accepted. His individual abilities are good, but he has a great influence on his teammates because he shows a fighting spirit in every match, such as throwing his body at a loose ball without hesitation. It is an analysis that the appearance of the 1st option foreign player burning his body devotedly creates an invisible effect that increases the overall combat power of the team, including defensive aggressiveness.
But that doesn’t mean that Marey can’t attack. He doesn’t go to and from the perimeter like Jamil Warney or Omari Spellman to score points in various ways, but he attacks the defense in his own way, like a relatively big man. In particular, the post-up is one of Marey’s most powerful weapons. In the case of former players, if it was a big man, it was natural to have a post-up as a default.
It has changed recently. There are more players 4 and 5 who make use of their quick feet and shooting ability to attack face-up or score points with mid-range and 3-point shots rather than fighting hard and hitting the post-up. Marey is a classic. He doesn’t shoot very far, he can’t be very fast or jump high. He’s honest instead.
He has good body strength and high technical perfection, so when Marey hits a post-up, the opponent often allows the score even though he knows it. The shooting distance is not long, but the feeling of the fingertips near the post is very good. Due to the nature of the technique, help defense often comes in, but it is common to succeed in scoring by breaking through between 2-3 people.
Because of this, it is true that Marey’s injury created a situation where LG’s season plan had to be rewritten entirely. Director Jo Sang-hyun also expressed his stance that he was very perplexed. Of course, the play style is different, but there is no way that Perry, who came in as a substitute foreign player, made an amazing contribution and became ‘Marai Season 2’.
In addition, apart from Marey’s injury, LG’s player base is still solid, so it is possible to use a customized strategy with abundant rotation against any team.바카라사이트Let’s pay attention to whether LG, thirsty for victory, can overcome the bad news of the foreign player’s injury and write the legend of Changwon. The falcon army has the power to do that.