No.1 in basketball scoring-Chapter 121 - 88. The Rookie Season is Here_2

Ingles and Jordan were of great help in his development of high-post back-to-the-basket play.

Ingles was the key figure, always fine-tuning the technique of his shooting motion during the stage of developing high-post back-down plays, and he provided many effective suggestions related to shooting techniques.

Jordan provided the experience. Zhang Yang was quite puzzled; when it came to learning anything else, Jordan would be elusive at best, deeming it a success if he agreed to accompany him one out of three requests. But as soon as the topic of back-down plays came up, Jordan would take off his jacket to warm up and insist on drilling with Zhang Yang right then and there, with increasing vigor as they went on.

However, in terms of technical development and training, he didn’t spend much time, mainly discussing adjustments to details with Ingles during breaks in shooting practice.

Most of his time was still spent on running to receive passes and shoot, making long-distance cuts to receive passes, and stationary shooting.

Bickerstaff had told him long ago that if he got the chance to play during regular time, this would be his role in coordinating with his teammates.

On September 28th, Zhang Yang’s mundane life was disrupted, and he started getting busy.

Okafor, Felton, and Gerald Wallace were also bustling about.

Media Day hadn’t arrived yet, but many reporters had already come to Charlotte, most of them from China and the Asian region. However, there were also quite a few local American journalists. Fans were very curious about this season’s Bobcats, wanting to know what kind of quality the youngest rookie in NBA history had.

In the interviews, Zhang Yang’s role was that of a figurehead: handsome, well-built, and popular... to put it accurately, very controversial and a hot topic.

The other three were identified by Jordan as the backbones of the team’s strength, and he took advantage of the attention brought by Zhang Yang to promote them.

Seeing the enthusiasm of the reporters towards Zhang Yang, Jordan accelerated his efforts to acquire the team.

After more than two months, Jordan had completely recognized Zhang Yang’s talent.

Although the current Zhang Yang was still weak and might suffer more on the court than rookie Kobe, his ability to handle pressure had been tested by Jordan. He believed that even if Zhang Yang was put in the same situation as Jermaine O’Neal during his rookie contract, Zhang Yang would stand tall.

Here, Zhang Yang’s special treatment was no worse than Kobe’s during his rookie year. Kobe did not have a shooting coach of Ingles’ caliber around during his rookie year; Hamblen joined Phil Jackson at the Lakers in the summer of 1999. Jordan believed Zhang Yang would definitely stand up, and it was just a matter of time.

What Jordan needed to do was to showcase his recognition of Zhang Yang in front of the Chinese media and praise Zhang Yang’s talent.

Initially, it was instinct that drove Jordan to choose Zhang Yang; now that he had calmed down, his continued high regard for Zhang Yang was due to both talent and economic interests.

When facing the media, Zhang Yang was as humble as he could be. He took the initiative to introduce his three teammates to domestic journalists, and this move won him praise from both domestic and international media.

If weak, stealthily grow stronger...

Watching his polite and mild-mannered little brother, Felton really wanted to drag Zhang Yang to the training court for a sparring session, to let the journalists see his little brother’s true face.

...

On October 1, 2005, NBA training camp began.

Zhang Yang woke up in the morning and the ’Gate of Trials’ notification popped up.

Two notifications: one was that after completing the current task, the next task would be related to trials.

The other was that the ability assessment had been updated!

After just a glance, Zhang Yang immediately jumped out of bed, washed up, had breakfast, and ran towards the Charlotte stadium, ready to practice.

"Name: Zhang Yang.

Age: 17 years old (Date of Birth: June 6, 1988).

Height: 193 cm, Wingspan: 206 cm, Weight: 88 kg.

Ability Assessment (NBA): Three-point—, Mid-range 75, Lay-up 77, Ball-handling 79, Passing—, Speed 92, Strength 78, Vertical 84, Stamina 82..."

Three-point shooting was still below par, mainly because the NBA three-point line was a good bit longer than in high school. The three-point shooting he had practiced well in the 11th grade had now become a long two-point shot, and he was still working on extending his shooting range.

This level of lay-up could probably ensure accuracy only with open lay-ups in the NBA.

His current strengths were just his speed and mid-range shooting.

The speed score was a bit higher than he expected; he thought achieving 90 would be decent, but it was even higher than when he was 23, perhaps because of his lighter weight?

In terms of strength, it was higher than his initial expectations. His ability to handle physical confrontations was still insufficient, but it was not so poor that he would get knocked around by every little bump. He could manage the jostling in off-ball movement, but if it came to wrestling with someone like Felton, who was 185 cm tall and over 90 kg, he definitely could not compete.

As for mid-range shooting, he felt it was weak, but Bickerstaff had shown him the team’s training statistics, and his performance in mid-range shooting was near the top within the team. Most of the teammates were failing in mid-range shooting.

Bickerstaff told him that with his passable mid-range shot, he would definitely get playing time.

With the assurance of getting playing time, Zhang Yang felt a little more confident, but it drove him to work even harder. He set himself a small, reasonable goal—to measure up to the rookie seasons of Kobe, McGrady, and Garnett!

The training camp started, and as the Bobcats entered the stage of tactical enhancement training, the focus was on Brevin Knight.

The tactics revolved around Knight’s ability to initiate fast breaks and his capability to attack and distribute in set plays.

The team practices in mid to late September mainly focused on tactical positioning, but once training camp commenced, the primary activity was intrasquad scrimmages with higher levels of physicality.

On the first day of physical training, Felton displayed his excellent combat readiness, clearly outperforming Knight when matched against him.

Bickerstaff was very satisfied with Felton’s performance. With the ability to start in the NBA right away and strong adaptability to tactics, whether controlling the play himself or partnering with Knight, he was not a drag on the offense.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om