One Year Left to Play-Chapter 116 - 37: Current Limits

The butterfly’s wings have already started flapping, and when Zhang Hao knew he had the opportunity to play professionally, he knew he would definitely affect the development of some things. He just didn’t expect that even before he had played a single professional game, he had already brought such earth-shattering changes to an important player in the national team in the future.

Playing in the NCAA versus playing in the Chinese Jia-A League... Without considering the income, Zhang Hao believes playing in the NCAA is incomparable to playing in the Jia-A League. Although the NCAA Basketball Championship is just an amateur competition, the level is worthy of being called the world’s second basketball league.

"Da Zhi going to Georgetown University... I guess it would be quite difficult..." Zhang Hao recalled his own encounters when he first arrived in the United States, which were not friendly. It was only after performing well on the court that he earned respect.

Wang Zhizhi seems easier to bully... But there’s no choice, he can only hold on himself. Having chosen this path, he has to endure.

And as for the kind of difficulties Wang Zhizhi will experience, Zhang Hao doesn’t want to find out. He himself has it tough, as the saying goes, ’endure hardship and you shall be the best,’ and in his heart, he offers sincere blessings for Wang Zhizhi’s NCAA journey...

...

... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Aprile Clark got into college and truly started summer vacation. Zhang Hao also felt a bit of the summer holiday vibes. In the morning, sometimes he would go out for shopping, watch movies, and during training, occasionally Aprile Clark would bring her girlfriends to watch. Almost every day they would have dinner together, and sometimes he would go to Mrs. Pierce’s place for a meal.

In the blink of an eye, it was mid-August.

The afternoon of August 13th, after Zhang Hao’s training session ended, a long-awaited notification came!

"Specially contracted player: Zhang Hao.

Age/Birth Date: 18 years old/January 7, 1977.

Height 204 cm. Wingspan 215 cm.

Weight: 96 kg.

Position: Forward.

Current team: New Jersey Nets.

Ability rating 69.

Physical attributes: Speed 90, strength 90 (explosive power 80), jumping 94, agility 95, stamina 91...

Shooting: Three-pointers 55, mid-range 90, layup 89...

Technique: Dribbling 56, passing 47, catch-and-shoot 86..."

After more than seven weeks of training, Zhang Hao’s strength finally increased to 90, and his speed and agility were not affected! His jumping increased by 1 point to 94 but didn’t continue to improve, probably reaching its limit.

Looking at himself in the mirror, with his eight abdominal muscles now bulking up when he flexed, Zhang Hao got goosebumps.

Thin! Clearly, his strength had increased, and it was a huge increase, a drastic transformation compared to before, yet his physique remained slender!

If he hadn’t grown two centimeters taller, Zhang Hao estimates his weight might not have increased much.

His weight increased by about 4 kg, and his strength skyrocketed. The key was to maintain his mid-range shot; daily training of 600-800 mid-range shots kept him in touch, not wasted. He successfully maintained his shooting during the strength-enhancing phase.

Just that he got taller again... "Am I going to emulate Lewis’s style when I enter the NBA? Or a shorter version?"

However, with such a significant increase in strength, Zhang Hao truly doesn’t know what changes he will experience in matches. Initially, he might find it difficult to adapt to confrontations and other aspects, as he has never been a power-style player. The rapid improvement in shooting is quite acceptable, because even before using the mid-range growth card in high school, he was already one of the top mid-range shooters in California’s high school scene, just becoming even better.

And in the past, he hadn’t relied on strength to play; that was Pickley’s style.

A player who excels in off-ball movement and shooting, his greatest asset is certainly his core strength, which is part of static confrontation.

Players like Nash and Curry have mediocre explosive power, even considered poor, but strong core strength!

On defense, high school players entering the NBA usually aren’t great defenders, clumsy, enjoy confrontation but can’t withstand it... Now Zhang Hao estimates that he can handle most of the outside players when he enters the NBA but might need to pay attention to fouling.

And there isn’t a very good way to compare core strength directly, so he tried to have a school teammate playing center defend against him, using post moves, and the opponent refused to spar with him again.

The improvement in core strength is evident; his previously not-so-varied layup has improved to 89.

Finding the right layup approach during games is necessary, and apart from that, he can only make short-distance shots more stable. Clearly, with the improvement in core strength, his short-range shots have become more stable.

Regardless, increasing strength to 90 is certainly a good thing, and Zhang Hao feels extremely excited about it!

Normally, to train strength to 90, Zhang Hao estimates he can do it, but aspects such as speed and agility aren’t so certain. Simply gaining 4 kg isn’t enough; probably needing a center’s weight to reach 90 strength, which could negatively impact running, jumping, and agility.

Looking at his explosive power rating of 80, conventionally speaking, static confrontation should be in the low 70s, but the current situation feels strange.

This period of improvement has made Zhang Hao extremely excited, and Jason Hart, helping him pack up his equipment, is already numb.

In just over a month, he’d been stunned by what Zhang Hao achieved; in just over a month, the weights Zhang Hao used in training went from 70 pounds to 140 pounds... Today, Zhang Hao was using 140 pounds to train, as if it was the same as using 70 pounds over a month ago!

This increase in strength was terrifying! Just this alone made Jason Hart realize the gap between himself and a "genius."

Someone can achieve in a month what he possibly couldn’t in a lifetime, unless sacrificing speed to turn into a muscle-bound individual.

Compared to Zhang Hao, Jason Hart feels being a genius may be out of his reach...

So good at shooting, excellent physical attributes, and such quick improvement in training strength...

Jason Hart recalled Zhang Hao’s self-introduction at the McDonald’s Slam Dunk Contest a few months prior—two and a half years of basketball training... Over the month, he realized Zhang Hao was telling the truth! He originally thought about surpassing his two senior teammates over the past year... Impossible! It’s not achievable!

Zhang Hao did not realize the great impact he had on his junior teammate. Meanwhile, looking at his ability rating, when his strength first increased to 85, his ability rating had already risen to 69, but now the strength increased to 90, and the ability rating remains 69...

"Probably because my technique isn’t comprehensive, the improvement brought by strength in matches has reached its limit. I only have catch-and-shoot and attacking the basket as offensive means; the enhancement in offense brought by strength is indeed limited."

Thinking of this, Zhang Hao felt an impulse to quickly expand his offensive skills, but he knew he had to remain calm. If he could expand his skills before his rookie season starts, it would be optimal, but his foundation remains off-ball shooting.

Just that now he has top-tier static confrontation strength, a massive improvement in core strength, providing a better foundation for learning more offensive techniques.

Furthermore, having top-tier strength at 90 is excellent among NBA forwards but is far from the best...

Zhang Hao strived to calmly deal with his current status.

He still needs to focus mainly on off-ball play!

Through Pierce’s introductions and the information he searched, Zhang Hao knows that the Nets have a point guard named Kenny Anderson, the second pick in the 91 draft. This season and the last both ranked in the top four in assists, and last season he was second in assists.

Kenny Anderson is a pass-first, energetic attacking point guard; playing good off-ball with him will bring many advantages.

Thinking of off-ball, Zhang Hao thought of a discovered issue.

It’s his physique possessing such strength, indeed it’s exaggerated, just like having a mad mid-range shot at 18 is overly exaggerated.

This also leads to certain problems; previously, with mid-range shots, the same situation occurred, where further improvement was difficult...

It’s not just hard to improve; it’s dealing with psychological impacts from rapid improvement and suddenly massive difficulty in improving, which is more challenging!

Because now he may train for a long time without obvious improvement! Originally, with gradual improvement, he wouldn’t feel that moving from a mid-range shot of 90 to 91 would be so slow, because perhaps the previous increase from 75 to 90 took three to five years or even longer, potentially reaching the peak at twenty-six or twenty-seven, but now the mid-range shot has quickly improved to 90, lacking a long adaptation period, and months of hard practice without progress may bring setbacks.