One Year Left to Play-Chapter 138 - 44: We Really Are Bottom Feeders
His height made the veteran interior players on the team feel threatened, which he considered normal.
Zhang Hao felt he could play as an off-ball small forward...
In terms of skills, after returning to the team for this period and undergoing nearly two weeks of professional training under the guidance of assistant coaches, trainers, and veterans, his catch-and-shoot improved by 1 point.
His catch-and-shoot ability, not involving movement, was already top-notch. To achieve a qualitative improvement, training alone is difficult, and a combination of match experience and training is necessary.
His passing improved significantly over the past two weeks. For his height, his dribbling isn’t particularly poor, so Butch Baird intentionally had the assistant coach teach him to pass, easily breaking the 49-point bottleneck and improving his passing to 51.
Professional athletes’ weight is always a mystery. Kenny Anderson returned to the team a week before Zhang Hao. Three weeks have passed, and compared to when Zhang Hao first returned, Kenny Anderson’s appearance has changed significantly; his round face has slimmed down.
The player detection system finally activated. Zhang Hao immediately turned on the subtitles, and as he focused, his teammates’ ability evaluations popped up.
Of course, he first looked at the theoretically strongest player on the team, Kenny Anderson, who averaged 9.6 and 9.4 assists per game in the past two seasons.
"Kenny Anderson, 25 years old, height 183 cm, weight 88 kg, ability rating 84, offense 86, defense 69, passing 94, three-point shooting 78, mid-range shooting 83, layup 88, speed 91, strength 81..."
A speed-oriented point guard with excellent long-range shooting and top-notch passing!
With an 84 ability rating, Zhang Hao didn’t think it was high at all, actually too low. The speed wasn’t as fast as he imagined, likely due to his weight not being fully reduced. Last season, Kenny Anderson averaged 17.6 points and 9.4 assists; the season before, 18.8 points and 9.6 assists, yet currently only has an 84 ability rating. In peak condition, he should be even stronger. Currently, at 25, he’s entering his prime, and if he remains healthy, he should surpass this level.
Zhang Hao had Pelinka gather information on the Brooklyn Nets. After Coleman left, Kenny Anderson was seen as a potential 20+10 average star.
Zhang Hao was puzzled; in his future memories, he had no impression of Kenny Anderson. As a future diligent basketball fan...
With Kenny Anderson’s performance over the past two years being so good, and only being a junior or senior, theoretically, he should become stronger.
However, seeing how much weight he gained over the summer... lack of discipline in diet is a big issue!
"Chris Childs, 28 years old, height 191 cm, weight 88 kg, ability rating 79, offense 71, defense 79, passing 86, three-point shooting 75, mid-range shooting 55, layup 85, speed 86, strength 84..."
The backup point guard, Childs, is a completely different style of point guard than Kenny Anderson — moderately fast, average at the point guard position, but strong, with weak personal offense but acceptable defense, and first-rate passing. According to Zhang Hao’s understanding, Childs’ salary this season is 310,000 US Dollars, and last season it was even less, only 106,000 US Dollars at the league’s minimum salary.
For Childs, Zhang Hao actually had an impression; he’s a member of the future New York Black Eight Legion.
The ones who are stronger, Zhang Hao had no impression of, while the weaker substitutes left an impression, which made him feel strange... but in basketball, anything can happen.
Regarding the point guard line, Zhang Hao thought their Brooklyn Nets were quite excellent, but when he looked at other positions, his heart sank halfway!
Their starting and backup point guards were first-rate league-wide, but players at other positions, upon seeing their ability evaluations, he really dared to say — I might as well go up myself!
"Guards: Kenny Anderson, 25 years old, ability rating 84; Chris Childs, 28 years old, ability rating 79; Khalid Reeves, 23 years old, ability rating 65;
Kevin Edwards, 31 years old, ability rating 75; Vaughn Fleming, 33 years old, ability rating 69; Greg Graham, 25 years old, ability rating 69; Rex Waters, 25 years old, ability rating 59.
Forwards: Almon Gilliam, 31 years old, ability rating 80; Tim Perry, 31 years old, ability rating 61; Gerald Glass, 28 years old, ability rating 57;
PJ Brown, 26 years old, ability rating 75; Jason Williams, 27 years old, ability rating 73.
Centers: Inka Dale, 23 years old, injured; Robert Wodan, 25 years old, ability rating 57."
After seeing his teammates’ ability evaluations, Zhang Hao’s heart sank halfway.
Too real! Too cruel!
These teammates, apart from the rebounding maniac Jason Williams with rebounding ability above 95 and PJ Brown’s help defense above 85, with Kenny Anderson and Childs’ passing above 85, Almon Gilliam strong in close-range scoring and strength... the rest are not the type with distinct characteristics and top strengths like him, Mr. Zhang.
In other words, except for a few, the vast majority of teammates are mediocre or even poor!
"Is this what a lottery team looks like?"
Zhang Hao took a deep breath. How dire was their team?
They didn’t even have a legitimate center!
Look at PJ Brown, 211 cm tall and 105 kg, forced to play as a center, and though he plays okay, it truly wastes his excellent help defense.
Being part of the team, with no trades happening yet, it seems no trades will happen anytime soon. Given that, they have to think about winning as a goal, but seeing this lineup, Zhang Hao really doesn’t know what kind of miraculous strategy the head coach will use to make them competitive.
