First in scoring

Chapter 520 518. This time, it is the 80th line

Among the 13 players, 19 are between 25 and 9 years old. Okafor, who just turned 27 today, is already the fourth oldest player in the team. You should know that Okafor was one of the "young talents" in the team last season.

The main reason is that last season more than half of their players were over 30 years old, and there were several veterans aged 33+. The average age is 30+. Now, apart from O'Neal and Hill, the only ones who can be called veterans are Marion, 99 years old, from the 31 class, and Perkins, who is about to turn 03 years old from the 25 class?
After putting the test report back in place, Zhang Yang went home to change into more formal clothes, took the prepared gifts, and then went to Okafor's home to celebrate Okafor's 27th birthday with his teammates.

In the past, Okafor never celebrated his birthday with anyone other than his family, but this time, because they bought a new house, his wife thought it was time to celebrate.

This is a house built in 03. Before 05, the owner ran into a cash shortage and put the house up for sale. Okafor took a fancy to it in 06 and mentioned it to Zhang Yang, but he never made a move. This summer, the price finally fell to his psychological price point, more than halving from its highest point, from 900 million to 400 million.

The subprime mortgage crisis had a huge impact on Charlotte's economy, because this city's industries are supplemented by tourism, agriculture, textiles, light industry, electric power, and computer technology development, and the core industry is... finance. Five of the 12 largest banks in the United States have their headquarters here. Ten years ago, the core industry here was computer technology. Charlotte was hit hard by the Internet bubble crisis and the subprime mortgage crisis.

Even the houses in wealthy areas, which hold their value best, have seen their prices fall again and again, because most of these houses have now become properties of banks, and if the banks do not sell them off to recover cash, they will go bankrupt.

The price of this house may still have room to fall, but there were already other buyers who wanted to buy it. Okafor did not hesitate and bought it decisively.

Although Okafor's birthday party was not as lively as Yao Ming's birthday, it was not as deserted as Kobe's birthday. The whole team was there, and even Tyronn Lue, who had not yet received an official contract, came to join in the fun.

Zhang Yang once again witnessed the social skills of the Big Shark. O'Neal was like a fish in water in such occasions. Whether it was dirty or vegetarian, he had all kinds of ideas. The key was that he could always take the lead.

O'Neal has already gotten to know most of his teammates. It's true that the team's return date is today, but the rookies had come to Charlotte at the latest at the beginning of the month. Other teammates did not go to Los Angeles for training like he did and only came back a few days ago. When O'Neal was developing a "new map" around Charlotte, he would always call a few teammates. After a few visits, they became familiar with each other.

However, Zhang Yang discovered that with O'Neal's joining, the team started to "take sides" again. It was not a fight for the team's status, as the crown prince failed to win the fight and escaped. There was nothing to fight for in this aspect of the team. The main thing was that there was an extra big man who could play with the younger brothers. Teammates had more people to choose from, and it was not a simple division into two groups, but many more "small groups".

Cunningham and Ibaka have obviously become O'Neal's bag-carrying brothers. They are too attracted by O'Neal's bossy temperament.

Afflalo and Millsap have a closer relationship, which is related to the fact that both of them will have to take on more responsibilities in the new season.

The scope of the "Boss Gang" has narrowed, and only the three young players are left. Of course, this does not mean that their influence within the team has become smaller, but rather it has become larger. Teammates do not need to join their small circle to express their attitude of following them. That was a product of the early days of the team and is now outdated. Now, whether it is fans or players, when they mention the Bobcats, they think of Zhang San, Xiaofei, and Little Duncan.

At the instigation of his old teammate Collison, Afflalo found Zhang Yang and together they called themselves the "California Gang."

Hill got along well with O'Neal, but Hill didn't like to play with O'Neal. Both of them preferred to be the "protagonist" in the conversation, or at least one of them. O'Neal hung out with Jordan all day, and when the two of them were together, he seemed so "inconspicuous."

He still prefers playing with Zhang Yang and Felton...

There are also those who like to be alone, such as Marion and Matthews.

Matthews is really a loner. The only person he can hang out with is Afflalo, who provides him with a place to stay.

Seeing Matthews fidgeting at the party, Zhang Yang could imagine how uncomfortable Kobe was when he was with O'Neal...

Marion was not a loner, but Zhang Yang felt that this new teammate was... inferior? No matter who spoke to Marion, they would get a smile in response, but he rarely took the initiative to communicate with others.

Zhang Yang felt like he had joined a "girls' dormitory". With only a dozen people, it was more lively than the 30 to 50 people in the high school team. It was quite interesting.

Tyronn Lue came with the Tatum brothers. The eldest nephew has no chance of playing in the NBA, but little Jason, who just graduated from elementary school five years ago, shone brightly in the North Louisiana Youth Basketball Championship this summer. At only 5 years old, he was not inferior to those players in seventh and eighth grades who were 11 or years old. Before he even entered middle school, he had already attracted the attention of many prestigious high schools.

Jahlil Okafor also came to attend his younger cousin's birthday party. He is only in the eighth grade and two months away from turning 8, but he is already as tall as Zhang Yang.

After Zhang Yang lost another $200 in two rounds of gambling, he decided to stop and talk to Okafor about the development direction of NBA basketball. He mainly said that Duncan and Okafor have started to lose weight and take a lighter route these days... Like Okafor, Okafor's idol is also Duncan. It is hard to say that he has not been influenced by Okafor. Okafor has repeatedly boasted about how good his cousin's low-post offensive talent is...

Zhang Yang had no control over how much Okafor could understand or whether he would take it in. Since he was his cousin who was a good partner in the interior, he was half his cousin. It was a pity that he was eliminated due to the changes in the basketball era with such a good talent for basketball.

He remembered that when Okafor entered the NBA, he was only 208 cm barefoot and weighed 125 kg. Unfortunately, the NBA had just entered the small ball era. Not only was his skills out of touch with the professional arena, but he also had to run back and forth with his huge body. He suffered constant injuries in his rookie year and was out in his junior year...

Low-post offense is acceptable. Okafor has not stopped his low-post technical training after losing weight. As for Duncan, he started to lose weight last season, but low-post offense is still his primary means of scoring. There are no outdated techniques, but there are outdated playing styles. The way technology is used must change with the times. Duncan rarely stood still or sat down in low-post offense last season. Instead, he got stuck in position while moving, catching the ball quickly and playing with a poor rhythm.

As for Okafor, in 2015, he is still sitting in the low post and slowly honing his skills.

Since they have met, it is fate. Zhang Yang followed his inner thoughts and gave Okafor some advice. As for whether it would work or not, that didn't matter. It was just a waste of time. As long as he felt good about it, that was enough.

...

The day after the party, the Bobcats had a day off.

We just gathered and it’s our rest day because a lot of people got drunk last night.

Carlisle had anticipated this and arranged for a day of rest after the gathering, with the training camp officially starting on the 30th. People always change, and Carlisle is no longer the "new generation genius coach" who loved to spoil the players' mood and had bad relationships with everyone during the Pistons and Pacers, but the "new generation championship coach".

He scheduled the gathering day on Okafor's birthday so that the entire team would be present and no one would miss Okafor's first birthday with the team.

It would not be appropriate to start earlier. He couldn't just stop for two days after practicing for two days. The time was agreed upon by him and Boss Qiao.

There were also a few who knew they would have work to do next and did not drink too much. They had to familiarize themselves with the tactical adjustments in advance. Seven teammates left and five new teammates came. The team structure changed a lot, so the tactics naturally had to be adjusted accordingly.

Zhang Yang is one of them. He got up at 10 o'clock in the morning, made lunch, and then studied the tactical manual for the whole afternoon. Since the system has been established, it is much easier to study the tactical manual this time than in the previous two years, because the adjustments are only based on the characteristics of the new players, not on the playing style of the new players. The new players need to adapt to the system, rather than the system making changes for the new players. The tactics will definitely revolve around the three young players + Millsap.

In the evening, Zhang Yang went back to his parents' house for dinner. He would have no free time for the next month as he had to devote himself to the preparations before the regular season.

At around 9 o'clock in the evening, he took a shower and lay in bed. He went to bed early and got up early... I guess. As soon as he thought about it, the "door" appeared in front of him.

"Name: Zhang Yang... Ability evaluation: Three-point shot 94 (upper limit 95), mid-range shot 93 (upper limit 95), layup 94 (upper limit), ball control 91, passing 87, speed 94, strength 87 (upper limit 89), jumping 90, physical strength 94 (upper limit 96)..."

This summer, the most obvious improvement is in mid-range shooting, which has increased from 92 to 93. Ball control has been below 90 for two years and finally increased by 1 point.
Three-point shooting: Last season, he became the first three-point king. After a 3-point surge in one year, it is impossible to improve that fast. He is approaching the limit of his talent. Anyway, he will improve one day by practicing and shooting in games.

Playing basketball does not only rely on basic skills, technology is equally important, as well as playing experience, understanding and use of tactics... He is not anxious about getting closer and closer to his limit.

In terms of physical strength, he is already very good, but just like strength, he can only wait for it to get stronger naturally with age.

He gave a command in his mind, and the content on the door switched to the task.

"Shooting value: 154972..."

During the three-month offseason, I only accumulated 15 shooting points, which is the least in the past three offseasons. There are a lot of business activities this summer, but no matter how many, it is not as busy as last year's participation in the Beijing Olympics.

The main reason is that he has invested a large part of his time this summer in polishing his skills. The progress brought about by the extreme "exploitation" of the Hawks' three superstars, the Bulls' three defensive perimeter players + Yao Ming, the Lakers' Big Three + Tieza + the Twin Towers in the playoffs last season must not be wasted. He also learned post-up play from Kobe and re-learned the 3 techniques... Therefore, except for the mid-range shots that are mainly served by those techniques, the proportion of training time for three-pointers and attacking the basket has been greatly compressed.

Things should be prioritized, he doesn't think he is "wasting" time, the upgrade of talent points and experience gains can be put off for a while, next time if he wants to make such progress again, he doesn't know how long it will take.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the month, he had accumulated 10 shooting points, but at that time he was competing with Kobe to see who coached better. He was exhausted but unwilling to admit defeat. He maintained that mental state during the next two weeks of individual training until the end of the "Iron King Training Camp". He was not suitable to start the training. Now he has returned to Charlotte to rest for a few days, adjusted his mental state, and is finally ready.

He issued a command in his mind, and the shooting value on the door changed to 54972. The door slowly opened, and a deep sleepiness came over him...

...

"After you led the Knicks to win the championship in 1990, you became a darling of New York City. Endorsements and TV shows came one after another, but you stayed true to yourself in the midst of the glamour of the Big Apple, training non-stop and moving forward. Larry Bird, the new coaching consultant, also helped you a lot in this regard. Under Bird's guidance, you enriched your offensive arsenal.

In the 1990-1991 season, the Knicks retained most of their main players and once again made an impact on the championship under the leadership of you and Patrick Ewing.

You played 78 regular season games, 3 of which were suspended due to a conflict and fight in the game against the Celtics. In these 78 games, you averaged 28 points per game, a slight decrease from the previous season, and your assists also dropped from 4.5 to 3. However, your shooting percentage increased significantly from 50.7% in the previous season to 53.4%. Among all the main forwards and guards in the league, only you and Michael Jordan had such a shooting percentage.

You also averaged 40.4 three-pointers per game with a hit rate of 2.7%, becoming the three-point king for two consecutive years.

His average of 2.8 steals per game set a new career high, surpassing Jordan's average of 2.6 steals per game and ranking third in the league.

尤因常规赛出战81场，以51%命中率场均拿到23.1分11板3助攻3.2盖帽，依旧是你最得力的帮手。

The more mature Mark Jackson has also been a great help to you. Your shooting percentage has improved significantly, which is inseparable from his role in the tactics.

Veteran Kiki Vandeweghe has shown new growth, averaging 9 points per game last season to 15.2 points, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award.

In the regular season, you led the team to a record of 55 wins and 27 losses, ranking second in the Eastern Conference, and were selected as an All-Star starter, first team, and first defense.

Although you lost to Jordan in the MVP competition, you led your team to great success in the playoffs, first sweeping your old team the Celtics 3-0, whose strength had plummeted after Bird retired and ranked seventh in the Eastern Conference with only 44 wins. In the second round, you defeated the 4ers led by Barkley 1-76. In the final game in the Eastern Conference, you led your team through 6 battles and defeated Jordan, who won the MVP for the second time, 4-2, and reached the finals, meeting Magic in the finals for two consecutive years.

This finals was easier than the previous year. The Lakers were able to reach the finals again mainly because they had emptied the Western Conference in the past decade or so. Except for the Jazz who tied them 4-2 in the second round, they swept the other two series and advanced.

In the end, you led the Knicks to beat the Lakers 4-1 again and won the Finals MVP for two consecutive years..."

(End of this chapter)