I am the Warden Chapter 17 The Coaches Bet
After the game against the Warriors, the Trail Blazers returned to Portland and got two days of rest.
Liu Xiu waited for two days. On October 24, the Trail Blazers faced the Warriors again, this time at home.
Young General Avery Johnson and Madman Van Exel both wanted to hit him when they saw Liu Xiu's expectant expression!
But, this guy in front of me dares to hug and throw even O'Neal to the ground, and he can really do it!
Apart from anything else, the two of them thought about the feeling of being hit from behind by Liu Xiu, the feeling of being unable to be stopped...
Moreover, this rookie is very cunning. When he attacks others, he never backs up. When the Warriors change players to defend this rookie, the rookie just honestly organizes the offense. At this time, the two of them can't defend the shooter well, nor can they defend against the wing cutting in... They always go back to defend Liu Xiu, and then they are beaten while sitting!
Liu Xiu played for 26 minutes tonight and scored 16 points, 10 of which were scored by Avery Johnson and Van Exel.
At other times, he would shoot purely based on whether there was an opportunity or whether he had to shoot. But against these two, if it weren't for the rules, he really wanted to shoot from outside the three-point line to the basket...
With 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Liu Xiu had a good individual performance and was also okay in assists , helping the Trail Blazers beat the Warriors again 104-90, improving their preseason record to 5 wins and 1 loss. There is only one game left. The day after tomorrow, October 26, they will face the Nuggets at home.
…
On the night when the team defeated the Warriors again at home, the Rose Garden was brightly lit and the coaches were still working overtime in the early morning. Because of the security environment in Portland after the Internet bubble, the coaches were prepared to work all night.
There is also a lounge for them to sleep in, and the air conditioning is on, so they don't have to worry about the cold.
Maurice Cheeks was working very hard at this time. If you didn't look at his unshaven face, you would never associate him with his usual appearance.
Maurice Cheeks flipped through the information in front of him and asked, "Kevin, are there no players on training camp contracts who can stay?"
Kevin Pritchard shook his head.
For players that the Trail Blazers really like and are willing to come to the training camp, they will directly give them a partially guaranteed contract, and even if they are cut, they can still get a minimum salary for a few or a dozen games.
Real training camp contract players are really just scratching lottery tickets.
And this is a lottery ticket that has gone through the draft, summer league, and been scratched twice.
It’s normal if you can’t pick out the ones you want to keep.
This means that they currently only have 14 players under contract, 12 of which are guaranteed contracts and 2 are partially guaranteed contracts.
There is no shortage of people. There are only 12 people on the active list, which means that only 12 players can play in a game.
This topic was skipped, and Kevin Pritchard began to report on the preseason performance of 14 players on behalf of the assistant coaches, and the others filled in the gaps.
Just like last season, most of their players worked very hard in the summer. The youngsters made some progress, and the progress seen in the training camp was actually even greater. However, in the preseason, the progress of some players failed to show up, whether because of their personality, tactical incompatibility, or their relationship with their teammates... and other factors led to their not-so-good performances.
The players on the Trail Blazers are definitely excellent, otherwise they would not have been able to achieve 49 and 50 wins respectively in the past two years despite the intensifying conflicts within the team.
Randolph was too lazy to death in the summer. He did train a bit, but it was definitely not hard work. He was only harder than Liu Xiu...
Randolph has improved, which is in line with expectations, but it is not surprising.
Rasheed Wallace, the veteran star, is still the same, very good, but there are no surprises.
Dale Davis, as a veteran in his 30s, has been able to slow down his decline, which is not bad...
Every veteran player is the same, very good, but no one is eye-catching.
There are only three rookies left.
"Travis is a very gentle person. He is in good physical condition, hardworking, and willing to learn. However, his learning ability is mediocre and needs a long time to cultivate. He has just turned 19, so his combat ability is not outstanding..."
Kevin Pritchard said this with some helplessness.
In the preseason, Travis Outlaw was given an average of 20 minutes , but his performance did not meet expectations. However, his physical talent and willingness to work hard are something that any coach would like.
These conditions combined together made Kevin Plitt feel helpless.
Matt Carroll, the undrafted rookie, received quite high praise.
As for him being an undrafted player, he has a partially guaranteed contract. If he is not useful, just cut him directly. It cannot be said that we don't have high expectations for him. We should be thankful that he can step up and make two shots when no one else is using him. Under normal circumstances, no coach wants to see a player with a partially guaranteed contract when he is needed.
There was only one rookie left, Kevin Pritchard was placed at the end. As soon as his information was taken out, his face was full of helplessness.
Maurice Cheeks was amused by this and said, "Go on, Kevin."
Kevin Pritchard rolled his eyes and said, "Among our players in this preseason, the one that impressed me the most was Jace."
Maurice Cheeks nodded. Even though he had high expectations for Liu Xiu, he did not expect that the player who impressed them the most in the preseason would be this rookie.
They did put some attention on Liu Xiu, but Liu Xiu was not the one they paid the most attention to.
In the summer league, they definitely paid the most attention to Liu Xiu, the rookie who was selected 13th in the first round, but in the training camp and preseason, Liu Xiu was just one of them, and his ranking was in the middle.
"He is very smart and will not do anything he is not good at. He will respond calmly to his opponent's provocations and is very good at angering others..."
When Kevin Pritchard said this, all the coaches present nodded.
Not to mention the opponents, everyone on his own team, including the coach, felt that this rookie deserved a beating.
"He has great court selection and excellent leadership skills, which is a good fit for our team. If his teammates are not good enough, he may just be an ordinary functional player, but in our team, he can be the calm leader on the court when the game enters a tense stage."
"The best thing about Jayce is not his talent, leadership, or calmness, but the strong adaptability that comes with his strong body. He is not inferior to any point guard in confrontation. He can have an excellent confrontation at the shooting guard position and can even compete with many small forwards..."
Most NBA point guards are between 183 and 191 cm tall and weigh between 80 and 88 kg.
Most shooting guards are between 191cm and 200cm tall and weigh between 90kg and 95kg.
Most small forwards are between 196 and 203 cm tall and weigh between 95 and 105 kg.
Kevin Pritchard came to this conclusion based on Liu Xiu's height and weight ratio as well as the actual situation in the game.
Maurice Cheeks listened for a long time and was surprised to find that the rookie he selected had so many advantages!
Although Liu Xiu was the player who impressed him the most in this preseason... this impression was not about how good his performance was or how good his statistics were. The player with the best statistics was Damon Stoudemire, who averaged 20 points per game. Rather, from what he saw from a coach's perspective, Liu Xiu impressed him the most. However, he did not expect that he had so many advantages.
After talking about some of his strengths, Kevin Pritchard changed the subject: "Compared to these strengths, Jace has many fatal weaknesses. The first one is his level of hard work. He has nothing to do with the word hard work. He is too lazy!"
As he said that, Kevin Pritchard slammed the table, scaring his colleagues!
Maurice Cheeks knew why Kevin Prittachur lost control of his emotions - they had seen Liu Xiu's learning speed with their own eyes, such a ferocious learning ability, but he didn't even train!
Seeing Kevin Pritchard getting angry, Maurice Cheeks quickly said, "Recently, Jace has been very active in training in fundamentals and defense. You should know that, right? Almost every morning he would learn fundamentals from Derek, and every afternoon he would learn defense from Dell..."
"He went there to learn defense? He went to have a drink with Dell! I didn't see what he learned in this month!"
Liu Xiu, who has a great talent for learning but is extremely lazy, has caused his team's chief assistant coach to have an emotional breakdown after spending the past month with him day and night...
Seeing his friend and best partner getting frustrated, Maurice Cheeks said, "I think he will give us a surprise next time. I saw him make up defense and assist defense in the preseason games, which he didn't do in the summer league. Although he did it poorly, he started to do it, so I think he can do it... How about we make a bet?"
"Let's bet. I think he just went to drink with Dell instead of doing his job, or he just doesn't have the talent to learn defense. Yes, that was an accident! He has no talent!" Kevin Pritchard became more and more angry, saying things he didn't even believe.
But once people get excited, they can’t stop: “Give him a month, no, two months. If he can practice passing point guard defense before Christmas, I will… I will…”
Seeing his friend getting too excited, Maurice Cheeks decisively instigated: "What are you going to do? Everyone is listening. If you say you want to die, or become an animal like a cow or a horse, that won't work..."
Kevin Pritchard said decisively: "Then I will give him my antique Porsche!"
That antique Porsche! Maurice Cheeks perked up immediately… Wait, Maurice Cheeks asked, “For him?”
"Why? Am I sending it to you? Why?"
"Uh... it's nothing, but you're really willing to do that. Everyone is listening."
"Pfft, two months. Not to mention that he may not have the talent for this, even if he does, can he learn defense in two months? Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
…
…
At 7 o'clock in the morning, Liu Xiu woke up on time.
"30 minutes of comprehensive assist and help defense simulation training, 30 minutes of shooting basic skills simulation training, 30 minutes of ball handling basic skills simulation training, 22 minutes of passing basic skills simulation training have been carried out... 3633 healing points are required to extract the simulation training results. Do you want to extract them? The remaining healing points are 3931."
Of course I have to extract it. I will fight Anthony tomorrow, and I have to surprise him...
But the other party might not be surprised, as Anthony has always spoken highly of him.
On the 23rd, after spending half a month, Liu Xiu finally learned all the training methods that Derek Anderson and Dale Davis needed to learn!
At first he thought that spending 3,000 healing points on Derek Anderson was too expensive.
As a result, he learned the training methods of help defense and some defensive concepts that he could understand through teaching from Davis, a thug who could be selected as an All-Star in his prime purely based on defense...a total of 8,000 healing points were spent.
This is just help defense, not all of Dale Davis' defensive knowledge.
Fortunately, this is all he needs at this stage, and he has finally finished learning it!
During this period, he had collected all the healing points he could... "Luckily, I played against the Warriors for two consecutive games, which increased my healing points. Otherwise, it wouldn't be enough! It wasn't enough before the game against the Warriors yesterday... I have offended the young general and Crazy Fan to death... But it doesn't matter..."
Liu Xiu first chose not to extract it and had to be prepared. Anyway, if the healing value was sufficient, he could extract it at any time.
This system prompt disappeared, and another system prompt came.
"The 2003-2004 preseason has come to an end. The system will recalculate and determine the player detection report based on the actual performance of NBA players in the preseason and their training camp performance. It will be updated at 0:00 on October 26, 2003..."
Liu Xiu was not surprised to see this hint.
"It's just as I thought. There is definitely a difference between the abilities shown in the training camp and the abilities in the actual competition..."
