Volume 1: A rookie who breaks into the basketball world Chapter 19 The bad guy has grown old
In today's game, in the eyes of others, Liu Xiu's casual look seemed to be indifferent, while some people also thought that he was confident.
In the eyes of his teammates, Liu Xiu was already full of fighting spirit before the game even started, and his eyes seemed to be filled with stars and the sea...
Later in the game, Liu Xiu was always full of fighting spirit. If he played well, he would keep working hard. If he played poorly, he would not be discouraged and would try hard to find a solution. In a game of this level, it seemed that nothing was difficult for him.
But in fact, he has tried his best.
"There is a huge difference between professional basketball and college basketball. Centers like Reuben Bontjie and Lauren Woods would definitely be excellent centers in college, but they are just ordinary players in the summer league and can't even play in the NBA."
Liu Xiu felt a little sad when he thought about this.
He hadn't noticed one thing before - the undrafted players who were looking for jobs in the summer league and might not be able to find jobs, and the abandoned rookies of previous years, were all the pride of the colleges!
Without considering tacit understanding or teamwork, and only focusing on individual ability, the summer league can beat the NCAA basketball championship.
When I was in college, it was good enough if my opponent had one or two players like Kirk Perry and Lauren Woods in a game.
Leaving college and coming to the summer league, it's just the summer league, players like Kirk Perry and Lauren Woods are actually just one of the weakest players on the opponent...
After all, there are more than 60 teams in March Madness alone, hundreds of schools in the Division I league, and only a few dozen make it to the NBA each year. The top ones who don't make it will look for the possibility of entering the NBA in places like the summer league.
As for the "laziness" he always maintains on the court, it is actually limited to his facial expressions and some small body movements that have nothing to do with the game.
He would never tell anyone that he had practiced these expressions and little movements on purpose.
"Well, now that I'm in the NBA, I have to accept this."
"Playing one more year in college will definitely make it easier to get started in the NBA; but the system upgrade will come later... Each has its own advantages."
“Rookie season goal - get stable playing time and have my own place in the team!”
Being lazy also has its benefits. After feeling a little pain in the balls, Liu Xiu chose to accept this.
As soon as I thought about it, the system prompt came.
"Host, please set the simulation training goals and time. The simulation training will be carried out in the set order. When the remaining physical strength is exhausted..."
He has already understood what the coaching staff is interested in him, that is, he cannot sell his combat power for too high a price, so he might as well sell his "talent"!
Therefore, he chose to do post-up singles simulation training.
The duration of the simulation training is, of course, very hard.
Before falling asleep, Liu Xiu thought: "I thought I was a hard-working player. I tried hard to control my training urges every day and conserve my energy for simulated training. But when I got to the NBA, I turned out to be a talented player..."
…
…
Three summer leagues have kicked off in early to mid-July .
Liu Xiu saw from the news that nearly 350 athletes participated in the first three groups of summer leagues. Among them, there were 106 players selected this year and undrafted rookies, less than half of this year's rookies.
Liu Xiu was filled with sighs at this number. The rookies participating in the draft are actually already the top amateur basketball players in the United States, and they are young talents around 20 years old.
As a result, more than half of the people didn't even have the chance to enter the summer league.
But it's just a sigh, the daily emotions make the flowers shed tears, nothing more.
The Orlando Summer League has kicked off. There will be a game every day for 5 consecutive days, and the tournament will be over. The teams will be ranked according to the number of wins.
After all, it is a new summer league, and its rules are not as complete as those of the Las Vegas Summer League, where sometimes there are more than 20 teams participating.
On July 8, the second game day, the Trail Blazers faced the host Magic.
When Liu Xiu saw the Magic team's jersey at this stage, he thought of the edited interview clip that was popular for a long time a while ago - "I am already thinking about the next round of opponents."
What McGrady said was correct, but there was another half sentence before it - "if it was last season".
The background is that when McGrady led the Magic to face the Eastern Conference No. 1 Pistons in the first round, they were leading 3-1. Coincidentally, the first round of the best-of-seven series was the start of this playoffs.
As luck would have it, after McGrady said this, the Pistons won three games in a row, making a super comeback of 4 to 3.
The Magic's draft was also tragic. They did select the player they wanted - Reece Gaines, a tall shooting guard who is 198 cm tall and weighs 93 kg. The draft template is very interesting - Kobe Bryant.
As a result, after the draft, before the free market opened, Reece Gaines fell at the party and injured his groin...
Liu Xiu saw in the news that Reece Gaines was injured and would be out for six to eight weeks. To put it simply, he would not be able to play in the summer league.
For the first few picks, teams will be patient even if their rookie season is ruined, but the rookies in this range in the middle of the first round are generally the type of rookies who "gamble on talent."
The rookies in this range have talents that people have certain expectations for, but their talents are not so high that they are recognized, and their combat effectiveness is usually not very high.
This type of rookie got injured right after being selected, couldn't play in the summer league during his rookie season, and his future was overshadowed...
The Magic don't have any great young players in this year's summer league. There is only one player under contract, the 2002 second-round pick, power forward, Robert Archibald.
There are two rookies, one is Zaza Pachulia, who was selected with the 13th pick in the second round, and the other is undrafted rookie power forward Britton Johnson.
The other dozen or so players are all Development League players, overseas players, and veterans who are temporarily finding it difficult to find jobs in the NBA.
It’s true that this team is the strongest among the six participating teams!
92 to 104, the Trail Blazers were beaten by the host Magic and lost the second game.
The summer league is not all about players trying to get contracts. As more and more summer leagues are held, a group of "old guys" have appeared.
There is always a group of players whose strength and talent do not meet the NBA level. They are in the Development League or low-level leagues. They have long given up the hope of entering the NBA and are accustomed to their current life. They are even well-known in the places where their teams are located. They know each other well and play together in a tacit way. Some top NBA stars may not be able to get a good deal when they meet them.
Every year there are always a few teams that don’t have good young players to play in the summer league, but they have to play and try to see if they can find some treasures. In order to ensure that the lineup is competitive in the summer league, they will sign those “old guys”.
This was the first time Liu Xiu had encountered such a thing. When he heard Randolph talk about this, his knowledge of basketball was broadened.
He doesn't think there is anything wrong with this. This is a fuller and more normal basketball world.
In the game against the Magic, Liu Xiu played for 26 minutes, scored 9 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 4 turnovers. His performance was not bad. He made more mistakes, but most of them were not his problem.
His playing style is very steady!
He knows what he should show, which is to demonstrate his "talent" on a solid foundation.
Unfortunately, he didn't get any benefits from the Magic team. Throughout the game, he only got 71 points of healing value, and the basic healing value for the game was only 50 points.
…
On July 9, the third game day of the Orlando Summer League, the Trail Blazers and the Timberwolves played a game at 7 p.m.
The gap in strength is too big. The Timberwolves did not find a group of "old guys" like the host Magic team, but the Timberwolves themselves have not had any high-quality young players in recent years.
The problem lies with the Timberwolves themselves. Joe Smith's shady contract caused the Timberwolves to be deprived of the right to draft in the first round from 2001 to 2005!
Many media outlets were not so accurate when reporting on the punishment suffered by the Timberwolves. They said that the league deducted the Timberwolves' first-round draft picks for the past five years. In fact, the league deprived the Timberwolves of their first-round draft picks for the past five years. The Timberwolves could not even obtain the first-round draft picks in these five years through trades to select their favorite rookies.
So in the past few years, Garnett has gradually entered his peak, but the Timberwolves have had a particularly difficult time because they have one less way to strengthen their team than other teams.
Before this year's draft lottery, the league returned the 2003 and 2005 draft qualifications to the Timberwolves, but the Timberwolves had a record of 51 wins and 31 losses last season, ranking fourth in the league, and only had the 26th pick, selecting a British power forward, Endy Ibe.
The most profound impression this power forward from the same class left on Liu Xiu was that he was thin!
If the height difference wasn't so huge, Liu Xiu really wanted to sit inside and back-up this power forward from the same class.
Liu Xiu, 93 kg, this 206 cm power forward weighs 92 kg.
Liu Xiu rushed into the basket tonight and pushed get a total of 10 points, including free throws...
This time the Trail Blazers performed ferociously, slaughtering the Timberwolves by more than 30 points, 116 to 79.
Liu Xiu had 20 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Randolph had 21 points, Travis Outlaw had 21 points, and Quintero Woods scored a game-high 30 points.
In this game, Liu Xiu still did not get much regular healing value, 85 points, but the game was won and the performance was very good. Although it was not as influential as the game against the Heat, Quintl Woods took advantage of the opponent's poor rim protection to score 30 points and became the best player of the game, but Liu Xiu's performance was already very good, and he got an A- rating and 150 healing points.
After the game, Liu Xiu looked at the competition scores and felt satisfied today.
235 healing points for one game, which is enough for simulated training when you are lazy on a normal day and your physical strength is "full". Now when there are games every day and you can only simulate training for an hour or so, even the back-to-the-basket training that consumes more healing points is enough for three days.
The person being interviewed tonight is Quintl Woods, and Liu Xiu and others will be interviewed by domestic reporters in the locker room later.
Just as he was about to leave, a tall man appeared in front of Liu Xiu.
Future Lakers star LeBron James!
James took the initiative to come to Liu Xiu and greeted him: "Hello, Jess, your performance today is great. I really hope tomorrow will come so that we can play earlier."
This way of greeting was something James had thought about over and over again. It was "unique to Nastumite" and relatively formal.
Then he directly gave praise, which didn't seem so polite and tried to build a closer relationship.
James has watched two of Liu Xiu's games, and feels that Liu Xiu's strength is... just average, but James feels that Liu Xiu's playing style is inexplicably in line with his own.
He doesn't need too much ball possession, is willing to run, has a pretty good ability to cut in and catch the ball, is accurate in passing, and is decisive in throwing the ball when he receives it...
It’s hard to say what will happen in the future, but Liu Xiu has become one of the targets of James’ wide-ranging network.
As for the minor frictions before the draft, James chose to ignore them.
We didn't quarrel that time.
However, some obstacles are impossible to overcome.
Liu Xiu tilted his neck, looked at James with a confused expression, and said, "Your Cavaliers team is very weak, but I didn't expect you to want to play against us when we are tired after just playing a game. Are older people so cunning? No, no, no, I don't think it's the old people who have changed, but the bad guys who have grown old..."
