Chapter 303 302. Some people are good from the beginning
After the meeting, the players came to the training ground to warm up. There were two tactical training sessions today. As we enter the middle of the season, there are some detailed adjustments in the playing style.

During the warm-up, Felton complained to Zhang Yang: "It's like this every time. Every time we beat a strong team, it feels like we lost when we review the game."

Zhang Yang: "This is Rick's style. He never thinks it's good enough and only wants to be better."

Felton: "I know, but every time he wins, he can find a lot of problems and he's a little bit frustrated."

Zhang Yang: "At least Rick won't blame us when we lose."

Felton thought for a moment and said, "Yeah, that's a good thing about him. You're the same. Every time we lose, you act as if it's your fault... Let's not talk about this. Although I know what happened, I still feel depressed when I think about it. By the way, Jack, do you think the Eagles will be a threat to our playoffs?"

Zhang Yang: "I think so. Didn't Sam and Rick just say that if you have time, you can pay attention to the Eagles' performance in the future. But I don't think the threat is big."

Felton: "I admire your confidence! I also think the threat is not particularly big. At least we don't need to pay too much attention to them now. They have just formed a new lineup. Their playing style the day after tomorrow may not be of reference value in a week or two."

The little fat boss is becoming more and more confident and calm... Zhang San: "Confident? No."

Felton: “What do you mean?”

Zhang Yang: "I mean we may not be able to hold on to the top two. The Bulls and Pistons are expected to win 60 games. We are 22-4 now, with 56 games left. We need to win 38 games. Judging from our recent performance, it will be difficult."

Felton: “…”

Although he was speechless, Felton felt that what he said was true. They had 11 wins and 8 losses in the last 3 games, and they won so thrillingly and with such difficulty last night. If Yao Ming and Hinrich had not fallen into physical crises one after another, they would have 7 wins and 4 losses this month... He took out his mobile phone and calculated. If he calculated the number of wins in the next 7 games based on the winning rate of 4 wins and 56 losses, 60 wins would not be enough!
Felton has always been concerned about this matter.

It doesn't mean that a team will definitely be able to take the first place in the league if they win 13 games in a row at the start. On the contrary, most teams that start with a long winning streak start strong but end weak. In the 02-03 season, the Mavericks started with 14 games in a row and eventually had a record of 60 wins and 22 losses, ranking second in the Western Conference and second in the league. They were overtaken by the more stable Spurs at the last moment.

93-94火箭队开局15连胜历史第一，最终战绩58胜24负，和西部第一的超音速队差了5个胜场。

In NBA history, the only team that started with at least 10 consecutive wins was the 96-97 Bulls, who started with 12 consecutive wins and eventually won the regular season championship.

...

The training volume in the afternoon is very small. There is almost no confrontation in the offensive training, and the role of the defender is almost the same as that of a chair. The defensive training is just mobile training such as double-teaming and switching defense, which can be completed in an hour.

The team training is over, and Zhang Yang continues to practice. There will be back-to-back games tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and then there will be an away game. He is less than a thousand shooting points away. He has to hurry up and practice to get the shooting talent points. If he delays any longer, it will be until next year.

After practicing shooting for half an hour, Zhang Yang took a break and ate a few bananas to replenish sugar and electrolytes.

Carlisle came over to chat with Zhang Yang. Christmas had just passed, so most of the topics they talked about were about Christmas.

Seeing that it was almost time for Zhang Yang to rest and replenish his energy, Carlisle chatted about work and asked Zhang Yang about his opinion on the coaching staff's mid-season adjustments.

Zhang Yang thought back to the training just now.

Defensive training was routine.

After the first five or six weeks, they settled into their current roster and it was hard for the defense to improve to a very good level.

After discussions with the coach and core players, they decided to simplify the defense into a method that mainly consists of single defense, double-teaming, and switching defense, with the focus of system building being placed on offense.

Today's defensive training is no different from the past.

So what Katu asked about is attack.

But Zhang Yang felt that the offensive training was quite routine. There were only two contents. One was to optimize the positioning according to the common problems encountered in the past few games. This was also included in every training session. The other one was nothing special. It was just some minor adjustments to the players' roles... Hmm?
Zhang Yang did not answer but asked: "It seems that my ball handling work has decreased?"

Carlisle: "Yes, so I want to know what you think about this matter, and we will consider your opinion first."

Zhang Yang: "I have no objection. The reduced ball handling work is mainly to assist, counterattack and break through to initiate offense. Although I don't reject these two tasks, I still prefer shooting."

Carlisle: "I also think your tactical role should be purer, just like last night and last season, scoring is your strongest advantage, you should be allowed to be freer in offense, you can't be asked to take on the work of leading the team's offense in regular time and play key balls. A season is too long, and a career is even longer. We should make longer-term plans for you."

Zhang Yang nodded and said, "The support work was supposed to be transferred to Paul. It's the middle of the season. Grant, Emeka, and Nazir should reduce their playing time to prepare for the late season and the playoffs. Now is a good time to let Paul take on more work... But can he do it?"

Carlisle: "Every player has to go from being no good to being good. We have to put pressure on him and allow him to make mistakes so that he can improve quickly. This is a test for him. If he can't catch it, then we can consider other possibilities earlier."

Zhang San: You are worthy of being called Katu. You are strict with yourself and you also want others to be the same as you.

But it’s not a bad thing… Zhang Yang: “Every player goes from bad to good? Duncan doesn’t seem to be one of them.”

Carlisle: "..." Zhang Yang had a lot of fun teasing the head coach, and he got back to the topic: "Raymond doesn't seem to be very good at the ball handling work I reduced, right? Are you going to train Rajon like you trained Paul?"

Carlisle: "I guess so."

Zhang Yang: "But in that case, Raymond's playing time will be reduced. He doesn't need rest as much as Grant and Emeka, right?"

Carlisle: "I have communicated with him, and he supports the decision of the coaching staff... Michael has discussed the early contract extension with him."

Zhang Yang: "Well, no wonder, that's the boss' personality. Once the money is in place, everything will be easy..."

After talking about almost everything, Carlisle left and Zhang Yang continued training.

At around 5 o'clock in the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on the horizon. On Zhang Yang's side, the "Gate of Experience" finally popped up.

"Accumulated shooting value: 120001, your shooting talent is randomly increased by 1, and the remaining shooting value is 1... The random shooting talent is mid-range shooting. Your mid-range shooting talent has been increased to: 89 (95). Your mid-range shooting talent has reached the historical level."

Zhang Yang was already happy after finally accumulating 12 shooting points, and when he saw that the random shot he got was a mid-range shot, he was even more excited.

He originally thought that he would have to wait until the upper limits of his three-point and rim-attack talents reached 94 before improving his mid-range shooting talent. After all, it has been stuck for a long time. He had previously scored 5 points in three-point talent and only 4 points in mid-range shooting, and he has never scored a single point in the new rim-attack talent.

New tasks have also been opened.

The first task is the regular 12 shooting value with a random physical fitness +1.

Another one… Zhang Yang started to criticize immediately after seeing it: “Shit, why is it so expensive?”

Master the skills of chasing shot, 10 shooting value!
...

It was another sound night of sleep... The next day, on the morning of December 12, Zhang Yang got up early, did some morning exercises, and went to the gym to prepare for the game.

This is the last back-to-back game in 2007, so we must play well.

His current small goal is to maintain the first place in the league until the end of 2007.

In the evening, the Bobcats played against the Bucks at home.

The Bucks have played 26 games so far, with 9 wins and 17 losses. There is not much hope in terms of record, but the stars are performing very well.

Michael Reed, the contemporary 'king of comebacks', started as a second-round pick, with an annual salary of $32 as a rookie and $47 as a sophomore. He then had an All-Star performance in a three-year, $3 million contract, and signed a six-year, $900 million maximum contract in the summer of 05. Even Arenas' comeback was not as legendary as his.

This season Reed has played the best performance of his career. In the summer, Reed failed to enter the "Dream Team 8 Qualifying Team" and did not travel with the US team to the Pan American Basketball Championship. But after the start of the new season, fans have called on Coach K and Colangelo to recruit Reed to the Dream Team to participate in next summer's Beijing Olympics.

博古特这赛季打出了场均14分10板2盖帽，圣诞节之前提前拿到一份起薪1000万、5年6000万的续约合同，09-10赛季生效，签约当天，他自称‘东部第三中锋’。

The last person who called himself "the best center in the Western Conference", Dampier, later became a joke. Coincidentally, the big contract Bogut got was almost the same as the one Dampier got at the time. His bold statement caused controversy.

But after some discussion, the fans felt that there seemed to be no problem with Bogut calling himself the third center in the Eastern Conference.

There is controversy over who is first between Yao Ming and Howard, but they are definitely in the top two.

After losing weight, Okafor's playing style completely shifted to power forward, O'Neal is old, O'Neal Jr. is lazy, Curry is useless... Looking at the Eastern Conference, there is really no third center better than Bogut.

Mo Williams also had a peak season, averaging 18 points and 7 assists per game.

But apart from these three stars, the Bucks have nothing to shine on. Villanueva, the eyebrowless warrior, has been plagued by injuries this season and his performance has declined instead of improving. He currently averages only 10.5 points per game, a new career low...

晚上9点22分，经历2小时22分钟比赛后，在拿到22分20板的奥卡福带领下，山猫队以119比103大胜雄鹿队。

Okafor is still very concerned about the "Eastern Three Forwards" issue.

张杨18投8中，其中三分球6中2，加上12中10的罚球，拿到28分5板2助攻2抢断。

His shooting percentage was terrible. He tried his best to shoot in the 33 minutes of playing time, but still failed to score 30+. Zhang Yang was used to it. Whenever he played against a bottom-ranked team, as long as their Bobcats did not let down and the bottom-ranked team did not explode, the opponents would give priority to double-teaming him.

This, in the early stages of his rookie season, he and his teammates often did this...

(End of this chapter)