Chapter 43 43. The next demon sword?

At 9 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Yang took a taxi to the ATT Arena. Led by the security guy to the training ground, he saw that there were already people inside!
Tim Duncan!

Duncan just played in the All-Star Game the day before yesterday and just returned from Los Angeles yesterday. Today's training was scheduled for the afternoon, but he came to training in the morning.

He was able to change his playing style and return to his peak after suffering multiple career-destroying injuries, and he is still the team's mainstay at the age of 40. In terms of hard work, he is no less than anyone else.

Duncan also noticed someone coming. Seeing that it was the new handsome guy, he nodded at him and continued training.

Zhang Yang stopped the action of greeting, fearing to disturb the other party's training.

It's not that he's afraid of offending people, but he's afraid that the evil devil will pull his hair.

Soon, the security guy helped to call the trainer.

Zhang Yang gave the security guy a $5 tip.

Nash taught us that players can owe favors, but it is better to tip the team's security, cleaning staff and others for their help. For such small things, $5 is an appropriate amount.

With the help of the trainer, Zhang Yang moved his body around and started training. After a while, he became familiar with his 'grown-up' body.

The techniques he already knew have improved, but for the ones he wasn't so good at, like the pull-up jump shot and the step-back shot, he can perform them through training, but his muscle memory and shooting feel are not great. They can be used when the game is desperate, but it's best not to use them.

After practicing a few more sets of shooting, at about 10 o'clock, Popovich and several assistant coaches came to the training ground.

Popovich: "Jack, you've come to practice? You're working as hard as the rumors say."

Zhang Yang responded: "Thank you, I want to adapt to the new competition environment as soon as possible."

Popovich: "That's the right idea. Now that you're here, let Chip train with you. He will help you develop a training plan that's best for you."

Zhang Yang had heard of this assistant coach in his previous life. Kawhi Leonard was trained by Engelland. He has extremely high attainments in shooting and shooting-related technical guidance, and is nicknamed the shooting doctor.

After the two greeted each other, Zhang Yang said to Popovich: "Greg, can you help me prepare the video clip of Gary Neal?"

Popovich frowned and asked, "What do you want Gary's video clips for?"

Zhang Yang replied: "I want to understand how he plays and learn his style of play so that I can integrate into the team's tactics more quickly."

"No, you don't have to learn how Gary plays. We traded you back not because we want a taller version of Gary. What you need to improve is your one-on-one ability and defensive skills," Popovich corrected.

Improve singles ability and defensive skills?
Zhang Yang's eyes widened as he thought of that man.

Was that what the Spurs were expecting when they traded him back? An undrafted player, they actually had such expectations?
However, this is not really surprising for the Spurs. Among their three core players, one is the second to last pick in the first round, and another is the second to last pick in the second round. The tactical core of the Spurs this season is the second to last pick in the second round. They want to train an undrafted player, what's wrong with that!
Aren’t Ben Wallace and Bowen both undrafted draft picks?
Qiaodou Madai, why did you think of these two?

Suddenly, Zhang Yang felt someone was staring at him, and when he turned around he saw... OMG!
Does Duncan walk silently?
Zhang Yang put his foot down and asked, "Hello, Tim, what's up?"

Duncan looked Zhang Yang up and down and said, "You can speak English!"

Zhang Yang: “?”

Duncan explained: "I heard O'Neal say Yao didn't know English, and I thought you didn't know English either."

Zhang Yang: "When did you hear about it?"

Duncan thought for a moment and responded, "In the 2005 All-Star Game, O'Neal said that Yao Ming, who had just entered the NBA, didn't know English. I thought you were the same."

"..."

Zhang Yang didn't know what to say. Could he understand that Duncan hadn't spoken to O'Neal in six years? At least Duncan hadn't spoken to Yao Ming in the first two years after Yao Ming entered the NBA.

...

The chat with Duncan started strangely and ended suddenly. Ten minutes later, England returned to the training ground from the office with a small notebook and started training with Zhang Yang.

After letting Zhang Yang demonstrate his basic shooting skills, England gave him high praise, but the details of his shooting hand shape still needed to be adjusted. Without saying much, he began to instruct Zhang Yang on dribbling and shooting training.

On the other side, Popovich and Budenholzer watched and chatted.

Budenholzer: "Jack is about to turn 23. Is it too late to train him?"

Popovich flipped through the folder and took out two scouting reports for Budenholzer.

Budenholzer is the assistant coach in charge of tactics. He only found out that Neil was gone after the trade was completed. He has been busy adjusting tactics these two days and saw Zhang Yang's scouting report for the first time.

After comparing them, he said in surprise: "Jack's progress is too fast! How much improvement has he made in just a few months?"

Popovich responded: "He has a solid foundation. With a foundation like his, he can learn anything quickly."

Budenholzer: "That's true...but why is his skill set so limited?"

Popovich: "I don't know either. Look at his starting movements when he controls the ball. Who does he resemble?" Budenholzer carefully watched Zhang Yang, who was practicing dribbling and shooting under the guidance of Engelland, and paid attention to the details of his movements when he started... "Steve Nash?"

Popovich: "Yes, very similar to Nash. I guess the reason why Jack has only one skill is that no one taught him. Maybe because he is a Chinese player and the environment is not friendly to him, he will not take the initiative to learn new techniques and just practice hard. Isn't that the same for the big man in New Jersey? I think it was Nash who took the initiative to teach him some skills last year, and then he started to practice new things, and then he made such progress."

Budenholzer compared the scouting reports of Zhang Yang in the two periods. He only learned from Nash for a while, and practiced hard after changing teams. He made such great progress in just a few months... His thoughts about Neil quickly dissipated.

Neal is an undrafted player who entered the NBA this season, but he was not an undrafted player in 2010, but an undrafted player in 2007. He is already 26 years old. Although he has good combat effectiveness and has rich tactical experience accumulated overseas, which he uses easily...but his room for improvement is basically gone. Maybe now is the time when Neal is at his strongest.

Let RC Buford explore such players, and Zhang Yang obviously has great room for improvement. Not only that, the scout report gives a very high evaluation of Zhang Yang's tactical awareness.

Will they own the next demon sword?

However, he already has a favorite genius...

Popovich guessed what Budenholzer was thinking and said, "And we don't need to bet on Jack alone. I have discussed with RC about the college student you're interested in and plan to select him and train him together. As long as one of them plays well, we'll make a profit. If both of them play well, that's even better. Their heights are very compatible."

Budenholzer no longer had any opinions after hearing this and he began to look forward to that day.

...

In the morning, under the guidance of Englander, Zhang Yang practiced shooting after dribbling and made detailed adjustments to his shooting hand shape.

In the afternoon, Zhang Yang participated in the Spurs team training.

The training itself is very simple, and the tactical role given to him by the coaching staff is very simple: catch the ball and shoot from mid-range on the baseline on both wings, screen for the three-point shooters on the wing and then pull to a 45-degree angle on both sides or cut into the basket to attack and counterattack, that's it.

In other words, Popovich is serious about this and wants to develop his one-on-one ability.

He quite likes this arrangement. Compared with passing the ball and organizing the offense, he prefers the feeling of throwing the ball into the basket with his own hands.

It’s just the atmosphere of this team…it’s a bit weird.

When Zhang Yang greeted his teammates on the new team, the response he received was lukewarm. Only Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson were a little more enthusiastic. However, he could feel that his teammates were not so averse to him.

Is it because there are many veterans on the team and they are used to teammates coming and going?
During team training, everyone spoke very little. No one shouted and directed their teammates to move like Nash did. Instead, a group of people surrounded Budenholzer to listen to the tactical arrangements, and then practiced moving and passing the ball. If the training was not good, they would continue to practice. Budenholzer said more than the entire team.

Apart from training, Duncan, Blair, Split, Ginobili, and George Hill did not say a word during the rest period, as if they were practicing silent meditation together; Parker, Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, and Matt Bonner, four of the more active players, also spoke in low voices during the rest period.

The other five teammates tried not to speak if possible and were extremely cautious because they were all marginal people.

The Spurs mainly use a 10-man rotation this season. After Zhang Yang replaced Neil, it is still a 10-man rotation.

The team is mostly composed of veterans and has played 52 regular season games. The tactical coordination and tacit understanding have been at full strength since the beginning of the season. Budenholzer saw that Zhang Yang had effortlessly integrated into his tactical role and ended the team training early.

England took over and continued to practice shooting-related techniques with Zhang Yang.

On the first day of training, Zhang Yang missed school a little. Practicing skills was much more tiring than practicing basic skills, and the training arranged by the coaching staff was really intense! He wanted to take classes to relax... But with the guidance of one of the best shooting coaches in the league, he complained a little and continued to devote himself to training.

...

The next morning, Zhang Yang arrived at the ATT Arena on time at 9 o'clock and continued training.

The coaching staff was very satisfied to see Zhang Yang full of energy. They deliberately increased the training volume yesterday and only ended the training when Zhang Yang was obviously tired, just to test Zhang Yang's physical recovery.

The test results are encouraging. Zhang Yang's physical strength is at a first-class level among NBA players. There is still a gap between him and the top physical freaks, but he is still two or three years away from the peak of his physical strength at the age of 25 or 26. There is potential to be tapped in this area. He also has a strong physical recovery ability and is resistant to being beaten. He can be trained well.

Zhang Yang practiced hard for another morning and went to Oklahoma City with the team in the afternoon. In the evening, when Zhang Yang received the $103 away meal allowance from the team and was about to find a place to have dinner, his cell phone suddenly rang.

I picked it up and saw it was Harden calling.

After the call was connected, Xiao Dengdeng's resentful voice came: "Jack, you came to Oklahoma and didn't even call me. I waited for the whole afternoon!"

Zhang Yang responded naturally, "I was so exhausted from the training these past two days that I just lay there in my room like a corpse. You didn't even come to find me when I was so tired, and you're blaming me?"

"Oh, you just joined the new team, you must be very tired. Come on, I'll treat you to dinner. I'll be at your hotel soon, waiting for you at the door...beep, beep, beep..."

Just like in high school, he hung up the phone so quickly... Zhang Yang was a little dazed when he thought about it. He went downstairs to the hotel lobby, where he saw the bearded Harden leaning against the sports car outside the gate. Compared with the Harden in the 9th grade, the current Harden was "thin and strong", which made him a little uncomfortable.

But when he saw Harden saw him and ran towards him...well, it's still Compton Jike Junyi!
After the two hugged each other, they got in the car together. Harden started the engine and began to chatter about his work in the team. Zhang Yang responded with his words, but an idea popped up in his mind.

Initially, he treated the experience as a "copy", but the second time he experienced it, he found that this didn't seem to be a simple "copy" that would be "reset" or "deleted" after it was completed, but a him in another timeline? After the last experience, the "him" here had obviously changed his fighting style and personality because of him.

Zhang Yang gave up thinking about it when he couldn't understand the principle. He worked hard to learn new technologies, improve his strength, complete tasks... and enjoy life on this parallel timeline!

……

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(End of this chapter)