Chapter 60 60. Our genius has grown crooked!

The next day, at noon on January 1, Harden left home for Los Angeles, while Zhang Yang and DeRozan also returned to participate in team training.

Johnson's original goal was to train the reserve team to the mid-level of the Southern California League by the end of the season, but they already had this strength at the end of the first half!
Not only is the team strong, but its record is also solidly mid-level, with 6 wins and 5 losses, ranking tenth in the league.

In that case, he adjusted his goal - to reach the top eight!
After Johnson told the players about this goal, they were all extremely excited.

Afraid? Worried about not being able to achieve your goal? No, the boy is fearless!

But Johnson was shocked by Zhang Yang again. After not seeing him for half a month, this baseball player has learned new techniques. I heard he learned it by watching videos... His resentment towards the head coach +1+1+1...

And he has also started practicing defensive basics. This attitude, this level of effort, this plan for the future... I continue to resent the head coach +1+1+1...

On January 1, the Compton High School Preparatory Team came to Lanewood to challenge the Lanewood High School Preparatory Team. They defeated the Lanewood High School Preparatory Team 11-111, improving their record to 82 wins and 7 losses, kicking off the second half of the season.

In this game, since Keefe went to the main team, Tatum, Zhang Yang and DeRozan started for the first time. As DeRozan grew to 193 cm, the height of the three of them on the outside line was 190 cm, so they would not be at a disadvantage when playing together. Their cooperation was average, but they were not comparable to the opponent.

Unlike the Compton High School prep team that continues to improve, the Ryanwood High School prep team just followed the trend and went to play in the Southern California League. The coaching staff has great ambitions and the lineup seems to be the same, but there is neither a clear plan nor a reasonable goal. The tactical coordination during the warm-up match is still the same as it was now.

After seeing the terrible situation of Ryanwood High School's prep team, DeRozan was no longer so envious of Harden for joining the main team in the 9th grade. Instead, he felt fortunate. If his friend continued to stay in the reserve team, it would really be a waste of time.

On January 1, the new semester began, and Zhang Yang continued his life of studying, training, and sleeping.

He saw the school newspaper on Wednesday, congratulating Afflalo for being among the top 40 high school students in the country.

Any changes in the rankings of Afflalo and Shipp will be reported in the Colonel's Bulletin. Zhang Yang didn't care about this before because it was not his ranking, but he saw the name of the person Afflalo surpassed... Al Horford.

I didn't expect Afflalo to be so strong in high school. If he continues at this pace, top 40 may not be his limit, and he will most likely surpass Stewart's ranking.

Zhang Yang slightly updated his personal goal for high school - he also wanted to surpass Stewart's ranking.

Week after week passed.

The cooperation between Tatum, Zhang Yang and DeRozan is getting better and better. All three of them have strengthened their abilities in a certain aspect so that they can better cooperate with their two partners.

That's right, the playing style tendencies that gradually emerged from someone made the coaching staff feel weird.

Tatum still focuses on breaking through and pushing for counterattacks. He gradually gives up shooting after dribbling, and focuses on spot shooting. The coaching staff thinks there is nothing wrong with it.

DeRozan's playing style has gradually diversified. After his one-on-one ability reached a bottleneck, he started to practice passing, long two-point and three-point shooting on both wings while working hard on one-on-one. The coaching staff has determined that the No. 1 junior high school student will definitely surpass Afflalo and Stewart. He is a world-class talent.

But something was strange with Zhang Yang...he was making more and more moves!

Johnson and Thomas were worried that DeRozan would become a shooting maniac like the one in Los Angeles, but DeRozan played more and more steadily, and the 'genius Jack with a lot of tricks' that they were least worried about turned into a shooting maniac.

When shooting opportunities and passing opportunities appear at the same time, Zhang Yang will definitely choose to shoot instead of passing.

However, after discussion, the two coaches did not stop Zhang Yang from playing like this.

Zhang Yang's pressing ability is still there. He doesn't rush to play one-on-one. As long as DeRozan is on the court, he usually plays one-on-one. When DeRozan is resting, if he needs to break through and score, it is Tatum who does it. Most of Zhang Yang's shots are in tactics. It's just that the tactical role is decided by someone...

A player who has command of the court, who uses tactics to create more shooting opportunities for himself... they are hard to stop.

Moreover, seeing Zhang Yang's amazing speed of progress and continuously improving finishing ability, they did not want to stop him.

What worries them is that they initially thought that Zhang Yang, with such great tactical talent, would become an excellent tactical core and a player like Chris Paul, Andre Iguodala, and Shaun Livingston. However, as time went by, Zhang Yang seemed to have gone astray and never looked back towards the direction of a pure scorer.

Putting aside this "flaw", the coaching staff couldn't be more satisfied with Zhang Yang.

The strength of Compton High School's reserve team is also improving rapidly. It is still difficult to play against the top teams, but unlike the warm-up matches and the beginning of the league, they are now able to fight back head-on. Zhang Yang's ability to command the field due to his richer "game experience" has played a big role.

Thomas, who has figured out DeRozan's character, even said publicly that if DeMar is transferred to the main team, the strength of the reserve team will decline a lot, but if Jack is transferred to the main team, the strength of the reserve team will drop to the worst in the Southern California League.

This sentence did not affect the relationship between Zhang Yang and DeRozan, but it made the latter even more aggressive.

However, those "game experiences" sometimes also cause trouble for Zhang Yang. He needs "backward compatibility" and cannot arrange too complicated movements. Sometimes a few "high-end tactics" pop up in his mind, but he has to put those tactics aside and think of simpler ones, which is quite troublesome.

On Saturday, February 2, the Compton High School prep team faced off in the 14th round of the league at home. Their opponent was Millikan High School in Long Beach, which reached the semi-finals of the "Championship Game" last season and is currently ranked third in the Southern California League.

Compton High School had a difficult time in this game. After taking a 14-9 lead at the beginning, they were suppressed by the opponent for more than two quarters. Millikan High School is a truly top team in the Southern California League, with good tactical coordination and players who are better than most teams in the league. Halfway through the third quarter, Compton High School was 52 points behind Millikan High School with 70 to 18.

Just when Millikan High School thought that the group of 15- or 16-year-old kids on the opposite side were about to collapse, Zhang Yang cut in, received the ball, and made two consecutive layups with the European step, sounding the clarion call for a counterattack.

DeRozan and Tatum then broke out, and Miller, Monroe, Abuya and others were motivated one after another.

Millikan High School was stunned and unable to defend. Its offense began to decline, and Tatum took the opportunity to launch a counterattack...

In the last quarter and a half, Millikan High School only scored 31 points, while Compton High School scored 54 points!
张杨暴走的一节半时间拿到20分，全场拿到31分，刷新他个人单场得分新高，外加11板2助攻2抢断1盖帽。

加上26分4板6助攻的德罗赞、15分12助攻10板3抢断豪取三双的塔图姆，三人携手率队，以106比101逆转密立根高中主力队！

With this victory, the Compton High School prep team's record improved to 10 wins and 7 losses, and it jumped from 9th place in the league to 7th place in the league, entering the ranks of the 'Championship Game' team!
The Compton High School players were very excited about the comeback victory. The ninth place beat the third place, which was a complete upset and even more worth being excited about.

Humans do not share the same joys and sorrows. The 17- and 18-year-old players from Millikan High School were in a state of panic. The other players on the other side were fine, but Zhang Yang, DeRozan, and Tatum made the Millikan High School players understand what it means to be talented and do whatever you want...

This game was another important time node for Compton High School. Although Johnson set the goal to be in the top eight, he felt that it would be good if he could really compete for the eighth place in the last one or two games. Unexpectedly, the goal was actually achieved, and they entered the top eight 3 games in advance!
Players... No! To be more precise, it was Zhang Yang and DeRozan who told Johnson with their actions that the goal you set is just the upper limit you think, and our upper limit is beyond your imagination!

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(End of this chapter)