Bickerstaff: "I’ve noticed too, he probably thinks that our team’s inside scoring ability isn’t strong enough. Aside from Gerald and Raymond, the others don’t have much inside scoring power. It was blatantly obvious when we went up against the high school twin towers of the Lakers and that group of big men from the Clippers. So, he’s decided to fortify that aspect... Whatever the team lacks, if he has the means to strengthen it, he actively tries. I underestimated his drive to take initiative."
Randy Brown: "Isn’t that just perfect? Anyway, we’ve got time, a year, two years, let him practice however he wants!"
Bickerstaff: "Right, we can also analyze more about where the team needs to improve. If Jack has the talent to handle those things, we’ll take note and find opportunities for him to practice, but let’s not give him too much all at once. I’m not afraid of him being crushed by the pressure now, but if he has too much to do and not enough time, it could mess with his training rhythm..."
After playing back-to-back games, Zhang Yang slept in until after 10 a.m. the next day before getting up.
Seeing her eldest son awake, Yang Jing cooked a bowl of noodles for him, not too much, since they would be eating lunch soon.
Yesterday, she and her husband had come over with their younger son and had even gone to watch the game.
A child’s job always holds a parent’s heart. Originally upset about the newspaper saying that the Bobcats had no chance of winning, Yang Jing was nevertheless elated when the Bobcats won unexpectedly, and by a huge margin at that. She had cheered so wildly at the scene last night that her voice was nearly hoarse.
After eating the bowl of noodles, Zhang Yang didn’t go to train. Instead, he used a DV to record a video of the little Goku crawling around on the floor, capturing Goku peeing his pants. It was so worth it, leverage +1... No, it was truly a precious video, best to save it properly.
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Zhang Yang didn’t plan to train, taking two days off.
Following the back-to-back games, the Bobcats received three days of rest. Their next game was on the 27th, playing at home, and the team was given three days off to enjoy the holiday.
Crying with sobs after peeing his pants, little Goku was met by Yang Jing coming out to see Zhang Yang not only failing to change his brother’s pants but also recording a video. She scolded her eldest son and took away the DV... seeing the footage of Goku’s accident from start to finish, she told her eldest to back it up in several places, so it wouldn’t be lost, and then she went to change Goku’s pants...
In the afternoon, Zhang Yang stayed home and didn’t go out. He spent the whole afternoon idly surfing the internet, reading newspapers, watching TV, and helping his parents prepare dinner ingredients in the kitchen.
This kind of life was something he hadn’t experienced in a long time, and he found the occasional indulgence in it quite pleasant.
Christmas Day games and the All-Star game are two milestones in the NBA regular season, dividing it into three phases: early, middle, and late.
With the early season now over, major media are analyzing and evaluating the performance of the teams, stars, and young players and making further predictions for their performance.
Before the season started, similar predictions and analyses had simply categorized the Bobcats as ’top three pick contenders.’
But this time, the Bobcats had their own separate section!
With 11 wins and 16 losses in the first 27 games, the Bobcats performed better than the media had predicted before the season.
The Trail Blazers, Knicks, Hawks, and Raptors, originally at the same level, each only managed to win 5-8 games.
Currently, the Bobcats are tied for eleventh in the East and tied for twenty-first overall in the league, with a record better than that of the SuperSonics, Rockets, Warriors, and Timberwolves in the West.
The media commented that if Okafor hadn’t been injured, even with no improvement, just performing at his rookie year’s level, the Bobcats could have had the chance to aim for the playoffs, which they found regrettable.
Zhang Yang saw that his performance also received high praise. Originally, the media thought he would play only a few minutes in most games like Bynum, getting more time only in a few games where he was needed. Yet by the end of the early season, his average playing time had increased to 24 minutes per game.
In several major media outlets, Zhang Yang saw that he was praised not for his talent in playing, his big heart, but for his basketball IQ, decision-making, execution... He knew how to maximize his current abilities to get more opportunities to perform.
Gerald Wallace was praised by the media for his insane performance, averaging 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game, and he also had an average of 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, making him a versatile forward capable of contributing on both ends of the court.
There was also some regret expressed about Gerald Wallace; his treatment in the first three years of his career was worse than Kwame Brown’s, with his third year being the worst as he only got 37 appearances and an average playing time of 9 minutes per game. If it hadn’t been for his steadfast faith and passion for work, which was rare, he would have been ruined long ago.
The talents from the 2001 draft mostly had difficult careers: Kwame Brown, Gerald Wallace, Zach Randolph, Troy Murphy, and others were all hindered in the early stages of their careers;
The Chicago Bulls had an odd moment that same year when they drafted both Eddie Curry and Chandler. They were dissatisfied with Eddie Curry’s laziness and had no patience to groom Chandler. When their rookie contracts ended, the Bulls chose Chandler for his better professional attitude and traded away the more talented Eddie Curry. But less than halfway through the new season, they began to regret not having Chandler progress faster and started missing Eddie Curry, putting Chandler up for trade...
And then there were the likes of Battier and Jason Richardson, talents who shined early but whose performances gradually became mediocre after the team messed around.