Of course, once Felton and Gerald Wallace’s style of play and technique truly mature, they won’t be able to switch their style of play as ’freely’ as they do now.
But this basketball philosophy of proactively changing according to the characteristics of the opponents will become a valuable asset for them on the court.
In these two games, the Bobcats coaching staff also had reasons to be pleased—their inside offense increased against the defensively weak Suns and SuperSonics, and Zhang Yang’s three-point attempts also increased!
The three-pointers were standard, all coming from actively finding wide-open spacings to catch and shoot.
In terms of attacking the basket, Bickerstaff saw Zhang Yang seeking breakthroughs in his playing style. Previously when Zhang Yang attacked the basket, it was either a simple play or a Euro step, a layup, or facing the basket with footwork; the former showcased his basketball intelligence, the latter his talent.
Making the easy shots, whether actively found or passively ’fed,’ is a fundamental ability for a professional player—pointing out Perkins specifically, he’s really just a poor man’s Kwame Brown, even fumbling the ball on simple layups.
Taking the finesse route, Zhang Yang’s current level of attacking the basket isn’t enough, and he’s at a disadvantage in confrontations inside. In set offense situations, his efficiency is really low.
In these two games, Zhang Yang changed his shooting habits when attacking the basket, opting for a quick release before the opponents’ big men could set up their defense. Though not efficient, like against the SuperSonics where he only made two out of five attempts inside, Bickerstaff felt this way of attacking the basket suited the current Zhang Yang well.
On December 31st, the Bobcats lost 89-97 away to the Chicago Bulls.
Having been upset by the Bobcats before Christmas, the Bulls fought desperately on both offense and defense tonight.
Felton was contained to only 8 points and 6 assists on 3 out of 10 shooting, while Gerald Wallace was targeted, making only 5 out of 15 shots for 13 points.
Zhang Yang, who scored 21 points against the Bulls last time, was closely guarded and managed only 7 points on 2 out of 6 shooting.
With continuous switching and double-teams, there were naturally some overlooked players. Felton’s offensive organization was not top-tier, but his fundamentals were solid, and he made accurate feeding passes. However, Brezec, Varejao, Matt Carroll, Karim Rush, Perkins... and others couldn’t capitalize on so many ’fed’ opportunities, wasting a lot of chances.
The Bobcats ended 2005 with a less than stellar finish, completing the second month of games with a record of 12 wins and 18 losses.
Different people have different opinions on the same matter. Like over at the Warriors, after the first two months of play, they had a record of 11 wins and 20 losses, and their players felt very satisfied as this was their best start in three years.
On the Bobcats side, the two contenders for top dog and the weight-reducing leader are positive and eager for better outcomes. Their performance exceeded expectations, and they might surpass the first year’s record in the coming month, but they would not be satisfied with that, even if they had an alternating win/loss ratio. They always want to do better.
January 1st, 2006, a new year began.
The Bobcats continued their away stretch; playing the Bulls was just the start of their five-game road trip, with the next stop in Atlanta.
Upon arriving at the hotel in Atlanta, Zhang Yang received some good news—he had won the first award of his career!
In December, he played all 15 games, scoring in double figures in 12 games with four 20+ point games, averaging 15.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game with a shooting percentage of 41.2%, beating Frye, Bogut, Felton, Villanueva, and winning Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month!
Compared to the first month’s average of 12.2 points and 3.8 rebounds, with 0.8 blocks, there was a clear improvement, even though his shooting percentage slipped by 0.4 percentage points.
Over at Frye’s end, as a shooting big man, he played very well in the first month, but after opponents got used to him in the second month, his performance dropped. His scoring method was too one-dimensional, just relying on his height to space out and shoot. If he were on strong teams like the Spurs or Pistons, opponents might not specifically target him, but he was on the league’s worst Knicks, and it was game over once they focused on him.
Bogut, who had dominated all his college opponents and styled himself as ’White Duncan,’ appeared quite average in NBA physicality. Even the offensive skills which seemed excellent in college were not enough against NBA players. Compared to Duncan, who also blasted through college opponents, the gap was enormous. Of course, he had his bright spots; although boastful, he played with solidity when realizing his ability fell short. He also had a good sense for being ’fed,’ as Ford, Reed, Mo Williams all liked teaming up with him. Despite lacking athletic ability on the defensive end, he was tough, especially with the low post defense details... he had bright spots, but his average of 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 block per game was still far below what people expected.
Felton shined after starting, with one 20+10 game and one 15+10 game. However, because his playing time was compressed to less than 20 minutes in mid-December, his overall data was average and couldn’t compete with Zhang Yang.
In the West, Paul with averages of 15.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 7.2 assists, and 2 steals per game unsurprisingly took home the Rookie of the Month.
Zhang Yang used his laptop to read the news and look at the Eastern rookies’ performance, feeling that the 2005 Eastern team drafts were really terrible. The first two picks were both in the East, but the three rookies with the best talent ended up with two being picked by Western teams.
The two in the West he was referring to were Paul and Deron, and the other was himself.
He looked through the 2005 draft list again and actively recalled his third experience in the 10-year timeline. With his current talent, by the age of 24, he should be more capable than all the 2005 class, except for Paul and Deron. A megastar might be a stretch, but a top player should count, a solid All-Star level.