The devastating loss to the Pistons in the second round made both of them deeply feel the gap between them and top teams. Although they hadn’t won in the regular season either, there would immediately be a new opponent after a game, leaving no spare time for ’reflecting on failure.’ However, the playoffs were different... one could truly come to resent a team because of it.
If you lost in the playoffs, you would think about that defeat for the entire offseason.
Anyway, Zhang Yang thought about the series against the Pistons every day these days.
Despite their frustration, the gap in strength was too significant. In Game 3, their team erupted in an all-out effort but only managed to win by 5 points. If the Bobcats wanted to possess the Pistons’ level of strength, they had a long way to go... But as someone rightly said, the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago and now. If you feel the gap, then train!
Zhang Yang remembered watching the live broadcast last night, the Eastern Conference Finals opener between Miami Heat and the Pistons. Wade made 9 out of 11 shots and, with his free throws, scored 25 points, leading the team to a 91-86 victory over the Pistons and snatching the home-court advantage, despite O’Neal being limited to just 12 points and 8 rebounds by the Wallace duo... Wade was truly fierce this year! The deeper into the playoffs, the fiercer he got!
It was probably this Eastern Conference Finals that made the league want to hype up Wade.
Zhang Yang recalled an adjective that would be popular in basketball circles for a long time — ’falling eighteen times with one touch’ — and a number that would accompany Wade for a long time — 73, referring to Wade’s total free throws in the last four games of the Finals.
Though it was all hype, Wade seized the opportunity to win the championship. Many others had the chance but couldn’t use it.
Regrettably, Zhang Yang remembered that after this season, Wade would struggle with injuries. Once he got a handle on them, two years later, the era of the ’Big Three’ would arrive...
Zhang Yang immersed himself in training, intensively practicing three-pointers, mid-range shots, free throws, and layups.
For one, he wanted to quickly accumulate Shooting Value and "grind" his talent.
Secondly, during the season, his technical improvement was faster than his fundamental shooting skills. He often managed to shake off defenders, but could not make the shots after intense confrontation, or needed several tries to get a feel for it, all because of insufficient fundamentals. So, he had to train.
Several days whizzed by, and June arrived.
On the 1st, the Bobcats started their draft workouts for this year.
The Bobcats had two draft picks this year. Finishing 11th in the regular season standings, they secured the 20th and 50th picks.
Having not gone out to enjoy his offseason and staying to train at the gym, Zhang Yang and Felton were pulled in to beef up the team’s efforts in its draft workouts.
Today was the testing day for the guard prospects, and the team had invited 11 guards, all predicted to be in the latter half of the first round or the second round of the draft.
Zhang Yang saw several familiar faces: Rajon Rondo, Kyle Lowry, Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, and Sasha Vujacic.
His and Felton’s job in the workouts was simple — to help the team assess the guards in the afternoon by playing one-on-one against them.
Both were eager and excited about this.
Felton wanted any potential pick to know which power structure they would have to respect upon joining the team.
Zhang Yang, on the other hand, purely wanted to play one-on-one against Rondo, Lowry, Vujacic, and Farmar.
Rondo and Lowry were future All-Stars, Vujacic would be known for his defensive prowess.
Farmar... Zhang Yang’s predecessor as California’s Mr. Basketball in high school. They hadn’t clashed during Zhang Yang’s time in the 11th grade when he was playing in the Division 1 CIF league because Farmar was already in college. Now having the chance for a one-on-one was nice.
The guard prospects, upon hearing they’d be playing one-on-one with Zhang Yang and Felton, were also excited and eager to outplay them.
If selected by the Bobcats, they would inevitably compete with these two for playing time. Dominating in front of the coaching staff now might lead directly to a starting position in their rookie season!
Even if not chosen by the Bobcats, outplaying these two during the workout could greatly help their draft stock! Both of them were top three picks from the 2005 draft class!
But once the one-on-one started, the guard prospects quickly understood why these two were able to thrive in their rookie year in the NBA.
None of the 11 guards invited for the workout, not even the strongest Lowry or Shannon Brown, could gain the advantage over Felton, who was both robust and agile with an accurate long-range shot... all got hammered.
In Felton’s junior NCAA season, he was hammering everyone he faced. After a year in the NBA, he had improved and his playing habits had gotten better, with wiser shot selection... playing against these college freshmen and sophomores coming out for the draft was no stress for him, especially since the top prospects hadn’t shown up.
However, they’d rather face Felton one-on-one than go up against that legendary former baseball player, Jeet Kune Do practitioner.
In such one-on-ones, Zhang Yang wasn’t as strong as Felton; those who played against him didn’t feel as oppressed, Felton was much stronger than Zhang Yang, and that was very important in their age group’s one-on-ones.
But while Felton wasn’t very talkative when playing one-on-one, usually just trash-talking a bit to boast about his strength,
when it came to Zhang Yang...
Facing Rondo: "Shoot, go on and shoot, do you think I’m too close? Should I give you two more steps? I’m standing under the basket now, if I back up any further, I’ll be out of bounds..."
Facing Shannon Brown: "I heard you were the third-best high school player in the nation, ranked even higher than Chris Paul. You can jump really high, come on, show me... hey, you got blocked, can’t jump now!"
Facing Lowry: "Maybe you should consider losing some weight... "
Every player who went one-on-one with Zhang Yang felt their heads buzzing, unable to retort effectively!