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Chapter 303 - 148. The preseason should involve more throwing_3

Chapter 303: 148. The preseason should involve more throwing_3

Jordan told Zhang Yang during the team meeting, "You have a high scoring talent, so focus on perfecting your offense. You can develop other skills, but remember, shooting the ball into the basket is what you’re best at."

Jordan said this because Zhang Yang had talked to the coaching staff about learning high-post back-to-the-basket offense when he was idle, and Jordan specifically wanted to remind him.

On October 9, Zhang Yang traveled with the team to Atlanta.

The training camp had ended the day before yesterday, they rested yesterday, and tomorrow they would start their preseason games away against the Hawks team.

After resting for a night in Atlanta, the Bobcats arrived at Philips Arena to challenge the Hawks team on their court.

At 5:30 PM, after both teams entered the arena, Zhang Yang looked at the group of players on the opposite side, each 206 cm tall... This year, the Hawks team had again picked two swingmen in the lottery and second round, Shelden Williams and Solomon Jones.

From the owner to the head coach of the Hawks team, their moves were confusing.

This year, the only real point guard on the Hawks team was still only Tyronn Lue.

Media, fans, and experts had been criticizing the Hawks team for consistently picking players who were 206 cm tall in recent years. Although the owner, Steven Price, insisted on choosing them, everyone reminded them to bring in a point guard, but they wouldn’t; it was like middle-aged rebellion, the more you tell me not to do something, the more I want to do it.

Before the game, Zhang Yang chatted with his good friend, his uncle, and found out that Coach Lue was quite happy.

Although the team’s performance was poor, he usually had guaranteed playing time, a salary higher than in his earlier years with stronger teams, and having already won a championship, Lue’s pursuit now was just to make a little more money.

This year, Tyronn Lue was unlikely to be sidelined, Al Harrington, entering a contract year and asking for a high salary for renewal, was sent back to the Pacers team by the Hawks team. Mike Woodson, in an interview with the media, stated that the ’six-foot-nine point guard plan’ was a mistake, and he would not operate like that again.

Zhang Yang felt Josh Smith was quite miserable, as he had just learned how to play as a point guard towards the end of last season, came back after an offseason, and the head coach told him, ’you don’t need to play as a point guard anymore’; he had to learn a new style of play, switch to a new position...

At 6 PM, the Bobcats’ first preseason game began.

Zhang Yang officially took the court as a starting player.

Actually, last season, Zhang Yang had started twice, in December when the team had the most injuries, the coaching staff wanted to showcase Brevin Knight’s skills, so Felton was put back on the bench, and Zhang Yang made two starts, breaking the NBA record for the youngest starter... This time the ’record’ being broken was not No. 23, but Kobe, who started at 18 years and 4 months, which was the previous record for the youngest starter.

After the game started, Zhang Yang didn’t encounter any specific targeting, and unexpectedly felt somewhat lost...

Al Harrington was traded away, Zhang San was no longer a rookie, and other people on the Hawks team had no reason to target him anymore; everyone was focused on padding their stats, competing for playing time.

Although Josh Smith was still there, he held no animosity towards Zhang Yang; last season, the targeting of Zhang Yang was only because he got along well with Al Harrington, who had no real opinion of his own. When friends approached him to target Zhang Yang together, he just went along with it.

Zhang Yang set aside that strange feeling of loss and alternated taking turns with Big Chubby!

The coaching staff’s plan for this preseason was to let the two of them swing a lot, allow the wing shooters to shoot more, and get them into game shape as quickly as possible.

The new season’s strategy also required Zhang Yang and Felton to handle the ball more on the outside.

A few months earlier, after the team’s core lineup was filled out, Zhang Yang had guessed that based on the frontcourt players’ strong attacking capabilities, the coaching staff would surely create opportunities for him and Felton to go one-on-one from the outside.

He mainly focused on high-post mid-range isolation plays, while Felton was tasked with outside one-on-ones and shooting after screens.

In the preseason, Zhang Yang definitely didn’t consider cooperation; whenever he got the ball, he would just throw it, firing away limitlessly.

Teammates who had played the preseason with Zhang Yang weren’t surprised at all, but the new teammates were all astonished.

Tonight, Zhang Yang played a total of 23 minutes and took 24 shots...

He made 11 of 24 shots, including 3 out of 8 three-pointers, along with a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, scoring 29 points!

Not only this game, but in the following away games against the Miami Heat and Wizards, and back home against the Magic and Chicago Bulls, then again facing the Hawks team, Zhang Yang consistently played over 20 minutes and took at least 20 shots per game! He had to throw seven or eight three-pointers in each game!

Zhang Yang’s high shooting frequency was well-known among the new teammates, even those just out of college like Rondo and Millsap knew about it.

But they hadn’t expected Zhang Yang to be this reckless!

Rondo, "How do you partner with this guy? Wait, how did this team even make it to the second round?"

By October 26, in the last preseason game against the Pacers, Zhang Yang suddenly halved his shooting attempts, passing to Felton or Gerald Wallace when the opportunity wasn’t good, and distributing the ball after a drive to the paint got him double-teamed... The change was very abrupt!

At that moment, teammates suddenly remembered that in the previous six games, aside from his crazy shooting whenever he had the ball, Zhang Yang was flawless in other aspects.

Off the ball, he ran good positions to coordinate and even set screens for teammates cutting from the wings.

Defensively, he did what was needed, disturbing shots and chasing down off-ball shooters, properly collapsing to help double-team on wing penetrations.

Upon reflection, Zhang Yang’s frequent shooting didn’t seem to negatively impact their tactical integration.

Because their main tactics involved plays like Zhang Yang going solo, wing players responding, and frontcourt players crashing the boards.

It’s just that Zhang Yang chose to shoot stubbornly instead of passing.

And in the role of an enabler, a decoy in the tactics, Zhang Yang performed the supporting roles very well, even better than many substitutes.

Teammates felt more conflicted—what kind of player was he, really?

Gerald Wallace sensed the confusion among the new teammates and suddenly realized, they were probably as misguided about Zhang Yang as they had been when they first joined last season.

He explained to the new teammates, "Jack shot a lot in the first few games because the coach arranged for him to shoot more. He was following orders to seize the opportunity to find his game rhythm. This game, the coach told us to play as if it were a regular season game, and he switched back to the normal playing style."

Millsap, Muhammad, and others felt a bit less confused after hearing this... but it still felt odd.

From reckless to an excellent team player, such a rapid transformation was a bit too sudden, wasn’t it?

Only Rondo felt relieved after the explanation.

He thought about how humble and kind Zhang Yang normally was, and how he bullied him mercilessly during practice sessions.

With such a Zhang Yang, was a sudden change in playing style a problem? No issues at all!