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Chapter 334: Throw the ball to Zhang San!

Chapter 334: Throw the ball to Zhang San!

On the 29th, the last game day of the first month of competitions arrived.

At 9 in the morning, the Bobcats had a pre-game meeting, with Joe, the owner, attending. He had experience playing against Sloan’s teams and could offer suggestions during the discussion. He also announced something that made the players cheer—the game tonight was going to be nationally broadcast live.

After the morning’s preparation and training, Zhang Yang went online to check, and found that their Bobcats’ opening game had been broadcast. Including tonight’s game, their team had been featured in five national broadcasts in the first month!

The Cavaliers and the Lakers had the most national broadcasts during the first month, both with four games.

Last season, Zhang Yang had envied those popular powerhouses, with as many as twenty to thirty nationally broadcast games in a season. He hadn’t expected that in the new season, they would become one of the elite teams themselves.

Tonight’s broadcast addition was not only due to their own performance, but also that of their opponents.

The Jazz Team was the second most pleasantly surprising team in the Western Conference at the start of this season.

After Boozer returned last season, Deron had averaged 12 points and 8 assists over more than 20 games playing alongside Boozer, with both showing extraordinary pick-and-roll talent. During that time, the Jazz had a very decent record. Before the start of this season, the Jazz Team was listed by various media outlets as a contender for the Western Conference playoffs.

Such expectations were already high, as the Western Conference usually required around 45 wins to make the playoffs in a regular season and up to 50 wins in a more competitive one.

The media’s trajectory prediction for the Jazz was to aim for a 50% winning rate in the early season, to take advantage of weaker teams to accumulate victories during the mid-season when the gap between strong and weak teams widens, and after the trials of the early and mid-season, Deron, Boozer, Okur, and Kirilenko, the four young talents, would have grown enough to compete with teams like the Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets Team, and Hornets for playoff spots in the later part of the season.

It was essentially a playoff contention trajectory predicted for the Jazz based on the Bobcats’ performance in the middle and latter parts of the last season.

Who would have thought that the Jazz would explode right at the start, currently with 9 wins and 6 losses from 15 games, ranking fourth in the Western Conference thanks to being the Northwest Division leader and fifth overall in the West, just behind the Texas trio and the Pacific Division-leading Suns.

Zhang Yang checked the forums and saw that fans were discussing the ’New Generation Three Point Guards.’

Paul had the best stats with 7 wins and 8 losses, averaging 18 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals per game. His shooting percentage had slipped to 43%, but his three-point percentage had improved from 28% last season to 34%, addressing his weakness that opponents often exploited by leaving him open for threes.

Felton had the best record at 11 wins and 4 losses, averaging 16 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 steal per game, with a shooting percentage of 46% and three-point percentage of 40%. His shot selection and shooting habits had improved from last season, and his efficiency had increased further.

Deron was the most balanced, with 9 wins and 6 losses, averaging 15 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists, and 1 steal per game, and a shooting percentage of 45%. Since shifting to a primary ball-handler role this season, his three-point percentage had dropped from 41% in the previous season to 32%, but his assists had doubled.

Zhang Yang gave a thumbs-up to ’Big Fatty’, acknowledging that although less talented than the other two, he was putting up a good fight and hadn’t fallen behind in the competition with them.

Zhang San was also a hot topic among fans, who were discussing whether he could maintain his average of 20+ points per game.

After 15 games, he had averaged 22 points per game, with 10 games of 20+ points. However, in the last five games, only two had seen him scoring 20+.

Fans had no doubt that he could average 20+ or even 25+ points annually in the future, but whether he could stabilize at an average of 20+ points per game in his 18-year-old season was still up for debate.

Should he manage to do so, he would become the youngest player in NBA history to average over 20 points per game.

Zhang Yang certainly wanted to maintain this, but he prioritized the team’s victories over his stats.

What use were good stats if you couldn’t win games?

...

At 6:40 in the evening, at Tuhang Stadium, the Jazz Team and the Bobcats entered the court one after the other.

After the entry ceremony, Felton went to provoke his old rival Deron, who didn’t back down and exchanged trash talk with his old foe.

After the trash-talking, Deron returned to the bench to listen to Kirilenko stress defensive attention, to Boozer and Okur emphasize offensive coordination.

After listening to his three All-Star teammates’ ’lecturing’... yes, Deron saw this as lecturing because he felt he understood and knew everything they were talking about. He then looked to the opposite side.

The opposing players were all gathered around Felton...

Matt Haplin, the captain of the Jazz Team, who looked rugged but was actually very thoughtful, noticed Deron’s mood and came over to say, "Deron, you don’t have to be envious. You’ll become a leader on the team just like him."

Deron: "..."

He was indeed envious, but more so, puzzled.

Having known Felton for so many years, he understood his old teammate and rival well, but for the life of him, he couldn’t understand how Felton had become the leader of the Bad Boys Legion.

He read in the news that the Bobcats had split into two factions, with Gerald Wallace as a leader he understood, but Felton was also one of the leaders, and even more teammates supported Felton. Not to mention Zhang Yang, even Okafor was following Felton... it was incomprehensible!

But he truly envied him!

Because he wasn’t liked by his teammates. After the second game against the Bobcats last season, when he said, "My teammates are not as good as Felton," a rift had formed between him and his teammates that seemed irreparable. Although this season they took good care of him as he grew, he could feel that his teammates did not like him.