No.1 in basketball scoring
Chapter 917 - 386. The Draft Stories (Part 1)_3

Chapter 917: 386. The Draft Stories (Part 1)_3

As for gaining weight to enhance strength, he doesn’t plan to do that for now. The training involves weight gain because his defense is solid there; he was first selected for the best defensive team then entered the best lineup, relying heavily on physical confrontation.

Here, he starts as a scorer, and in the second year, his defense was viewed as being a corner stance player.

The team’s three bald men are racking their brains to find players to share the defensive pressure with him, providing training resources to Alan Anderson, who is modestly talented but has a positive defensive attitude and decent basic skills. Signing Hill is largely aimed at leveraging his rich veteran defensive experience while gambling on his health status. Getting back Pietrus with a draft pick was also for his immediate defensive capabilities. Drafting Afflalo was largely about ’high school team friendship,’ but his defensive performance in college played a significant part too...

At around 10 am, the car sent by Jordan arrived, Zhang Yang headed to the airport and boarded the boss’s private jet.

Besides Ingles, the rest of the coaching team got on Jordan’s plane, and Jordan himself also flew to New York.

Lunch was served on the plane, and Jordan brought along his family chef and opened a bottle of treasured red wine.

Initially, Zhang Yang and the coaching team felt that eating with Jordan was troublesome and overly fastidious, but as time went on, they got used to it and started thinking—this guy really knows how to enjoy life.

And then they followed suit and enjoyed together.

During the meal, Zhang Yang curiously asked: "We only have a 58th pick draft right, Michael, you actually came along."

Jordan: "The draft, even the last pick should be valued. What if we are lucky enough to draft a player like Ginobili?"

After all, accepting favors makes it hard to disagree, Zhang Yang didn’t want to argue, but couldn’t help himself: "You can have anything in dreams."

Qiao Tu glared: When your contract is renewed, I’ll make life difficult for you!

Um... You are not allowed to go worship Guan Yu!

Randy Brown kicked into sycophant mode to support the boss: "Even though we only have the 58th draft pick, it doesn’t mean we can’t get other picks. We have quite a few quality chips, the draft resources this year are so good, we are at the point where high first-round picks are hard to trade for; it costs too much, not worth it, but late first-round or early second-round picks are still attainable."

Carlisle echoed: "We have some desired targets, if other teams don’t pick them and they fall, we need to make decisions quickly. Michael being on site will be more convenient."

Zhang Yang nodded in understanding.

Jordan is a person who craves power, seemingly arranging many positions within the team to delegate authority, but only granting advisory rights. Of course, most reasonable suggestions are adopted, but decision-making power is firmly held, from large-scale trades and drafts to small logistics purchases, he oversees everything.

Bickerstaff suddenly asked: "Jack, do you have anyone in mind you want to draft?"

Jordan and the coaches looked at Zhang Yang upon hearing this; they really cared about Zhang Yang’s opinion. Although they stressed the importance of the single 58th draft pick, if Zhang Yang wanted to pick someone he knew, even if subpar, it’s not something they couldn’t consider.

Zhang Yang understood what they meant, recalling the top 100 predicted list, he remembered only one player with such a name, and said: "I want to pick Chris Douglas-Roberts, but it’s unlikely he’ll be available; he’s projected first-round, wouldn’t fall too low even if in the second round."

Bickerstaff nodded: "Roberts is quite good, his athletic ability is a bit moderate, but his fundamentals are solid, static body conditions as good as Jack, performed well in March Madness, averaged 23 points over six games, higher than Rose, the second major contributor for the Memphis Tigers to reach the finals, performed well in the joint workouts, and in Michael’s training camp as well.

But we don’t lack for players of his type in our team, Alan is no worse than him, Aaron’s talent is better, do you have anyone else in mind to pick?"

Qiao Tu: Wait, aren’t we using the 58th draft pick as a tool to deepen ties with this kid? Why is Bikstaff genuinely asking this kid for draft opinions?

Coach initially didn’t understand either, but he remembered a past conversation with Bikstaff where they discussed Zhang San’s keen draft insight.

After the draft conferences of ’06 and ’07, Bickerstaff had casual talks with Zhang Yang predicting rookie performances. At the time, Bickerstaff didn’t pay much attention, but as the ’07-’08 season progressed, Bickerstaff suddenly found that Zhang Yang’s predictions were mostly accurate!

Carlisle and Bickerstaff analyzed this, puzzled why Zhang Yang, a young guy, had such draft insight.

But Carlisle didn’t put much thought into it since it was just casual chat, he realized now, Bickerstaff wasn’t indifferent, but intended to leverage Zhang Yang’s abilities in this area.

Why he has such insight isn’t important, having the skill is.

Bickerstaff asked earnestly, Zhang Yang got serious, recalling something, he remembered someone, and said: "We lack a Center who can play fast yet also defend, right?"

Carlisle replied: "That’s right, the second unit players don’t fit our system, Kendrick must stay to counter Yao, Nazr’s athletic ability is actually enough, but he can’t adapt to offensive basketball, preferring traditional half-court defense. Initially thought he’d adapt better in the slower playoff rhythm but still didn’t. I can only put Emeka to play Center in the second unit more, but Emeka lost a lot of weight, playing Center sometimes gets disadvantaged... Jack, do you have anyone in mind for this?"